teaching has finally happened...

And i didnt run away!!!!
as much as i wanted to spring from the room and flee as far away from Viet Duc college, i didnt. I kept my composure, even after being asked for my number and wether i had a boyfriend, i stayed and even went back for more!!! No seriously, it was a really bad experience. I floundered around for what felt like a lifetime as everybody talked and looked at me blankly. I even asked my teacher what i should do, i was almost pleading with her to set me free and tell me time was up. It was only 45 minutes, but it was horrible. I ended up sitting back in my room, convinced that i had just told the same teacher that i would have another class with her in 1 hour. I am glad that i did however, becuase this class was loverly. They stood when i walked into the room, and they understood what i asked them to do and we ended up completing all the work we needed to, So i was happy. As a result, i feel like i can maybe do it again. Did i mention that there were like 35 students in the class, so that made it even harder to control such a large number of people!

it is a very real experience out here. Almost everyday we get at least two invitations, to either teach a small class away from Viet Duc college, or go out for a drink or dinner or make spring rolls or help with homework or help interpreting an important document. Its almost an over load! as much as i want to help as many people as i can, it is getting hard. Teaching is really tiring, and we still like to go to hanoi to speak with our other gap friends and have a break from it all. I mean, bridge and i walk down our street and we get so many "hello's", that unfortunatly, we now either ignore them or just end up pausing our conversation for 1 second and lifting a hand above our heads to wave an almost sarcastic hand flick. I just have to start saying no, becuase it is such an overload. Our head english teacher, Ms Yen - let me introduce her to you know so i can just ramdomly bring her up and you can reference back to here - Is friendly, but she has a perminent frown on her face. Probably of concentration, but it kinda sends us a negative body language message. Anyway, she keeps telling us to just come up with more questions and it will become easier and less tiring to teach, but common people, who wants questions talked to them for 2 hours??? Who can co0me up with that many questions to ask for two hours????? In HCMC, we were taught to have a lesson plan. Play games, and have a structure and creat our own classes. Here, we just teach out of the book. Literally. Like i'm bored teaching it, imagine the poor kids who have been learning like this for 5 or more years!!!! But with 30 students, and little practice on our behalf, and a syllibus to follow or harsh payment penalties, it is hard to teach like this and thus were kinda pigeon holled into teaching from the book. Its sad, and almost more work, than creating your own lessons from thin air, but iguess it will get easier... i hope!

bridge and i also want a pet fish. Just to put you all in the zone. There is a place were you can buy fresh fish to eat, but we want one as a pet - conduct a r4escue mission on these poor animals. The only thing holding us back is the thought of some rare fish like bird flu and if the fish sneezes we will catch this strange disease. Not that we dont already have malaria and rabies just from walking around. (let me add that i am being safe... i sleep with a mosquito net and RID and i avoid dogs as much as i can so dont panic!) but really i am going to die. i shall miss your wonderful lesion free faces.

ok, hope to hear from you soon. try to ignore Bridges HILARIOUS sarcasm and i will let you know in advance if i am going to kark it.

Toods!