Teaching, Tex Mex, Vietnamese wedding, and aerobics!

Happy Halloween to you Americans back home!  We have been here one month now.  No, Halloween is not "celebrated" here by children trick-or-treating but some stores do decorate with Halloween motifs.  And there are probably parties in some places, but I have nothing to report!

Last week's blog had a picture of me lecturing for my first time, so I thought I'd show that Bob also has his first lecture under his belt as well! 

"Dr. Robert" has taken over the contact lens track lectures.

On the topic of teaching, today we had a half day seminar we were invited to (as were all the medical school faculty) on the topic of Competency-Based Curriculum.  It was very interesting, kind of learning about learning. :)  Wrap your mind around that.  More specifically, the contrast was between "classical" learning in Vietnam and newer models of competency-based learning which has 3 elements:  knowledge, skill, and attitude and how to assess competency in students in this model.  It was presented in English (yay!) by a Belgian professor with a lovely French accent. A translator translated the lecture into Vietnamese.  Tomorrow we have a full day seminar by a different Belgian professor on a related topic.

The lecturer on left from University de Liege in Belgium, translator on right.  Screens in both English and Vietnamese.

We chuckled over the drop-down "desk" from the chair ahead.  A great working distance if you are near-sighted and young enough to have a good near-focus.  Neither of which term applies to us far-sighted people. :)  Phuong, in the background, is a Vietnamese ophthalmology graduate who is teaching our optometry students in their native language.  She actually has normal vision (not near-sighted) and can focus at near, being not to bifocal age yet!

Next, more food pictures!  We've been staying close to "home" but Friday night decided to explore downtown (i.e. where Westerners can find familiar food) for dinner.  We had found a restaurant that promised Tex Mex food...(the owner is from Maine and has a Vietnamese wife according to the restaurant's website) ahhh, real burritos and nachos!!  We have been eating a lot of rice and noodles!

La Fiesta!!  The name of the restaurant!

  

Burrito mostly finished (on left), nachos on right.  And sangria!!

First time we saw salt and pepper on the table here.  Really.  Usually the condiments are soy sauce and fish sauce.  And chilis in a bowl.

After dinner we walked around District 1 (downtown) a bit, and also wanted to find Pasteur Street Brewing Company we'd read about in our Lonely Planet guide.  Bob does not like going down alleys, so of course, guess where the entrance to the brewery was?

Narrow little alley leading to a steep
staircase up to our destination.

Steep staircase!

They even had "weird beer" like in America--
we didn't order the "what the heo" beer at the top
(heo is "pig" in Vietnamese, haha) but the
description says it's brewed with pork loins
and bacon!

Miscellaneous stuff to fit in:

Dog at the bus stop.  I miss my dog!

The fish sauce selection at our local market.  I couldn't get the whole wall into one
picture!  This is not soy sauce, but all the brands of fish sauce.  It'll be interesting
to see how many brands I have to choose from when I get back to Charlevoix.  I'm
thinking probably one.  Maybe two?

Saturday we also walked around downtown, exploring with our colleague Dr. Koh.
Bob found the indoor ice arena in the fancy Western mall!  It was just being set up,
opening slated for Nov. 1.  NOT regulation hockey size, oh well!!

We can't find basil at our supermarket so Bob found basil seeds and planted them last week
and they are already sprouting!  We had some containers with dirt on our balcony already.

Lastly (almost), is my Vietnamese wedding report.  Last night, Sunday evening, we attended Minh's (our Vietnamese once-weekly cleaning lady and cook) son's wedding.  We also met 2 of Minh's other employers, both teachers here for the past 4 years.  One is from Colorado and one from Canada near Niagara Falls.  We sat with them which was nice to be able to exchange some experiences.  The bride and groom were married in a ceremony earlier (we were told) attended by family and close friends.  We arrived at 6:30 for the dinner to be served at 7 pm.  After dinner, some people began to leave but guess what was happening on stage:  karaoke!!  The audience was invited to go up if desired and several different singers went up!  Not us.  It was very loud with the accompaniment and hard to talk to our table mates.  We left about 9 pm, having to work the next day.

Fancy wedding invitation

The inside of the invitation.  The groom's name is Pham Quoc Thai (Thai is his first name) and
the bride's is Vo Thi Be Nam (Nam is her first name).  The wedding was held at the Glorious Wedding and Event Center (see the word "Glorious" on the right side, half-way down?)

We arrived by taxi to this sight: attendants lining the entrance.

Inside the entrance a pianist was playing...

...and wedding displays were set up.  Our dinner was on the 2nd floor up.  I think
there were 5 floors with other weddings going on.

Entering our dinner room, after getting a photo in the 2nd floor
"lobby" with the bride and groom.

Initial table setting. (my seatmate, the Colorado teacher, lamented about no fork or spoon) The drink choices were water, Pepsi, or Heineken, and servers kept refilling our glasses.

Before dinner, some singers/dancers took the stage to entertain us.  Perhaps they sang
a wedding type song...it was in Vietnamese!

After the entertainment, the bride and groom and their parents took to the stage for introductions.
Minh is standing next to her son, and next to Minh is her husband Pham Van Chieu.  Some
gold confetti showered on all of them from the ceiling.

The bride and groom did cut the cake--only the top layer is a real cake.  There was dry ice "fog"
pouring out of the bottom layers of the (cardboard) cake.  The guests are not served this cake (the one on top of course).

The bride and groom also poured champagne or wine into this fountain structure.  It also had 
dry ice "fog" coming out the bottom!

When it was time for dinner, uniformed servers marched into the dining room in a line.

I forgot to take a picture of the first course, a delicious shrimp spring roll.  This is the second course,
crab soup.  It's thick like egg drop soup I've had in the US.

First main course, steamed chicken.  The server portioned it out and handed it to us.
Note the chicken head.  I don't think anyone claimed it, although the 2 North Americans sitting with us offered to let us have it.  Haha!

Next main course, Australian beef.  It was like a beef stew and so delicious!

Last of the main dishes, it translated as "lotus leaf rice hub."  Lol.  It was rice with lotus seeds, according to someone familiar with Vietnamese food.  The seeds had the texture of garbanzo beans.

Dessert was one of these little cakes.  A lot of sweets are made with rice flour, which
meant it was sticky and rubbery to cut into.  But sweet and delicious!

The inside of the cake had a little layer of cake (as I think of cake) and a nugget of sweet paste.

And lastly, my most recent experience.  Over the weekend I investigated the 2 nearest gyms and joined the less expensive one ($184 US for 9 months vs. $806 (!) for 9 months).  Tonight I went to my first "dance fitness" class with Ms. Xuan.  It was pretty fun!  It felt good to exercise anyway.  A lot of hip-hop dance moves with no instruction, just following along with the instructor on stage.  I tried to hang out in the back but the instructor asked me to come forward so I could see better (I think) and she could help me.  She knew a little English.  I'm sure I was the worst dancer in there, but it was exercise!  The second half we got mats out for stretches and toning (sit-ups, etc.)  She had us hold some stretches and counted.  You know how you think to yourself, I can hold this for X counts?  Lol, the count was in Vietnamese!  "Mot, hai, ba, bon, nam, sau, bay, tam!!"  OK, now I know, counts of 8!  At the very end she gave an instruction to the class and said to me "now we sleep."  ????  She must have seen my confusion because she said "only for 3 minutes!"  In other words, stretch out and relax/cool down.  Another different experience in Vietnam!

YAP Gym and Yoga, across the street from my apartment.
Floors 3 and 4 (lit up) are the dance studio, yoga room, and gym.