Vespas are cool ☺

Hey everyone,

I’d like to announce (rather late) that Michelle Miossi and I are traveling to Vietnam in August to teach at the American International School for two years!!! I will be teaching Kindergarten and she will be teaching 2^nd Grade! WE are VERY excited!!! The school is in Ho Chi Mihn City (Siagon), which is a city of 8.5 million people!! Not too much more than Ames’ 30,000 (60,000 when school is in session) right!?!? It’s practically the same. ;) There are also 4 million motorbikes in the city! That’s Iowa’s population in motorbikes!! I will attach a link for you to see how the traffic looks that I am going into!! It’s nuts! We get to rent Vespa’s (a motorbike/moped type thingy) which I must admit was a major selling point! Ever since I saw the movie Penelope, where Reece Witherspoon drives a Vespa, I’ve had my heart on someday zooming around a populated city on a Vespa. (It’s a super cute kids movie J go watch it!) Hooray dreams do come true!! A huge thanks to all of my cooperating/supervising teachers, supervisors, students, mentors, friends and family! I have learned so much from you all. You have each individually played a part in making me into the person/teacher-to-be that I am today! Thank you for investing your time into my life and career! Hopefully all that work pays off and I don’t become a huge flop out there. That would be a bummer! J just kidding! Also , Thanks again Sarah for helping us out at the fair! I have no idea how that would've gone with out you!

 

Traffic videos:

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phFYiMGCIY

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-8BObPsfg8

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfpny1mifs4&feature=related

Picture 1: Ho Chi Mihn City/ Siagon

Population: 8.5 million, yep, m-i-l-l-i-o-n

A market place in HCM

I will take real pictures, of course, when I get there!

Ha Long Bay in Northern Vietnam

I hope to visit here someday, breathtaking isn't it!?

The Chinese Junk boats that take you on tours of Ha Long Bay, COOL!

On a school specific note, we are very blessed to have been offered a job from this school. I will have about 12-15 kids in my kindergarten class, which is practically UNHEARDOF in the States!! Well, I guess for public schools. Every class has a Promethean smart board in the class (whoo hoo!!!) I will have an aid in my class to help me with translating to my students who will just be beginning to learn English! The Director of the schools informed us that he has a “hands-off” policy for his principals. No, that’s not physically speaking, stick with me here!! It’s more like “no interference.” We basically have standards that our students are supposed to reach and we can do that how ever think is best, that includes assessments!! Again, WHOO HOO. I do think there are a few assessments we have to do, sort of like placement and progress monitoring, but mostly up to our discretion! I must say that I am really excited to actually be able to use what I learned in New Zealand and put it to good use!! J So, more on that as I learn about it!

The amount of nervousness of moving to a huuuuge city, where I know ONE phrase (then thoy la—I have no idea if I spelled that right- which means my name is______), the language is hard to learn, and there are jungles with tigers, PALES in comparison to how nervous I am to have my OWN classroom, with my OWN students that depend on ME alone (and my aid), not my cooperating teacher, to succeed. It’s terrifying. I suppose being nervous is good though, it shows that I care right?  EEP! I’m sure I will have PLENTY of hilarious kid stories to share with you guys!

Me after a day with fresh Kindergardeners!

Haha

A picture taken from my school's website from their Halloween Parade :) How fun is that!?

Well, until then I will be nannying a beautiful one-year old happy boy (1^st Birthday is tomorrow J Happy birthday kiddo!) a few days a week, hopefully subbing soon, and hopefully some other part time jobs that I am still hunting for. So wish me luck, I have lots to save up for and big bills headed my way! Life’s a-moving fast and it’s hard to keep up sometimes! There’s so much to do, so little time, so don’t waste any and get out there!

Until next time,

Xin Chao (Vietnamese for good bye!)

Krystal

New Year: New Game Plan

Ok, so I think I am going to start over. I didn't do so well keeping up with blogging... Obviously. I am impressed with the people that can blog several times a week! That's a lot! Where do you find time to sit down and write? I suppose I should just make myself sit down and do it, it feels good when I'm done. Haha. Anyway.

So New Year.

So far this year, I spent the month of January doing my student teaching practicum for my ESL endorsement. That's English as a Second Language. It was fun. I was teaching Kindergarten and 2nd Grade ELS. Some was pull out and some was inclusive groups in the classroom. My placement was in Marshalltown where the amount of students learning English as their second language was very high. It was a very positive experience and I learned a great deal from my supervising teacher.

Then two days later (yesterday the 3rd of February) I take of to Waterloo, Iowa for the UNI International Career Fair. Where over 100 schools come from all over the world to fill international teaching jobs! So Michelle Miossi (one of my fellows teachers from New Zealand) and I packed up and headed to town. Today is day two and we have 3 interviews today for Turkey, Bahrain, and Thailand. Yesterday we had one in Poland, and tomorrow we have Vietnam and Indonesia. We are really hoping to get an international job! We got the bug in New Zealand! The travel the world bug! My mom's cousin's daughter  (I think that is the relation) Sarah has been a HUGEEE help and question answer-er for us! We couldn't have been this pre-pared or relatively low level of stress without her. This is her 3rd UNI fair and has been teaching abroad for 5 years! Thanks a ton Sarah!

I'll post later when I know if we get a job or not! We have our fingers crossed!!!!!!!

yay, I posted! :)