Vietnam in Pictures

It is impossible to capture the true vibrancy and beauty of a country like Vietnam in pictures alone. Nevertheless I hope that these photos will give you a snapshot of the wonderful, crazy, chaotic, stunning and incredible culture and landscapes of my second home country...Enjoy!

Fun and Games

This video was taken during a Christmas party with my grade 10 English students. In among chatter and food they pulled out the moves for a rendition of 'Gangnam Style'...missing these kids a lot lately!! Enjoy!

The Hardest Part is... Saying Goodbye!

It was almost midnight but I could not settle, despite my exhaustion, I was tossing and turning. A thousand thoughts and memories were racing through my mind and it was really starting to hit me that this was it, in just a few short days my time in Nam Dinh will have come to an end. I sat up for a bit, dismissing for the moment the thought that in a few short hours I had to teach and took several deep breaths. As I sat in silent recollection I reflected on my very first week at Le Hong Phong high school and couldn’t help but smile. I remember nervously walking out at Monday morning assembly to talk to the students for the first time and being greeted by cheers from 1500 students. I remember teaching my very first lessons with classes I have now come to love so much and being greeted by endlessly smiling faces and what seemed like a million questions about who I was and where I come from. It seems like only yesterday that I arrived, a few weeks and most. As I walked out at that first assembly I could hardly have fathomed the remarkable impact that this school and these students would have on my life in the months that would follow and now I am looking back at all the experiences, the laughs I’ve had and the wonderful people I have met and the challenges I have faces and I know that this time will always hold such a special place in my heart. And now only one challenge remains and it is by far the hardest one of all; it is finally time to say goodbye.

When I woke up this morning I did not realise the emotional rollercoaster I would endure over the next twelve hours (and the days to follow I’m sure). My morning was a whirlwind of games and goodbyes as I taught one of my English Major classes and several maths and science classes for the very last time. As I spent time with each class talking and playing games the excitement was contagious and I felt a sense of revelry as I did my best to enjoy these moments, planting them in my memory where I can fondly look back on them in years to come. At the end of each period the drum would sound and my heart would sink just a little. Students enthusiastically clamoured in for photos, serenaded me with Christmas carols and presented me with beautiful gifts, cards and flowers and as I finally left the room shouts of “we love you” and “we will miss you” echoed down the halls behind me and a smiled and waved and felt a slight lump in my throat and so smiled even more for fear that otherwise I might start crying. The whole experience felt somewhat surreal and was laced with both a sense of sadness and joy and I found myself hoping each moment could last just a little bit longer.

At the end of each lesson, in between the sadness and the excitement I find myself also feeling a sense of achievement. This experience and my time in Vietnam have represented the most challenging thing I have done in the three years since I graduated from high school. I think about the students I am leaving behind and I wonder what if any impact I have had on their lives by coming here. Have I challenged students enough to think in new ways? Have I successfully broadened their horizons? Have I had a tangible effect in helping them improve their English skills? There have been days where I being up the front of the classroom has felt amazing, but there has also been days over the past few months when I have felt as though I achieved very little and doubted my ability to succeed. But now I have come to realise is that I have been measuring success all wrong. I hope that I have helped the students improve their English and will probably often wonder where they have ended up down the road but in reality that is not the most important part of this experience. As I recall my fondest moments in the classroom such as hysterical laughter filling the room during role plays and the eagerness of students cheering so loud during games that other teachers come in to check that everything is okay, and as I look back at all the pictures I have of my time in the classroom I realise that one thing is consistent; the smiles are endless. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but a smile is worth even more and forty or more all at once really is the greatest feeling ever! As I stood today watching my students smiling and giggling as we played games I knew that I had succeeded; all the hard days and challenges I have had to overcome feel absolutely worth it simply because my students are still smiling. These students just by being have affected my life and changed my perceptions of the world around me in ways that they could never imagine and I can hardly believe the end of our time together is already here. I said a few weeks ago I was searching for a smile… it seems over the next few days as I teach my final lessons and say my goodbyes I won’t have to look very far (even if occasionally it is in amongst tears). In fact I think I have already found one!

To all my students at LHP thank you for providing such a source of joy and inspiration in my life! Your smiles and enthusiasm will forever leave an imprint on my heart and I will always smile as I recall my time spent teaching you! I Love you all! 

What kind of day it has been...

I am a worrier and a perfectionist; ever since I was a child my default position when things don’t quite go to plan is to panic. I have always been someone who likes to be in control so when things go downhill my stress levels go up! I guess you could say at times I am not exactly brilliant at demonstrating grace under pressure, and yet despite my persistent desire to be in control of my surroundings for some (at times unfathomable) reason I decided that moving to Vietnam, a place that much more often resembles complete chaos than  calm and serenity, would be a good idea.

I remember not six months ago heading off to Sydney alone for an appointment and finding the whole experience of understanding and navigating the transport system in an unfamiliar city somewhat overwhelming. I got flustered deciphering train timetables and sat timidly on buses peering constantly at the nearest street sign to ensure I didn’t miss my stop. I wasn’t a complete mess, but I certainly lacked confidence in my own abilities to handle a new situation and was probably not the most pleasant person to interact with at times during the experience. Looking back on that day and comparing it to the day I have just had was a moment that made me realise one of the ways in which I have really grown in the past three months…

My morning began at about 7am as I dragged myself out of bed on the last day of my week off and packed up my things ready to head to Danang airport. About 9am I arrived at the airport and grabbed some overpriced breakfast before heading to the check in counter for my flight back to Hanoi. Had all gone to plan I would have arrived in Hanoi just after lunchtime and jumped on a train back to Nam Dinh arriving back at the school by dinner time. However what I didn’t realise as I checked my bags was that this was the beginning of a very long day; As I checked my luggage the staff member at the counter informed me that the flight had been delayed until 12.35pm- frustrating? Sure, but not too bad really. I headed inside the terminal and settled down for a longer wait than planned. As the clock drew closer to the revised boarding time however a muffled  announcement came over the loud speaker in broken English informing passengers that the flight was now delayed ‘indefinitely’ due to unspecified ‘technical difficulties’.

Fast forward six hours, a lunch of cold noodles and Pringles and a whole lot of sitting around, and eventually at 6pm the flight was  ready for boarding and soon after we were taxiing down the runway  bound for Hanoi. I thought at this stage in the evening the difficulties were coming to a close but unfortunately my day was not quite over yet.

Once the flight arrived in Hanoi I made my way outside to find the shuttle bus and climbed aboard. The journey itself was uneventfully spent chatting with another traveller but once the bus reached its final destination I realised that the drop off point for this particular bus was south of Hoan Kiem Lake and the hostel where I planned to spend the night was about a four or five kilometre hike north. I headed north alongside a fellow traveller from the UK and using street signs, landmarks, a map and a smattering of conversations using my very poor Vietnamese I was able to confidently and successfully navigate my way to the lake and even give the other traveller directions to his hotel and direct him to sights worth checking out nearby. Once I said goodbye I continued my ‘trek’ to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel (with almost 15kgs of luggage, the usually pleasant walk grew into something of a challenge). Eventually at 9pm I stumbled into the hostel and unceremoniously dumped my bag on the ground and checked in.

This day was not one that was ridiculously challenging or chaotic and while frustrating and inconvenient nothing went terribly wrong. Looking back at the day though I realised that six months ago a day such as this would have left me a nervous wreck, yet today I was able to remain calm and collected the entire time with not a single moment of panic. As I walked through an unfamiliar part of a foreign city I realised that I possessed a confidence that earlier this year was nowhere to be found. Despite the fact I really had only a vague notion of where I was I was able to calmly assist my companion and navigate my way home. Some of this confidence comes down to tangible skills that I have developed such as reading maps and speaking a foreign language (sort of) but underpinning this is a self-confidence and self-assurance that has slowly emerged as I have immersed myself in a foreign culture and done things I never imagined doing before.

No one completely changes in such a short time as three months yet I know that after this experience I will never quite be the same person I was before. The people I’ve met, the places I’ve been and the experiences I’ve had will forever influence the way I see the world around me and the way I perceive myself in it. When I first arrived in Hanoi in September I couldn’t wait to leave for small town Nam Dinh- the noise and frantic pace and a world of things I could not control left me frazzled and overwhelmed. Now I look forward to my near weekly trips to Hanoi where I can explore and immerse myself in the chaos and enjoy the gems and moments of joy that can be found. As I sat in Danang airport waiting for my flight to leave I glanced up to witness a perfect moment as the sun slipped behind the surrounding mountains painting the sky in vibrant shades of pink and orange and realised that had my flight not been delayed I never would have witnessed such a beautiful sight. Slowly but surely I am learning to embrace the chaos, the seeming insanity that endlessly drones on around me in this wonderful and vibrant nation. What once was overwhelming is now a challenge to be overcome, and the moments of panic are being replaced by the belief that each experience will be resolved one step at a time. By letting go of the constant need for control I am slowly learning the cornerstone of resilience and perseverance: the art of demonstrating grace under pressure!

Searching for a smile...

So, I am looking at my blog page and realising that it has been over a month since my last post. It is not that I have had a lack of material, in fact I have three or four ideas for posts currently floating around in the back of my mind and/or scrawled in notebooks, but lately finding the time, energy and motivation to sit down and write has been really hard. When I am writing my blog I am always acutely aware of the fact that other people (many of whom I have never even met) will be reading my musings and as an aspiring writer that is really exciting at times, but it can also end up being something of a stumbling block as I find I am constantly fighting the urge to sugar coat the experience and only write about the good experiences whilst pretending the not so great ones never happened (at least as far as everyone else is concerned). 

Whilst many parts of this experience so far have been absolutely amazing- looking back in years to come I will cherish having had this opportunity- the reality is that some days this is just plain hard! In fact the last few weeks, it has been (with perhaps a few notable exceptions I will tell you all about on another occasion) really not much fun at all.

Over the past few weeks my placement has been rather stressful to say the least. For one thing I have been unwell for a few weeks now, which isn't fun at the best of times and is even less fun when your family and friends are 7000kms away. On top of this I have recently had a rather large change in my placement situation (driven by a number of complex reasons) which means I am now at Le Hong Phong High School by myself and thus the only Australian in town. Whilst the transition period was a little bumpy at times I seem to be settling into a new routine and as I am a fairly independent person I usually don't find being alone too overwhelming... but there have been times when it is all just too much, when classes are exhausting, when I am nursing a headache, when I am homesick and when things just aren't quite falling into place that the idea of packing it in and jumping on a plane back to Australia really has some appeal. I am yet to actually head to the airport but there has by now been more than one teary-eyed phone call home (often with awful timing- aka 3am Australian time... I really have the best Mum ever!), way too many m&m's eaten and several contemplative walks around Vi Xuyen lake in the early hours of the evening.

At times I find I try and reassure myself with clichéd affirmations and by telling myself that things will soon be better, but at times I find myself struggling to believe my own words. My family back home constantly support and encourage me and remind me how proud they are, and knowing they are rooting for me has helped me through days were I have felt like I would never be able to make it otherwise and I feel so lucky to have such love and support behind me. As I hang up the phone after our weekly (or recently more often) chats I find myself simultaneously happier and somewhat melancholy knowing they are so far away. In the in between times I do my best to search for joy wherever I can find it such as the bizarre communication conundrums that emerge almost daily and would be maddening if they weren’t so funny, or smiles from my students who excitedly greet me each morning or in the role play activity this week with my English major classes that left everyone laughing so much it took a good five or ten minutes to get the class under control again. Moments like these drive me on the days when everything else seems overwhelming and ultimately these are the moments that I will probably look back on with the fondest memories once I return to Australia.

As hard as things have been lately it is harder still to think that I only have a month to go until I finish my time in Nam Dinh and say goodbye to teachers and students that have had such a wonderful and profound impact on my life over the past few months. And at the end of the day I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, not even the hard parts…

“ Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain 

The journey begins (Part 2)

For those of you who have not read my previous blog post (The Journey Begins- part 1) it can be found here.This blog post continues from where the last one finished- Linda and I were headed for Nam Dinh city…

As we climbed into the back seat of our car it was a refreshing change only having to fit two people in instead of the up to six people that we managed to fit in a single taxi during our adventures in Hanoi.  After a long day I settled in for a few hours on the road and was feeling a mixture of exhaustion and excitement. The first thing that struck me as we drove outside of Hanoi and into more rural regions of Vietnam was how green everything was. I guess it is to be expected that a nation which is nearing the end of monsoon season would have lush green fields but having come from the dusty, brown surroundings of regional New South Wales I found the contrast very stark. The further we travelled out of Hanoi the more rural our surroundings became. The traffic became much less intense and the constant honking of horns dissipated slightly as we headed onto the highway. I watched the changing landscape with fascination. Some of the sights I had expected such as men and women tending their fields and children riding their bicycles along the side of the road; however, other sites took me somewhat by surprise. A sight that has now become somewhat familiar but initially had me taken aback were the gravesites scattered throughout rice fields or tucked in near a row of banana trees. Some of the headstones are intricately designed with trimmings reminisce of temple designs and a variety of traditional characters and symbols, while others were so plain and unassuming that they all but vanished into the sea of green surrounding them. At first I did not recognise what they were as it was not uncommon to only see a single headstone in the middle of the field- it was not until I saw larger groupings in a cemetery like formation that I cottoned on to what the small temple like statues actually represented. Another sight that took me slightly aback was the continuing density of cities and towns. We would pass by a new city separated from the last at times by only a few kilometres and, like Hanoi, they have buildings so close together it is difficult to determine where one ends and the next begins. Once again having come from regional NSW with its large house blocks and seemingly endless distances between cities I had not consciously comprehended how densely populated Vietnam really is.

As we hit the two hour mark my curiosity and excitement increased- each time we passed a new city I would examine the highway for signs of an exit, wondering if this latest city represented our final destination. Eventually after a further half an hour we turned off the highway and made our way towards Le Hong Phong Gifted High School. As we drove through Nam Dinh City I was immediately struck by the distinct lack of noise and commotion in the streets. It was pouring with rain which tempered the busyness slightly but I would soon come to discover that life in Nam Dinh City is much slower paced than life in Hanoi. Coming from a country town I quickly came to welcome the relative peace and quiet; however, the contrast to Hanoi was so stark as to be slightly disconcerting. Once we arrived at the school we dragged our luggage up our flight of stairs and examined for the first time that place we now call home.

No sooner had we arrived in Nam Dinh City and dumped our (my) ridiculous amounts of luggage in the room than we were whisked off to dinner at a local restaurant with some English teachers and Department of Education staff. Upon arriving in a new and unfamiliar place there is almost always an inherent awkwardness to making conversation which is only intensified when the people you are talking to speak a different language, but we would soon discover that the incredible friendliness and hospitality of the Vietnamese can make even the most unfamiliar situation seem welcoming. Over dinner we engaged in mostly small talk but it was a great opportunity to get to know our mentor teachers and we had the opportunity to sample a seemingly never ending array of unfamiliar Vietnamese cuisine such as bananas the size of my thumb (a speciality in Nam Dinh). Thankfully the snakes in jars that we passed on our way inside do not make their way onto the dinner menu on this particular evening.

Once dinner drew to a close we headed back to Le Hong Phong High School (where we live in the guest house on campus) and said goodbye to the teachers for the night… and that is when the homesickness hit! Homesickness is a very strange and at times overwhelming experience, even more so when you are experiencing it for the first time; it comes in waves and often out of the blue. With time you adjust to the ebb and flow and learn coping mechanisms, but this was the first time I had really stopped and rested since leaving Sydney airport a week earlier, and the homesickness hit me like a tonne of bricks. Vietnam is a beautiful country with absolutely stunning scenery, wonderful people and an amazing sense of liveliness and vibrancy; the noise, the food, the traffic and the frantic sidewalks which perpetually buzz with activity are things which contribute to Vietnam being such a wonderful place to live and volunteer, but they are also be things that can feel incredibly overwhelming at times. On this particular night I was hit with the overwhelming sense of dislike for all of Vietnam’s aforementioned qualities, and after a busy week with a hefty dose of new experiences coupled with absolute exhaustion I felt alienated and completely overwhelmed.  All I wanted to do was jump on a plane a head back to the relative safety and familiarity of Australia. Eventually though, after a lengthy Skype session with my family and a few full nights of sleep my perspective returned and in the coming weeks many things that I wanted to escape would become things that I now cherish about my new home. Speaking of my new home I should probably tell you a bit about Nam Dinh City, Le Hong Phong High School and what it is I am keeping myself occupied with on a daily basis. Once again there really is no better place to start than at the very beginning…

On Friday night after arriving in Nam Dinh I headed to bed exhausted after having spent the last 24hrs settling in to my new surroundings and was relishing the opportunity to rest, sleep in and have what I assumed would be a relatively quiet weekend before meeting the other staff and students bright and early on Monday morning (much to my chagrin and to the amusement of all my friends and family who know my distinct lack of propensity for alertness in the early morning, school begins at 7am every morning here, so bright and early, means bright and early!). So you can imagine my surprise when I woke early in the morning to the incredibly noisy hustle and bustle of 1400 high school students arriving to begin lessons for the day… at 7am on a Saturday morning! It turns out that in Vietnam students attend high school six days a week from Monday to Saturday. Eventually Monday morning rolled and so began another whirlwind week.

During first period Monday mornings a whole school assembly is held where students sit in the blistering sun, on tiny red stools and in perfectly straight class lines to hear announcements and watch performances. This particular morning there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air- as Linda and I headed out to sit with the other teachers the students stared and whispered excitedly. During the assembly we were invited to speak to the students (with no prior notice mind you) and upon our introduction the students let out a massive cheer which would be just the first taste of ongoing life as a celebrity in Nam Dinh. After assembly Linda and I were whisked in opposite directions to visit classes and meet the students for the first time. As I walk down the halls of Le Hong Phong it is not uncommon to receive excited glance as students speculate as to whether or not the ‘Australian volunteer’ may be teaching them next period and this time was no exception. The first time I entered a classroom I received excited squeals, cheering and a standing ovation (this would continue for about two weeks) and after some initial shyness I was confronted with a seemingly endless barrage of questions from students wanting to know who is in my family, if I have a boyfriend and “how exactly do you pronounce Wagga Wagga again?… and where exactly is it anyway?”.  For the first week or so classes consisted of introductions, games, singing the Australian anthem more times than I can count, and also being serenaded by students singing Taylor Swift songs on more than one occasion. Now that we have been here for a few weeks we have settled into a bit of a routine for teaching with a more regular timetable, and teaching the students is becoming the absolute highlight of this whole experience. The students enthusiasm is absolutely amazing (especially the English Major students) and I really cherish the chance to get up each day and teach the students a skill that they appreciate and value so dearly.

Outside of the classroom life has been somewhat slower paced but I am still very much enjoying it. For anyone wanting to know what it is like to be a celebrity, move to Vietnam and you may just find out! As far as I can tell I am the only Caucasian person living in Nam Dinh and as a result whenever I dare to venture outside the school gates I draw no shortage of stares, and have left many mouths agape in my stead as I wander around the streets. People ‘subtly’ take photos of me on their phones, teenage girls wave and giggle nervously and many a person will run up to me excitedly and say “hello” and then remember that is all the English they know and nervously depart with a smile and a nod, and I have received more compliments and proclamations of beauty since arriving than I have perhaps received in my whole life before coming here!. When I first arrived the attention was overwhelming as any sense of anonymity I once possessed whilst undertaking life’s more mediocre tasks like shopping or exercising was now shrouded in a constant haze of fascination from others.   For me the novelty swiftly waned. Now that I have been here a while the stares have lessened somewhat in the immediate suburbs and when I venture further out I meet the stares (which almost always are a result of curiosity rather than impoliteness) with a friendly but direct smile which often disarms people just enough that they smile back politely and continue on their way, whilst I quietly smile to myself in amusement. There are of course times where such status is enjoyable… My students seem to adore me (and I adore them!) and their excitement and enthusiasm has kept me going through good days and bad.  I am also never without food or entertainment- since arriving in Nam Dinh I have been invited out to dinner more times than I can count, to restaurants and homes of teachers or students and have come to value the incredible hospitality that the Vietnamese people so eagerly bestow upon their guests.

Every Friday we take time out from our regular classes to visit other schools throughout Nam Dinh Province and we once again find ourselves surrounded by a palpable air of enthusiasm as students embrace us in their classrooms and shower us with love and gifts (we have not been without fresh flowers on the table top since we arrived!).  During these visits students clamour around eager to take photos and afterwards I receive endless Facebook subscriptions and friend requests (which due to sheer numbers I must politely decline) from students eager to find out more about the ‘Australian Volunteers’!

In between teaching and dinners my afternoons and evenings are filled with invitations from students to visit famous local sights like Tran Hung Dao Temple or to attend Mid-Autumn festivities, celebrations of Nam Dinh’s 750^th Anniversary (which was a huge to-do with even the Vietnamese President in attendance) and various other local sites. On days when I am left to my own devices I wander or ride my bicycle around the city, exploring and taking photos and just generally soaking up the atmosphere of this small but charming city.

By now life is settling into something of a routine and things once absurd are becoming somewhat familiar (though never entirely so… like live pigs, bound at the ankles and being driven down the road in a cart, or being served snails at a local restaurants;  I don’t think these things will ever become entirely ‘normal’ to me!). But I have settled into a routine with teaching and am starting to understand the ebbs and flows of each classroom and ability level. In the coming week I am starting a dance class after school, which the students seem very enthusiastic about, and we also get the opportunity to teach a class one evening a week of primary school students which should be fun (and Vietnamese children are just so darn cute!). 

I could write all day about the intricacies and amusements of daily life here in Nam Dinh but alas this post is already ridiculously long and so I will save it for another day. All in all life in Nam Dinh is great fun and I can hardly believe how fast the time is passing (5 weeks in already)! Before I know it I’ll be packing up and heading home, no doubt taking a wealth of new experiences with me… luckily I’ve still got a few more months to enjoy first though!