Lifestyle snapshot

The foreigners living in Licogi-18 apartments

Trying chè on the street: cold yogurt drink with various fixings:
red bean, tapioca, mango... unidentified jellies!

Hanoi has been fairly more work than play, but I like it! So far I have had about equal good and bad lessons. I'm learning a lot from my mistakes, which I have come to terms with, but it's still no less frustrating. I also gave a presentation and demo lesson on blended learning. It was quite a success, despite the fact that the 500 primary school kids I presented to were hesitant to shout at full-volume when I asked them to! The demo lesson was fantastic, given the challenges of blended learning that I was already familiar with from my work in Oakland. I hope to post some pictures of that soon, since the CVTD staff was at full force behind the lens during the lesson.

CVTD entrance — a "light" day for shoes

We recently welcomed two new American volunteer teachers, so there were seven of us in the three-bedroom apartment. And yesterday, we added another Vietnamese teaching assistant to the fold, so there are eight of us. It's nice to live in this social atmosphere, but we have certainly been frustrated at times by the lack of communication from higher up when these big changes are about to happen. Just like when our apartment became the office headquarters, we didn't have notice of our new flatmates until sometimes the night before their arrival — or even the morning of!

The chairs at the streetside restaurants are TINY!

Besides all that, life is pretty much approaching normal, such that I'm afraid I don't have much to write about! I've gone to a few more Couchsurfing events and tried new foods, and walked countless kilometers around Hanoi... catching a glimpse of the peacocks and macaques in the Botanical Garden along the way... (and then falling asleep on a park bench while park staff raked leaves in my personal space). This weekend, several of us from the apartment will check out the famous Hanoi water puppet show, for only $5! I'm as relieved as ever for the cheap cost of living here, as my savings are dwindling frighteningly fast.

I liked seeing the kids looking out
over the schoolyard, near the botanical garden