These feet were made for walkin'...

And that's just what they do!  

I am not sure if I have ever walked so much in my life, and the year has just begun.  I really am thankful for the exercise, but I have definitely noticed how tired my legs are at the end of the day.  It takes about 10 minutes (minimum) to walk from our apartment on campus to the nearest food shop, market, little store or post office.  I cannot get a moto (since this is my first year in Asia), and I have not yet braved the one team bicycle.  There is definitely a major sense of losing independence- I miss Charlie (my Chevy Cavalier), and I miss the bus system in Hanoi.  There are taxis available here- although it is pricey ($2.00 on average one way to the center of town).  Ok, definitely not expensive compared to the States, but it adds up here :)  I also have to think ahead more about what I want to accomplish on my outings, and give myself a big chunk of time to get things done.  Everything takes longer here- errands by foot, cooking from scratch without a stove or microwave (just one gas burner), dishes without a dishwasher, laundry drying on the line, you name it.  

Yes, there's a lot to adjust to.  However, I think there is a beautiful simplicity to this life.  The days are definitely full, but they do not feel so hectic or busy.  Maybe that will come with time as I get to know more people here, we'll see.  I am also taking in the community atmosphere of life here.  I am SO individualistic in my life, so it has been a great learning experience to watch how the Vietnamese people do every part of life together- whether it be students crowded together under umbrellas, friends of the same sex walking arm-in-arm, guests crowding our bathroom to wash dishes together, or four people together on a motobike.  I think so many countries understand and live out community as the Father intended us to live life together.  I'm exciting to continue on this learning journey.

Anyway, that was quite a tangent... back to my point about walking...I walk everywhere unless our team leader gives me a ride on the back of her moto- which I thoroughly enjoy.  For the most part, the traffic is not bad at all here in DaLat.  I am EXTREMELY thankful for my chacos... they are comfortable, sturdy, and perfect for walking in the rain.

Speaking of which, I am also getting used to taking my umbrella with me every time I leave the house.  It's quickly become an essential.  I never used to carry an umbrella back home, but it is now part of life.  A student told me today that my umbrella seemed small.  It is a simple blue/white/red plaid... but it brings me joy to use it because it was my grandma's umbrella.  She passed away last year, but I think she would love to know that I brought her umbrella with me to Vietnam.

Before I give these tired legs a rest for the night, I wanted to share a picture taken outside my apartment from my first day of school (9-15-08)... this time as a teacher!

PS- I would appreciate your thoughts regarding finding a good language tutor soon!!

Classes, Carriage-Rides, Chrysanthemums, & Chips...

• Thanks for uplifting our teaching schedules.  We are still working out some final details, but two of us started teaching classes this week.  I taught two sections of Speaking to Sophomores for 1 hr. 40 min. at a time Monday and Thursday.  The time flies by way too fast.  Here are some students from one of the classes.  There are about 50 students in each classes, so I am a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of learning all of their names.  They LOVE to hear me try to pronounce them though :)  The girls way outnumber the boys, and the boys mostly sit in the back.  Next week I will probably add some Senior Journalism classes which will definitely keep me busy.  Please keep asking the Father to give me wisdom as I adjust to this new role of teacher, and ask that He would give me His love for my new students.

• My teammate and roommate Maren turned 23 last weekend!  Our team celebrated her birthday by taking her to a sweet little place called "V Cafe" for dinner. They have great Western and Asian options... I had a big burrito of all things!  You'll notice the candles on the tables in the photo- every 4 days the electricity goes out from about 4-8 pm.  Our school warned us about this... so we wear headlamps around the house and burn candles and use an "electric lantern" which we charge before the electricty goes out (and hopefully we've charged our computers too).  We are quite proud that we have made several meals with no electricity- it's definitely an adventure!  Ok, back to the birthday extravaganza.  So it was pouring rain after we finished dinner, but we decided to brave it.  Maren had mentioned wanting to go around the lake in the one of the horse-drawn carriages, so we took her hint and went for a ride.  It was one of the funniest things I've done in my life.  My only idea of a carriage ride is from the U.S.- a quiet, slow, romantic type of carriage ride.  However, we though we were going to flip over and die as our horse took off at a full gallop!  All of us were screaming our heads off, getting pelted with rain, and laughing hysterically as we realized our horse-drawn-carriage was passing cars and motos.  It was so bizarre, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Happy Birthday Maren!!

• Last week, our team of four hosted an "open house" for 14 girls from the University that our team leader Karen had connected with last year.  We wanted to make it a special time for them, so we cleaned our apartment, bought fruit for snacks, prepared games, and bought flowers to give the girls as a little gift.  When they arrived, my teammate Maren had the great idea to do name tags to help us remember their names.  Since the girls each have their own "group" of friends they hang with, Maren, Karen, and I all played games with a different group of friends.  Jenny took another group to her apartment and made her newly invented and amazingly delicious MANGO bread to add to the fruit (which somehow resembles peach cobbler)!!  I taught 4 girls how to play UNO, and they absolutely loved the game.  It was so interesting to see how their facial expressions and reactions to "Draw 2" and "Skip" were so different from what I am used to... laughs and squeals at unique times.  Finally our time had come to an end, and we brought out some bright yellow chrysanthemums to give to each girl.  The room got quiet and faces were expressionless as we handed out the flowers.  I assumed the girls were sad to go.  However, as the last girl was about to step out the door, she approached us and said maybe later she would tell us a secret.  We invited her to go ahead and tell us what she wanted to say.  She was shaking as she quietly explained, "Teacher, this flower is for when the people die."  After our wide eyed open mouth shocked response, we all began to laugh hysterically.  The students said over and over, "No problem.  You did not know."  I think this is one of the most memorable cultural faux pas of my time in Asia so far.  Our team still laughs until we hurt on this one.
  

PS- We are quite proud of our food creations this week- french toast with syrup from the States (hooray- we finally found wheat bread), and... DRUMROLL PLEASE... chips and guacamole- all from scratch!  I kept looking for avocados, and finally found something that resembled an avocado, but it was SO massive... I didn't know the word for avocado, but it felt like one- so we asked the lady for three, and she told us that would be 30,000 VND (Vietnam Dong- pronounced "dome"- which is about $2.00).  So we pulled out a 20,000 VND bill, and she shrugged 'ok.' So she basically bargained for us before we even tried to pull out another 10,000 VND.  What a hoot.  This served as a reminder of how we are always charged excessively as foreigners.  Anyway, we bought won-ton skins at the market, fried them, and added some salt to make chips.  Go figure :)  So much for the healthy wheat bread.  Oh, and I must mention that we accidentally burned a plastic cooking utensil in the oil when making the chips... so we 'totalled' the utensil, plus made Jenny's entire apartment smell like smoke.  Needless to say, it was quite the endeavor, but well worth the yumminess.

New Address, Request, and Pictures . . .

Several have asked for my address, and I finally have it for you:

Suzy Fetherlin

Da Lat University

1 Phu Dong Thien Vuong

Da Lat, Vietnam

Please keep in mind that I must pay- depending on the weight of the item- to receive mail at the post office here.

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I also would really appreciate your thoughts for our class schedule.  We've had several meetings with school officials, and things are still up in the air as to how many classes each of us will be teaching, which classes we'll be teaching, and when we'll be teaching them.  It's a bit complex, but the decision will affect the rest of the year and possibly our availability to build relationships with students.  So please ask the Father to be at work in all of this.  We should begin teaching September 15th.  Thanks so much for remembering this!

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"Truong Dai Hoc Da Lat" (pronounced Chung Die Hop Da Lot): Dalat University.  I am standing at the front gate of the school.  Notice the lovely pine trees- the campus is beautiful (many more photos are on Facebook).

This was our first meal we ate in our apartment!  Peanut butter/banana sandwiches and dragon fruit for dessert :)  Cooking is going to be an adventure for sure.

Last Friday when we arrived, about 12 students came to welcome us and help us clean our new apartments!  It was so fun to meet these sweet girls right away and they were a huge help to us.

We are in DALAT!!

We have finally made it to Dalat.  Wow.  What a journey it's been these past few weeks through California training, Hanoi training, and VN country training.  I'm not sure I can handle much more training for a while :)  We have finally unpacked our suitcases after six weeks on the road.  We do not have internet yet in our rooms, so I'm posting from an internet cafe.

Dalat is SOOOO different from Hanoi- I am in a bit of culture shock.  The streets are much calmer and a honking horn is much more rare in Dalat.  The silence is shocking.  The sky is SO blue, we are in the mountains, and there are actually pine trees here (in a weird way, it kind of feels like Colorado).  The accent is different, the food is different, and the weather is probably the most noticeable difference.  It is so cool here and not humid.  I kind of miss the "glow" I was getting used to in Hanoi :)  It has been fun to wear my JBU sweatshirt again though!

For some reason, I thought we would be living about 1 mile off campus.  However, our apartments are right on the Dalat University campus.  This will be a plus when those 7 am classes start.  We thought we'd start teaching this Wednesday, but after meeting with department heads at the University today, we found out they want us to start teaching on Sept. 15.  So we will use these days to keep settling into our apartments and to start learning some Vietnamese and maybe even lesson plan a bit.  One challenge is that every week the class schedule changes... so I am definitely going to be stretched in flexibility this year.

I am sharing an apartment with my team member Maren.  Our apartments are HUGE!!  There are basically two big rooms with high ceilings (the front room will have our two desks as well as a sitting area for relaxing/having guests in, and the back room/loft has our beds, kitchen area, and bathroom).  I'll post pictures at some point :)  

Here are some updated answers/requests for you:

-Thank the Father for bringing us to this place safely- with nothing stolen and no major roadblocks along the way.

-My allergies have been ok so far- I am trusting for continued good health for myself and others on my team.  This is definitely a concern as good medical care is 5-7 hours away in Saigon.

-Please ask that we would use our days wisely.  Once school starts, the craziness won't stop!  So we really want to use our time well to prepare for the days and year ahead.

-Please ask that we would be able to really make our massive living area feel like home... it's a bit overwhelming.

-Uplift our unity as a team.  Karen, Jenny, and Maren are three major blessings in my life!

-Ask the Father to reveal to us early on who He is already nudging- that we may invest our time and energy in those.