Paul's TEFL Adventures

Wednesday teaching in Thanh Liệt

17-01-2018

Wednesday was very much a day of two halves. On one hand, I had Thanh Liệt, a school that was not all that modern and noisy as fuck but had a strong TA in the form of Hien. On the other, Co Nhue 2B, a school with great banter between myself, Niamh, Mia and Chris Howells, but had thumbs down with everything else. Maybe I should get into the first of the two schools…

Like Tuesday, it was an early morning, getting up, dressing in the uniform and heading down the spiral staircase. For a change I got a bottle of revive from Circle K. This time however, I would be in a larger taxi with Sophie Filer, Hannah, Molly & Pip. I got talking to Megan and would just catch up on what our plans were like and what could be done as a House 5 night out later in the week.

What I didn’t expect was to talk with her longer than a few minutes. Hannah, Molly & Pip were around, but Sophie hadn’t shown up yet. After 20 minutes we were getting impatient but she did arrive eventually and we got in.

https://time.com/3984571/worst-types-of-late-people/

Knowing what I now know, I can say that while Sophie was likely a nice woman who was probably just in Vietnam for a similar reason as everyone else, and its likely unfair what I am about to say, but I grew to actually hate her. And this was all due to this one recurring issue that she was never at the taxi rank on time. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, even 40 minutes late at times for the taxi while four other teachers and the driver were waiting around for her. I am a punctual person by nature, so every time she casually showed up when we were all ready, tired and had made the effort to be there on time pissed me off. On top of that she would rarely report to the main accommodation that she had taken a grab bike out of the school afterwards so that would make all 4 of us wait around for 15-20 minutes in the taxi for her on the way back when she had long gone, losing precious time out of our lunchbreak. She was the goddamn worst. Teachers out there, be punctual and think of the other teachers that have to put up with your bullshit!

Anyway when all five of us were in the taxi we were squeezed up and generally sat in order of who was getting out first. I was second, so I usually got a window seat. We would drive through the busy city streets this time, not going to the sticks like the previous journeys. The general Thanh Xuan and Hoang Mai areas had a lot of primary schools, especially around the Tô Lịch River, where Thanh Liệt was located. It turned out to have 2 schools, Thanh Liệt A & B. Sophie was dropped off at A while I was dropped off at B. I was on my own at this school like Cu Khoi. With the late taxi drop off, the students were already out in the courtyard running around, playing keepie up, chasing, playing football and messing with pokemon cards. It was a chaotic run up to the teachers room, but I made it.

Tô Lịch River. This ran through Trung Hoa and was a regular site on school commutes. Despite being a city of lakes, Ha Noi can also have long rivers through its city.

Inside, I got to meet Hien, my TA for the school. She was the first BME TA I had in the week. For these first few months it would turn out that she was my only BME TA as well, so having someone that truly stuck to the rules was great. She may have been short, and with a great smile, but dayum did she yell out a belter of discipline with a megaphone if students did not shut up. This was much needed as the school was a little worse for wear and the students were incredibly noisy, particularly grade 3’s first thing in the morning. I would learn a lot from her, such as where the best places to write certain elements on a blackboard were, how to engage with the uncooperative students more, and generally how being strict as fuck can work wonders if the class are a bunch of toerags (a lot of schools out in the sticks felt like this).

The other thing I liked about Thanh Liet was that the local teachers would offer me tea, fruits or even sweet glutinous rice balls. They were generous and seemed to enjoy my company while I waited for class. They wanted to know more about Ireland, so I would bring in some postcards, photos, or even my tin whistle and they would enjoy having a look.

The sticky rice balls. Teachers often had dried fruits such as mango’s as well.
An example of one of the Thanh Liet classrooms. Note the 2 sets of blocky wooden doors, which set it aside from other schools which had one. (Pic credit: Thanh Liet Facebook page)

Anyway after the class was over Hien would jump on her motorbike and fly off into the sunny afternoon, while I got in the taxi with Hannah and Pip (for some reason Molly would sometimes be taken back in a different taxi). All the while we would call the taxi people and Sophie wondering where the hell she was. Then we would just drive off when we found out she had left already. Again, like earlier, a complete taking of the piss. Hated her mé féin attitude.

Another reason it was the absolute worst that Sophie was crap at punctuality was that in all honesty the break between Thanh Liệt and Co Nhue (more on that next time) was the longest in the week. We could sometimes be at the main accommodation before 10.30 and not need to be there again until 1. There was a genuine opportunity to sleep for nearly 90 minutes if she let the taxi people know we would not need to stop at Thanh Liet A, and oftentimes I would do so. If I didn’t, I would have some street food, or go somewhere further afield like Paris Baguette with Rebecca.

On the Oasis Bay boat in Ha Long Bay
At Mr Bean’s in Hoi An
On the bike on Cat Ba Island

I would meet up with Rebecca a lot during the longer breaks and got on well with her. She wasn’t on my radar much earlier because there were so many louder personalities in the CWD, but in a situation to just sit down and have a coffee, crepe or meal, she was great to talk about the stories of the day. Generally she wasn’t the sort of teacher to get drunk every second day, which was a change of pace from the normal style of socializing here (a style I admittedly embraced as much as any other teacher). She felt a lot like my friends back home, which is weird considering she was one of the youngest of the teachers, in her early 20’s. Still, she had different interests to many other teachers, which in her own words ‘talk about nothing but Love Island and football’. She liked anime, going to the cinema and all things Marvel, so that was a change of conversation.

In any case after the lunch break, be it a good long catch up, or a good long snooze, I would get ready again, and head to the infamous Co Nhue 2B…

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5 First places checked out in Trung Hoa

I may be writing about the first week of public school teaching in Hanoi, but I thought this deserved addressing before continuing with more articles on schools. The fact of the matter is that most of the internship’s down time during the day was spent chilling out in cafes, restaurants, or the famed Bia Hoi’s of Hanoi. After a while the places on this list would lose some of their lustre, but I felt the need to acknowledge 5 places I checked out at the start of the internship that may not have been all time classics, but were definitely visited quite a bit in January and February;
I will put street food, cafes and restaurants I actually stuck around in on different lists, so stay tuned for them!

#1 Nhà Hàng Vườn Xoài

This was the first real Bia Hoi the teachers discovered in the district, and it happened to be near the couples house. Tuborg was heavily promoted on the dresses of slim, attractive Vietnamese waitresses, the food was unremarkable but usually included old monkey nuts, had a plethora of options (including turtle) and the beer was cheap. The most notable thing about it was the spacious outdoor area with plenty of tables to sit down in groups of 6-10. The BME internship ceremony would take place here too.

The interior that hosted the BME awarding of certificates

Ultimately cheaper and more intimate Bia Hoi’s would be found, such as the lakeside Bia near Trung Hoa school. While it may not have had the outdoor fans, food, or facilities of Vườn Xoài, it would be altogether cheaper and quieter, allowing for a better place to talk about the day.

#2 Mon Hue

Mon Hue to put it lightly had a disastrous end, shutting down all its chains in October 2019 and abandoning all its chains and headquarters due to debt problems. If you try to visit any of the chains by now the chances are they have been occupied by another restaurant or shop. Not pretty.

But despite its unfortunate legacy, it did serve decent Vietnamese food, and would be seen as a good entry to the cuisine if you had never eaten it before. Plenty of noodle dishes, as well as a satisfying menu of drinks, juices and vegetarian options. Myself and House 5 would sometimes meet up here for a catch up that wasn’t on the ground floor and with a lighter atmosphere. I would say the big weakness of Mon Hue was that once you discovered the street food, then that would be the place you would go to rather than a franchise’s version of the same dish. The real deal bun cha, bun thit nuong and nem ran would always beat Mon Hue.

The drinks menu
Fried egg rolls
Watermelon juice
333 Beer
Some pretty Vietnamese designed bowls on the ceiling.
Dried noodles with fish sauce

#3 Vuvuzela

Ah, Vuvuzela, the Hooters chain of Hanoi (allegedly)…
I’ll admit, the first thing that got me attracted to this place was the name. How a Vietnamese sports bar chain managed to runaway with the signature instrument of the 2010 World Cup is the sort of thing that makes me love Vietnam. They just do things, regardless of whether it makes sense to do it or if it will be immediately dated.

But while the name is great and there are indeed Vietnamese dancers (though its more of a cheerleader dance than anything too raunchy), it fell apart a bit with the customer service and prices. Megan in particular had a bad time asking for some meat to be removed from her order. When the food arrived, it had meat, When she asked again, the exact same plate arrived 4 minutes later with some meat remnants still there. She wasn’t happy.

The neon glow at the bar
Egg fried rice
Proper pints of Tiger as opposed to a Bia Hoi
Leonie, Beth and Miles
The menu logo

Despite that its not a rotten bar by any means. The drink is on the deerer side for Hanoi (meaning a Tiger is $2 instead of $1.25) but there is quite a lot of variety, including a few European brands and spirits. While the food is overall generic sportsbar fare, you can smoke inside, so if you are an expat who yearns of the time before the smoking ban, then this is the spot for you.

#4 “Crossroads” restaurant/moc coffee

I feel really bad for not finding the name of this place in any of my records, nor even in any group chats or photographs, but it was a small cafe sized place that would flood with teachers at night that wanted something a little more…western.

Located at a crossroads partway down Lane 125, Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ, this place served garlic bread, an instant win win for me, but also served plentiful spaghetti and pizza dishes too. However, it also served plenty of bottled beer, so you wouldn’t need to move too far to be satisfied. It was relatively cheap, and considering a lot of street food vendors stopped serving early in the night, this was ideal with its later closing time to have a hot meal. You could even get some fried rice from a man cooking with a wok about 50 meters down the road and bring it back to the restaurant as a takeaway while buying beers from them. These were Friendly people.

Legend has it that the owners made so much money from groups of teachers being there that they had enough cash to move somewhere else. If that’s the case then fairplay!

5. LỤC GIÁC Karaoke bar

The other 4 places on this list were all decent places that lost out to other restaurants and street food down the line (with the exception of crossroads). However, this karaoke bar was visited just once before we all went to different venues to sing!

This was located on Nguyễn Thị Định’s southern side, and near most houses by BME accommodation. It was a karaoke bar that had booths for singing, as well as drinks and cigarettes for sale while chilling out.

We went into the dark club with a series of smaller rooms to have a karaoke session. While on the surface a lot of fun, it actually turned into a headwreck with hidden fees for cigarettes, beer and fruit bowls. With so many teachers buying cigarettes off them not knowing of the additional charges, we ended up with a 1.75 million dong bill. on top of that, many teachers had left the bar already and the rest of us had to foot the bill of those that left. It was not a pretty sight, with an additional 40’000d being pitched in by everyone to pay the extra charge. Splitting the bill doesn’t work in Vietnam, so you can tell how well that went…

Overall good karaoke, but hidden charges are not on and enough to find somewhere else, such as in the Owl N’ Hen or elsewhere in Tay Ho.

So there you have it, 5 places Myself and a lot of teachers visited at the start of the internship. It wouldn’t be long before we figured out where to find the true top notch grub and drinks, but these places left their mark.

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Tuesday Teaching in Cự Khối

16-01-2018

Vietnam is not a country where I thought much about eating breakfast.
In Ireland I would have had a bowl of porridge, some toast with peanut butter or if there was time I would fry some eggs and have orange juice. It was needed for the hour long cycle from my house to work, and with lunch breaks being shy of an hour long, I would tend to get a roll in Centra for lunch or something fast rather than eating somewhere substantial like a restaurant or cafe.

Here though, it was very different. Once ready I would have a shower, get into the uniform of baby blue shirt, black trousers, and shoes. Then I would put on the lanyard , head down the winding staircase and out the door, before walking a few hundred meters to a taxi rank. Breakfast at this time was really something I wouldn’t think about. I instead would pack a bottle of water and a snickers bar into my bag to keep me going during the morning. Not healthy by any means, but I would rather have an empty stomach during the morning with some tasty street food afterwards than feeling half full after class and not eating a full lunch. It was very much a 2 meal day with maybe 1 or 2 snacks breaking up long stretches.

Unlike An Hưng, the drive to Cự Khối was far longer than 20 mins. Even with the earlier hour with less traffic and using the CT20 ringroad highway to get there, it was a good 45-50 minute drive. Me being me, I had brought an MP3 player with me to Vietnam, so I was listening to music on it to keep myself occupied, while double checking the lesson plan in the car. After a few months of this I would fall asleep for half an hour because getting up at 6 in the morning was not doing wonders for my sleep. I was the only teacher at Cự Khối, so I wouldn’t need to have any chit chat in the taxi.

Something else I would do during the drive is pinpoint a few landmarks as progress for the journey. 3 main ones would come to mind; the Kim Văn Kim Lũ apartment complex about a third of the way, then the Yên Duyên church at the second third, and then finally a billboard with FAS (no, not that one) on it after crossing the Red River via Thanh Trì bridge, which was a sign that the taxi was about to take the off ramp. After the off ramp it was only a 2 minute trip to the school, so it was not too complicated to get to. It was just the damn distance!

The Kim Van Kim Lu complex
Yên Duyên church
Thanh Trí bridge, crossing the Red River. Now you are out in the sticks!
The FAS billboard before the off ramp.

Arriving at the school, it became clear that Hanoi has one and just one design for schools. It was the same squared two floor, yellow (or white) building with an open courtyard entrance and possibly a sports ground behind. It was easy enough to find the teachers room, being in the exact same part as it would have been at An Hưng.

Typical rooftop view of a Vietnamese primary school

After waiting in the teachers room for about 30 minutes, I was greeted by my TA, Ms Huong. She was another local teacher here and was actually the dedicated English teacher too. The classes I was teaching were all grade 5 (the last before middle school) and they were the only ones that got a native teacher class at this school. I had to prove my worth it seems, but she looked more like a typical teacher, being in her 40’s and with veteran experience.

The classes went by OK, and the morning actually got better as I taught, with the first class being the rowdiest, and the final class being the least crazed. I was given a lot more leeway to teach here, but at the cost of a less strict discipline. That said, It went by fairly quick, since I had taught the same lessons at An Hung the day before, and I got back in the red taxi, ready for the next hour long trip. The driver tended to hang around, because there’s not much point driving 50 mins back, then instantly 50 minutes back to the school. He was one of the good ones as they say, and I often offered him snickers or mars bars.

Students at Cự Khối doing their morning routines

The other big thing about having lunch was that in Vietnam they had a siesta between 11 and 2. 3 hours from classes is far more time than back home, so it was a time to eat some street food by the taxi rank, have a coffee and a chat with some other teachers, or even catch an hour of sleep if the morning school was close to the main accommodation.

As the classic Irish film Intermission’s tagline goes, “Life is what happens in between”, and that was definitely the case with these lunch breaks. So much banter could be had to find out about the state of other teachers accommodation, what they were going to do after the afternoon classes, who was having sex with who, where were the hidden gems in the maze of laneways, which places were worth checking out to play football, what trips were planned, why BME was being so crap with their new announcements via e-mail, and where the big weekend sessions were happening. All that and more would be discussed, likely over a few spring rolls with vermicelli noodles, or some fruit juices at moc cafe. Looking back at the internship, it was an incredibly social few hours for the most part, and I would quickly get to know other teachers each day over the food. Rebecca, Megan, Niamh, Chris, Jodie, Mel & Michael, among many others would often be sitting on a blue table eating bun cha, pho or nem and I would join in.

Nem, friend spring rolls with vermicelli noodles and a fish sauce
Pho Ga, or chicken soup. Eaten near the bia hoi lake
Bun Cha, a common lunch meal with pork meatballs, pork slices, noodles, veg, plenty of garlic & chilli
A Bia Hoi serving Vietha, this one by Trung Hoa lake

Up next, Thanh Liet and the notorious Co Nhue 2B….

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The first day teaching

15-01-2018

Prior to this internship all of my worklife had been bad to mediocre; retail, dole, retail, 2 weeks of work experience in a job I actually liked, office admin for a better than minimum wage but still not earning enough to live on a salary that you can settle down with, and that was life. For someone with 2 third level qualifications and a degree, that was pitiful. That I was currently in this independent situation of living in a house, no matter the circumstances then, was important to me. This should happen in your early 20’s, not your late 20’s. Funnily enough, House 5 tended to have older interns around 30, compared to the 23/24 year olds in other houses. Consider us the OAP house!

I had spent the weekend settling into the house, checking out its quirks and having banter with the neighbours. It didn’t take long to discover that House 5 was previously used as a brothel. That would explain the large mirror aligned by the side of my bed, as well as the relatively small rooms for a ‘hotel’, no windows in my room, and with the small shower/sink in each room. Still, thin enough walls must have killed the mood…or made their night.

There was a washing machine in the dark kitchen, as well as a fridge, coke fridge of all things, and a dodgy gas stove. Ultimately the kitchen didn’t appeal to me. A decent hob or a kettle might have swayed me, but one gas stove wasn’t going to be enough to make me cook. Diane did manage to stuff the freezer with plenty of food, so at least she has plans to use it. I did end up using the washing machine quite a bit though, even if it meant walking up 5 flights of stairs to hang up the clothes after.

Today was the day I started teaching. The excitement, the nerves, the preparation, all leading up to this first day. The good news was that my timetable on Mondays was ‘unfixed’ in the morning, so I had the first morning off unless given an e-mail the night before to get up early. Being the first of a new set of teachers, I was sure a lot of mistakes with timing may have happened in the morning. I had my alarm set for 10, but being a lazy person when it comes to time, I only woke up properly an hour later at 11. It still left a good hour to just wander around the area. I got into my baby blue short sleeved shirt, black trousers, brown shoes and red lanyard, and left the house. Both cafe Dang and cafe Ken were corner cafes only 50 or so meters away, but I decided to walk to Cafe hung/moc cafe. There, many teachers were chilling out there from the morning classes, talking about their first morning and having a few smokes.

I made the way to the taxi pickup at a quarter to 1, and waited outside the main accommodation. I got a secondhand sticky ball for entertaining the students as well, and then just had to wait. The teachers all gathered en mass before long and it was a cacophony of chatter, a sea of blue shirts and red backpacks. Even when a short lady in a red jacket came out to tell us who is getting in what taxi, she was seemingly ignored. It seemed that nothing could shut up the group, and after a while it got annoying to me. We do have a job to do after all. Eventually I got into an ABC taxi with Lizzy, or said by little Huong ‘Elissssabet annoy’.

A taxi pickup later in the internship

We both got in, and just got talking about the excitement of what lay ahead. All the while the taxi drove out of the area, past an underpass, then following a road with power lines running parallel for a number of kilometers, and then to a roundabout with a dragon statue at the center. We also passes a mannequin outside a shop with mechanically rotating arms with a sign. It was definitely a tad creepy.

Eventually the taxi turned into a new, but unoccupied housing estate, and deep in the center of it lied An Hưng school. After getting the all clear from the security guard, the taxi drove off, and it was just me and Liz, walking through the eerily quiet school. It turns out the students were still asleep in the classroom, so we headed to the teachers room to go over plans.

The nerves were in me but I actually wasn’t in the shitting bricks or nerve shocking brain levels that I might have had if I was younger. I had brought 3 grades worth of flashcards, which ultimately proved unnecessary. My TA showed up after a giant gong struck. Her name on the sheet was Ly, but she was happy to be called Lily. I expected a woman in her 40’s, but she was around 25, had a slim build and lip piercing, black rectangular framed glasses, a white shirt, and boots that could walk all over you. She was a teacher at the school, not a dedicated BME TA, so she knew what she was doing. Fortunately, for a badass look she also had a friendly demeanour, checking if the plan was good and explaining what the students were like. I was in good hands. Myself and Liz went our separate ways as I went into class.

The nerves and excitement peaked as I walked into the class, where Lily shouted ‘STAND UP!’. Just like that, around 50 students all stood up, in their red An Hung uniforms, and chanted.

GOOD AFTERNOON TEACHER.

It was so harmonious, and had me a bit off guard with it, but I decided to keep up with what I thought would make sense to say next in my head.

How are you?

I’M FINE THANK YOU, AND YOU?

I’m good!

Future Paul of 2021 now knows that this is a standard, almost robotic exchange of dialogue used by almost every public school student in Hanoi, but at that moment in time I was impressed.

I decided to go with whatever Lily was hinting at, such as giving out team names and writing the date on the top line of the board. At that point I got all the students to read the date.

However, they didn’t know a thing about me, so I played games about what my name was, where I was from, and how old I was. Fortunately this did fill up a lot of time, roughly 20 minutes, so the rest of the lesson was a quick vocabulary drill and talk about rooms in a house. After a quick game of ‘throw this sticky ball at the board and hope it actually sticks’, the lesson was over, and a jolt of energy from finishing the lesson was running through me. It was a hit of adrenaline that hadn’t been felt in quite a while, but it did help get me through the following 3 classes, which were about jobs and dangerous things in the house.

Actual image used for the flashcard ‘don’t play with the knife’

After the 4th class I was free to leave, but first I had to weave through the swarm of students that had all left their classes at the same time to meet their parents on motorbikes at the game. Liz was outside the gate, and after meeting up with her again we got in the taxi and headed back. The relief of the day not being a complete disaster was great, let alone one that featured only a few mistakes. It was a good day all around.

After getting dropped off at the main accommodation, I headed to Circle K, got a Banh Bao, a cold Bia Hanoi, and headed to my room to take in the afternoons work. It was a short time in the school, but it was exciting, and it had me excited for Tuesday. I had a sticky ball, so I could at least try some new games, and I now knew not to pack my bag with a heap of flashcards when a handful would do. The only real issue I had was the early taxi time at a whopping 7AM the next day. Getting up at 5.45AM for work in Ireland prepared me well for that, but I can’t imagine it being enjoyable over the rest of the internship.

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The move to Trung Hoa

13-01-2018->15-01-2018

After writing an extensive amount on the CWD, school observations and attractions in Hanoi I felt like I needed to get to the main setting of my Vietnam internship: Trung Hoa, an area 15 minutes southwest of the city center in the Cau Giay district of Hanoi. There were a few other notable incidents before then, such as Dr Binhs medical check up and a load of teachers riding in the CWD, but if you want the riding then that’s probably going to crop up in future posts anyway so don’t be alarmed if that’s what you want when reading blogs! I will however present to you a video of how wrecked we were during certain stages of the teacher training week.

In all honesty the move to Cau Giay district in Hanoi was all very exciting, as we all wanted to see the accommodation we were given. Naively, I thought we would all be in one campus style area, as if this was UCD or something. In reality we were in real houses dotted across the area!

Something Nick had said at the time in the CWD was that it was a roll of the dice on what house you will get, and if you say ‘its not fair’ when talking about the accommodation to remember that ‘nothing is fair in Vietnam’. It was a curious remark, but had me thinking what quality of house we would get. All I knew going in was that there would be a small room with a bed and dresser, and that was it. I was 9 months away from the life of high quality Saigonese apartments so it was a real question as to what these rooms would be like.

Trung Hoa in relation to the rest of Hanoi, and where all the intern houses were in the area.

The bus ride was slow, as the roads seemed quite narrow near the end, and after about 25 minutes of excited chatter we eventually stopped in a laneway behind Nguyễn Thị Định street. It seemed quiet despite having a larger road nearby and a lady cycling with a megaphone selling bánh bao. The street may have had only 1 lane of paved road, but it had buildings up to 5 floors high on each end and Vietnamese flags hung up on the second floor. Unfortunately before I even got to see my house Cian was short of breath and had to take a few minutes rest at the entrance to the main accommodation. Maybe it was nerves, maybe anxiety over the thought of the places, but he had to take a break at the underground. Myself and Megan stayed behind to check on him.

All this was happening while the teachers started getting directions to their houses. Molly and Samantha happened to get the main accommodation (meaning they just had to go out the front door and a taxi would bring them to the schools). About 5 minutes later they both came back down from their room upstairs to burst into tears in front of us. They wailed ‘We had no expectations but it was even worse than that’. Myself and Megan gave each other a look of ‘what have we got ourselves into?!’. Cian was due to be in a different house to mine, and we both hoped he would get a better place.

Half an hour passed and Cian felt good enough to sit up and have full on banter again. Myself and Megan thought it was OK to check out our house. We didn’t have much confidence considering a third teacher had left the main accommodation saying it was crap, but we went anyway. After a 4 minute walk we headed to a house near the main road of Trần Duy Hưng. This was 5 Đỗ Quang, with its entrance padlocked and an iron gate covering the front door. Hopes were not good…

Going up the stairs to check on my room

Yet after going in and seeing that the ground floor was blatantly an old reception area, we got a bit more optimistic. This was possibly an old hotel, so rooms should have some standard…We climbed the first of what turned out to be a 5 floor house. We met Andy, Alex and Diane. Their rooms seemed OK, and myself and Megan gave each other another look, this time of confusion. Sure, the black and grey tiled floor, double bed and en suite wasn’t going to set the world on fire, but it seemed leaps and bounds ahead of whatever was in the main accommodation.

We made it to the next floor to find Kelly, Laura and Leonie. Again, like the last floor it was a 3 room floor with the same tiled floor and bathrooms. Our floor happened to be the next one and Myself and Megan would turn out to live next door to each other, so at least I would have someone sound on the floor! We hugged for joy that we had liveable accommodation, and a huge weight of relief had gone away. Jon turned out to be the other neighbour to me, being right beside the stairs, so a decent floor all in. A little while later we would find Sarah, Kirsty and Kristina one floor above us. Not bad having a house of 12 teachers!

A good chunk of House 5:
From left to right: Andy, Kelly, Kristina, Molly, Laura, Alex, Sarah, Diane & Chris. Megan, Leonie, Jon & Kirsty are not in this pic >_<

Calling others with my Vietnamese phone, I found out that most had a similar style of house with a lot of stairs and small rooms with a bathroom on each floor. Not every house had en suites like mine but they had other advantages such as a decent kitchen or a more appealing rooftop area.

One trip to the giant Vinmart 10 minutes down the road later, I had bought a towel, bedsheets, pillow covers, a bowl of cashew nuts, some cans of Bia Hanoi, ginger ale, a bin, some tumbler glasses, water, pringles, some chocolate, mouthwash and a french stick….some list for one list! Things were looking up for the weekend.

The weekend was spent lesson planning in Leonies room. I tried planning for hours, but just couldn’t get a hang on what to plan for students. So many objectives and aims had me very lost on what exactly to submit, but I was able to submit something vaguely presentable by the end of the night. The syllabus seemed to be a decent roadmap as it was. I had a feeling this was going to be a rough part of the teaching process, but found better luck simply scribbling and writing ideas into a notebook.

An e-mail clarifying the taxi arrangements and timetables had me set for Monday afternoon to start teaching. To vaguely quote Achilles from Assassins Creed 3 “You have your tools and training, your targets and goals.”

Lets do this…

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The school visit

12-01-2018

Our time at the CWD had come to an end, but I must mention a trip to one of Hanoi’s many public schools that happened before the karaoke night;

A sizeable group of us got on a bus from the CWD and headed to one of the public schools in the city. It was all very exciting wondering what was in store for us as the bus passed Nguyễn Đình Thi roundabout and circled the large Tay Ho lake. We eventually stopped at a school near the Nhat Tan bridge. Truth be told I never did find out which school it was due to not having a clue what school names were on Vietnamese signs at the time, but my closest guess would be Phú Thượng.

We then all got out and nervously waited outside the school. And HOLY MOLY! Once we went inside, students were everywhere! They were so excited, trying to hi 5 us all and all saying hello. It was a slow walk right through the center courtyard of the school, and only got more daunting when the massive drum started with its pounding. This was like a tribal ritual, and we had no idea what was next…

We all made it to the end of the courtyard, and slowly climbed the steps leading up to the second floor of the school. I settled beside Megan Mcgurk and Pip, and we all looked back at the courtyard we had just walked through. Then, all the school students arranged themselves into a formation at the courtyard. It must have been somewhere between 800-1000 students! The massive drum stopped…silence…and then they all started……
Dancing.

This was a mesmerizing display. Students would be swinging their arms and moving their feet all in synch. All 800+ of them. All I could do at that age in school was run around in circles and play football. And here’s coordinated dancing to a funky kids beat nicked from one of those European campsite anthems that’s better than anything Ireland has done at the Eurovision for the past 20 years. It was stunning coordination.

Following on from that, we moved into the teachers room, which had a red velvet curtain at the back of the room featuring a golden bust of Ho Chi Minh, the hammer and sickle, and a big 5 pointed star. The tables were dark brown, and arranged into a large, long rectangle with flowers snugly arranged in the inner gap created by the tables. Whiteboards were at the front of the room, with timetables, teacher names and day to day activities. Crucially there were fans and air conditioning, something I would assume was missing from other classes.

The back of the teachers room. It didn’t take long teaching to realize every schools teachers room I encountered in Hanoi had a similar layout of their Ho Chi Minh bust and red curtain.

As we all sat down, we got to know Jur. Like Nick, she was a veteran teacher of Vietnam, teaching here for a number of years in public schools. Unlike Nick though, she was fully with BME and not associated with ELC. She also seemed to possess more of a stable style of teaching. She gave us some of the little tidbits of life in the classroom, such as bringing hand sanitizer to prevent getting too many colds, having sticky balls or spinning tops to help with games, and generally having an authoritative attitude first before loosening up in class over time.

We also went into one of her classes and observed her. We had 20 teachers at the back of a relatively standard classroom (meaning there were 40+ students in the room!) and squeezed in as much as we could. It was economy class seating right there.

I took a few things in from the observation. Mostly to have games after an initial stretch of writing on the blackboard. Getting students involved as a whole seemed more important than individual teaching, and to have the attitude of a gameshow host when it comes to the activities. The magnetic wheel that attached to the blackboard brought back thoughts of Derek Mooney presenting Winning Streak. At least the students were enjoying it, dying to get a chance to spin the wheel and win points for their side of the class. Giving stars as a reward also looked important to keep them going.

So I consider this a visit worth doing. Its increased the pressure somewhat but also relieved me that there will be someone assisting me during the classes. 40 minutes feels like a lot of time with classes this big, but with planning I should get on alright with it. We will see on Monday.

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The final days in the CWD

This is the first post not taken directly from the book, as it turned out I didn’t write much about the experience in the CWD after the tour. The buildup of teacher training and (lets be real here) plenty of hungover experiences contributed to not physically writing much. However, plenty of photos were taken and documents remain to recall a lot from memory. This is from the 8th to the 14th January 2018, the week of teacher training.

A typical day would be waking up at about 7 or half 7 in the morning and having what the CWD buffet was offering. Typically I would have an egg, some fried rice, and plenty of juice. Despite being around 20°C, I was sweating and constantly losing fluids going outside. Irish winters were particularly dark and cold after all! It was at the tables where I would talk to different interns. Jack and Cian would be around a lot, but oftentimes others like Diana and Kristina, Tom and Sophie, or Megan from Waterford. Usually when talking I would get a coffee, but it was more of the same sweet, condensed milk variety that was in the Dragon Airport hotel as well. Even so, it was much needed for the day ahead…

ELC would have teacher training at 9, and most days this would go on until midday. Sitting in a chair for up to 3 hours in a hot environment is not all that engaging and of course at times anything learned would go in one ear and out the other. However, the training rooms were fairly large, being in one of the CWD’s function rooms, and had all chairs in a circular formation around the edges of the room. It was also helped with our teacher trainers. Nick Sando was a ball of energy and it was impossible not to notice his presence in the room. His slightly slim frame combined with a long red fringe and loud New Zealand accent was all that was needed to hold your attention. As the week progressed, you would see him arrive with a birds nest of a hairstyle, as if he was up until 5AM the previous night to enjoy Hanoi (he was a teacher in Saigon and flown up north for the week). Crazy as he was, he was the perfect instructor for teaching classes of 60+ students. Later internships would be more formal, but Hanoi and formal teaching is not going to happen!

Lunch was usually 1-2 hours and essentially boiled down to walking down Thuy Khue to get a few Vinmart snacks or coffee. Plenty of chat about the class and what we did, along with the dread and excitement of knowing that teaching was going on the next week. One time me, Diane and Andy ate at a bar/restaurant just across the road from the CWD and had beers and noodles. Another time I would be with Molly as she talked about all the things she thinks would happen once we actually go into class. And finally there was trips to the Nhà Chay vegan house with Cian and a few other vegetarians, trying out something healthier than a tub of pringles.

The afternoon class was where things dragged at times. At first it was further teacher training. Afterwards it would be about the Vietnamese language, other times it would be a survival guide to Hanoi, or maybe it would be a powerpoint on BME and getting paperwork done for them. These weren’t bad per se but the final hour was when I would typically lose focus.

Dinner was usually more planned than breakfast. You chose either a vegetarian or meat dish. Interestingly as the week progressed more people would move to the vegetarian side. There was one moment when I moved to the vegetarian table and Cian was delighted, “WAaay, Paul is joining us!”. Its hard to say no to the spring rolls and sweet chilli sauce on their side after all, compared to some of the beefier or fish options with some questionable sauces.

The evenings were split between sessioning hard and (ughhhh) a BME powerpoint presentation. To get the BME presentation out of the way, the head of the foreign teachers, Ms Nathalie was there. Sporting a straight, short cut of hair and the most insincere smile seen since Daenerys Targaryen’s mean girl meme face, she was aiming to get childlike interaction going between a group of 75 somewhat hungover and definitely exhausted interns. It was 8 O’ clock, and the presentation was an endless, punishing 120 minutes of dry, wordy slides and job descriptions. let us relax BME! The most notable thing about it was that I felt the onset of food poisoning from the fish eaten earlier at dinner and coincidentally Jon Howard also felt the same, so we got it out of our systems in the bathroom down the hall. Fortunately both of us were OK and could easily have fun after, but when that was the most exciting part of the presentation there was issues. We did sign the contracts to teach in Hanoi but that was really all that we needed to do and it took all of 15 minutes. I was clearly not alone with feeling bummed out as very few people attended the supposedly ‘optional’ second BME presentation.

At least the rest of the evenings were great craic. One session was on one of the CWD’s top floors with maybe 30-40 of us in one hotel room having a heap of cans and with music from a portable speaker. It got so loud that the security were called! Another was just a simple cans session and watching some others go to the Old Quarter again. But the highlight was the final Karaoke event at the end of the week.

All of the teachers went into No.1 Beer club, the same bar me, Andy and Diane were in earlier in the week. There was a flow of Bia Hanoi’s, Tuborg and the occasional rice wine or vodka. It was packed, and after a few drinks the karaoke got started. The red team assistants sang Quynh Anh-Hello Vietnam and some Taylor Swift, but that was just the beginning. The English teachers sang the likes of Uptown Girl, Niamh pulled out a belter of a tune, and me and the lads teamed up to do Toto-Africa. I sang New Order-Crystal while also spassing out around the bar because why the heck not! It went down well and the whole session was fantastic. Jonathan even played Wild World with his guitar!

Afterwards we all headed to the Old Quarter and really hit the town, being in all sorts of bars in pub street such as Toms Bar. It was quite the blowout and all I could really recollect was that just when the night was cooling off, Odhran showed up and it gave us all a second wind. The hardest part was navigating the narrow streets while out of it, looking for a taxi for 5 people back to the hotel. Somehow we did it, and likely overcharged in the process, but hell, we made it back to the hotel.

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5 Places to check out in Ha Noi

If you read the last post, you will know I did a city tour of Hanoi with a large group of teaching interns and while interesting, there was not much written about the various places I had visited that day. Over the following 2 years in Vietnam I visited these places a few more times, sometimes a few times a week with them being in my metaphorical backyard of Ba Dinh, and can give a bit more detail on them than just ‘we visited XYZ’. There was more to talk about than just a few words in the book, so here’s a little more detail…

#1: Ngoc Son Temple

If you fly out to Hanoi for a holiday, chances are this will be one of the first places you will see. Hoan Kiem lake is close to a lot of hostels and hotels, really feels like the heart of Hanoi, and this temple is right in the middle of it all. You pay a small fee, cross a gorgeous oriental bridge, and then get to circle the temple. The mythology of turtle lake and golden swords is explained on a few plaques in the temple, and even features a giant preserved Hoan Kiem turtle as well. When you do check out the rest of the islet, you will be able to see turtle tower, a postcard worthy building in the middle of the lake. Most postcards of Hoan Kiem lake have this tower in it, and it looks great at night, lit up and with sprinklers adding some flair. The lake itself is worth more than a few walks around the radius, and has plenty of restaurants, cafes and bars nearby to make for an afternoon well spent.

#2: Tran Quoc Pagoda

Built in the 6th century, Tran Quoc Pagoda is the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, and while this pagoda may not be the largest out there, it stands out more than others as it pretty much has west lake’s causeway to itself. Plenty of buddha statues are on the pagoda itself, and you can burn incense for a bit of self enlightenment. Dress for the occasion though (no jesus sandals, shorts and wife beater tops). If you live around Ba Dinh or Tay Ho, this is worth a look every now and then on a weekend walk.

#3 Presidential Palace and gardens

This is around Ba Dinh Square and sticks out with the palaces bright yellow exterior. Its surrounding gardens are worth walking around just to take in a lot of greenery in a city known for its crazy traffic and high noise levels. The stilt house is fascinating as Ho Chi Minh’s actual place of residence during the conflict, and Mango Road is a straight beeline from the Government offices to the colourful lake. Take it in to relax, along with the Botanical Gardens next door.

#4 Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

This is the one to see at least once if you are a Hanoi expat. Its the centerpiece of the Ba Dinh square and is always illuminated, even at night. Honour guards surround the mausoleum and will guide you through the chamber. If you stay still too long or get too close while around Ho Chi Minhs body you will get a gentle nudge to keep walking, but its an astonishing minute of being with Vietnam’s great leader. The One Pillar Pagoda is behind the Mausoleum for something a little less imposing, and Parliament house is in front of the square.

#5 Hàng Buồm street

Far more commonly known among tourists as beer street, this is where most tourists go when they want a bit of nightlife. Admittedly I had never heard of a ”beer street’ or indeed nearby ‘pub street’ until I had arrived in the city, but once there it really is a great place to show people around. The experience of a bia hoi on the street, politely turning down battered something-or-other skewers being sold, then having to go into someones house upstairs for the toilet is really mad. But bring a few friends along and it all comes together nicely. Its best to find somewhere else to eat though, prices are expensive around the street and you can get much better value for money elsewhere.

These 5 places were part of the initial week of settling into Hanoi, but again the actual information on these attractions were not given a deep dive due to time constraints and not hiring guides. I found far more success with Lonely Planet’s book to Vietnam. A lot of the teachers noticed that I would be carrying this book around whenever we were on our travels, and it helps give you more know how on the likes of Hoan Kiem lake and where to visit in the city center. Its also a good guide for finding decent spots to eat and drink, at least until you get used to the city and really know where the hidden gems are. Use it in conjunction with the local maps and you are golden!

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From the book #4: The CWD and Beer Street

8-1-2018
Beer street cans, city tours and intro class

I keep trying to edit a vlog that I started in the Dragon Airport Hotel, but time has been surprisingly short. Even taking time to use the trim tool in shotcut has been “cut short”. Still, Jack has been sound enough as a roommate, letting me have space to edit on my laptop while he’s out. I feared I would be stuck with someone with a more aggressive personality that would have been pretty bad. Not the case here.

I had a simple intro class today that didn’t last too long. David Scott was talking more about the dangers and tourist risks in Vietnam rather than any teaching tips. I got to meet red team, the wise Vietnamese elders of enthusiastic ladies in red coats. Program leaders and teachers were there too. Overall it was short and not taxing in the slightest.

For the afternoon I walked with around 6 or 7 other new recruits through the streets of Hanoi (Thuy Khue street to be precise). Instead of going left, this time we went to the right. The streets are just as chaotic, but a few shops to buy food are around this time, such as Vinmart. I got 4 Saigon Specials and a can of….Not Tiger? Pizza flavoured pringles were put into the clear plastic bag as well.

Headed to a cafe by the stunning West lake. Misty skyscrapers and windy waters are in the distance, as well as the large Nhat Tan bridge that the bus I was on drove over to get into Hanoi proper. I had a blueberry mojito and just relaxed…until the bill came. Splitting the bill between 8 people was a mess, I guess they don’t do individual tabs here.

The walk after was far longer than expected. We decided to walk from the lake to the CWD by Nguyen Ding Thi street rather than back down Thuy Khue street. While it was a stunning view, we ended up looping back to the cafe I was at yesterday and it took nearly an hour in the heat. There were no side alleys to get back to the CWD heading east rather than west. I was nearly exhausted getting back to the hotel, but had a decent lunch.

Ngoc Son Temple, Tran Quoc Pagoda, Cian lighting up an incense stick, the Presidential Palace, Ba Đình Square, and the internships ‘Red Team’

We had a city tour on what seemed like 5 busses. We had a very quick tour of the Ngoc Son temple at Hoan Kiem lake, the Tran Quoc Pagoda, and the Ho Chi Minh presidential palace and Ba Dinh square. While nice to see, it was fleeting, and I feel like I need to see all of these places more thoroughly.

After a quick change of clothes, all 100 of us (yes, that’s big) headed to a Vietnamese restaurant. Gia Vien, 228 Trieu street. It was dark, with plenty of lantern lighting and space large enough for all of us! Spicy sate pork, battered beancurd, boned duck and watermelon were on the menu, along with buckets of rice. It was all very tasty but I could have done with boneless meat. Not too bad though, a fine spot. Hanoi and Saigon specials were had on the table too.

The bus was a crazy, one of a kind experience! I had to stand up while a full coach sped through the streets. The coach had to turn off the interior lights to avoid revealing us as the overloaded cargo. Even with the lights off we were very easy to spot, but still made it.

From there we all sprawled out, and visited “Beer street” in Hanoi’s old quarter. After a few minutes taking in the urban atmosphere, me and a few others stopped at My Phâm, also known as the Bia Hoi junction at 5 Mã Mây. Me, Cian, Jonathan, Mia and Cristian (the intern photographer) were chilling with bias and sitting on tiny yellow stools on an equally yellow table. Saigon Specials were cheap, but draught beer was even cheaper! 7000 dong for draught beer in a pint glass, not a bad way to enjoy the night!

From the book #3: The CWD Hotel

07-01-2018
“You go through all these hoops and…you end up with this”-Jonathan, Pointing at Bún chả.

Socialising got off to a good start. Me, Cian, Jonathan and Jack headed into the city streets for roughly a kilometer. Others have travelled to a place called ‘beer street’ and the note cafe, but did so by taxi at a 15 minute drive away. That seemed like an odd start, I prefer a stroll first to get my bearings.

The traffic is insane! I thought Beijing was tricky, but here there is no safe distance. Mopeds and vans are everywhere, and there is never a time when no vehicles are on the road. You must be Donnie Yen from Rogue One and be one with the force, walking slowly past a cavalcade of horns and engines. As chaotic as the road is, the mopeds will move out of the way.

The streets are filled with narrow pathways, tiny family businesses and street games of cards. Eventually, it gave way to a green area with a statue of a teenager. He must have been some hero to die at 16, yet get this type of recognition.

The cafe was fantastic. I had my first Saigon Special, and it did not disappoint. Cold and refreshing on a 21C day. Everyone else had Bia Ha Noi and coconut coffee. They seemed very good, certainly unique.

smart

The CWD hotel, a business card from the hotel, A Saigon Special at Thanh Nien street, the view from the top of the CWD, and having a Bia at night.

After cans was bun cha, a pork dish in a spicy soup, with noodles & herbs separately on a plate. I didn’t get it obviously, just having dry noodles and pork as is. What you are supposed to do is mix the noodles & herbs in the pork bowl, then add the garlic and chilli. Its weird seeing everything served on individual plates to mix into one big bowl.

I headed up to the 9th floor of the CWD and had more cans with Jonathan, Odhran and Jack (he is my new roommate for the week). It was a beautiful view of the foggy, yet neon city. From the balcony I saw many people take a taxi to the old quarter, but chilling with a bag of cans with the lads was extremely satisfying for a fist night of socialising. The only downer was that we were too tired to go on after 10. Jetlag still kicked in quite a bit, and we didn’t even get through Tim Burton’s Batman.
Tomorrow could be an easy day, a city tour but with an intro class. Hopefully will take it easy.

A Video montage of the days events