I feel that it's notable to talk about food because there is a lot of different food here. A typical Asian breakfast is not at all what you would expect in America. What I've been having lately is soup. I have soup for breakfast. There is a cafe about ten minutes from the hotel and the breakfast section is essentially pho. What I tend to get is the regular one which has many different kinds of meat and is getting me acquainted with the food here. It has beef, pork, chicken, a shrimp, and squid. It is delicious. I also have that with coffee. The coffee here is about ten times stronger than any human would be willing to drink. Apparently I'm not human. The coffee is about three times stronger than an espresso shot and you get a small amount. I can drink it but not without wincing. Today I had some breakfast food that I bought at the grocery store. I bought a bun with some chicken inside for about 45 cents. The other thing that I bought that I have yet to try is a baguette with chicken inside. I had the bun this morning and was kind of skeptical of it but I ate it and it was delicious and filling.
I also need to talk about dinner last night as it was fantastic in every sense of the word. Almost every single Language Corps person was there, meaning we had a party of about 30! This restaurant was beautiful. It was located directly by the riverside and where I was sitting, I got a perfect view of the river. I was awestruck at how amazing this view was. The river had lit tour boats going on it. The restaurant also had live music and dancing. The dancing seemed to be traditional and it was very intentional movements in time to the music. I can compare that to the dancing you would see in a kabuki play, where the movements are very precise. I had an amazing meal, I had a traditional Cambodian dish called fish amok. It was fantastic! It was a mixture of cooked fish mixed with lemongrass and other spices inside a banana leaf which was in the shape of a cup. Absolutely amazing.
Today was my first day of the TESOL training program. I can honestly say it won't be terribly difficult but it will be challenging as there are 4 weeks being in class for 8 hours a day! I can say that it will be bearable because we do get several breaks throughout the day. Our teachers are pretty cool, I swear my teacher named Billy looks like a very tan Bill Murray. We were given our course supplies and the day was broken into two three hour segments or four hour and 45 minute segments. We were given a workbook which is really cool because they have their own pages where we can take notes on a given subject. For lunch I can proudly say that my whole meal cost one dollar. ONE DOLLAR! I had a sandwich with some meat inside and you can fill it with Asian coleslaw with some chicken as well. I also had a coke with it. I loved this meal! After lunch we continued our day by learning about some basic teaching strategies. I will elaborate on these later (probably). For the last period we learned how to write resume's. I found this lesson very helpful to me. So sorry I don't feel like elaborating a whole lot about school but I just got back after an 8 hour day and I need to desensitize. I went into such detail about food because I'm pretty hungry. Note: I am actually 14 hours ahead of Seattle.
Till next time.
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