A Word of Welcome...

On September 1, 2011 fifteen young people from a range of high schools around the U.S. arrived at Noi Ba International Airport in Ha Noi. Jet-lagged and overwhelmed, they spent the weekend getting oriented to their new home amid Independence Day revelry and celebration. Now one month later, they are members of host families, interns at various community organizations, students on a university campus and participant-observers in a foreign culture and society. Thus begins their year with School Year Abroad – Viet Nam.

This monthly blog will chronicle the students’ lives in Viet Nam outside the SYA classroom. A process of sharing and peer-editing in their English class will precede all posts thereby creating an individual and collective narrative. Travel-journalist Tom Miller said “The finest travel writing describes what's going on when nobody's looking.” May these young writers seek out and find their moments to see, with new eyes, what no one else sees. May they write their stories with sensitivity and passion. And may you, our readers, enjoy imagining their Viet Nam.

Becky Gordon
SYA English Teacher

Sunday, December 11, 2011

I am...

Anna Leah Eisner

Where am I now?
A good question
A little worn down, but still relevant.
Where am I now?
I am in a home, which was once a house
Eating with family who used to be strangers
Sleeping comfortably in a bed once hard
Brushing out stares that tangle in my hair
Where am I now?
I am walking down crowded streets
A newfound knowledge of avoiding motorcycles
Has become lodged in my muscle memory
Where am I now?
I am bartering with street vendors
Lowering prices, making bargains
In a language that until recently
Was as unknown to me as the country it came from
Where am I now?
I am slurping my noodles-
Devouring my spring rolls-
And eating more rice
Than I have ever consumed in my life
Where am I now?
I am meeting new people
With stories that tell
Of lives utterly unlike
The sheltered setting I grew up in
Where am I now?
I am in a completely different
And yet now familiar place
Strange, how odd it is
Strange, how used to it I am
So what am I now?
Define you.
I am a daughter
A sister
A street-savant
A fruit cutter
A pho eater
A chopstick user
A backup voice for children’s singing
A craft entrepreneur
A frisbee-thrower
An adventurer
I have become a part of this culture
And it has become a part of me

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