APU Students
Fifty Vietnamese students are flying to Seattle in the next week to start a new life. None of them, barring 2 or 3 students, have ever traveled abroad and they are now leaving their family, home and country for four years. Many of them have asked me what to prepare before they leave.
"Warm clothes..." (obviously)
"Photo's of your family..." (kinda goes without saying)
"A camera?" (Uh, duh!!)
But it's become very clear that these aren't the items that we need to inform them of. It's basic things like how big carry on luggage should be, whether it's OK to take medicine into the country, how they'll be able to buy food, where they'll be able to live etc. etc. that is really plaguing them.
Traveling is such a natural part of my life that I no longer think about what to pack or what to do. I'm jealous of and nervous for all those boys who really don't know what they're about to enter into. Most of them have worked on airplanes for many years but few know the feeling of surging into the skies. They've all watched American movies and spoken to U.S citizens but none of them have ever seen an American street, eaten American food, looked at American people. I can not imagine the apprehension and nerves that must accompany their trip. My heart will fly to Seattle tomorrow. I miss them a lot already. They've been such an integral, wonderful part of my time in Saigon and APU is feeling deserted and empty without their crazy smiles and energy.
Bon Voyage Guys and keep in touch!! Here are a few photo's of your time at APU... Chao!
posted by HH at 4:00 PM
2 Comments:
Is this a way to pimp yourself into the journalism business? How much are they paying you. Not enough, I guarantee you that.
9:28 AM
hi,
i stumbled onto your site after looking at matt's site (that's his name right? i got his site off the toilanguoi site (the guy who wrote it is named dave, right?)
but anyway...
i'd like to say that it's really damn cool and noble of you to work in vietnam and help to advance the future of the country with your skills. i'm in high school right now, planning on being a pharmacist, but i also would like to go back and teach kids over there. i'm sort of shaky on the speaking, but excellent on the hearing, and perfect in speaking english. i think it'd be great to teach english. how can i go about doing something like that? i'll be graduating hs in one year, and i'll most likely be going back either after i graduate or after my freshman year in college. is it possible for viet kieu's spending some time in a school, university, or even an IB school teaching english? would there be an opportunity to at least observe english being taught at schools? i think the chance would be really great.
what do you think about your life in hcmc? are you australian, brit, or american? and would you have any regrets for committing yourself to this kind of project?
by the way, the pics of your house look amazing. your floors don't even look dusty! i wonder how you'd could manage keeping the saigon dust out of your house like that. no shoes policy would result in getting nasty black soles in other houses.
and again, thanks for choosing such an awesome occupation.
if you'd like to respond, i'd greatly appreciate it. my email is vu.vince@gmail.com
5:33 AM
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