Food

Vietnam tends to be well-known for the available food choices.  In fact, eating out is the predominant topic of discussion among our colleagues.  Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in the country, has a plethora of choices.

A basic Vietnamese restaurant  

The hotel we stayed in for our first week is in District 7.  More precisely, the Phu My Hung neighborhood which is considered one of the “ex-pat” areas of town.  It is supposedly dominated by Koreans.  Nonetheless, the types of restaurants in the area were overwhelming.  During our week of living in the area, at every meal, we found ourselves trying to decide whether to have Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, Korean BBQ, Thai, Italian, Turkish, Mexican (never worth the risk outside of North America), sushi, steak, pizza, a plain ol’ burger, or an easy smoothie, not to mention the countless cafes specializing in coffee and snacks.  Oh, and some French bakeries as well.  The craft beer scene is also alive and well in HCMC. 

The Korean restaurant in the hotel we called home.

The avocado bacon burger

A very good (famous in the neighborhood) Thai restaurant

Korean BBQ (the food just kept appearing - I was afraid as long as he ate, they would bring food)

All those choices made meal decisions extremely tiring.  It was a relief to move into the apartment and avoid the eating decision that came by twice a day.

My experience is not everything on the menu is always available.  More than once, I’ve been told “sold out” about something I tried to order.  Just roll with it – find something else on the menu.

A lot of the Vietnamese food I’ve had so far has been fried or soup based with small pieces of meat (beef, pork, chicken, or fish), some vegetables (peppers – really spicy ones, carrots, onions, corn, and lots of greens – fresh or cooked), sprouts, with condiments of fried onion bits and lime juice.  I’m always amazed at how healthy it looks.

School lunches are, uh, interesting.  There are always “samples” wrapped in plastic wrap out front, presumably to help the foreign population understand what the dish is.  There are always two Asian choices, a western choice, and a vegetarian choice.  One day, I was drawn to what looked to be shrimp with sauce on a bed of pasta.  The plate that was handed to me lacked any shrimp, but the octopus tentacles were clearly visible.  I haven’t had the purple soup yet (taro).  

Some of the selections from this next week include:

• Breakfast: sticky rice magenta, pork floss sticky rice, beef ball noodles, pumpkin and shrimp congee and Pad Thai   (nothing cost more than $1.50)
• Lunch: pickled pork macaroni soup, glass noodles with crab meat, grilled fish with sesame, chicken lasagna, spaghetti with pesto sauce (set menu – salad, soup, entree, fruit is $3.00)
• Dessert: watermelon, papaya, dragon fruit
• Snacks: cheese crepe, fried spring roll, sticky rice, cream caramel, sauteed baby corn with shrimp (all less than $1.00)

My biggest adventure, so far, well, after the octopus, was fish balls stuffed with quail eggs.  I’ve become fond of the Avocado Smoothie and the Milk Tea (with ice and sugar).  Nearly every day I get a plate of jack-fruit.  The passion fruit juice tends to leave with me quite often as well.  Just last week I discovered there is carrot cake in an area that the children aren’t allowed to go to. 

And then, there’s the grocery store – here are some photos of a few things we can get there.  Some things I just can’t find the courage to take a photo of – like the Manta Ray in the fresh seafood section.

  

I never expected these flavors of Pringles.

I didn't realize Japan was in the bacon market.

Finding this was nostalgic - it was a popular drink when we lived in Japan.

It was comforting to find sliced bread - but finding WHEAT bread is much harder.

Whew!  There's always a sigh of relief when peanut butter is discovered.

Really?  Donuts?

Ahhh ... the bubble tea my daughter-in-law exposed me to!

Guava - often purchased with spicy sugar

Yes, that is artichoke juice.  Nope, haven't tried it.

True - purple ice cream

Purple ... uh ... something.

And - Australia isn't far away (but the Tim Tams are still imported)

As an empty nester now, I don’t do much cooking.  Breakfast tends to be a hard boiled egg, yogurt and cereal, or oatmeal.  Dinner tends to be salads, sandwiches, or simply yogurt and fruit.  I can always find room for the LARGE avocados that are next to nothing, and mangoes that cost a bit more than I expected.  We do still manage Sunday morning pancakes.  I’m back to making syrup like I did in our more frugal days.  However, this week I bought eggs in the little convenience store in our complex, and it wasn’t until I got them home that I realized I bought goose eggs (well, I recognized the quail eggs weren’t the ones that I wanted).  I'm not sure where these will take us.

Wine – well that’s a different story, and it isn’t that pretty.  Let’s just say we’re making do. 

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

Let’s talk about the monsoon!  Technically, Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate.  Apparently, this means there are two seasons – the southwest monsoon (April to September) and the northeast monsoon (October to March).  The southwest monsoon brings warm and wet weather.  The northeast monsoon brings cool and not so wet weather.  At this point in time, I can only speak to the southwest monsoon.

I expected this monsoon to be torrential downpours for days on end.  If it did let up, and the sun came out, it would be hot, bright and sweltering.  I’ve found this to be only partly true.  It has not rained every day since I arrived, but there have been some amazing downpours.  When the sun comes out, it does dry up (faster than you can sing “Eency Weency Spider”) and it is sweltering and bright.

There was no outdoor recess the first day I had students – due to the torrential downpour.  By lunch time everything was fine and everyone went out (we were nuzzled down for our incredibly calm and peaceful Quiet Time – all students soundly asleep).

I’ve enjoyed floating in the swimming pool as the cool rain pelts me.  It doesn’t really matter whether I’m in the pool or not, right?  The point is to get cool by getting wet.  The hard part is the splatter of water that sprays into my eyes.

During the staff Scavenger Hunt back before students arrived, we were told – “it is monsoon season, plan on getting wet.”  My team had barely moved when the sky opened up and rain poured down, people ducked under awnings and passed out umbrellas and ponchos.  By the time I figured out how to get the poncho on and over my day bag, the rain had stopped.  As my team finished up and went to the restaurant for the final step in the hunt, someone let the cork out.  Torrential doesn’t begin to describe it (and finding words that I can substitute for torrential are becoming harder to find as I write this).  A colleague and I missed crossing the street with our team.  The time it takes for one stoplight cycle was the difference between dry and sopping wet.  My spouse (on the secondary hunt) was still “on the hunt” when the skies let loose.  He said when he got to the restaurant, he walked straight to the bathroom, stripped all his clothes off and wrung everything out (3 times).

The response of the motorbike riders when the rain starts is interesting.  Some decide to just ride it out (“I’m almost there”).  Others pull off the road, open up their seat, pull out the poncho, maneuver it in place, adjust it over the passenger(s) and motor on.  Still others, park the bike in some sheltered area and wait it out.  This can make it difficult for others to move around during the rain, if the motorbikes are parked on the sidewalks or in the street.

Yesterday, we were downtown shopping.  We could tell it was on the verge of raining.  The plan was to continue doing the shopping until the rain started.  Then we could have some lunch and play some cribbage, while we waited it out.

We were headed to the post office, moseying by the interesting shops (it is a high tourist area).  An Art gallery caught our eye.  The woman working inside said, “c’mon in, wait out the rain.”  Two doors down, I could see the curtain of water moving toward us.  How did she know the weather would change that quickly?  With little time to spare, we ended up ducking into a shop no bigger than our master bathroom, with 3 other people.  There was barely room to move around, as we looked at EVERYTHING in the shop to avoid going out in the deluge.  I bought 3 postcards and then we stood at the door, noting it had let up a little bit.  The woman working in the shop kindly offered, “the shop next door is much bigger.”  It was as if everyone has a monsoon plan.

We ended up across the street, on the steps of some office building, enjoying the cool weather, marveling at how others were handling the rain.  There were 4 people shuffling under one umbrella, others were skipping along enjoying the coolness (Western tourists), and some had 50 cent ponchos that probably last one monsoon deluge.

I’ve enjoyed watching the rains from our 7^th floor balcony.  The sound of all that rain hitting the banana tree leaves in the field behind us is distinct.  I woke last night to the bathroom door banging – it was because of the raging storm outside, with the open bathroom window.  I walked into the living room to look outside and the blur of the night was notable.  Today, I’ve seen the same thing, several times, as the strength of the rain prevents the buildings in the distance from even being visible.

I do find myself wondering what that other monsoon season is going to be like.

This photo allows you to see motorbike traffic - you can use your imagination as to what it looks like when the rain comes down ....

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off to Work We Go ...

Not counting my online teaching, tomorrow is my 40^th first day of school (not counting the ones as a mother).  Is there anything different about this one?  Yes, both child and parent come tomorrow, for 10 minutes, to meet and greet the teacher.  Tuesday will find me with half my students.  Wednesday I will have the other half.  On Thursday, I will have all 11 students.

School is a straight shot down Nguyen Huu Tho, with one stoplight and one veer right.  It takes 20 minutes in the morning, 25 minutes in the afternoon.  

The school owns 64 buses.  Yes, that means they employ 64 bus drivers.  Each bus carrying students has a bus attendant, to help the children on and off the bus.  Some children are on the bus for an hour and a half.  I don’t know if the drivers can take their buses home or not, but the bus driver lounge has bunk beds for them to sleep.

There are two guarded entrances to the school.  Both look like they could pass as the gates to Versailles, although they aren’t gold.  From last year’s elementary yearbook, it appears there are 10 security guards (but I bet that figure is low).

There are two 7-story buildings, with two wings on each building connected to a central base.  I can only speak to the elementary school.  The gyms are located on the 5^th floor, extending to the 6^th floor, one on each wing.  The cafeteria is in the basement.  My classroom is on the ground floor, different than the first floor.  There is an Art room on 4 different floors.  The Music rooms are on the same floor as the gyms.  The library takes up a whole wing on one of the floors.  There are two different banks of elevators (students can’t use them).  There is one central staircase – two half landings, side by side (I looked it up to see what they are called).  This year, two of the four emergency exit staircases will be used for regular movement.  I suppose getting over 600 students up and down one set of stairs is a challenge.  This is the first year the school will have 5 sections of each grade (except Pre-K).

I was told the school employs 660 people, and 160 of those are international hires.  We have people in Accounting, Admissions, Procurement, Construction Management (a building just for administration is under construction), Maintenance and Engineering, Facility and Logistics (a whole fleet of people to make photocopies – large and small, color and black and white – AND they laminate).  There are life guards (the pool is in the secondary school).  There are groundskeepers to manage the pond, the flowers, the trees, and the AstroTurf, but I bet they don’t take care of the mist-ers on the covered walkways.  The cleaners always seem to be everywhere – the restrooms are pretty spotless.  Personally, I like the handy men, also known as white shirts.  It was explained to me that they help with whatever needs to be done, like if someone falls down they help them up.  My teaching assistant used one to put up wall decorations that required a ladder.  I haven’t tested falling down to see if they come help.  There are also the nannies.  I am assigned a teaching assistant and a nanny.  The classroom nanny helps the children transition, no matter where we go, toilet, snack, lunch, quiet time Music, Art, PE.  She’s just there helping.

The cafeteria offers breakfast (5 different small-ish sorts of things).  Lunch offers 2 different Asian dishes, a western dish, a vegetarian dish, salad, noodles, soup, two kinds of vegetables and fruit for dessert (exotic things like guava and dragon fruit).  A complete lunch (soup, main dish, rice, dessert) costs 60,000 dong ($3.00).

We had a fire drill last week, before the students came.  I think it was to help the fire department have a drill.  They came with three trucks.  They used the hoses to spray water all the way up to the 4^th floor.  They had about 20 fire extinguishers that they used to practice putting out a fire in the driveway.  The coolest part was the ladder truck.  It was used to “rescue” someone on the 4^th floor.  No, they didn’t ask for any volunteers.

As part of a team building experience, last Friday afternoon the teaching staff was bussed to the city center for a scavenger hunt.  It was a fun way to have returning teachers help new teachers learn about the center and all it has to offer.  It just got a bit competitive for me.  Plus, the expected monsoon rains cooled us off (and drenched us).

Right now, it appears that the school is incredibly well-resourced and is working to make sure the students develop their English language skills.  We have a colleague who lives upstairs.  He is assigned to help support 6^th grade Science.  That’s all he does – makes sure every 6^th grader has the English skills needed for Science.

I have two non-Vietnamese students.  Both are children of teachers on staff.  My teaching assistant is bi-lingual.  She set up the whole room, unpacking everything, except the boxes of things for my desk.  She is open to my suggestions and ideas, and knows the things I need to know that are unique to the school and classroom.  The nanny only speaks Vietnamese, but already she understands my silly ways, and rolls with it.

It has been the least stressful start up ever.  All those extra hands coloring, laminating and cutting.  It makes a big difference.  Now, let’s see what happens.

Apartment Hunting

The practice of my new school is to bring new hires in a week early and put them up in a hotel, giving each family, individual, or couple time to look at various apartments, while adjusting to the time change, climate, diet, heat, and humidity.  Actually, the heat isn’t that bad, it is the humidity. 

I completed a housing preference form in March or April.  School provided a packet of information about 10 different housing areas with names like Sky Garden, Happy Valley, Green Valley, Scenic Valley, Riverside, Belleza, ERA Town, New Saigon, and my personal favorite, Dragon Hill.  After trying to locate them all using Google map, I determined the housing area closest to school to be Dragon Hill.  Living here would reduce the daily commute, and if anyone wanted to ride a bicycle to school, it would be easier from this location.  The school real estate agent agreed with my assessment of the situation.

It was Tuesday afternoon, less than 3 hours after arriving that I had a message from the real estate agent, ready to show us apartments the next day.  Thus, I found myself looking at apartments less than 26 hours after arriving in Vietnam.  It was certainly easy enough to squeeze it in between naps.

Twelve apartments and 3 apartment complexes later, not to mention countless photos and the completion of a rather detailed spreadsheet, there was plenty of data to digest.  There was the apartment with the peeling wallpaper at every seam, the one with designer bedrooms (a different designer in each bedroom), and the one with the bed taking up so much of the room I had to walk sideways to get around the bed.

Standard features became obvious.  An oven is not a standard feature.  Two gas burners can be built in to the counter top, or they might just sit on top of the counter.  Hot water is only available in the bathrooms.  The washing machine is located on a small balcony outside the living area, with some hang-to-dry scheme overhead (no electric dryers – absolutely no reason to have a dryer).  Wall mounted air conditioners (operated by remote control) are in each bedroom and the living area.  The compressors are located on the washing machine balcony or on an external shelf.  Outlets accommodate the U.S. plug system and the European plug system (how cool is that?).  Refrigerators vary greatly in size.  No dishwashers.  Parent/grandparents allow children to attach stickers to everything and anything.

We looked at 2- and 3-bedroom apartments.  I really wanted a 3-bedroom apartment to accommodate hobbies and guests.  Everything we looked at was in our price range (10,800,000 dong to 16,000,000 dong).  The school provides us with a monthly housing allowance of 35,000,000 dong.  It is meant to help us pay rent, utilities and the management fee.  We will have a monthly water (washing), internet and electric bill.  Additionally, we’ll buy drinking water and pay to get a refill of the gas canister for the stove top.

Part of the apartment tour included the facilities within the complex.  New Saigon boasts the largest swimming pool in District 7.  It is pretty big (with a bridge over the middle of it).  There’s also a weight room, and a dance studio for yoga and Zumba.  A grocery store is within the complex, as are numerous Mom and Pop restaurants, beauty salons and “spas” (massage and nails).  Phu Hoang Anh had an enormous long pool, great for lap swimming, but lacked the shops of New Saigon.  One of the apartments here was a 2-story apartment.  The ceilings on the second floor were so low, Stewart had to duck his head.  

Dragon Hill was easily the cleanest and best kept of the 3 places.  The weight room was also nicer than New Saigon’s.  The pool, however, was small.  The yoga studio right by the pool.  Four elevators meant it would be considerably easier to get up and down to the 7^th floor (well, considerably easier than the places with one or two elevators).

We settled on a Dragon Hill 3-bedroom apartment with marble floors in the living room, and shiny click laminate in the bedrooms.  The master bathroom has two sinks and I love it!  Our apartment is on the backside of the building, which provides us with a view of a large overgrown field/forest/banana plantation.  There are lovingly tended garden plots next to the back wall.  Several roosters live there as well.  If you Skype with me, you’ll be able to hear them.  There is a body of water next to the building.  At first, I thought it was a river, but it has completely drained twice this weekend, so it must be some kind of irrigation ditch.  Just across the “ditch” are some shanties with several families living there.  Whenever I feel miserable from the sweat dripping off of me – I just look out the window and remember how lucky I am to be able to turn on the AC.

Temperature control … now there’s a topic to write about.

In order to catch the school bus, we have to cross the divided highway to get to the other side of the street (also another topic to write about).