Follow me on my journey to become a high school science teacher in a high-needs school in New York City. I hope to post lesson plan ideas as well as the everyday trials and tribulations of working in the forever changing school system.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mui Ne


Last weekend we went to Mui Ne, a beach town about five hours from Ho Chi Minh.  Riding down the strip it looked like any beach town in the US.  Souvenir shop-restaurant-souvenir shop-ice cream- souvenir shop.  All of the rooms at the hotel were little cabanas that were really cute- with a hot shower and comfortable bed =).  We ate lunch and then went to the sand dunes.  The white sand dunes were beautiful and I was so happy to get my feet in the sand.  Every direction you looked there were just mountains of sand. We hiked to the top of one and then ran down after taking a few pictures- so exhilarating.  One thing that bothered me at the white sand dunes was they had ATV rentals available.  The sound of the ATVs struggling up the mountains and the fumes in the air really took away from what could have been a very peaceful place.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the red sand dunes, which change color with the sun.  Here we were able to see the beginning of the sunset and no ATVs but a lot more people. 
















The next morning I had until about 12:30 before we had to head back to the city.  I woke up at 6:30 to get to breakfast right when it opened at 7.  Right after breakfast I parked myself on a lounge chair watching the waves crash all morning.  It was so relaxing- I read my book, took a nap, and went for a swim.  I didn’t realize how much I missed the ocean until I was there. Even though there was hardly any sun (it would come out for 3 minutes at a time and trick me) I had a great morning of relaxation.




We got on the bus for a long trip back- it took about 7 hours instead of 5.  I felt like I was starting to get a cold so it made the trip a little unbearable.  When we got back I went to the supermarket and picked up cough drops, tea, and honey.  Then I went next store to get pho to go.  I ate my pho and went right to bed.  With the addition of advil all of my remedies made me as good as new by Monday afternoon! Overall another successful weekend trip!

I guess I should mention we also quickly visited a fishing village.  It was very smelly and had many many flies.







Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Food and City Tour- Mostly Food =)


Last Thursday Helen, Jason, and I went on a motorbike food tour of the city.  The tour was provided by XO Tours and is rated the number one tour on trip advisor.  What could be better combining a motorbike experience with a food tour?  We were scheduled to be picked up by beautiful ladies (the website advertised this) at 5:20 from SEAMEO.  Around 4:30 it started to downpour- that was a bummer.  We were about to the cancel the tour but then we decided to wait it out (a lot of reviews online said that rain did not ruin the tour).  By 5:20 it was only drizzling I put on my raincoat and went and downstairs to the beautiful ladies were waiting for us.  We hopped on the back of their bikes and drove to the first food stop.  The place was in district one and was really just a food cart- the tour specializes in showing you how the Vietnamese really eat and this means street food!  At the first stop we ate a noodle soup, not pho, bun bo hue.  The noodles in this soup are round and the broth is more flavorful.  It was very good and a nice light way to start off the tour.  

After we finished eating we took a drive to visit Ho Chi Minh’s china town (district five).  We drove through a food market and stopped in front of Binh Tay Market- a large wholesale market.  Then we got back on the bikes and drove to district eight, which is known for hot pot and karaoke.  The placed we stopped to eat had stainless steel tables and children’s lawn chairs to sit in.  At this stop we had a variety of food.  First we tried goat breast, which was barbequed right in front of us.  The goat meat was very tough and chewy. Then we tried frog- not just the legs the entire frog.  The Vietnamese would usually eat the frog with the skin on but to entice tourists to try it the tour company has the restaurant bring the frog out without the skin.   The frog was very good- something I will definitely eat again.  The other dishes at this stop were normal- squid and prawn on a stick.  Everything was very delicious. 
Goat cooking on the BBQ




FROG!

From this stop we drove to district seven- one of the newer districts in Ho Chi Minh.  This district is very rich and looks nothing like the rest of the city.  Mostly ex-pats live here and it is somewhere that my tour guide aspired to live.  There were no street vendors and very few motorbikes driving through this part of the city.  No food on this stop!


Our last stop was in district four- what we were told is the ghetto of Ho Chi Minh.  The head tour guide told us that many Vietnamese will not go to this part of town because they think it is dangerous.  (We were very surprised to hear this because the first day we were here we walked through this district and it didn’t seem too dangerous, just poor.)  The restaurant we went to is known for seafood.  We ate scallops (still on the shell), crab legs, and clams.  We also had quail.  I enjoyed the quail a lot more than the goat.  The last thing we tried was by far the weirdest thing I have a ever tried to eat.  It was a 20 day old duck egg embryo- a delicacy here in Vietnam.  I took one bite and decided it wasn’t for me- too weird.  At least I tried right?  For dessert the tour company picked up two things from street vendors- coconut jelly and flan in a cup.  Both of the desserts were delicious! 
Quail

Scallops

Crab Legs

Duck Egg

My one and only bite
 The coconut jelly came in a coconut shell.  The tour guides were very funny and attentive (the basically hand fed us the entire time).  The guide told Jason that there was a live animal in the coconut and to open it but very slowly because something will jump out.  He began opening it and I guess the tour guide sold her joke really well because Jason jumped and fell back in his chair bringing the table with him.  Everything from the table fell all over the floor and we all got a really good laugh (Jason was fine).  Helen caught the entire thing on video and it is posted on facebook! 


I am very happy that we went on the tour.  It was the most expensive thing I have done so far but I think it was worth every penny.  The tour guides were funny and informative as we were driving through the city and they also provided entertainment and helped us enjoy our meals.  The one critique I have of the tour was the head tour guide/owner of the company.  He did all the explanations of the different dishes and districts that we went to.  While we were eating he kind of just stood over the table watching his employees.  He just seemed like a jerk and I got a bad feeling about him.  Other than that I had an amazing time with the opportunity to try many foods that I probably wouldn’t order by myself and I got to ride around on a motorbike for hours!  A great experience that I would recommend to anyone!


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

More food?

This time the food isn’t about what I ate, but stayed tuned for that because I went on a food tour around Ho Chi Minh last week.  Instead all of my lessons last week included food! 

My level three students first learned about the motion of the earth, moon, and sun.  After I explained the difference between revolution and rotation- I asked for volunteers to come up and play the parts of earth, moon, and sun.  They were supposed to rotate and revolve in the correct manner so that everyone got a visual.  As you can see by the videos below this didn’t exactly happen, but the students had a lot of fun and I think they ended up learning the concept.  I told them that if they earth, moon, and sun really moved like they did we would all be dead!



After we learned about the movement, I taught them the phases of the moon.  To reinforce this concept we made the phases of the moon out of oreo cookies.  I split the class into three groups and they had to work together to create the different phases by taking off the correct amount of cream and then labeling the phase.  This activity was a big hit- but it was very hard to keep the students from eating the cookies!



























Later in the week the level three students learned about the phases of matter.  We did a quick introduction to the three phases and how the atoms move in each phase.  Then to demonstrate movement from one phase to another we made ice cream!  To make ice cream you put milk, sugar, and flavoring in a small plastic bag (we used flavored milk juice boxes to make it a little easier).  You add ice and rock salt to a bigger plastic bag, put the small bag into the big bag and shake for about five minutes.  The students loved making the ice cream (even though they complained about the bag being cold while they were shaking) and enjoying their creation after.  Many students asked me for the recipe so they can make it at home!    The ice cream was a big hit with everyone but the cleaning lady- the room was a mess.  Water was everywhere but the kids had fun while learning that’s what important-right?!



































My level ones and twos learned about food.  The learned about the different food groups and how much of each group you are supposed to eat in a day.  They were shocked to find out that sweets get the smallest part of the pyramid.  I challenged them to go an entire day without eating sweets and report back to me- so far no one has told me they succeeded.  While I was explaining that you should really try and limit your sweets one student raised his hand and said, “But teacha what about bitter chocolate?”  I said, “Oh you mean dark chocolate- dark chocolate is better for you but should still only have a few pieces.”  The student was very happy with this because “bitter chocolate is my favorite.”  After listening to my explanation and naming all of the foods of each food group they could think of I handed out plates and had the students draw their favorite of each food group.  The students were really enthusiastic about this activity but some were bummed because they didn’t know how to draw their favorite foods.  After the activity we enjoyed a healthy snack of crackers and a banana (everytime I wrote banana on the board throughout this lesson I need helped from Gwen Stephanie B-A-N-A-N-A-S).  When I anounced that we will be having bananas one of my level one students screamed out, “BANANAS, I LOVE BANANAS, I’M LIKE MONKEY- I LOVE BANANAS!”  I couldn’t even yell at him for screaming out I thought it was the cutest thing!