Museums, Teaching, the End approaching

Hey folks,

it's the 31st of August and soon I will have to say goodbye to Hanoi and my friends. I can really say that I have got used to living here. Including crazy motorbike rides (which I do myself by now ^^) brilliant food, and even the sometimes unbearable heat. I hope I will see many of my new friends again, in the future. But I'm also looking forward to see my friends and family in Germany again.

Today I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (yes I know I'm a bit late, but I've only started reading Harry Potter this Winter, when I got the first part from my beloved brother Nico for Christmas ;) ) This book was so exciting. And, seriously, I was afraid Harry wouldn't make it. How could he possibly defend himself against the AVADA KEDAVRA Spell. But he did. And "He who must not be named" had to give in once more. I'm so excited about the next book. :)

Teaching goes on well. I'm getting the grib on how to teach, including repeating stuff endlessly, until students learn it, do fun-stuff from time to time and reviewing the last class. I still get a lot of positive feedback. Still, sometimes I feel that I'm just no professional phonetics teacher. Which is rather true ;)

I'm also coordinating a workcamp now. I'm responsible for a project in a disabled center, where short term volunteers (2 weeks) join disabled children in producing handicrafts liken textile flowers for sale. Up to now I'm not hearing complaints but I'll see how it goes.

Together with this post I'm sending you two picture galleries. One is about Halong Bay on request of Katjes. The other one is about the Museum of Ethnology, which we visited today. It's easily the most interesting museum I've seen here, with lots of carefully investigated information about the 54 different Ethnic groups living in Vietnam, complete with traditional dresses, 1:1 models of traditional houses and a very interesting account of the "Bao Cap"-Period, which describes the era of communist planned economy between 1975-1986.
Being ridden by the typical problems in production and distribution of goods, this system of collectives in agriculture and production and coupons for buying goods like rice or vegetables meant scarcity and hardship for most Vietnamese people. It stands in stark contrast to the the level of standard of living that Vietnam has achieved in the years until today, opening to the world markets and recently joining the WTO.

Museum of Ethnology Picture Gallery

Halong Bay Picture Gallery

Here is one more album. It's about our visit to the War Museum. The museum features planes, tanks and weapons from the Vietnamese army and those captured from the Americans. There's also abundant information about the great victories of the glorious (North-)Vietnamese war heroes over the American- and French armies. Please kindly excuse Steve's, Arno's and my playing around with the war-equipment. I guess that's genetic with boys. :)

War Museum Picture Gallery