Archive for July 2008

Mai Chau, Part Three




A rare non-sunny day in Hanoi; was woken up at six by the sound of rain pounding on the windows and - as always happens when it rains hard - the drains in my bathroom bubbling ominously (whenever it floods, the bathroom fills up with mud despite the fact that I live on the second floor). At any rate, there was no mud this morning, so the rain couldn't have been that bad, and I'm at Cafe Smile theoretically preparing for classes but really just playing on the internet. Work this week has been busier than usual - I have three classes every day, which is the most packed my schedule's ever been, but I love my students, even the bad teenagers (who stopped drawing penises on everything). My classes are mostly adults of all levels, though I have two teenage classes (yesterday we sang a Hilary Duff song SIX TIMES; no one warned me teaching could be so harrowing. Also, do you know how hard it is to invent follow-up questions about the deeply concealed meaning of her lyrics?) and one classes of tiny, ridiculously cute kids who speak extremely limited English, which means we play a lot of Simon Says, and color a lot, and then I bribe them with candy to take their midterm.

At any rate, a few more photos of Mai Chau: aside from the drive itself, the town of Mai Chau was probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I lost a sandal swimming in the river and my helmet was stolen off my bike, but it was the most fun I'd had in a long time and these pictures in no way do it justice.

 


left: lots of bricks; right: cutting through a paddy.



Rice paddy ducklings!

Driving to Mai Chau




Mountain cow.

A few more photos of the drive up to Mai Chau; I had never driven my motorbike outside of Hanoi, and it was the most fun I've ever had, on mostly empty roads through the mountains and rice paddies, I can't wait to do it again sometime.



Leaving Hanoi












Storm clouds over Hoa Bihn on the drive home. Amazingly, the rain wasn't that intense.





Kids on the side of the road who started waving like crazy when we stopped to take photos of the sunset.

Bike trip to Mai Chau



Sun setting over the rice paddies in Mai Chau.

I am, as ever, sitting at Puku Cafe abusing the free wifi and running late for work, so more photos of my awesome (if too short) motorbike trip from two weekends ago to come (I know I always say that, but no, really, it's too beautiful there not to show off a bit). I've been busier with work lately - I'll be up to six classes this week and starting work on Saturdays soon - but things here are going really great, as always - so great that I'm most likely signing another contract to stay here through February '09, as it happens, which will round out what was meant to be a 3-month stay into a full year and which means all of you have that many extra months to come visit (hint, hint).





Green everywhere.

minnow-cruelty and other july things




Tuan, Ha and Thahn and the catch of the day (the minnow in the beer glass).

Nhat: See this fish? He's somewhere between life and death.
Me: I think he wants to go home. Can't we let him go?
Ha: No, I want to eat him.
Thahn: (drops leftovers from lunch into beer stein).



If the hotpot looks familiar to anyone back home, it's because apparently it's "American Chicken," according to all of my students.

Hanoi in July is oppressively hot and humid, prone to amazing lightening storms that go on for hours and pyrotechnically bright sunsets that have the power to make even my jaded teenage class stop talking and stare out the window. I've been too busy with work to do anything much these last few weeks, though Lenora came to visit two weeks ago (!) and she very patiently put up with my run of strangely bad luck (falling down the stairs while carrying my computer, two exhaust pipe burns in a span of 2 days, about $450 being stolen from my U.S. bank account, various and sundry apartment woes) and she even used the phrase "not wanting to die anymore" to talk about being on the back of my motorbike, which means I totally did not traumatize her with my driving at ALL. At any rate, Lenora pictures to follow hopefully, and more about teaching, but I'm late for work now so, lots of love, and I miss everyone back home as always.

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