Friday, February 21, 2014

Today I went into my first Vietnamese public school to observe two ESL kindergarten classes – one with 5 year-olds and one with 4 year-olds.  It was so different from working at a language school.  For one, it was more open, walking between classes outdoors, instead of in one large building.  It was also more colourful with student work displayed all over.  Unfortunately, the CD players don’t work and technology is not often used because it is so unreliable.  Also, the classes are also much larger – 25-30 children instead of 6-12 like in my language school classes.  The native English teachers I observed gave me some good ideas though, and it got me excited to begin teaching there! The kids were so energetic and enthusiastic, it’s hard not to let it catch on – it’s contagious!

Following the observation, I went to sort out getting a 1 month tourist visa extension, which is necessary while I wait for my working visa to be finished. Then Patrick and I spent the rest of the evening working on lesson plans, which has become pretty time-consuming, but I know it will become faster as we get into the swing of things and understand how our classes and curriculum are put into practice.

For dinner we ended up ordering in pad thai through the online food delivery service, vietnammm.  Mmmm.  It was delicious chicken and shrimp pad thai and cost about $4 for one. I was so hungry though that I didn’t want to leave the kitchen and go downstairs to find my phone. Sooo, no photo!

BUT, here’s a shot of another food that I just stumbled upon at a grocery store on the corner of my street... it’s called a salted duck egg, but at the time, I had no idea what is was called because there was no English on the packaging.  I was just intrigued by it being really big and – get this – black. Covered completely in a thick layer of charcoal. When I bought it, I figured it was already cooked through and expected a boiled egg inside.  You’ll imagine our surprise when we washed off the charcoal, cracked the egg to peel it and instead were presented with an uncooked egg! Patrick quickly rescued it and put it in a pan and fried it up.  But that was not the only surprise. Patrick took a bite and looked skeptically at it, remarking that he hadn’t remembered adding that much salt. I tried some and wow – the white part is REALLY salty and the yolk is nice and rich. At this point, I just had to Google this. “Charcoal egg Vietnam” brought me to some real insight.  They’re called salted duck eggs and are most common in the Philippines, Vietnam and China.  The duck eggs are left for weeks in salty brine and go through a long preparation process.

 Learn more about blackened salted duck eggs here.

Needless to say, I definitely can’t eat an egg like that on its own.  It needs to be in a sandwich with veggies or with rice and stir-fried vegetables, udon noodles or something else that will balance out the saltiness.  Time to get creative!