Yes...back in Ho Chi Minh City!

The outdoor entrance for students to one of our lecture rooms.  The sign is somewhat wrong because we returned to find that the optometry is no longer a sub-department of Ophthalmology but a full department belong to the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Technology.

 Hello to all!  YES we are back again...for our 4th school year teaching at Pham Ngoc Thach University.  It's a long story...I've quit saying that this is our LAST year because the response is always, "that's what you said last year!"  Today begins our third week back to teaching; Bob and I both said to each other that it seems we've been here months already.   Maybe just from jumping right in to a system we're somewhat familiar with and fielding all the curve balls right from the start.  I am feeling a little disconnected already from home, partly because I've been so busy preparing lessons that are new to me to teach, so I figured it's time to get back to getting a blog post out!  

We had a great summer at home.  We kept busy doing home projects that are neglected while we're here, starting a garden and harvesting what we could, and visiting family and friends.

We met with the kids as soon as we could in June after arriving home.  Breakfast with Elaina and AJ (newlyweds of one year!), Jenni (Alex's girlfriend) and Alex, and us of course.

We love our garden!  This is taken close to the time we left in early September.

Another first-priority visit was to see Bennett!  I sure miss our dog while over here.  But Elaina says it's her dog now, she's cared for him over half his life by the time we get back next summer, when he'll be 6 years old!  She did let us take him home for most of the summer this year. 

This year we arrived back in Saigon late September 5th and had 3 days to "un-jet-lag" before beginning at school.  The university actually began August 26 but we are still delayed beginning some classes (according to previous years' schedules) due to being short-staffed with teachers.  Bob and I are the only "foreign lecturers" budgeted for this year through BHVI (the Australian NGO we work with), and the university hasn't provided any more lecturer support.  [reason #1 we agreed to one more year--we are so needed!] [but we are always looking for our replacements!!!] The Ministry of Health is also working on a job code for optometry so as to define the job for our graduating students.  In November our second graduating class (17 strong) will be added to the work force here!  Meanwhile, we have been busy teaching some of the subjects in the syllabus and having some help with the Teaching Assistants (4 of them) from the first graduating class.  Classes are becoming bigger as students understand this profession better with time and publicity, which is one of those "good problems" to have.  More students means we need more people to teach and more space in which to hold lessons and labs; but so far the university has given us one small lecture room (the outdoor entrance is pictured above), one larger room for lecturers and practicing procedures, and a small room to learn to edge lenses for glasses.  Our senior class is 26 strong, 3rd years and 2nd years have 22 students, and the first year has begun with 39 students!

The unassuming appearance of Bob's and my office.  There is a third desk inside but only two of us using office space on our off-lecture hours.

Inside the office.  We spend a lot of hours here!

I don't have any teaching photos yet, but I need to take some for a presentation I need to do in October.  Next time!  I have some rainy photos to share; we are here the earliest ever, seasonally.  Previous years we've arrived in early October.  September this year is definitely still rainy season!  It rains pretty much every day, sometimes for a short time but we've had some days where it stays pretty wet most the day.  The upside is that the air is fresher and cooler but the downside is getting caught unprepared while walking or on the motorbike.

After I walk out my apartment's main door (same one we stayed in last school year), this is looking to the left, on a rainy day...a couple of spas and a coffee shop on left side of street, a goat restaurant on the right.

...and this is looking to the right, same rainy day. A few small restaurants/coffee shop on left side of street, not much on right side.  Sometimes independent vendors will set up on the sidewalk, and a lady does some sewing there also with her machine on the sidewalk.

Two more photos, both somewhat social time photos.  We had discovered this small restaurant last year but found it under construction when we visited it.  The name is a little funny because "hem" means "alley."  So literally it's Alley Spaghetti.  We had dinner there last week and found the Italian dishes we tried very good!  Pasta cooked al dente, just right.  It was quite busy with local Vietnamese.

Ms. Hang teaching us how to say "hello" and "my name is" and other basics at our first Vietnamese language lesson

Last, but not least, is that we've FINALLY begun taking Vietnamese lessons!  Yeah, yeah, we should have done that our first year, but, you know, we were here ONLY for one year!  LOL.  Finally we're tired of mispronouncing and having people stare at us blankly as we attempt to communicate, and I want to know what signs say!  Tonight is lesson number 2 and we're both really happy to be learning the local language, something we truly should have begun much earlier.  Well, we do always say it's never too late to learn something.

That's all for now, time to get back to work and plan for my next Contact Lens lecture.  This week my third year students (aged around 20 years old) have a lab in which they will put their very first soft contact lens in their own eye!  And in a partner's eye as well, as well as learn to take the lens back out again.  They are excited and nervous!  It's fun to experience these firsts with them.

Thank you for tuning into our ongoing adventures and I will try to post more often this year...our LAST year over here! (I truly think so, but "who can foretell the future" is my new motto....)

If I don't catch up now, I never will!

Liz and I on the Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills

Time flies when you're....having fun? Traveling? Teaching? Jumping over hurdles one after another? All of the above?

Hello after 2 months with no update! Honestly, I keep meaning to...but life keeps interfering. If I don't catch up with recording life over here now, it won't happen. We leave HCMC in 2 days! So we've been tying up loose ends at school and must begin packing in earnest tomorrow for our Saturday flight back home to the US. Here's what we've been up to:

Life in Saigon

I had taken a bunch of photos of normal street scenes of our everyday life just to post something interesting before our flurry of activity with visitors. So here they are!

Normal morning traffic on our way to school

Street vendor (right next to us as we stop for a traffic light) in case you want to stop and buy a some bananas or cooked sweet potatoes for lunch

Chao Long, not my favorite dish, is rice porridge with animal innards.  I found out what "Tim Heo" means only recently: heart of pig.  Not any more inclined to eat it now!

We drive through an alley on the way home from school, and there are lots of little stands in front of homes selling fresh fruit, vegetables, and other things.  How lots of business is done here.

When an ambulance tries to squeeze through the alley, it really messes up the flow of the motorbikes!

Friends visit!

March 28 brought the long-awaited visit from our dear friends Wes and Liz Ostrander! They do us many favors back home like gathering our mail and checking our house. We tried to schedule as many days off work as we could to show them our city and we took a long weekend to Danang and Hoi An, a short flight away.

Liz got a taste of the motorbike life!

We had dinner at Noir, a place we've been meaning to try for 3 years now.  All the servers are visually impaired.  We ate in complete darkness!  It is really a different experience.  I figured out quickly to hold my bowl close to my mouth (no one could see my table manners!) because I couldn't tell if my food stayed on my fork from plate to mouth!  Next time I think I would use my fingers :D just to tell what I'm eating.  It's hard to tell the difference from a meatball and a wonton, for example, with only your mouth.  After the dinner when we were led back into the light, we were asked to guess what we had for each course, then were shown pictures of the dishes.

Next stop, Hoi An (18 miles from Danang) and a cute homestay not far from the beach.  Great staff and a nice breakfast and only $16 US a night!

Warm water in April for swimming! And some fun waves.

Sign at the beach.  Trust me, you can dance here!

One day we booked a tour to go to Ba Na Hills, a relatively new tourist destination.  It reminded us of Disney World back in the US!  Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the place: Bà Nà Hill Station is a hill station and resort located in the Trường Sơn Mountains west of the city of Da Nang, in central Vietnam. The station was  founded in 1919 by French colonists, with a resort built to be used as a leisure destination for French tourists. Being located above 1500 metres above sea level, it has a view of the East Sea and the surrounding mountains. Due to the elevation of the resort, the temperature is significantly cooler than the environment near the coast. The cooler temps felt great!!

The Ba Na Cable Car, opened  in March 2013, holds the world record for longest non-stop single track cable car at 5,801 metres in length. The cable car must be taken to get to the resort; the views are beautiful!  The hands of the Golden Bridge are in the background.

There are a lot of gardens and cool sculptures there too.

 

More cool flower displays

Even a windmill and tulips!

Bob liked this idea for a future fish pond/yard sculpture idea.

Our third day the guys rented motorbikes and drove into the countryside but Liz and I thought a cooking class sounded fun.  We went by boat and had the obligatory tourist photo with the traditional Vietamese hats.

Cooking classes usually include a market visit.  Mushrooms on top, not sure what the white tubes are, shredded banana flower, 2 tubs of fresh tofu, and aloe leaf.

Fresh noodles!  I've never seen them sold like this in Ho Chi Minh City; maybe I've not looked in the right place or been in the right market.

A new baby!

Wes and Liz headed back home April 8, we got back to work, and then had some happy news that Dr. Lori (our US colleague who started the school year with us) had her baby on April 16!  Baby Petra Linh.  We got to see her before she was quite 24 hours old.  Newborns are so tiny!  I asked Lori how much she weighed and she said, ummm, 2-point-something kilos!!  Lol, of course things aren't in pounds here.

More Saigon

Another different thing here.  Our university had a graduation of one of its sections (evidenced by students in robes, parents and family around and lots of photos taken and flowers given) and I thought it interesting that photographers set up copiers on the sidewalk to print photos.  Some things here I just would never see back home.

Sidewalk copying

"Just going about my business..."
Our first Optometry Club Vision Screening!

Our students were thrilled to organize their first vision screening at a private primary school.  They learned a lot about screening small children!

Travel!

April 30 and May 1 were national holidays in Vietnam so we had a long weekend off from school. We headed off to the Philippines to see a little of a different country.  

Maps help me so here it is.  It was about a 4 hour flight to Manila, then another 1.5 hours to Palawan, our destination.

The Philippines actually consists of over 7000 islands!  We only saw one, Palawan, staying in the city of Puerto Princesa.

We were surprised to see a police escort when we landed.  Turns out the Vice President of the Philippines was on our plane!  Nice that she flies commercial!

Not quite as high a proportion of motorbikes here as in HCMC, but there were a lot of these motorbike tricycles.  Kind of a sidecar built onto and over a motorbike.  We rode one of these in from our resort to the motorbike rental place.

Our resort, Deep Forest Garden Resort, had 2 beagle dogs we were invited to walk!!  They were so cute and made me miss Bennett back home.

Dogs "DF" and "DFW" = Deep Forest and Deep Forest's Wife, ha ha.

 We rented a motorbike to explore that way here too!   
 The Philippines is predominantly Catholic.  Very different from all the Buddha statues I see in Vietnam!  Lots of signs about God and Jesus here.  And signs were in English!! 

 At a drugstore: Jesus Heals

                                                 Lots of Bible verses on many vehicles

Streetside scene with little stores...dog hanging out at the side of the road.

We did 2 group tour days.  The first one was the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River.  It was really pretty but the tour had many delays.  The next day we did an island hopping tour with snorkeling and had fewer delays but it was enough guided tours for us!  Our tour guide the second day told us there is a big shortage of guides with the tourism to the Philippines.

Entering the underground river.  We weren't allowed to talk (had an earbud with an audio narration as part of the tour), and had to wear hardhats to protect against bat droppings.
Back to school!

Needless to say, that past weeks have flown by. We've been busy teaching, writing test questions, planning testing, having meetings, fighting battles (especially Bob, he is good at fighting for the optometry program's place here since we have a new headmistress and an ophthalmology department trying to figure out optometry's place in the scheme of health care), and various other social activities and trying to get some exercise in there too.  Bob has been working more hours at a private hospital trying to develop an optometry department and thus creating jobs for our new graduates.  In November we will have our second class of optometrists graduate, 16 of them.  The program in Hanoi will graduate their first batch this year, and their class size is larger, I believe close to 50 students.  A few more teaching pictures as I finally close: 

This is one of the first sessions of the highly theoretical Visual Perception and Neurophysiology class I teach to 2nd years.  I told them to show some excitement for our first picture!  All year I've been telling them they are not allowed to fail the final test!  (5 of the 3rd years have to retake it this year :(  )  This week we celebrated our LAST "VPN" lecture with some cake.  One of our Teaching Assistants, Ms. Giang, picked up the cake for me.  See what she had the shop write on the cake!

A new colleague and goodbye/see ya later ("hen gap lai" in Vietnamese)

Dr. Lori finished teaching (awaiting her baby) in mid-March, and finally Dr. Mirage Shah from Maryland arrived to help us!  He is also here under BHVI's sponsorship (Brien Holden Vision Institute).  He's been here 2 weeks now and has jumped right in to learn what he will be finishing up and taking over for us, some lectures but especially testing going into June.  He has teaching experience and will be a great help.  Yesterday he and I assisted Bob with the tonometry lab that Bob had lectured on that morning.

 Dr. Mirage taking a phone photo top right; 2nd year students learning one more procedure on their way to becoming an optometrist that can diagnose glaucoma.

 Dr. Bob demonstrating Goldmann tonometry--yes, the "blue light" one!

No (serious) corneal abrasion happened all afternoon, whew!

There, now I'm caught up on my own memories. Thanks for reading such a long post! I tried to make it mostly pictures. :) Tomorrow we have one more meeting at school and will pack in earnest. Flight out late Saturday and home Sunday night (after a long layover in Tokyo) ready to sleep for a week. Not! We do expect that we'll get hit hard with the transition/fatigue/jetlag. I'm sure we'll have lots to do around the house after not being home in so long, and hope to get some gardening done...and of course visiting family and friends! We appreciate you keeping track of us and see some of you soon, Stateside!