CELTA, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - week 3/4



Traditional friday after-school-beers

 I've now finished my third week of teacher training. This week I've completed three lessons and the third piece of coursework which leaves one final lesson on tuesday and one final piece of coursework. Its been another tough week but not as hard as week 2. Again ive been improving in my lessons and every day feels like im getting better.

As I've finished most of the work it feels like the course is coming to an end. It's a strange feeling because although I'm looking forward to it finishing its going to be quite sad because the whole experience and the people I've met has been fantastic.

Ho Chi Minh City in the rain

My lessons have been going well and so far they are all 'to standard'. For my third piece of coursework I had to make a lesson using a piece of 'authentic material' such as an article from a newpaper or some song lyrics. I chose  the Maria Carey classic 'all I want for Christmas' which was strange to listen to when its 30 degrees outside ... I passed the assignment!!

I'm still undecided where I'm going to work after next week. The ILA's HR officer came as spoke to us about having interviews to work at the school as there is a demand for teachers starting next month. 



City shot of HSMC



There are over 50 language schools in HCMC alone so I may take some time to look around before committing. Also the idea of working in Cambodia is appealing as I really liked the place. Other options are Japan and China.

My course finishes next friday and I'll stay in HCMC until at least mid the following week. I do feel like I need some time to chill out after a tough month so may well travel up to the north of Vietnam for a few more weeks of adventures whilst looking into the different options for work....... its a hard life!

I saw the local businessmen 'bamboo man' again this week and you 'll be pleased to hear business appears to be good (see last weeks blog), I think his main business dealings are in the area around my school, however ive been reliably informed at its not actualy bamboo he's selling it's sugar cane so he's now known as 'sugar cane man'.

CELTA, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Week 2/4

Lunch time at one of the roadside eateries

Just finshed the second week of my course. They weren't lying when they said it was an intense course. I've been getting into the school at 7am when it opens and staying till 9:30pm when it closes to keep up with the workload and it still feels like I could do more work. Its pretty stressful at times having to get lessons planned for the next day but its a great feeling when its over. Ive completed half of my assignments and done 5 of my 9 lessons. Next week is going to be very tough too as ive 3 more lessons and an assignment to hand in but week 4 should be a bit easier.

Big jugs!

The teaching is going well and I'm improving with every lesson. The learning of how to plan a lesson is priceless and I don't think I'd be able to teach without having done this course. Every day I get suprised at how friendly the people and particularly students are at the school. They vary in age between 18 and 30 but they are all so nice and seem alot younger than their actual ages. Pronuncing the names is always a challenge. One of the students in my current class is called 'Phuc' which is hard to say and keep a straight face. However I did find out in Cambodia that my name 'Joel' translates very closely to 'fart' in Cambodian which provided the Khmers I met with alot of laughs.

The local Bamboo seller

I went out with everyone for the course last night  to unwind and had some beers after a tough week. Its really good to have such nice people going through the same experience as me. The restaurant did some great food and the shrimps were the best ive tasted. I'm starting to try more food and eat at the local eateries during the day on the streets. Some of the combinations of flavours are amazing and like nothing ive tasted.

I've got a full weekend of lesson planning and coursework ahead of me but only two weeks to go!

I still chuckle at some of the thing I see when I'm here. Check out the guy above selling Bamboo from his bicycle...

CELTA Course at the ILA, Ho Chi Minh City, Week 1/4



ILA school where im studying



Just finished the first week of the CELTA course. Its been very good but hard work. The course is very intense and most days ive been doing 12 hour days to keep up with the workload. Ive also got an assignment to do this weekend which will probably take up all of Saturday and Sunday... Its like having a proper job!!

I got to meet all my class mates on Monday. Its a really good group. I thought id be one of the oldest on the course but the ages vary alot and I'd guess, out of the 17 people on the course, im somewhere in the middle. The people on the course are from all over the place, most are American but there are also Australians, English and a couple of other countries. The people are great and its nice to hear similar reasons as me for taking the course. A number of the students are already teaching in other countries (China, Taiwan, Japan) and are taking this course to improve their skills so they can get promotions or get into better schools. Quite a few people want to work at the ILA after they finish.

I've done three lessons so far this week. 1 x 20 minutes and 2 x 40 minutes. The planning was alot of work but I did pretty well and I'm getting some good feedback. As its a private language school im teaching Vietnamese students with ages ranging from 18 - 30. As we are training the lessons are offered for free to local students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to come to the school which is a good thing to do. All the students are very friendly and hardworking although I'm finding the names challenging to pronounce.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

A View of Ho Chi Minh City

I’ve been in Ho Chi Minh City for a number of days now and settling in before the start of my CELTA course on Monday 25th July.

The first impression is that this is a very busy city. It’s similar in a number of ways to Bangkok, the traffic is nuts, its very busy but it's easier to navigate and not as hot. I booked into my guest house which is a very nice place about 6 minutes walk (yes, I timed my walk!) from the training centre where I will be based for the next month.

The Beautiful Skyline

Before I start to relax I had a number of things to get organized. Unfortunately my laptop died about three weeks ago but I’ve managed to find a shop to get it fixed. I also had to go to a tailor and get some shirts tailor made for me before my course starts. The shirts cost $17 dollars each which is great since they're made to fit. This was just as well as it turns out that in the 10 weeks ive been traveling ive lost nearly a stone in weight and 3 inches off my waist. I think my old work shirts may look a bit too baggy if I’d brought them with me!



Lots and lots and lots of traffic



In the evenings Ive met up with a couple of people I met along my travels who happened to be in the city at the same time as me and ive also met a couple of people from my course. On Saturday night we had a BBQ so all the students could meet each other and the teachers. There are 18 students in total; most are American with three English guys, a couple of Australians and a few other nationalities too. It’s a very good mix.

There are surprisingly few sights to see in Ho Chi Minh City however I have now seen the main ones. I went to the top for the biggest skyscraper in the Ho Chi Minh which gave great views of city although the skyline is not that impressive it gave you a good view of the smog. I went to visit a very disapointing catherdral called Notra Dam, it was so disapointing I refused to take a photo of it. I also went to the war museum which was very good and interesting to hear Vietnams take on the war with America. Alot of the photos were again very graphic and some of the stories were not nice to read but again, like in Cambodia it’s very interesting and upsetting to learn about.

View from the sky tower

I went to the biggest market in the city but only lasted about 30 seconds. I, like most western men, kept constantly being goosed by the girls working on the stalls which is weird, not a sales technique that works on me and not as nice as it sounds, plus since im not a good shopper anyway I thought I'd get out of there and do something more fun with my time.

I went to get a hair cut yesterday which was interesting. Since being in Asia ive had some bad ones. You'd think you can't really go wrong when all you have to do is shave someone’s head but it turns out you can. Back in Laos I asked the barber for a grade 3 cut but as he didn't have a grade 3 he just went ahead and used a grade 0.5. He pretty much took all my hair off. I feared the worst when it was haircut time again however I was plesently surprised when for $5 I got my hair cut as I wanted, a wet shave with a razor, a manly face mask and my ears cleaned and trimmed. I only went in for the haircut but the chap just got on and did the rest. I wasn't going to complain and it was quite nice!

Fun time is over now and my course starts tomorrow!!!!

Cambodian Cultural Village, Cambodian boxing and Floating River Village, Siem Reap



Me on stage feeling silly


I've done a number of things over the past three days. The day after the wedding festivities I was taken to the Cambodian Cultural Village in Siem Reap. The village was pretty cool and gave alot of information on the ancient past of the area as well as some up to date information. It also had a model village. There were also alot of performances where actors recreated legendary tales from the past with dance and music. There were about 7 in total but as they were all being spoke in Khamer I didn't really know what was going along and had to rely on my interpreter for details.

Bayon Temple stage play

During each performance they got someone up on stage to be part of the play. I was unfortunate enough to be selected which teaches me for sitting in the front row and being the only western person there. i had to play the part of someone who picked upa bow and arrow and became king. I then got married and then had to dress up again. It was pretty embarrasing! The final show was pretty impressive adn bigger than all the others. It told the story of how the Bayon Temple was build. Again I didn't understand much but it was good to watch.






Team France


The following day we went to watch some Cambodian boxing at an outside arena near Angkor Wat. It was an International competition and featured France vs Cambodia. I was half expecting the French to follow tradition and run away but they meant business.

The French won all the fights easily. The first three fights were over in about 20 seconds. One Cambodian chap refused to come out for the second round. It was a bit of a stuffing.







Children swimming by the river houses


In my final day in Siem reap we went to a river / floating village. We too a boat down the river for a bout an hour. There were so many houses and so many people living on the river, it was quite amazing to see. Many of the houses are attached to barrels so the houses can be moved easily when the river level rises.

The stilts on some of the houses are so big due to the amount that the river rises when the rains come. Its quite hard to imagine without seeing it for real but you could see the water lines on the stilts.

Bridge and houses by the river

I'm off to Phnom Penh tomorrow before going to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam where I will get ready for my study. As I will be working hard I doubt I'll have much interesting stuff to blog but I will see how it goes. I can't believe how quickly the past 10 weeks has gone. Its been great fun and when I look back its great to see everthing Ive done and how far I've travelled.

Ive added another album which has lots of photos of me looking a bit embarrassed on stage in a funky costume. As funny as the costume was it was quite comfortable but unfortunatly they didn't let me keep it.

Cambodian Buddhist Wedding, Siem Reap

Me!

I've had a really strange and interesting couple of days which is not very easy to explain and not something that can be done without going into detail.

About four nights ago I went out to dinner with a couple of local people I'd met in Siem Reap, the dinner was a pre wedding party for a friends wedding the following day. I met the bride and groom and had dinner and chatted to everyone on the table. After a while, out of nowhere, I was asked if I would like to come to the wedding, but not just come to the wedding but to be one of three best men as one could not make it! As you can imagine I didn't feel comletely confortable but the tradition of having best men is different in Cambodia than in the west and not knowing the groom is apparently ok. Thinking this would be a really good experience and a chance to see something very different from the normal travelling stuff I accepted.

The Monks with the Bride and groom

What I didn't know at the time of agreeing was that the wedding would be over two days, I would have to change clothes about 7 times and day 2 would involve a 4:30am start.

We started the following morning at the brides relatives house with a rice, chicken, duck and fish breakfast before a traditional ceramony where the bride and groom get the guests to pretend to cut their hair, splash them with water, spray them with perfume then show them their reflection in a mini mirror. This was repeated about 15 times before we moved upstairs and sat down.

Bride with brides maides

At this point 5 monks came to join in the festivities where they chanted and blessed us all. For a finalle they splashed us all with water then threw flower buds all over the bride and groom which everone got involved in on... It was good fun. Food and drinks were presented to the monks before they left. They took all the food but left behind the pineapple fanta which I found odd because its quite a nice drink.

This lead into the evenings drinking and dinner celebrations. I did my best to get involved in eating alot of traditional Cambodian food, I found my poker face came in useful on a couple of occasions but I was very pleasently suprised how tasty the majority of it was. I did have to turn down the kind offer of a chickens throat and chickens feet. I got to bed about 1am.






One of the many clothes I had to wear

 

Day 2 started at 4:30am which was tough due to this early start. It involved putting on a suit and walking to a monestry with all the guests then walking back to the wedding. I was sooo tired this was all a bit of a blurr. After this the bride and groom had their hands tied together to show they were married. This was repeated by a large number of the guest and also some more prayers from the master of ceramonies. At about 10am this was over until the evening party which would be a sit down dinner and all the friends would be invited.

Brides maids

At the evening party I changed clothes again and was involved with the meet and greet on the door for 2 hours, after 1 hour, I changed clothes then an hour later I changed clothes for the final time where I was excused from my duties on the door and went to enjoy the party. There was about 450 guests and free beer. A tradition in Cambodia is when you finish the drink you throw your empty bottle under the table. I took a photo of this which is shown in the attached album.

At the wedding

The party was live music; unfortunately there were no proclaimers or bon jovi but traditional Cambodian music sung by I’ve singers. It was very similar to the bus karaoke but better after several drinks.

Overall it was a surreal but great couple of days. I’ve added some more great photos of some really good costumes. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to Sihanoukville due to a lack of time but as I'll be close to whilst in Vietnam I'll go back another time. Got a few more thinks to see and do here so will stay in Siem Reap until Monday when I go to Ho Chi Minh City.

Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor



Back at the Bayon Temple



In the past couple of days ive been exploring the temples and having fun in Siem Reap in the evenings. Yesterday I hired a bike and was taken by a local, who we'd met at one of the bars in Siem Reap and who is also a temple tour guide to some of the more lesser known but still very good temples. It was great going with a tour guide who can give you more information on the temples than the lonely planet guide book which is what I rely on. It also helps as you don't get hassled by the souvenir sellers as much as when you are just with Western people.



Sunset at Phnom Bakheng


We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in the temple grounds. Things are so different and far more laid back here. After lunch we relaxed in some hamocks in the back of the restaurant, I fell asleep and was woken up a hour or so later by a chicken with its chicks walking past me!?

We went to watch the sunset near Angkor Wat at one of the temples called Phnom Bakheng which is on top of a big hill which, as you can see was fantastic. I'm still really liking Siem Reap im tempted to stay longer and think its a place I'd like to come back to.




Sunset at Phnom Bakheng


Ive booked an overnight bus from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville in the South of Cambodia for tomorrow evening. This will be my final stop before making my way to Vietnam via Phnom Penh on 17th July to get ready to start my CELTA on 25th July.