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....)