Lance and Kristen Baker

(Lance writing)
I cannot believe that we are going to be getting on a plane and heading to Vietnam tomorrow.

I do not know what the next year will bring, but taking this step is such a great feeling. I feel for years I have wanted to just leave everything behind and live overseas. Going to Egypt a few years back was a wonderful experience but was just too short. I am so excited about the opportunity to really “live” in a different culture, to actually have a place to live and set up a new life in a new land.

This Week In Review

Wednesday
The majority of this week has been a typical training week with our varying sessions, etc. Wednesday night was our last evening for our practicum. As you know, we have been teaching English classes at a local church here in the area. It has been a great opportunity for us to practice teaching. Wednesday was a sort of celebration/graduation party. It was a potluck so there was a lot of interesting food available. The church had a nice ceremony and acknowledge the hard work of both the students and the teachers.

While we were eating, I noticed that one of our students Peter was sitting off by himself. I thought that I would go over and talk with him a bit, you know a very typical response. However, I remembered that he does not speak English very well. So I sat down by him and asked how the food was, he did not understand me at first but finally caught on and said that the food was great. Then, there was a bit of a pause. I started to realize that I am sitting next to a grown man, who is married, has two children, a stable job and a life full of stories and experiences, yet there is nothing that we can say to one another.

Our small class of three students and four teachers. (we rotated teaching)


So What Now?
Our plane leaves around 1:00am Tuesday morning. Tomorrow will mostly be a day of packing and anxiously doing what we can to physically and mentally prepare for a significant life adjustment.

We will fly into Ho Chi Min city and then catch a short flight up to Da Nang. At that point our school administrators will show us to our housing and show us around the city at some point. After that, we really have no idea what will happen.

Our housing situation has been on our minds a little bit. The last we knew, our school administrator was still working on finding housing for us. Hopefully that will be arranged by the time we get there, if not, we will likely be in a hotel for the first week or so. We are supposed to have the first week free of teaching responsibilities so we can get settled in, but if we do not have a home to get settled into… it may be a bit of a rough start. So you can lift that up for us when you think about it.

We are ready to go. We are a bit anxious about the many unknnowns, but we feel prepared.

I know I am going to miss our team members who won’t be in our city. It has become so natural to be around everyone here at training and I sometimes forget that it will be a whole new dynamic once we arrive in Da Nang.

It will probably be a few days before we wil have another chance to give you an update. The first chance we get we will let you know how we are doing and how things are going.

Thank you again for all your support and for thinking of us so often.

(Lance writing)

A small little waterfall along our hike.

Well I know what some of you may be thinking. We are out here in California for our training to Vietnam and it looks like all we do is go on hikes, go to the beach and have fun! Well we have very much so been living out the “work hard, play hard” mentality the last three weeks. As we have mentioned before, we have a number of classes and seminars throughout the day. Our daily schedule (with minimal downtime) totals about 12 hours. It is just that there is not too much to say or report about our English classes or culture classes. We will write more in-depth about the culture of Vietnam once we are there and can better put into words what we are experiencing.

Today has been a long day of odd adventures. We started out by going back to the Eaton Falls area determined to find the other waterfall further up the mountain. However, after going a bit further than we did yesterday, we came to another rather intense portion of the path. After surveying and discussing it as a group, we decided that it was best that we not go on. The path ahead was a very narrow ledge full of sand and gravel that curved around the mountain. Below was just a sheer rocky cliff. We felt hopeful when a man came strolling (oddly comfortable) along the trail commenting “this way is easier” as he bound up the rocky cliffs in front of us with the ease of a mountain goat. We watched as he disappeared out of sight wondering why we didn’t feel as confident as he did.

Carolyn emerging from the rocky path below onto the ridge.

The ridge at the top.

Taking a break.

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After returning to campus we decided to go into downtown Pasadena for Sushi. Susan, Carolyn, Kristen and I went to the bus stop to wait. Well, we waited for about an hour and finally decided that the bus wasn’t coming and that we would just walk downtown (about 3 miles to the sushi place). Of course about a mile down the road, the bus we had been waiting for the last hour came roaring past us. Our hearts sank a little. We finally arrived and enjoyed some wonderful sushi and many glasses of water. After our meal, we quickly walked back out to the street knowing that there was only one more bus that would take us back to campus. We were so tired of walking that we figured any bus would get us closer to campus and avoid walking as far. So, we hopped on the first bus that came by.

The bus went past two of the roads that would have taken us back to campus. We stayed on hoping that it would head in the right direction soon. We watched as our surroundings became more and more unfamiliar. The bus finally turned into the bus station and our driver told us it was the end of the line, so we had to get off. There were no more buses coming through the station that night. Our only option was to walk back home. We called some friends to see if they could come pick us up, but they were busy. It ended up being 4-miles back to campus. So after our 3-mile waterfall hike, our 3-mile walk downtown and our 4-mile walk home we are exhausted!

I am thankful though. Even though we were all exhausted and our feet hurt, we were still laughing and joking the whole way home. Carolyn commented on how glad she was that everyone was still laughing because it would really be miserable if everyone was ticked. Kristen said that she wasn’t sure what hurt more- her stomach from laughing or her feet from walking. So I am heading to bed tonight thankful for friends who, no matter how frustrating or tiresome a particular moment in life is, can laugh and just enjoy life regardless of what it brings our way.

(Lance writing)
Our Vietnam Team

Sorry it has been a while since we have posted a new update. Things have been pretty much the same the last two weeks. We have been keeping very busy. While the first two weeks primarily focused on teaching and the classroom we seem to be getting more and more into language and culture. It is so amazing to be going through this process with alumni from the last few years. In some ways, having convesations with them is better than any session. It is amazing to hear their stories and to know that they will be with us to show us around.

It is hard to wrap my mind around all the aspects of living in a different culture. One of the things that has been mentioned a number of times is simply how long basic tasks take. From what I hear, going to the market is quite a task. You have to go to different stand to buy different things and of course barter for your final price. Also, you have to go to the market more often that we do here, because of the heat and somewhat unreliable refrigeration (i.e. power outages) frequent trips to the market are necessary.

We have also heard a lot about the heat and out incredibly different it is. It has been rather hot here in southern California and I asked Susan one of the alumni now this compares to the heat in Vietnam. Her reply was that its not even remotely hot here and it doesn’t even compare. We have been told that we will sweat more than we ever knew we could sweat.

We also talked about our plan for typhoons today. Various levels of typhoons are somewhat common in the China sea and we have to be prepared for what we will do in the event that one threatens our city. Being that we are in Da Nang (a coastal town) if is very likely that we will experience some level of tropical storms but hopefully nothing that will require us to evacuate the city.

We were also told to that that it is required to wear a helmet when riding a motorbike taxi. However, it is not a law to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. In fact, we were told that we would get laughed at for wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle. Our alumni said that wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle could be compared to us wearing a helmet while driving a car here in the U.S.

We learned about the importance of sugar cane juice. It is a healthy drink full of nutrients and no added sugars. They squeeze it out right in front of you. I guess it is sort of the Gatorade of Vietnam.

I am really excited to be able to tell you more from first hand experience once we arrive in Vietnam.

We had a nice restful time this past weekend. Saturday we just stayed low-key and mostly relaxed. Sunday, (I know it doesn’t sound relaxing) but Susan, Nikki, Kristen and I went on a 10 mile hike to the nearby mountains that we see everyday from campus.

We found ourselves follow a rather unexplored trail that led us to a point where we were climbing 60-70% grade slopes full of very loose dirt and sand. It was a little big scary and somewhat dangerous but a lot of fun!

Here are some pictures from our hike:

The long walk home.

We are beginning a new week! It is hard to believe that we have passed the halfway point and in just a couple weeks we will be in Vietnam!

We are so excited and feel like we are learning so much here at training. I know it probably looks like we are just having fun our here, but we work very hard and keep very busy during the week but play hard on the weekends!

We’ll be in touch soon! Thank you again for all your support!

(Lance writing)

Well it has been a full week of training and we are finally making time to give everyone an update.

We are on a beautiful university campus surrounded by the beautiful Southern Californian landscape.

We have been keeping a very busy, but very informative schedule. We start around 7am and go to about 9:30pm. There are 9 groups totaling about 60+ people here for training. In the morning we typically have a few sessions about Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). In the afternoons, we generally break into our region-specific groups and talk about topics and teaching techniques relevant to Vietnam.

In the evenings, we do practicum teaching. Our group has partnered with a local site where we have the opportunity to teaching English to non-native speakers. It is very challenging, but very helpful and practical preparation for teaching overseas.

Our days are also very diverse in the topics covered. We have covered lessons plans, classroom listening activities, vocabulary, classroom management, living in community with teams, school systems, personalities, politics, psychological care, etc- all in one week!

Planning for practicum.

Coming back from a session.

This week has also been a wonderful time to get to know or fellow teammates going to Vietnam. We really have a wonderful group of people.

Today, (Saturday) we were split up into teams and had to do a scavenger hunt in downtown Pasadena. The goal was to learn how our group works together for a common goal and purpose. We were given just one clue with a question that we had to answer. Once we found the answer, we could call in and get our next clue. We weren’t allow to use our own phones, so had to ask other people if we could borrow their phones. It was a lot of fun and our team finished fourth! We asked one couple if we could use their phone and it turned out that the lady was actually from Da Nang, VN the very city that we will be going to. She was so excited to hear that we were going to Vietnam. It was neat to just randomly run into someone from Vietnam.

Our scavenger hunt team waiting for the bus. Ready to begin!

Pretty much all of the groups took the same bus downtown… standing room only.

To be honest, we feel like there are so many wonderful things to share about this week but just don’t know where to start or how to say it.

One of the things that stands out to us is the solidarity among our team. We have heard about some very tough and very real challenges that we will have to face in Vietnam. It is amazing how quickly you can feel connected to a group of total strangers. We are so fortunate to have a small group of incredible Vietnam alumni. It is amazing to hear some of the difficulties and challenges they faced this past year and yet their spirits and attitudes are so bright and inspiring.

Sorry for the lack of details, but hopefully this next week we will be able to share some more specific things that we have been learning about Vietnam. Part of the difficulty is that we have had such a full schedule and so much information, perhaps we need the full weekend to digest everything that has happened this week. So again, we hope to share some more specific things this upcoming week.

We just want everyone to know that we are doing very well. TeachOverseas is doing an incredible job preparing and training us. We are very aware that it is because of so many of you that we are able to be here and prepare to serve in Vietnam and we are so thankful for your support! Well update you more soon.

(Lance writing)
Well Kristen and I have safely arrived in Los Angeles. We had a wonderful train ride across the country. At one of our meals in the dining car, a lady that we were sitting with commented that traveling by train is a much more civilized way of traveling compared to flying and I could not agree more. We dined with many wonderful people and the relaxed pace of travel gave us both time to complete the books that accompanied us.

We were met by our dear friend Christine Chaffee at Union Station early this morning. She graciously showed us around the Los Angeles area which was quite enjoyable. We visited her home in North Hollywood, the walk of fame in Hollywood, the Observatory in Hollywood, the beach and pier in Santa Monica, an appropriate Vietnamese dinner at Pho Citi and finally a wonderful frozen yogurt dessert at Pink Berry in Burbank. It has been a wonderful day in LA. Thank you Christine.
Our sleeper car. Small but sufficient.

Hollywood- Walk of Fame- Michael Jackson’s Star

Hollywood- Yes that’s right, Chuck Norris.

Hollywood- Observatory

Today we will head to Pasadena and check in for our 4-weeks of training. We are looking forward to investing ourselves in this preparation for Vietnam.