Trip to Danang

Conference in Danang

Last week, I went to Danang to attend the GloCALL conference (Globalization and Localization in Computer Assisted Language Learning) – basically, it’s a conference on technology and language education. There were a lot of interesting presentations, but the best part was getting to meet other teachers, professionals, and fellows at the conference.

thanksgiving lunch - I had the vegetarian version without turkey or gravy :)

The conference started on November 28^th, which is Thanksgiving, so I met the other fellows for a Thanksgiving lunch at a place called “Bread of Life.” It’s a non-profit restaurant/bakery that trains and employs deaf people in Vietnam. The food was great, the staff was friendly, and the owner was a real chatter box! It was definitely a nice way to start off the conference and spend Thanksgiving away from home.

more singing and dancing

All Conferences in Vietnam start with Singing and Dancing

During the conference, I also met with leaders from the National Foreign Languages 2020 project (NFL2020), which is a government initiative to train all the teachers in Vietnam and improve the standard of English education throughout the country. Since I’m supposed to be contributing to the project by working at the regional language center in Hue, it was a good chance to get better acquainted with the project and meet other people involved in NFL 2020.

Out to Dinner with the English Language Fellows
from Danang, Vietnam and Chiang Mai, Thailand

On the Right - Jill, Senior Fellow in Hanoi

I was also able to spend a lot of time with the other English Language Fellows. Since we work in different cities and even in different countries, we don't get to meet each other often. One night we went out for pizza (which was amazing! I hadn't eaten pizza in over three months!), and another evening we took a trip to a nearby tourist city called Hoi An. It was great to hear about the different activities other fellows are doing and even about some of the challenges they face. 

Homestay in Danang

While attending the conference, I was also able to stay with the family of one of my mother’s friends in Danang. They were just amazing! My mother’s friend’s two sisters and brother live in a house in Danang, and they agreed to let me stay there. I felt a little guilty, though, because they called their mother to come visit and help cook food for me. I also caused a lot of confusion/problems by being vegetarian – they weren’t really sure what to buy or cook for me, as the family loves eating lots of meat!

Birthday Party

birthday cake - yum!

The first night I arrived, there was a big birthday party for one child in the family. He was turning two years old, so we had a lot of food and cake! The little boy received a lot of presents too. During the week, the youngest daughter would usually pick me up from the conference and take me to different places along with her boyfriend - I saw the dragon bridge, and one night we went to a bar to hear a Filipino band sing. The whole family was always looking out for me - One morning I accidentally locked myself in the bathroom after my shower. The lock was on the outside of the door, so I couldn't get out! I didn't want to wake up anyone, but as I was thinking about what to do, the mother appeared in the hallway. I motioned to her to unlock the door, and the whole family laughed about it over breakfast later. 

one of the best dishes I've eaten in Vietnam!

Before I left, the mother made me one of the best dishes I have eaten in Vietnam – they told me what it’s called, but I already forgot. It was noodles with a vegetable soup and lots of lettuce and other herbs added in. I also bonded a lot with the family dog – being a little dirty, most people ignored him, so he was really grateful to get attention from me and started following me around the house. Anyways, the family was so sweet and caring – I wish I could have stayed with them longer!

homestay family

homestay family

2^nd Thanksgiving

I returned to Hue on Sunday, and one of my expat friends here was organizing a Thanksgiving dinner. So, I picked up some food at the grocery store and headed over to her house for my second Thanksgiving meal of the week. We were a little limited by the types of ingredients we could find in the store, and also by the cooking equipment available (only two people had access to an oven), but we had chicken, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, and apple crumble – not a bad spread, all things considered. For some of the Vietnamese people at the dinner, it was their first chance to celebrate Thanksgiving, and for the expats, it was a nice way to share a tradition while far away from home. Overall, it was a great ending to a wonderful week!