The Last Supper

I had a fabulous dinner with my friends the night before leaving Hanoi. It was sad to see the last of everybody, but that's the way it is when you travel. You meet wonderful people, you get to know them, and then you have to say good-bye.

Thit Cho in Vietnam

I debated with myself whether to put this photo in my blog, but what the hell, this is part of the meat market in Vietnam. Thit cho (dog meat),

Dog eating began in northern Vietnam as a result of famine. Now it's a delicacy in Vietnam and usually not on the menu at the small street vendors (or so I've been told), but keep it in mind the next time you order: Is it thit cho?

While I was staring at this table, the woman picked up the dog's head and barked at me and then laughed. She had a weird sense of humour!



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This dog meat was at the veggie market up the street from where I lived on Le Thanh Ngi Street. I lived in a house with an elderly couple, and the house was beautiful but oh, so sterile. When I was teaching at Hanoi University I stayed there, along with another woman from New Zealand, who had a sterile room on the floor below mine. Throughout my first night in the place I listened to the guy in the opposite room from mine throwing up all over the floor. Why do I know he continually threw up on the floor? Because I could hear great mounds of it splashing on to the floorboards. Yuck. I don't know whether he was drunk or had been poisoned, but whatever............glad that him and his co-star moved out the next day.

One day I was walking around and I saw dude passed out on the road. Evidently, he had collided with someone while he was riding his bike and his head hit the pavement. This woman was smacking him right side the head and pinching his toes to try and bring him around. Eventually, he got up and blundered on, minus a few brain cells I imagine.

Hanoi University and Hanoi International School

In Vietnam, I taught at the University of Hanoi, Tourism Department, and I also substituted at the Hanoi International School.

The English program at Hanoi University was in its embryonic stage. The program had recently been developed by a Canadian woman, who then returned to Canada before overseeing the implementation of the program at the university. It was left to the Vietnamese staff to get it up and running, so it wasn't very well organized. After they hired me to teach, there were no books, there was no copier, there was no printer, and there was no support from the other staff. I almost tore my hair out in frustration a few times, and if it weren't for the students, I would have quit my first week.

The work was grueling because the physical conditions were also so tough. With no air conditioning and almost 100% humidity, I felt like a lobster being held over a pressure cooker: the temperature was well in the high 90's. Sweat poured down my body and my feet slid around in my shoes. The ceiling fans spun weakly around and around, just enough to cake the desks in a fine layer of dust that blew in from the construction site next door.

Earth-moving machines prowled around the grounds, shaking and rattling the windows and creating duststorms that billowed into the classrooms. At times I had to shout so the students could hear me. The windows, which also had no hooks to keep them closed (or open), banged incessantly against the building and I had to jam them closed with rolled up wads of paper so they would stay closed. We suffocated and sweat. One day, when I stood up too quickly, I almost fainted and toppled over my desk. Alas, I came down with a bad case of sinusitis from all the dust and pollution and I could hardly breath for my typhoidic coughing and sputtering. I just couldn't take it anymore, so I resigned. As a result, I received a nasty email from the woman in Canada criticizing me for dumping 'her' program and screwing 'her' students mid-term, and chastising my work at the International School, as if I were using Hanoi University as a stepping stone to better things. It's always sad to leave the students, and I didn't take it lightly, but that comfortable cow in Canada could kiss my can and come enjoy the experience for herself.







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While in Hanoi I also subbed at the Hanoi International School. It was a world away from the conditions at the university. On my last day at the school a deluge hit the city and within minutes, the streets were flooded.

Water Puppet Show - Saigon

Visit the water puppet show! These puppet shows are in every village and city. I saw two, one in Hanoi and one in Hoi-An. It was very small and informal in Hoi-An, but every bit as entertaining as the professional show staged in Hanoi.




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The puppeteers and musicians.

Saigon Art Gallery - Vietnam

Loads of great stuff at the Saigon Art Gallery.



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