Vietnam Technology Conference in Ho Chi Minh Last Weekend

Hue and Hoi An posts will have to wait.

VinTech was great.  SSIS in Ho Chi Minh and UNIS Hanoi set it all up.  One day of sessions, and a day of un-conferencing and speed-geeking.  I presented a speed-geeking talk on IWBs in the morning routine and how to do a cheap green screen.

We got a lot of great ideas.  One or so that we can use currently.  If we can get tablets or computers in the room, we'll have a ton of ideas to apply.  Presenters were other teachers from Vietnam rather than hired speakers.  It was a great way to get ideas from people who used them that week.
I've also decided to jump into Linux - Unbuntu.  The open source stuff that I learned about this weekend has hooked me.  Free, open source powerful video editors and word-like suite.

At the end of the conference they gave away prizes: 5, 16gb thumb drives, 500g external drive, blue tooth keyboard, 2 ipods and 1 ipad mini.  As people drew names out, the smaller gifts were given away.  The basket came to our table just in time for the last prize.  I reached up over my head and pulled a piece of paper out.  I handed it to the organizers and they read it.....Jeffrey Wrensen!!!!!  I won the iPad!  So now I've got every OS there is currently in my living room.  To be fair, it isn't a normal MacOS, but I'm on my way to being current with all of this technology.

One place you wouldn't expect to see frozen fish.....the airport. Enjoy this little gem as we took no other pictures this weekend.

This picture was taken in the Domestic area, after check-in. The only way to get this fish home is to store it in the overhead compartment. Now it is vietjet so every flight is 20mins to 3hrs late. For an 8:30 flight, needless to say, we boarded at 10pm.  Is this a situation where you want to have 2 kilos of fish thawing, then 2 hours on the plane, then deal with baggage claim?  NO! Especially when they let you bring knives on board... But that is a different true story of our time in Hanoi.


Overall. We are glad to be home here in Hanoi. Or as Evan calls it, HHaaannnOiii.

Sweaty Santa

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We needed a Santa for the Christmas Fair, and the beard just looked natural.

 

Every one wanted their picture with me including staff and their infants.  Anyone who isn't currently pregnant at our school, has a 1 year old.

These are two of the many toddler Santas.

My Assistant Teacher Ms Ha.

 This is the little sister of a girl I have in Math club, she and I have met a few times.  She was never quite sure if I was in a costume or not and had no idea who I was. She followed me around and petted my beard for about 2 hours.

Some of my 5th graders.

A co-worker who couldn't resist getting his picture taken.

The balloon animal guy copied my outfit.  I asked for a picture with him, he went rogue and hugged a little more enthusiastically than I am used to with strangers.

Janet and our friends were smart enough to sign up for hallway duty.  I don't see a hallway anywhere!

The Christmas Fair was on December 15th.  Everyone has warned us of the freezing horror that is Hanoi in winter.  Well the 85 degree weather was lovely, hot even.  A great day to dry laundry  out by the lake.

 A great day to prepare the lotus grids to hold the plants in place while they grow.

Construction is an on going thing everywhere you turn.

Selling corn by the lake.

Fishing on a narrow man-made dirt wall to separate the large lake from a small fishing/lotus pond.

50 feet from our door.  I have only one question.  How did he get to the perch without going swimming?

These weren't at the market before; snout otter clams.  All of my prices have been cut in half or more at the market.  It has paid off to go to the same people for the same things.

If you want fajitas but can't find tortillas, just throw it on a bun, delicious!

Merry Christmas from the Wrensen's!!!  Have a great time no matter where in the world you are. :)

Love,
Jeff and Janet

Cooking Vietnamese Street Food

We had a fun weekend of playing tourist again.  We took a class at the Hanoi Cooking School with some fellow teachers and some tourists.  The menu was Vietnamese street food which was makes sense.  We started off with some iced-...tea(?) made from a licorice tasting fruit that smelled like figs.  It wasn't bad, it wasn't good, it was unique.
First, we went to the local market in the Old Quarter.  It is a big version of the market that we shop at with a few more animal parts available.

How we buy our veggies if we don't go to Metro - we stick with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, potatoes, peanuts and cabbage.  We don't bother with the muddy greens or tofu.  The veggies are fresh as ever, but you have to wash a lot of dirt off most or them, especially potatoes and onions.

Bored of chicken eggs that have been laid?  No problem, we've got chicken uterus and un-laid eggs.  They are... fresher(?) than laid eggs?

We also had some eggs that were on the other end of the spectrum, but we'll get to that later.

Could one of these toads escape?  Of course!  One was hopping along the ground just seconds after I took this picture

In the market that we shop at, the toads aren't in bags.  They are tied together with plastic string and left to hop around.  If they could only hop in the same direction, the could escape, but alas, toads don't cooperate with each other.

Plastic string is used to tie up these crabs.

Tripe being made into sausage.

Chickens.

Prawns!!!!!  Not to cheap though, 7 bucks a pound.  Still less than half of what it would be in the US though.

If you're tired, just sleep next to the fish.

Escargo.

 Fish.

Clams in large flat shells, not sure what kind of clams they are.

Goose eggs in the closest basket.  Chicken eggs to the right and fertilized duck eggs in the bag in the second basket.  (we'll see the inside of those eggs soon).

Piggy ears.

Quail eggs are cheaper than any other type.

Lungs, intestines and everything else you find inside a pig.  I've never seen lungs for sale but everyone here had them.

Squirmy eels.

This pig is missing his eyes.

Pig face, should your recipe call for it, it is available in Hanoi.

If you're not into everything else.  You can also get normal cuts of meat.

We went back to the cooking school.  The class was a mixture of demonstration and preparing our part of the meal.  Everything was in dishes (sugar/fish sauce and such) and we did a bit of cutting and mixing.  It was fun and informative.  We had looked at other menu options that may have taught us more about cooking, but this was the most appropriate menu to learn even if it was quite easy.

 Rice vinegar with sugar dissolved into it.  Then add fish sauce, diced chili and garlic and fancy green papaya and carrot.

Those eggs I mentioned.  The fertilized duck eggs were weird but delicious.  It was boiled for about 15 minutes.  Long enough to cool the yoke and the tiny baby duck.

 

See the little duck guy in there?  With a dash of dried chili and salt it tastes like hard boiled egg and duck.

We also made some normal food.  Spring rolls:

Vietnamese green papaya salad (with the same sauce as the dipping sauce).

Flambeing some bananas covered in sugar.  These were later simmered in coconut milk with nuts.

West Lake Prawn cakes are a batter that is mixed with sweet potato strips.  Stick two prawns on top and deep fry  - eat without peeling the prawns.  The exoskeleton just adds to the crunch!