Swimming Lessons

(PICTURE: Huyen loving her first time in a pool.)

Last weekend I expanded my teaching resume -- I taught Huyen how to swim. Huyen not only couldn't swim, but she had NEVER BEEN IN A POOL...and didn't own a bathing suit. Here's some footage:



(PICTURE: After about fifteen minutes of swimming Huyen was exhausted)

My Aunt Ronny

Growing up all of my favorite paintings in my childhood home were done by the same artist -- my Aunt Ronny. My Aunt Ronny is a fantastic artist (along with being an extremely accomplished equestrian rider). After teaching art for over twenty years in public schools, my Aunt recently had her first solo art show.

The show opened on March 14 at the Wallkill River School in Montgomery, New York. Her art was exhibited in the Patchett House, an old historic building. Besides my aunts's art, she also had a book of her art statements and accomplishments on display. One of my aunt's most important statetments is that: "Painting has helped me to learn about the world that I live in. I look forward to sharing these visual experiences."

When I first moved to Vietnam, my Aunt, being a teacher, gave me some advice. She told me: "Just remember to make it fun and you are the teacher not the friend." I've taken her words to heart this past year and applied them to my classroom. I've found that a fun classroom makes all the difference in energizing kids and adults to learn. Also, when you act as a teacher first, friendship often comes out of it.

Recently, when I asked my Aunt about her time teaching in public school she told me that, "I hope that I passed along something special to each and everyone of my students. Many times students would tell me that they would never make money studying art. I did tell them though that they would use art everyday...in just picking out their clothes...making choices with color. Arranging their rooms---spatial relationships...and the list goes on. I loved to teach art and I guess because I like to make art."

This upcoming week my Aunt's work will be in a group show at the ART STUDENTS LEAGUE on 57th Street. If you're in New York, stop by!

Here's some pictures of a few of my Aunt's paintings:

Harmonica

I'm a failure. That's right, I'm a total and utter failure. I had one goal for this past year -- to learn how to play the harmonica. A couple weeks before I departed America, I went to Toys 'R Us with my sister. Why were we at Toys 'R Us? Want to guess? You'll never guess. My sister was "teething" and we bought her a baby's teething toy. Yeah, I kid you not. Some people think Obama is too young to be president, well he's got employees who are still using baby teething toys.

Anyway, while we were at Toys 'R Us we picked up a new Scrabble and a new RISK to play with my Dad as he recovered from heart surgery. While we were wondering around the aisles my eyes drifted to the music section. I saw a harmonica in a package that said, "Learn & Play Harmonica." Also written on the package was "Instructional Book. Learn Notes, Chords, Rhythms And Songs..." You might be asking how I know what exactly what written on the package. Well, I'll tell you: I'm looking at the package. Yeah, I haven't opened it. I've got less than a month to learn how to play...

AIG

You can't drive/walk/ride a block in Hanoi without seeing a sign for AIG. Well, not a sign per see, but a jersey with AIG written on it. For those of you who don't know, AIG is a sponsor of the Manchester United football club. Man U, as my students often call it, is by far the most popular football team among the Vietnamese. It is no exaggeration to say that at least three students in all of my classes own a Manchester United jersey.

I'm definitely no financial wiz and can't claim to be that smart when it comes to the financial bailouts that are happening in America BUT doesn't the USA kind of own AIG these days? And if that is the case, does that mean the USA is sponsoring Manchester United?

I Hate You, Ben August

It is amazing how quickly a good day can turn into a bad day.

Yesterday I was having a great great day. After finishing my 9-11 AM class, I prepared my next few classes ahead of time and then met Huyen for lunch (something we can't often do anymore since her new job is farther away and she has less free time). After lunch I went to the swimming pool and swam for an hour. When I walked back into my room at 1:50 I felt fantastic. I looked at my phone on my desk and saw that I had 5 missed calls. I figured Language Link needed a sub because nobody else ever calls me in the middle of the day. I looked at the call register and indeed Huong, the class coordinator, had called me. I called Huong back figuring, heck, I've got nothing to do so I'll sub. Huong answered her phone in tears: "Ben, where were you?"
BEN: Um, I was at the pool (I wanted to tell her how my belly was starting to shrink a little but she didn't seem in the mood.)
HUONG: You were supposed to cover Peter's class!
BEN: What?
HUONG: You were supposed to cover Peter's class! Everyone yelled at me because of you.
BEN: I'm really sorry but I didn't know I was supposed to cover Peter's class.
HUONG: Don't say sorry. I hate you Ben August (yes, that's an exact quote).
BEN: Huong, I don't know what to say but I literally had no idea I was supposed to cover Peter's classes. I covered for him on Friday and Sunday and he was at school this morning (Peter was indeed in the teachers' room while I was there earlier in the morning).
HUONG: It doesn't matter that he was here he isn't teaching today.
BEN: Honestly, I'm sorry but I didn't know.
HUONG: I sent you an email about you covering last week.

As she said this I pulled up the email. The email had a chart in it for people to cover Peter's classes. This is the chart:

Class	Time	Date	Cover teacher
YL MV2	Sun, 8.30-10.00	Sunday, Apr 5	Ben A.
TE IN2	Sun, 10.15-11.45
TE PI2	Sun, 14.00-15.30
TE PI3	Sun, 16.00-17.30
GE PI2	MWF 13.30-15.30	Fri, Apr 3 Wed, Apr 8	Ben A.
GE IN2	MWF 5.45-7.15		Matt C
GE EL3	MWF 7.30-9.00		Jonathan
Viettel	TT 5.45 - 7.20	Tue, Apr 7	Imran

It is amazing how one line can make a difference. I had looked at the chart and saw Friday, April 3rd next to my name. I thought that was the only day I was covering besides Sunday. However, since the line wasn't below Friday, April 3rd it meant I was supposed to cover Wednesday too. Yeah, my bad. Even though I truly had no idea I was supposed to teach (I even told the class that I covered on Friday that Peter would be back on Wednesday) I'm definitely to blame on this one. The rest of the afternoon I felt like total crap that I had caused a nice girl to cry.

Happy Birthday Part 1

Just a warning, there will be a few birthday blogs this month. For some reason it seems that half my friends are born in April and the beginning of May. Today, April 7th, USA time, kicked off my first friends' birthdays.

My buddy Seth -- who some thought was my brother in college -- is one of the best guys you'll ever meet. It was nine years ago that we celebrated Seth's 21st birthday in Madrid, Spain. Because of that trip I got my first case of salmonella. Yes, my first case.

Some of us have aged over the years but Seth hasn't. Some think it is due to his daily side bending exercises while others think it's because he's always keeping life interesting by switching the city he lives in and the job he works at.

Oh, and in Madrid we celebrated another birthday too: Jamie Shapiro's.

When I say "first friends" I really mean it with Jamie. My mother and Jamie's mother took Lamaze classes together when they were pregnant with us. Actually, I shouldn't say "together" since my mom taught the class. Oh, and for those of you who are curious, my mom's teaching paid off for Mrs. Shapiro who delivered Jamie by natural child birth. As far as my mom -- the Lamaze teacher -- she had a C-section!

Happy birthday Jamie and Seth!!!

Monorail

From time to time I've commented about the traffic in Hanoi. Okay, I've commented about it a lot (including yesterday). However, I need to get my jibes in because in just a few years Hanoi will have no traffic problems. That's right, the city is getting a mass transit system.

Check out this youtube video of the plans for Hanoi's monorail which they'll be breaking ground on next year: MONORAIL VIDEO

There are tons of funny things about the video but I'll just comment on one: why are all the people white?

The cool thing is that the monorail will stop right next to Language Link. If you watch the video Language Link is the building directly to the right of the Horisson Hotel. If I'm still working at Language Link -- say around 2064 when this thing is completed -- the train will be quite convenient.