Lance and Kristen Baker

(Lance writing)
It has finally set in that Christmas is just a few days away.  For the majority of December I just haven’t been able to feel the excitement of Christmas.  With the warm weather and minimal seasonal decorations, it really just feels like another summer month!  However, certain events this week have brought the Christmas cheer into my life.

First of all, our school has been preparing for two big Christmas events.  One, a special party for the young children (which took place this morning) and a special party for the high school and adult students (which will take place this coming Tuesday.)

Staff Christmas Song
We were told that the staff would be performing a Christmas song at the Tuesday party.  We thought, “No big deal, just stand up, sing a Christmas song and all is well!”

Well, it has turned out to be a bit more of a production.

There are 6 Vietnamese teachers along with Kristen and myself (the only guy) who will be singing.  We’re singing “Mary’s Boy Child.”  All this week, we have been staying after class to practice the song.  We have been trying to come up with simple steps and movements to make it more interesting (including dancing in a circle around Kristen and I as Mary and Joseph).  It has actually been a lot of fun.  We seem to spend a large portion of the night just laughing and having fun.  Kristen and I find it especially humorous because they will begin rapidly speaking in Vietnamese while we just watch and listen hoping that someone will translate for us.

We haven’t really had a chance to spend a lot of time with the staff, so we have really enjoyed spending time with them this week.  What better way to get to know someone than to sing and dance with them!

Children’s Christmas Party
This morning our school hosted an exciting Christmas party for the young children (4-12 years old).  When we arrived at the school we saw a giant bag of tiny Styrofoam balls (as snow) being poured from a window above. The kids went wild!!

They loved to grab big handfuls of “snow” and throw it up in the air.  They also collected as much of it as they could, stuffing it into their bags and pockets.  A few even made snow angels!

After the children had some time to play in the “snow” they sat down for a Christmas quiz!  The questions would appear on the screen and then they would hold up A, B, or C for their answer.  Looks like this one was B.

The children sang songs and later received a little present. We had a lot of fun. It is nice to just be able to have fun with our students and not worry about teaching for a day! They are so sweet and we loved seeing them have fun.

Here are some more pictures from the party.

Two of Kristen’s students

This is Alice, one of my sweet little students!

Santa is also one of our students

Kristen  Bee.

Bee, her brother and I. This is the family who invited us over to their house a few weeks ago. Bee is so much fun. She loves to talk to us. We invited her and some of her friends from her school over to our house for pizza. It was the first time they ever had pizza!

Video!

In the Evening
Toward the end of the day today, one of our students called and said that he was on his way to our house.  No, he didn’t ask, he just said he was coming over.

We ended up going out to eat together and afterward he told us to follow him.  We drove a few minutes down the road and came to a giant tent and outdoor stage.  He said that SYM (a motorbike company) was sponsoring an evening concert.  The concert featured a few famous Vietnamese singers and the recent Vietnam Idol winner!

While we were there, someone approached me and started asking about learning English. Kristen and I talked with him and his girlfriend for a bit during the concert.  We exchanged numbers and are planning on going out with them sometime this week.  We are really excited to be able to hang out with another couple!  They seem really nice and we look forward to getting to know them.

I also randomly met a Vietnamese man who lives in Dayton, Ohio! (just a few hours away from my hometown)  He moved to the U.S. about 20 years ago and was visiting Vietnam for a bit.  Its funny how small the world can seem sometimes.

Kristen and her student Superman (they choose their own English names.)

This past Saturday was Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival- a special festival for the children. There are many legends about how the festival originated and why it is celebrated, but in practice it is basically a time for parents to spend a lot of time
with their children and buy them lots of gifts.

We were very fortunate to be invited to participate in the Mid-Autumn Festival hosted by our school. They put on a special evening of games, prizes and performances for the children of the school.

The girls doing a dance

These are two of Lance’s students singing and dancing

The Lion Dance

Thursday
We arrived at the school and were told that we would be in charge of running one of the children’s games. There was a table with the names of different animals on it. The children would lay their tickets on a name, and then we would spin the wheel. If the wheel landed on their animal they would win a prize!

The children here are so adorable and full of joy (and energy!) It was fun to see them win and to be able to pick out a prize. It was also fun to see our students outside of the classroom. At first, they seemed shy to see their teachers running a game, but then they seemed to warm up and would smile or wave at us.

On the way home, we drove past many children dancing in the streets. It is an exciting vibe to hear music playing in the night air.

Saturday
On Saturday, we were on our way home from school. We were walking (because the motorbike was in need of repair at the time) and we came across a big crowd of people. We realized it was a group of dancers getting set up. We moved our way through the crowd of motorbikes to try and get a better view. We were standing next to a truck, fairly close, when a few guys up in the truck waved us up. A few people helped us climb into the back of the truck and we had a great view a good 10 feet above the crowd. (unfortunately we didn’t have the camera with us)

The excitement was building as they set up these tall poles that they would be climbing as part of the performance. More and more people were gathering until we realized that there were people as far was we could see each way down the road. I’m not one to exaggerate, but I really think there were thousands of people crowded together!

We saw the dragon begin dancing through the crowd making its way to the stage, when everything just seemed to stop suddenly. Some people started directing traffic and clearing people out. Of course, we had no idea what was going on because no one around us spoke English. All of us in the truck just stood for a while and watched traffic clear and then finally climbed down to head home. One of the dancers past us saying, “sorry, sorry!”

We have no idea what happened! Oh the questions that remain unanswered when you don’t speak the local language!

Kristen riding her bike across the new bridge.

(Kristen writing)

What a beautiful weekend.

First, we have been doing a lot of testing at our school. Lance and I gave over 30 verbal tests to students wanting to go to our English school. I’ve really enjoyed every student I’ve evaluated, but it is so much pressure. Grading verbal skills is so subjective! And with each student I tested I get more and more attached to them as people. We had some students come in and score really low and other who were extremely fluent!

Saturday afternoon I went out with my friend Thu again. In Vietnam you can have clothes tailored made for pretty cheap and she was going to have a friend of hers help me.

I got on her motorbike and we were off! We went down a couple main roads then squeezed through an alley the last stretch (small even for our motorbike!) and we arrived at her door. She called her friend, who was out, and said that we need to come back when she’s home. So, we left again on her motorbike to look for something cool to drink.

We stopped at a café and I had my first nouc mia (sugar cane juice), so tastey!

Meanwhile…

(Lance writing)
Well I figured since Kristen was out there was no reason for me to sit around at home and I am always up for a motorbike ride. I heard that there was a road that went all the way to the top of Monkey Mountain (which we have talked about and visited before). So I thought I would try to make it all the way to the top this time. I road down the beautiful coastal road, past many rocks and boulders that had fallen into the road and finally came upon a point where there was a gate and a security guard. I thought, “Oh great I am all this way and now I have to turn back.”

As I got closer I realized that there was another road that went off to the left, away from the coast and up into the mountain. The security guard came out to see what I was up to. I ushered up the road and said, “OK?”

He nodded but sharply angled his hand to indicate that it was very steep. I smiled and nodded. He came over to see how much gas I had to make sure I could make it up, he nodded and smile. With a wave I was off!

At this point, the road turns into more of a wide sidewalk. It was really steep for the old Honda Dream. I was in first gear and hardly moving up the mountain. For about 40 minutes I wound up and down hills and around curves, climbing higher and higher. I finally came to a fork in the road, but apparently chose the wrong way because it came to a dead end. I had to head back anyway because it was starting to get dark.

The road through the mountain.

It was an absolutely gorgeous ride! I also saw my first wild monkeys. I kept hearing things in the jungle and then finally saw some small monkeys high up in the trees.

A view from only halfway up.

I read once that we were created to be verbal beings. We were created to express things with our lips. That was at least true for me today considering that around ever corner I turned, I couldn’t help but utter an audible, “Wow!”

Reflection
After climbing the mountain and enjoying the quietness of nature, I couldn’t help but think about how thankful I was that we are in a place where this is possible. I think that we all have things that bring us to a place of peace and renewal. For me, it is being among nature and especially in the mountains.

Sometimes the weeks get long here and there are many things that challenge us during the week. I just keep thinking, “How wonderful is it that something that brings such peace and renewal to my spirit is just a short motorbike ride away!”

In other words, I feel like we are exactly where we should be.

I know that at lot of what you see and hear on this blog seems to be fun, exploration and adventure, but there is so much more to our time here that I just can’t explain.

Teaching is going better and better. Kristen and I have both been able to connect with some our students and really enjoy that. Sometimes they send us emails, sometimes they come early or stay late after class to ask us questions about English or life in general. Sunday, 5 of our students planned an afternoon for us and took us out. They took us out to lunch, out to a sweet shop where we had a variety of sweet pudding drinks called “che” (some made from white beans, red beans, yogurt, fruit, etc) I know it sounds weird but they were excellent! Then we went out to Karaoke. Karaoke here is much different. You actually have your own private rooms. So the 6 of us had our own room. We were there for about 3 hours singing and having a good time.

The night ended with some photos along the Han River.

Che


Many of our students want to study or work abroad and being fluent in English is their ticket to do so. So we want so badly to truly help them learn and be successful in pursuing what they desire.

We hope that you enjoy following our life on here and we look forward to being able to talk with you in person so share more about our experiences here.

(Lance Writing)

Sunday

We have had some great opportunities to connect and hang out with some of our students this weekend.

First off, one of our students (S-fone is his English nickname) invited us out for coffee. We exchanged numbers Friday night and he said that he would call us sometime on Saturday. He ended up calling at 9am on but my phone was on silent so I missed the call. I sent him a text around 11am apologizing and asking if we could still meet. He called me back and said that he would come by around 2.

Five-minutes later he called back saying, “I’m here!”

Kristen and I quickly gathered a few things together and went out to meet him. It turns out that he has a car (very rare in Vietnam). He introduced us to his wife Thu and we were off!

Since it was so close to lunch time, they took us out to lunch. We ordered a few things off the of the menu and our table quickly filled with what seemed like dozens of little dishes. We had some greens, rice served in clay pots, spring-rolls, kim-chi, a vegetable omelet, noodle soup, and an array of little dipping sauces. Everyone just eats off of all the plates. No one really has their own dish. They were very kind telling and showing us how to eat the various dishes.

Just before lunch, Thu asked if we would like to go to Hoi An (a city about 30-minutes south of Da-Nang). We said, “Sure, why not!”

So we were off to Hoi An with our new friends. We stopped to pick up S-fone’s younger sister Ly to go along with us.

Hoi An is a quaint little city. If you read any travel information about Vietnam, Hoi An is likely to be a featured travel stop. It is full of 200+ year old buildings, gardens, pagodas and little shops. They took us to a famous ancient Japanese covered-bridge, some pagodas, and a museum. Along the way, they bought us a fried banana snack that was incredible. Basically it was slices of banana, dipped in some sort of pudding and then fried.

Our fried banana snack

Pagoda

The light drizzle prevented us from really getting out and enjoying all that Hoi An has to offer but we still had a good time. We walked back to the car and were taken to a little restaurant alongside the Han River. We had two mystery dishes that I am not even sure how to describe, but everything we had tasted so good!

Our hosts were so generous to us!

We had a lot of fun together. It is frustrating that there is so little that we can communicate at times! They spoke enough English that we could make small talk and ask simple questions, but we wish we could talk about more.

Thu was very kind to Kristen. She told Kristen to call her if she needed anything and even offered to take her shopping sometime. We told them that they were our first Vietnamese friends. We look forward to hanging out with them again soon.

Sunday

Another one of our students (Henry) had invited Kristen and I go play badminton on Sunday. He came by around 2:00pm on Sunday. We followed him to the badminton/tennis courts. Vietnamese take badminton very seriously. I never knew badminton could be so intense! We play for about an hour and then went out for coffee. Henry doesn’t speak English very well so we spent a lot of time spelling words out with our fingers on the table and using our Vietnamese dictionary, but we had a great time. We feel so honored that our students want to invite us out, show us around and spend time with us.

We look forward to spending more time with out students and making new friends.

(Lance writing)
Wow! I have a whole new respect for my high school teachers. I have to confess, this has been a very tough week.

The first classes are the hardest because we don’t know what level they are at. The books give us a rough idea, but until we actually hear them speak it is hard to know how to plan and organize the class.

So far, we have four classes. Three of the classes meet three times a week and then we have one children’s class on Saturday mornings. This morning was our first children’s class and it was… CHAOS! They are mostly 7-9 in age and there was 15 of them.

When they first came in I thought, “Aw, they are so cute.”

When we left, I thought, “They are monsters!”

However, let me explain. These children are already in school seven days a week. Unlike children in America who often spend their Saturday mornings watching cartoons, these children spend their Saturday mornings in a two-hour English class. So you can imagine that their patience is rather thin- and so was ours by the end of the second hour.

On the plus side, our high school classes now seem like a breeze after our children’s class!

I would like to share one last thing. Even though this has been a tough first week of teaching and we have often come home wondering if we are even accomplishing anything, there have been a few rays of sunshine and this is one of them.

This is an email that we received from one of our pre-intermediate high school students…

Hi Teacher!

I’m writing to thank you for all everything. May be, you are surprised at the letter. Today is Saturday. Have nice day! Before I meet you. I have got many problem with English. I can’t listen because I don’t have a standard pronunciation .Grammar isn’t good. Special, I’m afraid of speak English, meet foreign people….On Wednesday When I meet you. You are friendly. You don’t laugh me When I had mistake. At that time, I feel happy. And now, I feel English is very interesting. Thank for giving me inspiration with English.Good luck! See you late.

Thanks again, (students name)

P.S: May be, I have many mistake in this letter. If possible you can help me fix it. Thanks!

So that pretty much made our week! Kristen and I want so badly to help our students learn and we really want them to succeed. It meant a lot for us to hear from a student in such a way!

We have one more class to teach this evening and then we are looking forward to a couple days of rest before we begin teaching again on Tuesday.