After a long flight with stops in Seoul and Saigon, I have finally arrived in Hue with the rest of the group. I am enjoying myself greatly already. Awesome food, nice people, and a surprisingly sweet living situation have made the trip outstanding so far. I'll try and post some pics of our hotel soon. I have just been so busy getting settled, seeing the city, and bonding with the group that I haven't really had the chance to take any pics of much of anything yet. The hotel is literally across the street from the Youth Center (and a full length basketball court!!!!) we are teaching at.
Some odds and ends so far:
- For the first time in my life, I'm a minority. Not such in a negative way, as in persecuted or hated on, but just different than everyone else. People will just stare at me as if I'm wearing a bright purple hat with a neon pink bill or have a genetic defect on my face. It doesn't really bother me at all, actually kinda humorous at times. It happens to Victor too. This toddler was so enamored with him when we were playing baseball, that when Victor tried to throw him the ball it just bounced and hit him in the chest and he didn't take his eyes off of him. I was dying laughing.
- Vietnamese seems pretty hard. I know I've only been here 4 days, but it seems quite difficult. Not necessarily the sentence structure or words (the word for no, 0, and don't are all the same), but just the fact that they have 6 different tones that can drastically change the meaning of a word. Some of these tones and pronunciations are virtually impossible for native english speakers to speak. Practice makes perfect I guess. I'm going to try to trade private tutoring with one of my students.
- There is this amazing drink called nouc mia. It's rough translation means, "liquid sugar cane". It's made by putting pure sugar cane stocks through this rotating pressing machine which squeezes all the juice out of it. It's put over ice and hits the spot on these excruciatingly hot days. I can't imagine its good for my teeth. Don't worry... I've been flossing.
I have been hard at work getting my curriculum ready for this week and am really excited to make relationships with my students that I will be teaching.
I miss you all! I hope you are all having a great summer so far. Don't work too hard. Enjoy the weather!
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