7 Candles

Greetings my friends! It is certain the I will not win awards for my blogging frequency... I hope this entry will reach those of you who have long ago given up on the hope of an update!

We have weathered the holidays and the steamy Saigon winter. We have many friends here who have been through very hard times with parents, marriages, you name it. Life. It has been a doozy all around us. I am appreciative that we are healthy and well, and the tough times for those around me seem to be ebbing a bit.

As you can see, one of our new adaptations to Vietnamese life is our "whole family vehicle". We don't go far at all with all of us on it - I admit I test the shocks a bit - but zipping around on the scooter has improved Charles' quality of life in Phu My Hung.

Christmas was lovely. The first time I got to watch my beautiful daughters trim the tree and I just relaxed. We got prettier lights on the tree this year but still couldn't quite create the wonderful tree smell.

Check out all of the unique and life improving classes that happen right here in the Waugh apartment...

Proud Sophie. Life in EC4 still rocks.

Christmas vacation also brought us our first visitors! Alan and Joanie came from Oregon via Penom Penh and we had a wonderful visit. We made it downtown right before Christmas. What a scene! Thousands of people on motorbikes ride slowly through the lights in the city. It is quite spectacular.

We also went to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Vietnamese hid in an extensive and elaborate tunnel system during the Vietnam War. Watching the video at the beginning of the tour was one of the first times I felt a little odd here. "These filthy devils dropped bombs on the Vietnamese people..." You get the idea. Seeing the actual tunnels and systems was interesting. We had a great personal guide. Sophie said "Cool booby traps. Let's see some more!" Charles fit into the small demo tunnel where you could pull the top over you and completely disappear.

Maeve eyes a tunnel. This little adventurer went an entire 100 meters underground with her dad in a tunnel made larger for tourists. Sophie, Alan, and Joanie were troopers and went the first 20 meters. I decided long before we moved to Vietnam that I would never, no way, unh-uh go in the tunnels and cheered all heartily from the surface.

We rounded out a day tour with a trip to the Cao Dai Temple, a fascinating, quiet, ethereal place. Cao Dai is a religion unique to Vietnam and is a combination of beliefs from many different religions. Maybe a little Unitarian like, although Victor Hugo is one of the worshipped in the Cao Dai religion so maybe not so much. Here's Sophie with the all seeing eye.

Alan is a wonderful photographer...

Maeve discovered that Sophie was famous at the breakfast table one morning. She was a little jealous. This ad for our school was in the local expat magazines.

We tried our hand at a little bowling. Maeve loved it. Sophie is still a little small to get the ball all of the way to the other end.

Chuc Mung Nam Muoi! Happy Tet and Lunar New Year. The biggest holiday of the year in Vietnam, many people visit temples to pray for their ancestors and ask for good fortune in the new year.Tet brought us the best fortune possible in the form of a visitor....

Grandma!!!!!!!!! We had a wonderful week with her and she got to see Vietnam at its most relaxed and beautiful.

Sophie isn't the only one around here who is flirting with fame. I got a call from a friend Richard (shown in the sound booth) on Friday night. "Would you like to dub a movie?" Well, what would you say? Of course I said sure and spent the next morning working until lunch dubbing the film that my colleague at school had already shot. Talk about difficult! Acting, but so that my words matched her lips and I sounded like she did when she acted the scenes. The movie is about an American exsoldier who returns to Vietnam to apologize for his atrocities. The producer is an older Vietnamese man who had made over 30 films. And although I cannot believe what I did was of this quality, this film is slotted to go to the Cannes film festival! You will notice that I have not released the name of this film yet. I reserve viewing rights when and if it really happens, and then I will give more info. Such opportunities are a perk of life as an expat. All things aside, it was a unique and once in a lifetime experience. I will not quit my day job.

Charles has made three trips to Tapei this year. At ten days a piece, it makes me proud of how well we have gotten on in his absense. The girls are getting more and more independent and helping more all of the time. Charles has enjoyed his trips, and is eager to complete his certification program next year. He has had a couple of classmates make their way through Saigon. It has been fun for him to meet new people from around Asia.

Lovely Miss Maeve turned 7 this week. Here she models a beautiful purse from Grandma.

For her birthday party, we invited girls from her class to join us at the spa. Here her friend gets her first ever manicure, beautiful little flowers and all.

Party friends. : ) (Taiwanese, Japanese, Dutch/Korean, and American)

Beautiful nails!

Birthday giggles.

Last week we had Learning Journeys at school. The basic idea is that it is a spring conference, but the child leads it - to show their parents what they have been doing at school and celebrating growth. We did something very similar at my last school, but the difference here is that 4-5 students take their parents through the classroom at a time. It was a unique experience, more than anything else because of the language. Kids were invited to speak with their parents in their first language. (So many parents are not as fluent as their kids in English.) At many points i the day there were four different languages being used. What was so cool was I did not know exactly what everyone was saying, but I knew what the kids were saying even when I didn't. I had helped them prepare in English. What was so wonderful is that the ease of language came back to these families in my presence. When we sit down for a conference and everything has to be translated there is little room for smiles and jokes and laughter. It is just a reality of translating. But in the room was joy, and celebration, smiles, and soft laughter. Students lead, and it taught me a great deal about what they have learned this year. It was completely delightful and one of the moments in international education I had looked forward to.

I also got to go to Sophie's learning journey. She was amazing! She had a map that guided her to all of the different stations. She is a smart little cookie and funny, funny, funny. I was impressed with what our little four year old could show us. And through all of the experience, I missed my colleagues at the Center because I thought about them so much - so many traces of their ideas and brilliance came to the surface. Maeve's learning journey is tomorrow afternoon.

Imagine if you were talking to a room of Asians, and you had to explain the word casserole. Yes casserole. I giggled at how hard it was after I read it is a book to my students and had to try to explain it. Go ahead, try it. Google image came to the rescue again. We browsed broccoli cheese casserole, and lentil casserole, and cheesy mac casserole. My students oooohed and ahhhed, and to the end looked at me like I was an alien.

Tam biet for now.

Closer To It

   Happy Thanksgiving!   I am thankful for understanding family and friends who do not get fed up when they have to wait so long for a blog entry. I know, I know.  Four months!  It’s inexcusable.  But I can add that constant activity and more than one week where computer issues kept us off the Internet add to my delinquency.  I am sure that our life feels more like we actually live here and I feel less the need to update people.  I feel reflective today, as we head to our friends the Perkins to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday because we worked on the actual day.

          We have had a good fall.  The girls are happy in EC4 and first grade.  Maeve is reading under the covers with a flashlight at night, -a lovely step in her learning life to be an independent reader and enjoy it – and Sophie is so happy to be busy with other kids and a great Aussie teacher all day long.

 

Sophie and Maeve at our school's Christmas Art Bazaar in November.  Clay Christmas sculptures at the Bazaar.

           It was the Moon festival that marked the “Oh my gosh we have lived here for a year.” moment for me.  Charles was actually gone in Taiwan for the first of his courses towards becoming certified to teach.  The festival celebrates the full moon, a harvest moon, and a time that represents the end of the harvest when parents were able to spend some time with their children.  Children get lanterns and there are shows and entertainment. 

            Charles had a great course in Taiwan with a fellow South Carolinian professor (now at the University of Pennsylvania) that impressed him.  He is headed back in February with many of the same classmates.  We survived for ten days without Dad (Really, in our life, the equivalent of Mom leaving for 10 days) and he brought back fantastic Asian chia pets. Maeve's cool Asian Chia Pet  (a hedgehog)

            I have enjoyed being back in the 5^th grade. We are now a community of learners and I feel like all of my very hard work in establishing trust and routines has really paid off.  They are lovely.  Chatty, but lovely.  On Vietnamese Teachers Day, many brought very personal presents that made me feel appreciated and special.  It is a good place to be.  I am missing the idea of looping with them another year, like I did at the Center.  Almost half way through the year marks the point at which I feel like things are running smoothly.  Hmmm…

            Mr. Viet is my fantastic classroom assistant.  I have enjoyed not only having his help all of the time in the classroom, but also getting to know someone who is Vietnamese.  His perspectives are unique and important to me.  One day when I was working on a piece in my writers’ notebook that I wanted to share with kids to illustrate how to generate ideas fro writing, I wrote about the “way, way back” seat in my families’ 1972 Vista Cruiser.  Knowing that my students would have no context whatsoever for the way, way back of a Vista Cruiser, I googled a pic.  “Wow,” he said, “you must have been very, very rich.” He explained that his parents were lucky to be alive in 1972 and close to starving.  “Yes,” I smiled, “we were rich beyond our dreams”.

Mr. Viet and Pentominoes

            Halloween was fun, both at school and with the other faculty families.  At school, our kids made up all of the games for a Halloween Carnival on our floor and we had a parade.  Another faculty family hosted a Halloween party and we visited the other faculty in the neighborhood and the staged stations where people waited for us.  It really felt like Halloween in an American neighborhood.  Fun and familiar. (OK some of the treats were a little unusual and no one had to worry about mom making you wear your coat over your costume…) 

  Fantastic ESL Teacher Jo in Her Mountie Costume.  

 Sweet Student Manning Her Halloween Carnival Booth

 Bad Hippy All That Was in My Closet Costume.  My Fifth Grade Colleagues Jen, the Mountie, and Shane, the Vietnamese Cleaning Lady (Nice Pants!)

 Halloween Shenanigans

            In November, we hit the ground running.  I went to a fantastic 5 day Literacy Coaching Asia Institute at Hong Kong International School.  Really, it was some of the best professional development I have had in some time, certainly since I left the wonderful folks at the Center for Inquiry.  It was inspiring and challenging to work with many of the Literacy coaches in Asia.  And one of the best parts is I will have a chance to come back together with most members of the institute next year. It feels like just right work for me right now, as I think about looking towards working with teachers more than being in the classroom.  Maybe not next year, but the following, I will actively seek a position that will allow me to.

 Wan Chai Hong Kong Street Market

   Wan Chai Street Scene

      I paid a heavy baggage fee on my return– no surprise to me after the taxi driver said, “Help me!” as he tried to get my suitcase out of the trunk.  Hong Kong is truly a shopper’s paradise.  Most dangerous was the good English Bookstore where I spent hours browsing, and a new find, Muji, a Japanese store that reminds me of a cross between Conrans and I don’t know what.  I could have dropped thousands.

            It was so chilly that I had to buy a fleece and I didn’t take it off the whole time I was there.  Flying to Hong Kong, going from third world to first, from 90 degrees to 50, was an interesting experience.  The nonstop energy of Hong Kong could be absolutely exhausting, I would imagine.  I really enjoyed a couple of “city” dinners all by myself, people watching.   It was a treat in my life where I am always surrounded by people. 

            There are times when I forget that I live in a foreign land. But those times are often punctured by a sight or sound that reminds me in no uncertain terms that I live in Vietnam.

            One morning on a walk to school I saw a funeral car which looks more like a parade float with open sides.  The casket was is in the middle and family members sat on the sides, their feet dangling over, throwing paper money off of the car to represent the riches and good wishes sent with their loved one to the afterlife.  In the front of the truck cab was a large framed picture of a young woman.  Grief, and tears, and mourning were right there, for all to see, for all to know and take in.  It wasn’t a private, discreet, and quiet funeral.  It was loud and right there in the middle of an early morning street.

  Vietnamese Funeral Car

            I have heard people talk about how westerners are “reserved” and I now wonder about that in new ways.  We would never parade though town mourning our loved ones.  Doctors in offices would never joke or talk to you about life in the hallway between visiting patients, or chat with another doctor about a condition within earshot of patients. 

            Another afternoon, I saw a crowd gaping at an accident scene near our apartment. A man was on the ground not moving, and no one was doing anything to help him.  A sweeper came by and lifted up his arm by the hand to sweep underneath him.  Grisly reality right in front of me…

            It strikes me that in Vietnam, people stand closer to the terrible things that happen in life and they don’t try to hide them.  Mourning includes wails for all to hear.  Death doesn’t get whisked away or covered up in fear of others seeing.  It strikes me that in Vietnam they are closer to the realities of living, without the trappings and formalities that my life has always known. They are closer to it - the grisly, elated, never boring, tumultuous trip that is life.

             

            

We're Home!

How lovely it was to walk into our apartment in Hung Vuong 2 and feel like we were home.  It looked like home, even smelled like home.  I had prepared myself for the worst I think - that we would walk in to mold and a tremendously funky Asian smell, but we didn't.  After a 24 hour trip, we stumbled and fell into our own beds.  Hard beds, yes, but they were familiarly ours.  It is one of those moments in your life when you realize how much joy can come from being prone.

On a side note, Charles had an important discovery the other day about why all Asian beds are so %#$^&* hard.  It has to do with the teaching of Buddha.  One of his tenants is not to have a luxurious bed.  Just great.  Even a bed topper has not yet brought ours to my acceptable comfort zone.

I had a renewed realization about myself and about Vietnam as I walked home from the bookstore this evening.  I have always been on the move in my life.  The longest I have lived in one place is in one of our South Carolina homes, I think.  I am comfortable with change, even embrace it.  On the other hand, I am such a creature of comfort and habit.  When my favorite linen pants got a hole and were to the point of no return, I wanted very desperately to have the very same pair new.  And maybe two more for when those wear out.

Vietnam is NEVER the same.  I walked past no less than 10 restaurants or stores new, gone, or completely overhauled in the time we were gone. You, blog readers, have already heard too much about how you can't find the same thing at the grocery store twice. Vietnam is a place where you have to accept what's offered, to play with the hand you're dealt. 

And we are back to play our cards.

School is off to a soaring start for us.  After a week and a half, the Waugh family is a little less exhausted and settling into routines.  I am certainly enjoying being back in 5th grade, but also have a tremendously larger respect for my former amazing colleague Tim O'Keefe, who taught most of my students for two years before I taught them for two.  I strongly feel our differences in first language and cultures in our room.  But this is a plus too.  I am learning new things every day.  My students have such unique and interesting perspectives on the world that make me think, and challenge me to explain things in new ways.  It's pretty fascinating.  

My favorite quote so far is when one of my students looked at me and said "Mrs. Waugh, what is "Holy cow?"  

But I am getting ahead of myself!  I need to share our summer of adventures.  It was so great to see our family and some of our friends.  We enjoyed the ease of US living, and I gave our credit cards the hardest workout they have ever had in such a short period of time.

I can't believe that I didn't mention this first....we are no longer property owners in North  America!  Certain cause for celebration.  We can already feel the financial belt loosening.  

My Mom and Dad are as we speak moving to San Diego, and we just missed meeting our new family member, Sam, who my mom and sister picked up in China at the end of July.  Did you notice that I did not use the words calm and quiet to yet describe our trip?

We did enjoy the cool, almost cold weather at the cabin for a month.  I never knew how much fun it could be to dig out sweatshirts and sit in front of a fire in the morning with a blanket.  I savored every chilly moment.

 Here, Maeve models her chosen Halloween costume, ala movie star, on the hammock.

         

We had a great visit with my brother and his wife at the cabin.  Here he gives the girls a cozy push.

     Sophie takes her aunt's lead and looks closely at the world as she sketches in the hammock.

Reading in front of the fire.  Life is good.

     I got to reconnect with my wonderful colleagues from the Center for Inquiry in South Carolina with a surprise visit to the International Whole Language Conference there.  It was great to see people and re-immerse in the land of literacy which I missed so much.  I got to see neighbors, and say an official goodbye to our favorite little house on Trenholm Road, as we closed on our house a week after I was there.

A trip to the cabin would not be the complete without a visit to the Grayling fish hatchery, a place I have been going since I was a kid.

My sister and her daughter visited too.  Here, Maeve models birthday balloons on the celebration of my 41st.  

The girls keep talking about Mackinac Island.  It truly made an impression on them.  The fudge, of course, is foremost in their minds, but our bike ride around the island, and Fort Mackinac are  in those memory banks too.  (Charles has been reading up on making fudge.) 

      Maeve was at first so nervous about riding with Charles like this, she cried a bit.  As you can see, tears quickly gave way to all smiles.

Maeve and Aunt Lauren on the ferry to Mackinac.

Always happy when he is on a boat!

     Back at the cabin, Sophie models her favorite attire in front of the fire.

We saw SO MUCH rain in the U.S on our trip, it was almost comical. Wherever we went, it rained.  Here, sun and rain mixed.

The girls at Hartwick Pines State Park "Wood Shaving Days".  All crowds were noticeably smaller in a place that is usually pretty crowded in the summer.  I think many people have given up summer travel in the hard economic times. 

At the logging museum.

Back at our favorite place, the dock.  Sophie checks the minnow trap.

Nature Girl, with dragonfly.

Family walk on K.P Trail

Junie B. Jones in the hammock.  (Our summer ride in the background.)

      The BIG pack.  We took up every ounce of our potential 400 pds.  Charles' CAPITALISM book weighed the most.  It was my job to give him a hard time about it.  I feel like a rich woman with all of the supplies that fill our cupboard and closets.

Picking flowers for Grandma.

Grandpa's treat - pony rides!

      Charles wanted to ensure that he had a humongous American breakfast on one of his last mornings.  Dad's favorite New Jersey diner came through.

Our flight home, although SO long (24hours total), was our best yet.  No bodily fluid incidents - a first!  We left Newark without boarding passes for the last leg of our flight - Tapei to Ho Chi Minh.  We were met in the hallway in Tapei, asked if we were the Waughs, given first class seats for our last leg (!) and walked onto the plane which had just started boarding.  Yahoo EVA airlines!  At that point both girls had big fat colds and hacking coughs. I braced for the worst as we came to HCMC.  I had heard about how they were taking temperatures at the airport because of the swine flu and we had to fill out health reports for each of us with immigration forms.  

We had no fevers, however, and when we did not show red in the ultra cool crowd temperature radar, we got right through.  We were home within 45 minutes.  : )

H1N1 is indeed in HCMC, and has shut down a few schools - not ours yet.  We have a new uber hand washing policy and hand gel available throughout the school.  All kids under 2nd grade have their temperatures taken before they go to class in the morning.  This may be a very good thing for all of our health this year!

Maeve was a seasoned pro as she started first grade this year.  She still loves school and has another great teacher this year.

   Sophie has entered another whole part of her life.  She loves school too, and has a huge new cache of things to talk about at the dinner table. (Her least favorite part - like her sister last year - rest time!) Charles talks about how Sophie gets her temperature taken and quickly says "Bye Dad." with a kiss in the morning.  He's not allowed to stay.

We have a lovely new house helper, Thuy, sister of Trang who helped us last year.  She is here 20 hours a week and wow is this apartment ever clean every day when we get home.  Definitely a plus.

And our life moves on in a foreign place, that is not so foreign any more.  There are still moments when I wonder why we left the comfort and ease of living in the States, especially those moments when it seems like everything is difficult and nothing works, or the gecko who has decided our bedroom drapes are home and keeps coming back even though we keep letting him outside is making his gecko mating sound at 2AM.

But life is certainly not boring, and my daughters cry "I want to go to the Japanese restaurant!", and one talked about missing Com Suon (grilled pork over rice) this summer and likes it only from her local place, and thank yous in our house come in all languages.  

Tam Biet for now. Don't be a stranger.