Somewhere between Vox & Hunter S. Thompson
You wake up. It's a normal morning and you need to make breakfast before you head off to work. After you freshen up, you trudge downstairs to make yourself an omelet. You put the pan on the stove. You get the carton of eggs out of the fridge, and when you crack open the egg, instead of yolk coming out, a fully-formed bird fetus falls out.
Actually take a moment to imagine that plopping down onto your frying pan.
This is the first in a 3 part series. This first installment is about my first 72 hours in Vietnam. And I don't write this for the sake of trash talk, (the company in question is earning a bad enough reputation without my help) rather, I write this to let you know some of what can go wrong out here. Working abroad in the developing world carries a different set of challenges that growing up in the West does not prepare you for. Hopefully, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you will have learned a little something about how to sort it out from reading this.
Welcome to the 2nd installment of the ESL Teaching “Story Basket.”
Make some popcorn / get nice and cozy / go to the bathroom now because this one is a bit longer than the last one.
We'll start with the story of me giving a terrified student the "get-out-of-jail-free card."
In buying my first motorbike I chose the path of least resistance and bought an automatic transmission bike called a Nouvo. However, in addition to being a gas guzzler, this bike was considered to be 'unmanly'. Eventually I gave into societal pressures and graduated to a semi-automatic transmission bike called a Wave, which I rode for a short time. Semi-automatic bikes are undoubtedly the most practical bikes for city driving, but I really wanted to learn to drive a manual transmission bike. Go big or go home, right?
When my hosts suggested that I visit the elephants in Ayutthaya, I had some serious reservations about it. I expressed my concerns to them and they reassured me that while elephants might be treated poorly elsewhere in Thailand, the elephants in Ayutthaya are treated well. Being locals, it was safe to assume they knew what they were talking about. After all, there is a spectrum. It's not ALL terrible. But either way, wouldn't feel very entitled to an opinion on it if I didn't go see for myself. So I resolved to approach the experience with skepticism.
Pretty much the only city in Thailand that anybody outside of the region has ever heard of is Bangkok, both famous as a tourist destination and infamous for the debauchery it plays host to. Chiang Mai also gets a good bit of press. But there was a time when the center of culture and politics was entirely different. Have you ever heard of Siam?
Thailand is known all over the world for, among other things, its food. And I wanted to try some authentic Thai food. “The weirder the better” I told my hosts. They were pretty amused with my antics and sent their maid to the market for some goodies. I would have liked to see the market but I ate all the food just the same. So let’s start the count down of strange foods. We’ll order these according to weirdness and save the weirdest for last.
On my trip to Bangkok I was lucky to have a Thai friend from University who is a Bangkok native. I stayed with her and her family. My gracious hosts were, financially, pretty well off… to put it mildly. So I should let you know right now, that the parts of Bangkok detailed here are not on the typical traveler’s itinerary. These places are for the elite and for the locals. I was brought to and from each place in an air-conditioned private car. And thanks to the miracle that is Thai hospitality, I barely spent a dime. I could definitely have gotten used to it. I'm a baller on a budget after all.
Most teachers in Vietnam operate on self-acquired visas. Vietnam, still coming to terms with the fact that people actually travel here now, is pretty anal about visas and is constantly changing it’s rules. The bad news for me is that it has recently discontinued visa extensions. This means that in order to continue working in Vietnam, every 3 to 6 months I have to leave solely for the purpose of coming back with a new visa. So the good news for you, reader, is that I get to talk to you about how to get a visa for Vietnam.
Most of what happens to me in the classroom isn't enough to merit its own extended blog post. But as the Vietnamese school year comes to a close, I want to share a collection of stories from my classes. This is the first of 2 installments of the teaching 'story basket'. So without further adieu, here are 4 little windows into what class with Peter is like.
