The Start of Class...I thought I was done with homework!

Elsbeth writing...

Hello everyone! Here's just a brief update on the last few days. Updates will probably be sporadic this month since this class is supposed to be intense. Besides that we probably won't have much to talk about since apparently our lives will be consumed by school and homework. I doubt we'll have much time for sightseeing on the weekends--only after the course is finished.

Anyway, Ellyn is updating you on all we did Friday. I'll give you a brief update on last weekend and this week so far. On Saturday we had dinner with our class, which went well. It was at the Barbeque Garden where we had a real Vietnamese dinner. It was...different, but good. Part of the dinner included cooking our food on the burners in the middle of our tables. We cooked things like beef wrapped around pineapple, ocher (sp? what they use to make gumbo out of), and prawn. We also had rice dishes, crab rolls, fruit, and vegetables. All the food came out in these little appetizer-like courses. Of course, that night we met our fellow classmates who are all very nice. It's a fairly even distribution of men and women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s and from English-speaking countries like England, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S. Many of them are also staying at our hotel or nearby so we've been walking to and from school with them.

We definitely felt the Monsoon rains that evening when it started pouring like mad. The restaurant is completely out in the open (thus, "Barbeque Garden"). So to protect us from the rain the waiters grabbed long bamboo poles and pulled tarps overhead to cover us. It didn't protect us from the rain completely though. I had huge drops from some hole in the tarp dripping right onto my plate. Luckily the rains generally only last an hour in the evening. This cools everything down as well. During the day the heat is almost unbearable.

On Sunday we had our orientation for four hours in the afternoon. We got a ton of papers to read as well as a complementary backpack, binder (both of which are broken), and a bottle of wine (I think we'll be needing that later on :-). So now, Ellyn and I are loaded down for cheap Vietnamese wine, since we bought a $2 bottle on Friday. We also got a tour of the building. There's lots to remember. I'm still a bit confused.

Yesterday was our first official day of class. It went well--not too stressful. We had to teach a short lesson/activity in the morning. Then we had two classes and time to plan our lessons. We were divided into three groups of six people and each group has a class of Vietnamese students to teach. Today, though, I stayed home because I was sick with a cold. It's just a common cold, but I didn't want it to get worse. Who knows where I got it from. There's all sorts of places to pick up some illness here. Knock on wood, it hasn't been the food yet.

That's about it for now. The rest of the week seems pretty much the same--eat, sleep, school.... If something interesting comes up all let you know. Until then, I hope all is well at home.