This video is why you should all travel the world.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/video/henrygoldman/facts-that-will-make-you-want-to-travel
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Daily life
Hi!
Teaching is one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Every day I have to plan lessons and consider each child in the classroom and how each student learns differently. I have to manage heaps of rambunctious children (especially the boys), and behavior management is no easy task. Even though it's difficult, I love that every day is new and different. It makes life so fun!
This picture is from the opening ceremony of the school!
Teaching is one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Every day I have to plan lessons and consider each child in the classroom and how each student learns differently. I have to manage heaps of rambunctious children (especially the boys), and behavior management is no easy task. Even though it's difficult, I love that every day is new and different. It makes life so fun!
This picture is from the opening ceremony of the school!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Updates
As many of you know, I'm very new to the teaching profession. Four weeks of training from WorldTeach and I was thrown into the classroom with 4th and 5th grade students. Holy Hera is it exciting! I teach English to three separate classes of 4th grade students and science to three groups of 5th grade students. I also work with two academic clubs.
The hardest part for me so far is planning ahead for classes. I find myself planning till the moment the class begins. Finding time for planning, teaching, extra volunteer work, and exploring Hanoi is difficult!
I have learned how to ride a motorbike and last weekend took a beautiful drive around West Lake, stopping at cute restaurants and having smoothies in beach chairs on the waterfront. It was a gorgeous weekend and made me even more thankful to be here in Vietnam. I love the work, love experiencing this new place, and love all of the new people I have the opportunity to meet.
More to come this weekend! Hope everyone is well.
PS,
We use the British English education system at my school. Mum, colour, realise, and favourite have been rather difficult to adjust to for this American girl.
'merica.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Teaching!
I have finally received my teaching assignments. I will be teaching 4th grade ESL and 5th grade Science. That's right folks... SCIENCE! The next two or three weeks will be interesting, especially because we don't have any books yet. Lot's of rules, expectations, and get to know you activities are on the way!
Check back later this week for an update on how my classes are going. First day is August 5th!
Kelley
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Birthday in Vietnam
Hello friends!
As most of you know, my birthday was on Thursday, August 1st. I'm now 24! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It's slightly surreal to think of myself as in my mid-twenties. And if you would told me two months ago that I would be celebrating my birthday in Vietnam, I would have never believed it. It's crazy to think about how much your life can change in an instant with one decision. I think it's just important to keep making those decisions. If you aren't happy... do something about it!
Enough with my life advice... On Wednesday night I went out with a few friends from my WorldTeach program for what was supposed to be a quick drink in the Old Quarter. Many many hours later, I found some neat bars in town and rang my birthday in with style. Hanoi is different from the rest of Vietnam in that they have a midnight curfew. Starting at 12:00 am, the police go bar to bar and shut them down. DJ's stop playing, lights on, and piles of people rush into the streets. As far as I can tell, it's never more than a "go home" from the police, but it seems that the next step for all the party-goers is to find a bar that's still open. What an adventure that was!
On Thursday I had to work for most of the day and then we went out for dinner to a really good Vietnamese restaurant that evening. I had fried noodle with egg, beef, and greens on top. Yummy! My friends in the program also bought a chocolate cake and brought it to the restaurant for dessert. It was AMAZING!
My birthday was definitely one to remember.
Kelley
As most of you know, my birthday was on Thursday, August 1st. I'm now 24! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It's slightly surreal to think of myself as in my mid-twenties. And if you would told me two months ago that I would be celebrating my birthday in Vietnam, I would have never believed it. It's crazy to think about how much your life can change in an instant with one decision. I think it's just important to keep making those decisions. If you aren't happy... do something about it!
Enough with my life advice... On Wednesday night I went out with a few friends from my WorldTeach program for what was supposed to be a quick drink in the Old Quarter. Many many hours later, I found some neat bars in town and rang my birthday in with style. Hanoi is different from the rest of Vietnam in that they have a midnight curfew. Starting at 12:00 am, the police go bar to bar and shut them down. DJ's stop playing, lights on, and piles of people rush into the streets. As far as I can tell, it's never more than a "go home" from the police, but it seems that the next step for all the party-goers is to find a bar that's still open. What an adventure that was!
On Thursday I had to work for most of the day and then we went out for dinner to a really good Vietnamese restaurant that evening. I had fried noodle with egg, beef, and greens on top. Yummy! My friends in the program also bought a chocolate cake and brought it to the restaurant for dessert. It was AMAZING!
My birthday was definitely one to remember.
Kelley
Sunday, July 28, 2013
My Hospital Experience
Vietnam is a communist country. Before reading this blog entry, please read this article on Vietnam cracking down on bloggers who "express dissent." http://www.cpj.org/2013/07/vietnam-intensifies-crackdown-on-bloggers.php
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I had to go to the hospital last week with the other WorldTeach volunteers to get our health checks as one of many requirements we must meet in order to obtain our official work visas for Vietnam. This has been quite an extensive process. This was our last step and it took about 5 hours to finish today.
We got to the hospital around 9am and had to wait for quite a while to get the necessary paperwork we needed to see all of the doctors. After obtaining the paperwork I had to get my blood drawn, pee in a cup (and the hospital bathrooms had no toilet paper...), see a dentist, an optometrist, an ENT, get lungs and heart checked, received an X-ray on my lungs, saw a general practitioner, and completed a color blindness test. What a day it was! The country has to ensure that we are all healthy in order to issue our work visas. Also, all of the doctors and nurses left around noon for lunch so we had to leave and come back at 2 to finish up. Can you imagine that happening in the states? I will say though... all of that cost about $10.
I was very shocked walking into this hospital. People were wandering all around trying to find doctors to help them and I saw some very sick people waiting in the same places I was waiting. One woman had a shriveled, bloody, and blackened hand and no one seemed to have any interest in helping her. I'm also fairly certain that they used the same instrument tools at the dentists office on other patients without sterilization. This has made me realized how lucky I have been in the past to have had such excellent medical treatment. Don't ever take that for granted again my friends!
Here are some pictures of the hospital. I'm hoping I will stay uninjured throughout my stay.
Until next time,
kelley
_________________________________________________________________________________
I had to go to the hospital last week with the other WorldTeach volunteers to get our health checks as one of many requirements we must meet in order to obtain our official work visas for Vietnam. This has been quite an extensive process. This was our last step and it took about 5 hours to finish today.
We got to the hospital around 9am and had to wait for quite a while to get the necessary paperwork we needed to see all of the doctors. After obtaining the paperwork I had to get my blood drawn, pee in a cup (and the hospital bathrooms had no toilet paper...), see a dentist, an optometrist, an ENT, get lungs and heart checked, received an X-ray on my lungs, saw a general practitioner, and completed a color blindness test. What a day it was! The country has to ensure that we are all healthy in order to issue our work visas. Also, all of the doctors and nurses left around noon for lunch so we had to leave and come back at 2 to finish up. Can you imagine that happening in the states? I will say though... all of that cost about $10.
I was very shocked walking into this hospital. People were wandering all around trying to find doctors to help them and I saw some very sick people waiting in the same places I was waiting. One woman had a shriveled, bloody, and blackened hand and no one seemed to have any interest in helping her. I'm also fairly certain that they used the same instrument tools at the dentists office on other patients without sterilization. This has made me realized how lucky I have been in the past to have had such excellent medical treatment. Don't ever take that for granted again my friends!
Here are some pictures of the hospital. I'm hoping I will stay uninjured throughout my stay.
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| Front view of St. Paul's Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam |
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| X-ray waiting room |
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| X-ray room (like how the door stays shut?) |
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| Construction on the other side of X-ray room |
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| Construction in the hospital |
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| Great looking signs |
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| Many departments are all in one hallway |
Until next time,
kelley
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
This is Old Quarter
Hi everyone. Sorry again for the lack in updates. I know "busy" isn't an excuse but I find it hard to have the time to sit down and do anything at all. This week I taught for the first time! I taught 2 lessons for a 7th grade class and 1 lesson for a 5th grade class. I definitely liked the younger class much more and can't wait to find out my placement within the primary school. I've learned first hand just how hard lesson planning and teaching is from my lessons this week.
Tonight our WorldTeach field trainer is leaving after 3 weeks of intense classroom sessions and practicums helping all 8 of us get ready to teach in the classroom starting on August 5. Next week is the final week of orientation and this is hosted by Wellspring School. To celebrate the end of Becca's time in Hanoi, we went out to Old Quarter and had street food! This is the first time I have had street food in Hanoi, mostly because I wasn't sure my stomach could handle it until now. We were given 3 cooking plates over individual fires to keep on our plastic tables and sat around those on even smaller plastic stools... very Vietnam. After this, we put pork, beef, and vegetables onto the plate above the fire and cooked for ourselves. The food was delicious! After this, we walked to the famous icecream shop in Old Quarter for a nice treat. Dinner was 87,000 VND with beer and the ice cream was 10,000 VND making my total for the night less than $5 USD!
I LOVE HANOI!
- kel
Tonight our WorldTeach field trainer is leaving after 3 weeks of intense classroom sessions and practicums helping all 8 of us get ready to teach in the classroom starting on August 5. Next week is the final week of orientation and this is hosted by Wellspring School. To celebrate the end of Becca's time in Hanoi, we went out to Old Quarter and had street food! This is the first time I have had street food in Hanoi, mostly because I wasn't sure my stomach could handle it until now. We were given 3 cooking plates over individual fires to keep on our plastic tables and sat around those on even smaller plastic stools... very Vietnam. After this, we put pork, beef, and vegetables onto the plate above the fire and cooked for ourselves. The food was delicious! After this, we walked to the famous icecream shop in Old Quarter for a nice treat. Dinner was 87,000 VND with beer and the ice cream was 10,000 VND making my total for the night less than $5 USD!
The following pictures and video represent street food in Old Quarter, Hanoi, Vietnam:
I LOVE HANOI!
- kel
Monday, July 15, 2013
My first week in Hanoi
Xin chao,
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog about my time here in Hanoi. I arrived last Monday night and have been enjoying my time here so much. Last week was a week of adjustment as the other volunteers and I learned the ropes about how the school seems to operate and how we will fit into everything as foreign teachers. There are 7 other teachers in my group and we all live in "teacher housing" on the back side of campus. Our accommodations are wonderful; much more than what I was expecting. We have our own bathrooms, a shared kitchen and common room, air conditioning, and full-sized beds. Other than the beds being hard, it's all great! The campus also has security around the perimeter. I'm located about 4km from the city center by taxi... which would cost approximately $2 USD. The exchange rate is 21,000 VND (Vietnamese Dong) = $1 USD. That's been quite an adjustment!
We have a program director on-site at Wellspring named Mr. Vinh and he has been everything I could have asked for. He has helped us get internet set up (although it's been touchy so far), helped with getting pool passes, fixed any issues we had with the rooms, helped us get Vietnamese phones, and even took us to the mall!
For the next few weeks we will be doing lots of training to get ready for our first day of class on August 5. I haven't found out what grade level I will be teaching yet but I'm hoping to know by the beginning of next week. This week I will be observing a 5th and 7th grade classroom and next week I will be doing some practice teaching with the 7th graders.
I had most of the weekend off from training and had a chance to explore the city a bit. On Friday we went out to a new bar in town and Saturday we went to the Night Market. On Sunday I went to St. Joseph's Cathedral for an evening mass (the biggest and highly recommended in our guide book) and then we strolled around the French district. We ended up finding a fancy mall with a Versace and 7 floors of amazingness so it turned out to be a great end to the weekend! I love exploring this city and everyone has been so nice. Almost everyone smiles, waves, and will even tolerate my attempts to speak Vietnamese. More on the language learning from my next post....
Until then,
Kelley
PS-
Our kitchen sink isn't set up yet and we had to drain our spaghetti in the shower last night #thirdworldproblems
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog about my time here in Hanoi. I arrived last Monday night and have been enjoying my time here so much. Last week was a week of adjustment as the other volunteers and I learned the ropes about how the school seems to operate and how we will fit into everything as foreign teachers. There are 7 other teachers in my group and we all live in "teacher housing" on the back side of campus. Our accommodations are wonderful; much more than what I was expecting. We have our own bathrooms, a shared kitchen and common room, air conditioning, and full-sized beds. Other than the beds being hard, it's all great! The campus also has security around the perimeter. I'm located about 4km from the city center by taxi... which would cost approximately $2 USD. The exchange rate is 21,000 VND (Vietnamese Dong) = $1 USD. That's been quite an adjustment!
We have a program director on-site at Wellspring named Mr. Vinh and he has been everything I could have asked for. He has helped us get internet set up (although it's been touchy so far), helped with getting pool passes, fixed any issues we had with the rooms, helped us get Vietnamese phones, and even took us to the mall!
For the next few weeks we will be doing lots of training to get ready for our first day of class on August 5. I haven't found out what grade level I will be teaching yet but I'm hoping to know by the beginning of next week. This week I will be observing a 5th and 7th grade classroom and next week I will be doing some practice teaching with the 7th graders.
I had most of the weekend off from training and had a chance to explore the city a bit. On Friday we went out to a new bar in town and Saturday we went to the Night Market. On Sunday I went to St. Joseph's Cathedral for an evening mass (the biggest and highly recommended in our guide book) and then we strolled around the French district. We ended up finding a fancy mall with a Versace and 7 floors of amazingness so it turned out to be a great end to the weekend! I love exploring this city and everyone has been so nice. Almost everyone smiles, waves, and will even tolerate my attempts to speak Vietnamese. More on the language learning from my next post....
Until then,
Kelley
PS-
Our kitchen sink isn't set up yet and we had to drain our spaghetti in the shower last night #thirdworldproblems
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Off to Vietnam!
Thanks for checking out my blog!
I will be spending the next 11+ months living in Hanoi, Vietnam and blogging through this site. I will be leaving from San Francisco on Sunday morning, stopping in Seoul, then arriving in Hanoi on Monday evening. Looks like I'll be spending over a day in flight thanks to the time change. Hanoi is 11 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
Please check back frequently for pictures and posts regarding my new life and adventures!
If you have questions, feel free to ask :)
-Kelley
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