English club and travel plans

One of the universities where I teach English, Duy Tan University, had an "English Club" last Sunday night. I thought this would be about 10 or 15 students in a cafe type setting practicing their English. They asked me to come, so I took the opportunity to wear my new Ao Dai. As it turns out, there were more than 200 students, almost all of the teachers in the department and me. I was asked to be a judge of a competition, which included presentations, dancing and singing performances. It was a lot of fun. I was introduced as the honored guest "Ms. Erika" and I had to sing a song. I tried to get out of singing, but to no avail. The theme of the club was "Holidays" so I sang Jingle Bell Rock. The English Club was scheduled to start at 6:00, but this being Vietnam, it did not start until almost 6:45. More rubber time. We finally finished at 9:30. The students did a great job of presenting information on various holidays from around the world and doing fun dances. There were several really great singers as well. Two groups did presentations on the Thai traditional dress and the Sari (traditional Indian dress).

Earlier this week, I was invited to join the vocational college on their trip to Halong Bay and Hanoi! 140 second year students, 10 teachers and me! We will leave very early Monday morning (the driver picks me up from my house at 5:30 a.m. and the bus leaves at 6:00) and then we will visit Vinh, the home of Uncle Ho (Chi Minh). Then we will go to Hanoi, Lang Son, Ha Long Bay, back to Hanoi, to Nihn Binh, Tam Coc Bich Dong, Vinh and then back to Danang on Saturday evening. I am paying the same amount as the teachers, 1,930,000 dong or about $100 for 7 days and six nights.

This weekend I am also traveling to the beautiful city of Hue for three day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) with a group of volunteers.

Will post photos and updates soon.

Photos from top left: 1) Girl in a sari; 2) me in my Au Dai with a group of my students; 3) this group was very risque for Vietnam but the boy really cracked me up; 4) a traditional Thai Ao Dai; 5) Hawaiian dancing, complete with coconuts!; 6) girls dancing to a Korean song.

My home: DaNang City

By request, I am dedicating an entire blog entry just to DaNang. I live near downtown DaNang (I think, I'm not really sure if any other part of the city would be considered more "downtown") about 3 blocks from the river. If I cross the bridge about 6 streets down, I'm on the street that takes me directly to the beach. There is a river "promenade" near me that's probably about 3 or so miles in one direction and a mile or so in the other and I love to run this at night.

I live in a house with five stories. The first story is the kitchen, the dining room and the first floor bathroom. The second story has the cot where the security man sleeps and a TV and common use computer. The third floor has my room and a currently unused second room. The fourth floor includes my co-volunteer friend Thien's room and a second unused room. The fifth floor has a laundry machine and place for hanging up clothes as well as a balcony with a view of the "new" bridge. One note about Vietnam. They LOVE multicolored lights. The streets are lit up with green street lights along the river, the bridges look like a technicolor display show at night because they light up with lots of colors and the colors arc into different patterns. It's quite something to see.

We have a cook and housekeeper, Co Quyen, who keeps insisting that I need to eat all of the huge plates of food she serves me to make me "strong". I keep telling her that the only thing that will happen is that petite Erika will no longer be petite (and I am no petite by Asian standards)! We've finally come to an agreement about just how much I will eat and she now serves me on the smaller plates and I no longer feel like an oompa-loompa waiting to happen.

The food here is delicious. I eat a lot of rice and noodle dishes, often with tofu or another similar protein. To be easier, I eat some fish here and have tried cuddle fish (blech!), lobster, shrimp, many different kinds of ocean fish, clams (also blech!) and jelly fish (texture like gelatin and basically tasteless). One of my favorite dishes in My Quang, which is noodles and vegetables in broth. I also like ban kiep, which is a rice paper "pancake" with either meat or egg, green onions and spicy sauce. I usually have yogurt, bread and fruit for breakfast even though most Vietnamese have Pho (beef, noodles and vegetables in broth) or rice for breakfast. I LOVE the fruit here. Because Vietnam has a tropical climate, I have plenty of options for amazing fruits. I eat many mangoes, I love durian and jack fruit, even though they are very stinky in their whole form, watermelon, pineapple, lychees and several fruits I don't know the name of. I don't eat fish in the states, but I love Ca Ran Chua Ngot : a special main dish of quickly fried whole fish served with a delicate sweet and sour sauce touched lightly with chilies and onions, nuoc mam, vinegar, and sugar. The fish is caught right before it is served, so it's incredibly fresh.  I frequently put hot sauce on my dishes, because it makes them so delicious! This site has a lot of info on Vietnamese food if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_cuisine.

We have one big supermarket, Big C, which has four floors, including a theater on the fourth floor. Several other volunteers and I saw Ironman 2 there last night for 40,000 (about $2). A far cry from what you pay in the states! Most people buy food from Han Market or Dong Da market, which are huge, two story buildings with hundreds of little stalls. There is a section, at least 4,000 or 5,000 sq. ft. of just meat. Needless to say, I got out of there pretty quickly. Many people sell fruit at little stands on the street.

The beach is BEAUTIFUL and I love to go sit on one of the chaise lounges under an umbrella to study or read or just enjoy. I can buy fresh coconuts, which the seller cuts open so I can drink the juice, and then cuts up so I can enjoy fresh coconut pieces. Delicious!

Another day in paradise!


Photos are: From top right: 1) My very pink room; 2) the small kitchen (no oven, they don't have ovens in most kitchens); 3) Han River Bridge at night; 4) during fruit, not quite ripe (another month or so) 5) dragonfruit plants; 5) a fruit stand and small store; 6) delicious coconut 7) cloud formations at the ocean.