Qualified Teacher, New House, Hospital Visit, Beer

I’m now a qualified ‘English as a Foreign Language’ teacher. Our CELTA course finished last Thursday 19th March and I got the result today.

I passed with a ‘Pass B’ which is a pretty decent mark (around 67% of people ‘pass’ 17% achieve ‘pass b’, 5% ‘pass a’ ) the rest either fail or drop out…

After working/studying 12hr days, 6 days a week it was a welcomed relief to finish the course. As I had been so busy doing CELTA and keeping up to date with the situation I had sort of forgotten that my AirBnB was coming to an end that Sunday (3 days later); I had to find somewhere to stay, fast. Luckily the modern marvels of technology allow you to put out a wee message and wait for the replies to come rolling in. It took a few hours and I had a number of offers to check out new apartments. The plan initially was to use the months following CELTA to travel southeast Asia – that obviously isn’t possible in the current climate.

The next day I duly jumped on my motorbike and made the trip around ‘West Lake’ to check out an apartment. I had a look around, met my potential flatmates and decided to take it. The area I live in now is on the East side of ‘Westlake’. This area is the ‘expat’ area, with many more western style bars, food outlets etc (more on that in a bit). My new household comprises of:

• A French guy (doing a semester abroad in Hanoi, but all classes online)
• An English/Spanish guy (was meant to be travelling but now in Hanoi)
• A German girl (doing a semester abroad in Hanoi, but all classes online)
• A Spanish girl (doing a semester abroad in Hanoi, same course as the french guy)

I decided to move in with these guys because we’re all roughly the same age, and all impacted by what’s going on in the world at the moment. I didn’t really fancy staying myself in a random apartment in a new country with the very real possibility of a lockdown. It was a good decision – we all give each other enough space but also go out together, have a drink in the house, cook some food etc. I’ve signed up and paid to be here until at least the beginning of July – seems like this is home for the time-being.

The 11 people who were on my CELTA course have inevitably taken off for pastures new; cities in Vietnam, Cambodia and Taipei. Here’s a picture of most of the team before we split-up:

It really was a pleasure getting to know these guys; each had their own personality, stories and reasons for doing CELTA. We may be in different countries now, but we have our memories (and our group chat) – real friends for life I think. I spent more time with these guys in a month than I think I did with my family in 6 months!

Although I was excited for CELTA to finish (and finally have a long lie) I can taste a lingering nostalgia. I didn’t think I’d ever say this but I almost miss having to get up early and stay up late, working… The biggest thing I miss is the sense of community and camaraderie we had as a group. A common purpose that we were all working toward and just when we started to get into what psychologist Bruce Tuckman coined as the ‘performing’ phase we had to disband. The course taught me a few things about myself, the importance of teamwork and gave me a newfound appreciation for the educators in our society. Will I ever teach English? I’m not sure, but even if I decide to take a different path I know the last month was not wasted.

Hospital

On my final few days of the CELTA course I started to lose hearing in my left ear. Initially I thought that it may have been stress related (despite not feeling any more stressed than normal). I decided to google and self-medicated with some ear drops in the hope it would clear up. On the fourth morning I woke up completely deaf in my left ear and started to take the whole situation more seriously. However it is not the best time to need to visit a hospital… I put it off for one more day but when I started to lose my balance I knew a trip to the doctor was inevitable. I convinced a friend to ‘chum’ me along to the hospital in Truc Bach (an area which 4 weeks ago was placed under a 2 week quarantine order). I arrived at the hospital and had to fill out a number of forms detailing my arrival date in Vietnam, any areas I had travelled to (lucky 0 as I’d been stuck in a school 12 hrs a day) and had my temperature taken five times over a 30 minute period. When the doctors, in full protective hazmat gear, were comfortable I was not carrying COVID-19 I was allowed to enter the hospital. Oh and I also got a green sticker to show to people inside, to let them know I was ‘safe’:

Once I got inside the hospital I was very surprised; it was completely deserted, Not another patient in sight! This wasn’t some expensive private hospital either, just a standard Vietnamese hospital! I was ushered around to a few different departments until I ended up on the fourth floor and noticed a sign ‘Nose, Throat & Ear‘ – well at least I’m in the right place I thought to myself. Despite the language barrier it is surprisingly easy to explain to someone what’s wrong – point at sore area e,g, ear then make a sad face, repeat until message is understood. After waiting on the fourth floor for a few minutes the nurse returned with the nose, throat and ear doctor who then asked me what was wrong. I explained the symptoms and she proceeded to stuck a camera up both my nostrils, down my throat and finally into both of my ear canals. After some poking she found the problem, sucked the living day lights out of my left ear and I could finally hear again. Turns out I had an infection which caused some wax to get stuck to my eardrum which then meant I couldn’t hear anything. As I could only hear out one ear I had stopped listening to music for a week or so. I will never take having both ears for granted again! It’s weird feeling like you’re living underwater.

Something else funny happened at the end of my appointment… People over here are quite obsessed/interested in my height. After having been poked in most holes with a camera and the problem rectified, the doctor asked how tall I was. I assumed this was for her forms, or as part of working out what dosage of medicine to prescribe. As I’m asked so regularly I know my height (197cm) so I told her ‘I’m 197cm’ . The nurse and the doc then started to laugh and didn’t believe me. I was marched out of the surgery room, made to stand on some scales and duly had my height taken to the absolute amusement of both of them. It was quite surreal and I didn’t really understand what was going on until I was on the scales, being laughed at by two medical professionals in full hazmat gear. They were taking the piss out of my height! It reminded me that in moments of great pressure, worry etc it’s still ok to have some fun. It was such an insignificant part of the whole doctor trip but it made it worthwhile, and human.

After fixing my hearing, completing the CELTA course and finding a new place to live I didn’t really have much else to do. There is news that Hanoi will enter a state of lockdown from tomorrow (Saturday 28th March). The streets have been quieter here for a number of weeks, and some businesses have been shut for a while.

Before everything shuts I did manage to try two very different but delicious dishes:

I also spotted something in the fish shop, ingeniously named ‘Fryday’, that made my heart warm (or maybe clog), see above.

Wishing everyone back home lots of love! The storm will pass and we can all get back to eating our deep-fried mars bars soon enough.

Inabit x