is once again sick of all the vietnamesses...

hey folks.
So i told some of you that i was going to write a post about my christmas and stuff... and i did! i swear... i wrote alot actually. But in true Vietnamess style the internet conked out half was through and i didnt notice and so i had to save what i had written to the desktop of the computer i was on. This should all be fine, i have done such a thing before... But the only problem now is that the computer i saved it on is rather a popular one and so is always taken by somebody playing Counter Strike or Dance Mania. Damn those Vietnamese and there need to play games...
So long story short, there is a post. It is comming. Just as soon as i manage to communicate that i need THAT number 15 computer

sleep out,

Oh and happy new year

merry christmas

Hey guys,
So we got our christmas tree today. Well our students got it for us. I say "got" and not "bought" becuase they stole it from somewhere around song cong town - they wouldnt tell us where. Ms Yen told us that students would be at the front gate in about 10 minutes and that they had brought us something for christmas. Natural we were somewhat excited, but with the track record of presents so far, we had a vague thought that it wouldnt be anything to write home about... Boy were we wrong - well seeing as i am writing home about it :P

We walked outside and there on the nature stripe was a pine tree. We started to get rather excited and our teacher said that it was a tree for christmas. Awsome. I immediatly picked it up and it was taller than me! good sign... But now it possed the problem of getting it through the front door, up four flights of stairs and through our tiny front door and out another door onto the balcony! Luckily for Bridget and I it was quite light and after arguing with the doors for a couple of minutes, we only managed to drop a few pines for the cleaning lady who doesnt clean to pick up and get it out safely onto the balcony. Now the walk through the school with a Ginormous tree being carried by two westerners didn't go unnoticed and we caused quite a stir as everybody took one look, and then did the double take and then the question face and then the "ohh, western, christmas, tree." links in there heads. It was quite fun :D

We ended up standing in our room with many a visiting teacher - 6 all up i think - who had never been in our rooms before simply admiring the tree. It is rather spectacular and there is going to be many a photo of it when its all pretty.

And so now we have a tree. A stolen tree, from our students, which makes it all the better :D

And "why do we need a tree if we are only going to be here for another week after christmas?" i hear you ask. Becuase we are having all the Gappers from Hanoi over to our little house in the hills, in the middle of no-where for christmas. I can hardly wait to show the city slickers what there missing and show them around the real Vietnam - that i am now so used to that the persistant blackouts have lost there charm and now mean that i end up abusing song cong, Thai Nguyen and Vietnam, terrible i know... Anyway, so there all coming up, all 20 of them and were going to book the only restaurant in our street - well the only place within 5 kms... - and visit our local Bia Hoi for rediculously cheap 1.300 dong beers and chill out in our oddly inclosed balcony and sing christmas carrols and well, i wont deny it, have a bit of rice wine and generally be merry :P We have organised a KK so there will be a nice exchange of gifts also.

Anyway, Brdgets mum just called and i have to go...

Missing all who is reading this!

Sleep out!

Hoi An

Hey guys,
Thats right, I am currently in Hoi An. for the few of my readers who are a little geographically challenged, that is in the middle of Vietnam. It is also the place to go for tailor made stuff. Dresses, shoes, coats, shirts, pants the list seems endless! It is a beautiful little place almost surrounded by water. There is a river and the ocean which I will admit that I have yet to visit yet, but I do have some spiffy boardies for when I do finally get a chance to get there!

I say "get a chance" because we have been so hell raisingly busy. This is our one week holiday and it is really nice to know that i dont have to teach at all this week, i think it was driving me a little insane! But we flew down from Ha Noi on friday - me with a massive hangover becuase it was Laura - mentioned her before - birthday and i had my first Pint, but anyway i recovered and we romed the streets and visited some tailors.

There was only a small group of us and it was really nice and chilled and relaxed and we just sat down and had some dinner in prep for Saturday. More people were flying in and they came knocking on our door at an un-godly hour of the morning. We continued all day to scour the tailors for cheap prices and go to fitting and then collapse for a meal of some sort.

Sunday after breakfast we went for a walking tour of Hoi An. It is a beautiful little place where some of the streets are blocked off to cars, so there are lots of little streets were you can wander and get lost in and its just beautiful. There are very few street stall to get food which is a little annoying and so we end up in restaurants quite alot, but its worth it. We visited 5 locations including a museum and the red Japanese Bridge. It just expanded my knowledge of Hoi An so much!

Monday was a little different from the very begining. The night before we planned a trip to My Son (pronounce me son). It is about 10km south of Hoi An, and we planned on taking Motor Bikes. 3 people took a Xe - om and the rest of us hired 4 bikes form the hotel and drove our selves the whole way. It was INCREDIBLE! i wont lie, i managed to drive the bike back from my Son, and being an auto it was really really easy. The traffic had died down ant it was really easy and sooooo much fun.

But why did we go to My Son??? Well there are these ancient relics that have been discovered and its quite a nice day trip out to see them and do a bit of a walk to get to them and find them and it is just really pleasent. As a result, My son is just awesome, but only worth a day....

Today was another good day actually. we booked our self in for a cooking class. It was really cool and included a guided visit to a market to buy the food, a boat trip and a chance to actually cook. It was like being back in Mrs Mac's cooking classes, but no where near as good! We got to eat our creations - as usual - and we sat in a restaurant by the river and some enjoyed the wine. It was really nice. The rest of the day - once again - was spent at the tailors.

For all the time i have spent there, i haven't gotten too many things. My first purchase was a pair of jeans - perfect - and dupilcates of my favourite tee-shirt. Also as a previously mentioned the board shorts and now i have a fab summer dress and a LBD on the way with some shoes. i'm pretty excited actually and pretty happy that i havnt gone off tat. Some people are spending SOOO much.

Anyway, i had to write it donw now - as a so far - becuase i am already struggling with recounting these past few days - let alone a whole week!

Hope all is well

Eat out

been a while...

Hey guys,
so its been a while since my last post,l but nothing much is really happening.

A few little things have happened though, that have made me appreciate the contry i am in. For example, last sunday i was on my way home. Well i was trying to get home, but i was on the other side of Ha Noi to go to my usual bus station, so i got a xe-om driver to drive me to another one that i had heard the name of. After barganing him down - much to low i realise now - i hoped on the back and we went off through the Ha Noi peak hour traffic. After an early establishment that i couldnt speak VN and he couldnt speak Eng, we moved on in silence untill we were outside the bus station. It too about 15 minutes to get there and it was already quite late in the afternoon, so i was getting worried that i would miss my last bus into TN and i would have to stay in Ha Noi. Somehow, he asked me where i wanted to go and i replied TN, and he said "no."

Just a simple "no" and i was in a tiss. What do you mean no. "No" i dont understand. "No" Dont get off here. "No" there are no busses to TN from here. It turned out to be the latter answer. I ran through the bus shelter and after noticing that the station was vertually vacant of buses, i did panic a little. I ran back out to where i left my Xe om driver and even though he was speaking VN it was like he was saying "see, i told you. There are no buses from here to TN. You made me drive all the way out here on one of the cheapest prices ever in peak hour. Your an idiot." Eventually he also said Gia lam. Now i know Gia Lam. Its a very good reliable bus station that i use very frequently, in the beggining i just though i was closer to the other station. Turns out i wasnt...

He handed me the helmet without another word and i showed him my watch. 5:27. Lonely Planet said the last bus from TN leaves Gia Lam at 5 - but i did have previous experience with them leaving at 6. We still had time, but i knew it was vertually completely across town and then some. He understood what i ment though and with vertually no words needing to be spoken, we were screaming through traffic and traffic lights and all sorts of other traffic things, accross town in peak hour with tones of police out on the roads and on route to Gia Lam. Despite his hurry, he was a very cautious driver. He checked and double checked intersections befor he ran a red light and he slowed down when school kids where in the middle of the 3 lane road on there push bikes.

We pulled up at Gia Lam station and he even drove around to were all the long distance buses leave the station, just to check that the TN bus wasnt about to leave, then he dropped me off at the entrace of the station. I handed him some amount of money - i have no idea how much really - handed over the helmet and ran inside. Lucky for me there was a TN bus. about 10minutes later i happened to glance out the window - we were still parked in the station - and there was my xe-om driver, making sure i had gotten to my bus. I ended up hanging out of the bus window, shaking his hand and offering to buy him a dumpling from the man selling dumplings along side the bus. Once he knew i was on the bus, he seemed to be content and he happily drove away.

With the most basic translation he understood what i needed and were i needed to go and he really cared that i got there. It was really nice.

Another story, just about today really... i had the funniest class. well actually for some reason they found me Hilarious. They were in fits. I am really tired, and so i really dont understand why i was so funny, but it lifted my spirits and makesme think that not all classes are classes from hell! just wanted to share that little apiphony...

sleep out and i'll see you guys soon...
we celebrated our 3 month aniversary three days ago, so were over the hump and kinda on the home straight!

Back to thursday

hey folks, let me take you back a few days for the start of this entry.

So now were back to thursday. Thursday afternoon after i have just had a 2 hr class with our most annoying class and im back on the back of a motorbike heading home. The wind is in my face, and the sun is reflecting off the guys white tee shirt, so i cant even open my eyes. Were moving quite quickly, but he is a cautious drive, and uses the horn alot! He has already given me the enveolpe with the 100.000 dong in it so i can just hope off the bike and hand over the helmet, and head back inside. By now its about 3:10 and i have to finish packing. I have 3 long shirts, 2 jumpers, shoes and my sandals and im set. Im packed for the best weekend yet!

Finally B and i get a bus heading for Ha Noi, 2 hours later were outside the backpakers having a drink during happy hour with some Gappers beofre dinner and then... the train.

There were 8 of us all together. Somehow, it turned out to be all the country bumpkins from around Ha Noi. Just before the train however, i had a small incident were an atm ate my card and i couldnt get it back. But after a few phone calls i resolved to pick it up once i came back into Ha Noi. So we almost missed the train, like we were standing going "wow. this is kool. Were are we???" and the train started to pull away from the platform. Eventually we fumbled our way around and found our private compartment. We had paid extra for a hard sleeper which was just the bomb. Very comfortable, but VERY cramped. i woke up to one of my friends saying "Sao Cao. He isnt that were we get off?" It was 5:30 in the morning and even though she had been taking pictures of the sun comming up, she totally didnt notive the rest of the train getting off. There was a mad scramble, but eventually all 6 of us in that compartment got packed and we were off standing in the early morning sun, following the rest of the people through the station.

We found a bus and then hit the road. It was windey and went around and around up the mountain. There was a light fog, but also the clouds were making there way through the centre of the valley, with the mountains poking there heads up from either side of the cloud. It was a beautiful sight. There were waterfalls all the way along, and so many of the mountains had rice fields cut into the side of the mountains. after about 45 minutes, we finally arrived in SAPA. We got dropped off at our hotel, and then headed out to "Bagette and Chocolate" for some breakfast.

Sapa is a mountainous village to the north of Ha Noi. It is renoun for its hill tribes who wear their villages traditional clothing. It is very cold in Sapa and is generally raining or foggy or just cloudy. There have been lots of rain recently which has lead to many landslides which have blocked roads and even killed villages. The people there a beautiful. They have a very unique way of trading and bartering. Instead of the classic "You want. buy. buy. buy" trading in Ha Noi, they use a "you buy from me, ok? tommorow? you buy from me." Its nice and you dont even realise how anoying the process is becuase you dont feel like there bugging you at all! its wonderful!

We organised a tour to a really big waterfall - were there are pictures - and that was beautiful but only lasted aout 2 hours. We had a traditional VN dinner and then headed back to our lucsurious beds for an early morning start.

At 6:30 we all met back up in the lobby, all decked out in our treking gear. We had organised a guided trek through some local villages that was to take us all day. After some breakfast, we met our guide - a beautifully dressed young girl - and we were off. We made our way slowly down the mountain - there are photos - into the valley, through a village, across to the other side of the valley, over many streams and waterfalls and over bridges. It was still quite slippery and muddly, so somehow we picked up an extra woman each who held our hands while we made our decent. Tell you one thing, my lady saved my life more than once! We walked through villages and farmyards and even became features of the rice fields that were cut into the landscape. It was just beautiful. We stopped for lunch, and our ladies who were traditionally dressed, some with hand made baskets on there bakes proceeded to bring out there things to sell to us - as payment and thanks for all the help down through the mountains.

We moved on after lunch at a much slower pace - after beeing told that we were walking Very quickly. (so quickly that even the ladies who walk the same path 3 times a week were panting with the effort! whoops, just fast walkers i guess.) it was very leasurly but easier to walk anyway. Oh and i forgot to mention, after the cool morning the day turned absolutly beautiful and we had absolutly clear blue skys and a loverly sun all day. Crystal clear 360 degree views. Apparently they hadn't had a day like that for weeks! the rain had stopped and the sky had cleared just for us :D. some of us even ended up with a bit of sun burn!

we kept the pace and ended up running into bus loads of tourist who basically visited 2 shopping villages and thought they got the realy experience after have to trudg through a pig farm. One of the quotes of the day was when we were approaching this endless line of tourists "we dont look like them. Go away. I know, Quick i'll feed the pigs, Sanchia you milk the cow and Liana you feel the ducks." We had just been for this beautiful trek, we live in VN and we were suddenly ambushed by all these obvious tourists with the money and too clean clothing. Sure some of them wanted to real experience, but they certainly were not getting it there!

We eventually made our way back home again after no troubles and ended up realaxing back in Bagette and Chocolate. i think the name says it all, but its basically a french training cookery place. lots of crossants and the like.

it is so relaxing in Sapa and everything is just so beautiful, and the fct that we were blessed with such a beautiful day just put the icing on the cake. We headed back to our beds once more after the best walk with the best company, ready for the next day.

Sapa is also known for its sunday Markets. Its about 4 hours from actual Sapa and includes a long bus trip back to the train station an then another trip back out to the markets. It was basically tourist bus heaven. People arrived at the markets by the bus load, flooded the markets and then left, all at the same times. they would only spend about 1 1/2 at the actual markets, even though it takes about 3 hours to get there, before there tourist bus took them back again. Somehow we managed to pull a extra hour at the markets and it was surprising how things quietened down. It was a bit of a let down actually. Becuase these markets did attract so many tourist, prices were massivly inflated. They new that people thought they were getting a bargan, but when they tried the same prices on us, we knew we were getting riped off, so we tried to bargan it down. Unfortunatly, my barganing didnt get me anywere, becuase the traders didn't care if i didnt buy anything. They new they could sell it at much higher prices to another poor tourist. it turned out not to be a very pleasent environment.

Eventually, and after another 3 hour bus trip we were back at the train station and waiting for the train trip home. it was pretty booked out so we had to get soft seats this time, instead of a sleeper. We were not looking forward to it at all! It wasnt too bad in the end. The train ride is at night and about 10 hours, but we managed to get the lights off and it was like being in an airplane, but nicer becuase the chairs really reclined. Most of us slept well. we arrived in Ha Noi at 6:30 am and proceeded to find that nother was open. I had to get my ATM card back so i left to do that and people went home, and others went to buy Dvds. That was then end of the best weekend. So maybe my writing doesnt let on to how good it really was. Emphasis my not be on the appropriate points, but it was the bomb, and definitly a must see if you visit North VN. you would be crazy to miss it!

When i finally did get back to Viet Duc, B and i were watching a movie through our eye lids, and ended up bailing and going for a nap. It was 3 in the afternoon, but when we woke again it was 6:30 am. Somehow we both managed to sleep all through the night into the next day. It was nice.

So thats it. That was my weekend and it was the bomb

Hope you are all well

Sleep out

The beach

Yes thats right folks i went to the beach. It was just a day trip, which ment that we had to start our day at 4:30 in the morning. You probably arnt aware, but at the moment all i really do with my time is sleep. Sometimes i can sleep all day if i dont have any classes. But even when i have a full day, i have a class, come home and nap till my next one and repeat the process. Some how i still manage to sleep all through the night so somthing must be wrong! Anyway so ive been sleeping alot, and so a 4"30 wake up call was not high on my list of things to do. I should also explain that i was going to the beach with the Saoviet school i am teacing at in Thai Nugyen.. ($15 usd an hour and its absolutly worth it!) its basically teaching a class that want to be taught every single day! and they generally have good english.

So we were off, and sposed to have leaft Thai Nguyen by 5:30 at the lastet. There was some trouble however as school organised trips tend to be and after about 2 hours we were away again. So much for an early start! The whole 4 hours there was VN singing and games and boy was i going crazy. I could not sleep for the life of me, but finally i saw the ocean first! i will add that i was the only person playing that game, but i played and it was a relief to see the sea.

The beach was beautiful, though after some seriouse thought on the matter, bridget and i decided that it was like Geelong beach, only slightly prettier. There were lots of large sun umbrellas and deck chairs all laid out and in faided pretty colours. It had just been raining, and there was a port just around the corner, so the water was a little murky... but it didnt stop the kids (about 50 from all different Saoviet schools through Ha Noi, TN and Hai Phoung) from taking a dip, and dragging B and i in kicking and screaming. B was first and then they realised i was still dry so they all came a running! eventually they got me in, i dont know why i struggled, but i paid for it in spades. I now have cuts on my knees and i look like a 10 yr old wo fell out of a tree - it is rather embarassing!

Any way, once b and i were both wet, we got some energy and decided to do an Iron Girl comp. Now picture this if you will. The only two western girls for miles, fully clothed and absolutly drenched like two drowned cats, sprinting with all there might up the beach for no apparent reason and then hitting a wall and then running back again for equally no apparent reason and sprinting into the water and swimming off. WELL i can safely say that the VN crowd was very confused, but rather impressed that we girls could swim. We got a rousing round of applase which streached for ages half way around the bay!

There were some games played on the beach between Saoviet schools, again from all over, and TN managed to win a game of tug of war and won themselves some prize money. B and i once again got some energy and decided to join in. Unfortunatly we lost interest pretty quickly cause it was all in VN even though everybody there was learning English at the Saoviet school and so i think there should have been instructions in English. Apparently nobody eles agreed, and after trying to get an interpreter the games were for money so we didnt want to ruin TN chance of more money for the school.

One thing i would like to pay special mention to is the shower bathing situation at the beach. So there was a big open room with a GIANT vat of cold, clean water with a pile of clean buckets next to it. There were already two girls there and they filled us in on the etiquet. "Bath like nobody is watching" is probably the main point, but in the end we just ended up having a massive water fight with buckets FULL of water and just making a mess! It was good fun, and despite the water prob being absolutly freezing, it was surprisingly refreshing. We ended up in a tiny cubical after our shower/bath/water fight and then we were all nice and clean a dry and shuffled off to a Saoviet bus heading to Ha Noi.

3 Hours later - which doesnt actually make all that much sence but anyway - 3 hours later we were dropped off in a random street in the middle of the old district in Ha Noi and heading for the backpackers before heading for the kebab house - yes Kebabs in Vietnam which are surprisingly good, despite being on slightly sweet bread - and the Bia Hoi for some good cheap beer. 4 Beers later, in approximatly 20 minutes, we were off and racing. No not really, we had a quite night just hitting our local bars and meeting new people from across the world. The night ended like it usually does for us in Ha Noi, with the Police, but it was 3 in the morning and prob time i went to bed seeing as i had nearly been up for 24 hrs straight! Dad, we werent in trouble, The police cut all night life in Ha Noi after midnight. It is there rule, but most of the bars owners dont agree and try and keep you in there bar for as long as possible. It is all kinda leagal, but the VN started it, i guess its complicated, but i havnt been in any trouble! promise :D

And so that was my weekend. Rather uneventful i must say, but wat i needed nun the less. Teaching has been a bit tedious and unwanted and after spending last week in Viet Duc i need to see people who didnt need everything said really really slowly to them.

yep thats me.

Sleep out yall!

Ducks

Hey guys,
so instead of starting with My weekend again, i want to tell you a bit about the trip to and from Ha Noi. So we catch the bus, and if we catch the right bus, we go past these pond like things on the side of the road. One large pont has little shacks were youi can fish from and onother pond has ducks in it. The pond is quite large, and one area is feced off with ducklings and another is fenced off for ducks. Its kinda kool.

Anyway, so my weekend. Started on friday night with a triop into Thai Ngyen teaching - i know some weekend - but it was a good class, lots of fun. Then we got up early and headed into Ha Noi. When we arrived we had breakfast and then i got an invite to go the the military museum. THere was only 5 of us - Glenn, Craig, Emily, Sibyl and i but Craig had a student who wanted to show us around, so that was nice. There was alot of kool stuff like helicopters and planes and guns and knives and well you get the picture. There was also alot of tactical information which the VN are very proud of becuase well it helped them to be so successful! So i saved my pennys
and did something cultural for the first time since i have been in VN. Then we booked ourselfes into one of the coolest hostels and went for happy hour at 5. Dinner was at a local VN place around the corner and then we set off for a Bia Hoi. now in Vietnam there is cheap beer - Bia Ha Noi which costs around 15.000 Dong (.90 cents) for a large bottle - but Bia Hoi is special. Its keg beer that cost around 3.000 Dong which is almost uncountable! Its really light and like drinking crap, but it is effective if you have enough. Bia Hoi is also special because the place we went to had three Bia Hoi's in one intersection made up of 4 corners. There isnt much of a footpath, so you end up in the gutter, or as the night continues sitting in the middle of the road playing a drinking game with 10 Americans you managed to grop into the game even though they were just innocently walking through the intersection. Good times... Because the Bia Hoi is pretty basic, we had to keep going to this really really kool place called Red Mask to use the loo. We started to feel bad, becuase thats all we were using it for so we ended up having a cocktail and then heading back for more cheap beer. It was a great circle :P
Finally, we headed off for Dragon Fly. Another really cool bar - which i will take you to Theo cuase i think you would like it :P and then back and for the Dragon Fly and red Mask untill the police came and stopped us. The night life here stops at about 12:30 - 1am. Bars stay open, but if the police come in some have to leave. you can always get into places, but if the police come back, the owners get into trouble - naturally - so after the police had there say we headed back to the hostel.

Sunday morning, and it was the first full day that i was going to spend in Ha Noi and all i wanted to do was sleep. Instead i went with Claire to the Museum of oh crap i cant remember! anyway it was a museum and it was kool, but we were boith rather tired so we ended up just going through the motions untill we found the gift shop and headed back into town. Three kebabs later, a packet of shampoo and conditioner and we were on our way back to the hostel for a nap and shower. Man it was glorious! Free beer was up on the roof of the hostel at 3, but i was too busy talking to my mummy and brother so i didnt go :P anyway, after the night before it was too early to drink! But then the best bit was still to come. Ok you sitting down. Take a breath. Ok so we managed to find out that regurgitator were in Ha Noi and having a concert that night. Dad, Regurgitator is an Australian bad who your daughter doesn't mind. Ok so for 30.000 dong we got to see regurgitator LIVE. Because we were in Vietnam, i am about a head taller than everybody eles, so i had the best seats in the house and i just so managed to find my way into the middle of the mosh, right at the front and it wsa going off!!!! I didnt realise how many of their songs i new and really like, so i was jumping and screaming and singing my head off, and becuase of my height, i stuck out like a saw thumb and i was in sooo many pictures. Glenn, on of the gappers who is really nice and was actually holding my wallet and shoes... :P started the croud surfing and it was on! The band was having a ball, they looked honestly suprised that there was such a big crowd and that they were having so much fun. By the end though i swear the bass guy was singing at/with me. I was singing and he was singing and then we were laughing and it was AWSOME. never been so close and in a mosh really...
By the end my shoes were completly unfixable and i was hobbling around and no were near drunk enough to not care. actually i wasnt drinking so i cared alot! I still had to get back to the Hostel and then back home early in the morning to Song Cong, so its not like i could by them in the morning. Somehow, i ended up going to ha Nois night arket with Liana - another gapper who is in halong City - becuase she has never been to the night market. Eventually, i managed to find some shoes and all was good with the world.

So that was my weekend. It included alot of drinking, and some kick ass aussie live music. Oh some down sides, i got hit by a car and i burnt my foot on the exhaust of a motor bike. Lucky for me, i didnt bruise from the car - so no one beleives i got hit - and my reflexses are shit hot, so i didnt really burn on my foot. All i do know is that it hurt like hell when i did it, but after all the jumping from the band, it was hard to tell which foot hurt more - the burnt one or the non burnt one?! I would like to add - for my fathers peice of mind - that both of these above mentioned events happened while i was sober! go figure. One girl did sprain her ancle though, and she was so drunk that she continued to walk around on it and she is going to be in so much pain for the next couple of weeks that its not funny, but hey it wasnt me!

So that is quite an entry, but i had quite a weekend. It had alot of culture in it actually... helped me save some money. Anyway i should go and teach or something, so have fun guys and i'lll report back soon!

Eat out

Yet another weekend

Hey guys.
So if you havnt already noticed, everything happens on a weekend arund here. I teach during the week, speaking of which i havnt really told you about teaching have i? Ok so i teach in a few places. So their is Viet Duc College - which is the place im staying at and should really be doing more classes at. Then their is private Tuition and then thier is teaching at a place in Song Cong town about 15 mins by motorbike away. I enjoy teaching in the school becuase even though they are really boring and basically straight from the book, i feel more structured and less like a fish out of water. I dont really have to plan a class or really pay that much attention to what i am doing really, becuase alot of the students i teach are almost identical to brick walls. Honestly you put my students agains the wall and they dissapear! let me explain a little. Their english is gewnerally very basic. And becuase they are not used to hearing "real" english, they cant pick up what i am saying. I end up saying one thing 5 times and then they catch on after the teacher realises the misscommunication and utters one word under thier breath and then we are all fine and dandy. "Repeat" seems to be a word that they dont understand, even though i might say it 7 or 8 times in one lesson, but hey, what did i understand of my Italian teacher when she spoke in Italian to the class? ... ... .... absolutly NOTHIN! in that respect these kids are doing pretty well to just repeat thewords listed in thier books after me. This kinda teaching isnt too bad. Its a bit tiring and i now have new found respect for my mother who has been teaching for years, but this is not as tiring as private tutering. So Ms Yen - remember her - i tute 10 kinds at her house once a week. 10 kids around the age of 12 and below. I am generally on my own and they just eat me alive. I just cant handle them at all! they blatently talk while im talking, but its always in VN so i dont know what they are saying. They could be helping another kid with simple translation of what im saying! In that case, i dont want to tell them off. But at the same time they could be talking about a possible game im going to play with them if they keep anoying me untill i fold and play the game they want to play. i just cant seem t win a trick with them...
The teaching in Song Cong is better though. It is still teaching kids, but they are in a class room and they are paying - well actually every lesson even private i get paid for - but i feel like they actually want to learn and not just play games. I do alot of talking, which i have been told of for actually. Appaently im "greedy teacher". Thank you Ms Yen. Hear i am trying to get them used to the language and what it sounds like, but hey, i do understand that the kids also have to talk to get their own pronounciation right... so ill let that slide. so iguess that is teaching. Alot of walls, but alot of listeners too. Oh i almost forgot the best teaching of all. So our VN friend got us ajob at her school teaching obviously, but it pays $15 USD a lesson, which is damn good. The more classes we do, the more the pay increases too. SCORE! it is a little school like the Shane centre we learned how to teach in in HCMC, so it reminds me of that time alot. It is once again 5 stories and small, but the students are great. They all want to be there. like really want to be there. Their english ranges from good to really good and not so good, but i had the best class the other day. They had a "No VNs rule" which ment that they couldnt speak a word of VN without paying me - the teacher - money. like a swear jar. i myself said some VN and so did they so they kinda cancelled themselves out a little... unfortuantly. And now that is all the teaching i am doing.

Oh no, this is going to be a long post, becuase i still have to tell you about my weekend...

i'll make it brief. Friday night i was teachin in Thai Nguyen - where i had the best class to date - and i set off the next morning direct to Hanoi. 2 1/2 hours later - when it should only really take 1 1/2 even factoring the exra distances from TN to Viet Duc - i arrived in Hanoi by myself - B was already there - and i went for a wander. Hanoi is amazing. I know feel really at home there and it is fanastic. i basically orientate my way from this lake called Hoan Kiem lake - good luck with the prounciation i cant even say it! - and then i work my way to the DVD store, the best Atm in the middle of nowhere, Silk Street, sunglasses street and bag street. I picked myself up some sunnies, a zippo lighter for when the power goes out and some really cool wall hangings with Tin Tin on them. Beleive it or not, Tin Tin is the bee's knees around here. Call me stupid, but i dont really know why he is so big. Wasnt the writer German or something??? anyway picked me up some of those and bargend like a fiend. I think i even got complimented on my barganing skills! "you bargan hard! you will do really well after 5 month" anyway after my money spending i met up with others gappers for lunch and p-roceeded to Laura's - let me introduce you. She is from the UK, she is at a placement on her own and she is 21, just out of uni and looking for a fresh start. Love her, she is so much fun. - dummped my stuff off at her house for the night and headed out for happy hour fishbowls at an awsome hostel. After fishbolws came dinner. Then came Le Pub, a fantastic Aussie run Western Favourite and then another place and then Solice. Fantasic dance club. Really finding some awsome places if anybody is interested...
Must dash to hand in my passport to police... its the thing they do... anyway happy times

Peace Out!

my weekend

So you remember last weekend nothing special happening at all. This weekend was AWSOME!
So we went to Halong Bay which i think i mentioned before being a heritage site, and for good reason! It is amazing!
So B and i were planning on getting there a little early and hanging out for the day in halong, but sleep was a little bit more of a priority so after sleeping in on friday, we ended up meeting our friends in Thai Nguyen and catching the bus with them to halong which was especially cool, becuase they had a friend to help them flag down some random bus on the side of the road AND they paid for the bus ticket - which is quite expensive actually... so we got a free trip to Halong!
When we were leaving, it was raining, and when we arrived it was raining. We went to a night market though and got really ripped off trying to buy pearls. then we headed back to the hotel and it was just like being back in HCMC. everybody was in the same hotel and everybody was accessable. I think that is what is hard about my placement - especially while B was sick. I was alone. But the hotel was just awsome, i mean as good as any hotel, but the access to the people made it so much better. We woke up to rain and things werent looking good for us at all. Then as we all piled into taxis and arrived at the dock it stopped raining. We had to hop onto another boat that would take us out to our boat and do a bit of boat hopping but it was all good and nobody fell in. The boat had 3 levels. The top had no chade but loads of deck chairs which everyone bags within 5 seconds of getting onto the boat! the second level had a dining roon and bar and couches for karaoke and the like. It also had a few bed rooms and the bottom level had the rest of the rooms. it was a really beautiful boat, with lots of almost vertical stairs...

We had a pretty boat ride into halong bay, its actually a bit confusing. the beach is called Mi thai beach and the water is called halong bay. so we had to boat out to the bay. We were surrounded by water but because we were moving we couldnt swim. we were also kinda surrounded by floating rubbish so it wasnt all that appealing anyway. We finally got into the bay and were surrounded by huge cliffs that rose meters into the sky and just sunk back into the water. it was amazing. The tour boat took us to see a cave that was just full of stalectits and stalegmites, but onece you see the first room, you really have kinda seen it all and the whole thing was sposed to take us 45 minutes, Bugger that for a joke. all we wanted to do was swim! so thats kinda what we did. we managed to find our boat again and they took us out into deep water and said. you swim now. and we did! Most people just jumped off the boat, but me being all class and a bit of a sook, i just slipped in from the bottom deck all lady like and lost my pants... woops :S
We swam for what seemed like ages. People just jumped off the boat again and again and again trying new ways of jumping off. I was just so relieive to be swimming that i just chillaxed in the water. It was soo warm and beautiful and peaceful.

After swimming was dinner and more layzing around and drinking really and just generally chillaxsing. Most people were drunk by 8:30 which lead on to be a rather early night with most people in bed by 12, but by the next morning we were ok with that becuase b/fast was at like 7 and kyaking was at 8:30. that was beautiful too but i'm still feeling the effects in my arms and shoulders... After K was more swimming but not nearly enough. There was more jumping and more floating. Then it was home again. There was a private bus waiting to pick us up and take us back to hanoi and apparently as soon as we left, it started raining again. Ha. good timeing!

That bus trip was probably worse than catching a public bus. Ok so it got us home really quickly,b but it was rather uncomforable. Anyway we got into hanoi and B and i immediatly put our photos onto a disk so now all we have to do is find a computer with a cd drive! harder than previously thought... i will admit. But photos will be comming soon, i promise! maybe i will send the phtos to theo who can upload them onto facebook.... what do you think?

so that was myweekend. Very relaxed and carefree. so much so that when i did get into hanoi i had forgotten that we were actually in VN at all. After just sociallising with Gappers and other english speakers i felt so much more at ease. Actualy when we came back we went to see mS Yen and she was like. Slow down. i cant understand. you talk too quickly. so it must have had a rather large effect on both of us. Now i am absolutly buggered and thats why this entry isnt as amusing as it could be...

I will however sign off with an interesting translation... Xe-Om(remember that one pronounced ze-om) is actualy translated into motorcycle hug. :P

sleep out!

I have had a crazy ass day

hey guys, hows it hanging? as my title sugests i did have an absolutly crazy day today. I tought for like 4 and a half hours which is just crazy! we have been having trouble with power again - no surprises there - and so i felt like hitting something so i went to play pool. i started playing with this crazy old man who was just too darn good for a newby like me and everybody was standing around laughing at me. It was ok though, cause i managed to sink two balls into two separate holes with the one hit! Good times. I danced and everyone cheered and the power went off again. Then as i tried to pay for the game of pool, they refused my money and instead invited me to have dinner with them!! crazy. then after eating in darkness, power was returned and we started to play cards. Then a teacher calls me up and askes me to meet her at our front school gate. when i got there she grabbed my arm, and leading me away she said, You teach with me now?. I was trapped and tricked and i couldnt run! so i had to fumble my way through a 1 hour class at 7:30pm. It was raining as i was leaving and i was gropped/walked back to my room by a nice 24yr old VN guy. Now i need a nice cold beer and becuase of the rain - and time of day - everything is closed! let me just hope that the power doesnt go out again, cause now i'm obviously on the net and not in my room and climbing 4 sets of stairs in pitch darkness is no fun...
I also had an interesting day yesteday. So i had a timetabled class to begin at 6:45 and i turned up at the right time and all and Ms Lien - i dont think you have met, she is really really nice, but prob abit anoyed at me cause i keep somehow forgetting about her classes oops :S She is a good teacher to teach with becuase she helps continuously translating so that everybody understands and the class can move more easily, but alot of english is still used. - met me at the staff room and handed me a helmet and asked if i had had breakfast. Seeing as i had just woken up about 15 minutes ago i had not, but it is ok becuase i have remember to pack a snack (crazy shrimp chips!) We got to her motor bike in the bikeshed and she hands me a platic bag and says you eat and i'll drive. You dont need to tell me twice, and i devoured the things quick as look at you. She had come prepaired with, ok bare with me, so you know steamed dim sims? that kinda pastry sticky thing, but it was thick like rice and about the size of an orange and the same shape and it was chewy and had melted butter in the middle like when you toast a muffin. i guess it was a VN muffin but more ricey. Ok so back to teaching. I had a 2 hour class with 13 yr olds and younger and it was so hard. It was so not how i have been tought to teach or what i have been used to teaching... so 2 hours was long and hard. that wa basically my interesting day yesterday. Oh wait no it wasn't. So b has been a bit sick all weekend leaving me to talk to myself. But yesterday we went for a nice senic walk and ended uyp getting a purple icecream. yummm it tasted urple too! so then we ere walking back down our main street and just as we were walking past our favourite place to have egg for breakfast, i said, "Cant they just feed us? It would make things so much easier! i would love them forever!' i must have said it too loudly becuase a girl came screaming out saying, oh sorry, hi i am yen, come in. I am cooking. I am 17 years old and this is my mother and brother. Come in and sit. So we did. And they fed us the most amazing thing ever!!! Cold rice noodles - i know exciting - but it gets better. WITH a sweet and chillied soup which you dunk the noodles in or drink the soup and burn you lips. I was in heaven and seeing as it was like my 4th main meal for the day i lapped it up earnistly. This fabulous meal was followed up with a really nicce cold beer. mmm.
As we were leaving we asked yen -who had ok english - where we could get a special mobiphone phone credit. She lead us somewere but it was a wild goose chase. As we retired back to the internet thinking we wouldnt find Mobiphone untill e got to hanoi, we got a msg from yen saying she ound mobiphone seller and meet her at the school gate in 10. 10 minutes later, up comes yen with two bikes. AWSOME - b and i are "not allowed bikes becuase we will loose them like other gappers before us... BA" so were going or a ride. B gets on first and then she tries to dink me, but with little success. We are standing in the fading light laughing our heads off cuase we cant get any sort of ballance happening and then all the VN are laughing their heads off at two westerners trying to dink each other. Man its just hillarious. In the end we give up. I start just riding and Yen hops on the back of my bike and B is left to a bike of her own. Ok so riding abike by yourself is easy. And it is surprisingly easy with someone on the back too, but once you get out with the motor bikes, the buses and the trucks full of rubble screaming past you it becomes a differnt thing altogether. Full concentration is needed becuase it is not only you who is at risk, you also have to think about the 17 yr old VN girl on your back! So we get to the credit and e are on our way home no worries, untill we think the whole ride is getting easy and two VN passs us on a bike and then the race is on. B on her own should be able to beat me and yen, but no, but wait their is a van pulling out of the curb and there isnt much space on the road and apparently VN bikes dont have brakes, and my bell isnt working to tell the driver that i am about to plow straight into his drivers side door. He notices me in the nick of time however and i do a huge swerve to give me and bridge enough room to both skim past the front of the van. I win :P but it probable wasnt a very smart idea in the first place...

so that is me. I am still alive and kicking and dancing with the cockroaches in my bathroom. One of them actually ran over my foot, and J and G you know what i'm like with Cockroaches i managed to keep my head and stop myself from screaming blue murder and disinfecting myself with anything more than household, well mild hand soap, so go me.

Hope all is well, oh things might get dicey oon for me. People are throwing around the word hurricaine abit, but i dont know what that really means. well, i know what a hurricane is - even if i cant spell it - but it seems a bit hard to believe in VN, even in the north. I guess it is just going to be bad weather for the next few days... I hope it clears by the weekend though becuase we are going to Halong Bay. I am so excited. Most northies - about 20 of us - are renting a boat and going out on a tour. They say we get to go to private beaches, swim off the boat, and kayak and get food and drink and kareoke and air con, so it is just going to be awsome! i will let you know how it all goes, and hopefully have some photos to go with the story... its going to be beautiful and soo much fun. Halong Bay is heritage site and all VN's love it, they just say it is so beautiful and so does lonely panet so its going to be awsome. Anyway, its late and i'm getting kicked off!

Have fun chickens
I know i will be :D
Peace out!

power

power is ạn incredible thing! especially over hêre. Without power my world stops. So the whole of thê town has been without power for 5 dáys straight and it is driving me insane. For all the games of solitare i have played, i have only noted 1, count it, 1 win without cheating. I am also developing my tan becuase i am sịck of being so pale ảound all thêse tanned people! Bridge has been sick to so i havent really had any one to talk to and i have also had to go to so many things by mýself. One day i ưould particularly like to bring up is saturday. I had two items planned ưith ms Yen - you remember hêr - but she called at about 6 am to tell me that we had to cancel them becuase thêre was a funeral she had to attend. Ok, so someone died, but hey i now have a free day to sleep. Famous last ưords. At about 9:30, one of my... teachers, invited herself into our living room, into my room and proceeded to wake me up. "Are you doing anything today?" Rêmmebering my previously mentioned phone call, "no im frêe all day" júst to double check she âgain ásked "do you do anything this afternoon?" realising that i was being rude just lieing in my bed, i disentangled myself from my sarong and mosquito net and stood standing in my pyjamas facing her. "No i am free all day" i then look down and notice that we are standing in quite a large pile oF my dirty láundry. "I ưould like to invite you to my house for lunch. You come now?" I'm awake. I am standing - sure i can come to lunch right now. Tell you what, you wait just on the other side of that door - ưould you like a drink? - and i ưill put on some cloths, eat some toothpaste for breakfast and we can go. Alice (bridge) is sick, no dont wake her. Im ready, lets go! One good thing about being ưoken up at 6 and then 9:30 and then being in a totally diferent location by 9:40 is that you are still techniqually asleep, but people take this as you have been awake for hours and you are vẻry tỉred from your hard morning ưorking, not sleeping. After lunch i was lucky to get my wish from before - sleep. The only problem now is that is more like being back at creche and "you lie down hêre. put your head here and your feet here and you sleep." Also, sleeping on a traditional bed issnt all its cracked up to be. It gets rather uncomfortable after about the first 30 seconds so you dont get much sleep...
"i worry about Alice." "You wouldnt want anymore cramped, uncomforable sleepless sleep?" "no, i worry about Alice." "I will take you home" And home came, and Alice did have a raging Temperature, but i was fed and i felt like i had done SOMETHING with my day other than loose at solitare.
So on the ưhole that ís all i have been doing ưith myself. 6Am wake up calls are common, and so ảe the 7am "can you meet me at 7:15 at staffroom for class?"
I have found pool and hopefully i will start to get better soon, and by the time i get home, i should be pro!
I ưould also like to take a moment to mention my food escapades. I can now cross off my list of "things i have eaten..." Cow stomach, Goat Intestines, Goat, Cat, Snails and Chicken head. I'm well impressed ưith my efforts and just a note - cat is hairy!
That is all i have to report at this time.
Hopefully something more interesting comes up soon!

The past weekend

yellow my people!!!!

So how are we all? I am getting some feedback but pls feel free to leave a comment to keep up the encouragment.

Ok so, well let me start on Wednesday, a little while ago, but things happened so i must take you back to them. Wednesday we met up with this group of Vietnmese who are learning from an american teacher, but he is currently away and thier looking for a substitute and they found us! (Bridge and i) ok, so they very generously took us out to one of the only cafe's in Song Cong town - its basically nothing there so i was surprised about the cafe facilities accoumpanied by Karioke which is a HUGE hit with the VN - We new two of our Gap friends from Thai Nguyen were comming on thursday and we wanted to show them a good time, so we asked what Song Cong has to offer and what could we show them and they offered to take all 4 of us on a tour on motor bikes. We didnt really think it would work but we agreed and Thursday came and so did both groups of friends. It was really kool. So Song Cong doesnyt have anything to offer, but we were basicall "in a motorcycle gang" riding spread across the road with our cameras and helmets and it was just really cool. We saw a really cool - photos to come soon - and we went for a drive down the industrial part well, Song Cong is the hub of industry work, so we just had a veiw of what there factories look like. There was one sweat shop which was HUGE and blue, and alot of industries like steel and i forgot the others. The sweat shop was pretty distracting. What eles is distracting is the senery (sorry bout the spelling t... :P) It is the true VN look. The rice fields with the cows and the ladies wearing the grass hats and them slowly waving thier way through the fields. its just breathtaking how large and far they streach. there are also photos, but pls be patient, they are comming. i have an idea...

So our new VN friends took us out and our Gap friends had a good time in the end. It was all free too so that was almost a bonus! then Thursday night arrived, and we have been told to go to the school canteen for acheap meal. Very cheap it was - after we met sooo many VN guys who got me absolutly "trollied" and decided to pay for us. Thanks guys!!!! that was very generous. Nah, but before i fell off my chair, i did manage to chow down on some cow stomach, octapus, rice, spinach and other loverly delights so it was worth it. Firday i was sposed to be teaching at 7 am and after like 15 rice wine shots i was gone, so we eneded up in bed at like 10:30. The great place about here is that you can drink to oblivion, and not get a hang over! its great, though as i think i have already said, i have drunk more since i have been here in my ENTIRE life! which is so long i know, but you guys know i dont drink!

Friday morning i was stood up. Thats right my teacher didnt turn up at 7 am unlike myself! not happy jane, but what can you do??? Friday night i had my first private tute with Ms Yen - have i introduced you? Head english teacher and contact for the school - well not with ms yen herself, with half the children in the neighbourhood! there were 11 of them to one of me and they ate me alive. But for 2 hours i kept my head and it all turned out ok. I got paid and the next morning came and so did Hanoi. B and i tend to travel around alot. weather its to Thai Nguyen (lets call it T N) or Hanoi. This means that we are now pretty familiar with the Xe om and there prices and also the buses. Saturday the Xe om dropped us off, we saw a bus comming but thought it was going somewhere other than Hanoi so dissmissed it. The whole bus was basically screaming at us to get on and then we realised why. Our Gap friends from TN were already on there!!! Now let me fill you in on the road. Its pretty major, despite being the size of a match stick and busses travel up and down there like nobodies business. There are like 50 in a n hour. So the likelyhood of us meeting our Gap peeps withough a plan is just CRAZY! We ended up on the same bus and heading into hanoi with a good solid plan on were to get off that puts a most central to Hanoi and were we want to be without paying more money to a Taxi to get us into the city. After our arrival we were walking through this huge Hanoi and we just keep seeing other gappers doing the same as us. It was like "bump into as many people as you can" day like 5 DIFFERENT groups of people, no joke, all ending up in the one place. Silk street. As the name suggests, it is a street dedicated to silk traders. Up untill now, i have struggles to by things, just becuase i can never bring myself to ask. I now have in my possesion: 1.Silk wrap-around skirt. 1.Pure silk sleeping bag and1. absolutly stunning feel good silk dress. Now all i need is shoes... but there are non in my size funnily enough! :D

Saturday night it was one of the gappers birthdays so we all went out to celebrate at something called the Water puppets. Now you ask a VN about this and they say "ahh yeah, there umm... yeah... i saw it when i was like 5... yeah" and you sit there filled with encouragement, but it was something most of us really wanted to go to so we were excited about it more than anything. Afterwards i think that the VN ppls comments are right. There isnt much more you can add... After puppets experience we had a group dinner with all 20 northeners and then headed off to one of Hanois many bars. Dragonfly. mmm. Good times. Crap fooseball. Crap pool. Random sometimes good music (nosebleed section) and a massive smoke room upstairs. I didnt realised it was up there untill i was leaving so dont worry, i still havn't smoked anything dad - despite cheap prices of cigaretts. We got to bed at around 2 and all was sweet. A good time had by all.

Sunday - today - is the moon fesitval. believe it or not there is a full moon, but it also is a day were they celebrate children. There is also moon cake. Now despite my trying some today, i dstill dont know how to describe it. The consistency of unbaked dough, sweet like a cube of sugar and filled with all sorts of stuff. Beef, raw egg, fruit, you name it, it'll be in them. They are generally white, and you are not allowed to eat one unless someone has dought it for you for a present. We had a, well we would call it an end of school class party, but they called it a picnic. More of Ms yens students and they were really shy. There was all sorts of fruits and lollies and jelly cups and moon cakes and soft drink and it was just really awkward to start off with. Then i started some games. We played slaps, Bang, Buzz and this new game i drunkenly learnt called claps which they all loved greatly! it was a huge hit and the 2 hours went very quickly.

That brings you all up to speed, even starting from wednesday. and now i think i will have some late night Pho bo before i head off to bed...

Hope everybody is well and kicking and i will keep you updated!
if anybody wants anything really cheap liek CDs or DVD series pls let me know and i can pick you up something. A big happy birthday to my brown bear :D and my mum.
Love for now
Peace!

teaching has finally happened...

And i didnt run away!!!!
as much as i wanted to spring from the room and flee as far away from Viet Duc college, i didnt. I kept my composure, even after being asked for my number and wether i had a boyfriend, i stayed and even went back for more!!! No seriously, it was a really bad experience. I floundered around for what felt like a lifetime as everybody talked and looked at me blankly. I even asked my teacher what i should do, i was almost pleading with her to set me free and tell me time was up. It was only 45 minutes, but it was horrible. I ended up sitting back in my room, convinced that i had just told the same teacher that i would have another class with her in 1 hour. I am glad that i did however, becuase this class was loverly. They stood when i walked into the room, and they understood what i asked them to do and we ended up completing all the work we needed to, So i was happy. As a result, i feel like i can maybe do it again. Did i mention that there were like 35 students in the class, so that made it even harder to control such a large number of people!

it is a very real experience out here. Almost everyday we get at least two invitations, to either teach a small class away from Viet Duc college, or go out for a drink or dinner or make spring rolls or help with homework or help interpreting an important document. Its almost an over load! as much as i want to help as many people as i can, it is getting hard. Teaching is really tiring, and we still like to go to hanoi to speak with our other gap friends and have a break from it all. I mean, bridge and i walk down our street and we get so many "hello's", that unfortunatly, we now either ignore them or just end up pausing our conversation for 1 second and lifting a hand above our heads to wave an almost sarcastic hand flick. I just have to start saying no, becuase it is such an overload. Our head english teacher, Ms Yen - let me introduce her to you know so i can just ramdomly bring her up and you can reference back to here - Is friendly, but she has a perminent frown on her face. Probably of concentration, but it kinda sends us a negative body language message. Anyway, she keeps telling us to just come up with more questions and it will become easier and less tiring to teach, but common people, who wants questions talked to them for 2 hours??? Who can co0me up with that many questions to ask for two hours????? In HCMC, we were taught to have a lesson plan. Play games, and have a structure and creat our own classes. Here, we just teach out of the book. Literally. Like i'm bored teaching it, imagine the poor kids who have been learning like this for 5 or more years!!!! But with 30 students, and little practice on our behalf, and a syllibus to follow or harsh payment penalties, it is hard to teach like this and thus were kinda pigeon holled into teaching from the book. Its sad, and almost more work, than creating your own lessons from thin air, but iguess it will get easier... i hope!

bridge and i also want a pet fish. Just to put you all in the zone. There is a place were you can buy fresh fish to eat, but we want one as a pet - conduct a r4escue mission on these poor animals. The only thing holding us back is the thought of some rare fish like bird flu and if the fish sneezes we will catch this strange disease. Not that we dont already have malaria and rabies just from walking around. (let me add that i am being safe... i sleep with a mosquito net and RID and i avoid dogs as much as i can so dont panic!) but really i am going to die. i shall miss your wonderful lesion free faces.

ok, hope to hear from you soon. try to ignore Bridges HILARIOUS sarcasm and i will let you know in advance if i am going to kark it.

Toods!

Awsome

So folks, everything is still powering on.
I spent the weekend in Hanoi - Friday, saturday and Sunday morn - and if i havn;t been very specific, this is becuase i am 1 1/2 hours out of Hanoi. I stayed with new my new UK friend Sibyl and Aus friend Emily and we had a great time. Friday night consisted of going out with 6 other gappers to this random place were we basically got a MASSIVE plate of raw meat and a BBQ and we had to fry our own meat. It is time consuming, especially when your hungary, but it is a great result. We made a new invention which tastes just like Garlic bread so it makes us feel at home. There are photos - but i didn't bring my camera... sorry :S
Saturday,. for the first time, we slept in untill 11 and becuase it was raining, we ended up meeting up with two other gappers and whatching like 4 eps. of Gossip Girl. Yes john i have seen some GG and it is ok... Saturday night we found this awsome bar called "Le Bar" and is basically a western haven in the middle of VN. there is cheap hanoi beer there and also more expensive imported stuff. If you stay there long enough - which we did - they bring out shots! first was a watermelon and vodka shot which i must say is divine, and then an Apple and V shot, which could use a little work. After "le Bar" we met up with all the north gappers for a drink at someones placement and had fun playing cards and generally catching up with normal english speakers. Sunday morning, after family and "we can be heros" i managed to catch a really cheap bus to a market and i bought a DVD player for 450.000 D. Now for all you wondering if that is alot... 100.000 D is about $10. you do the math... it scares me to much.

Now you must be wondering now, Why did she buy a DVD player? Well i will tell you. Dewspite the experience, we do only have 4 chanels on our TV, all of which are english, but dubbed in Vietnamese, so it can make for some anoying viewing. The AWSOME thing is is that Bridge loves scrubs too, so we are going to get the full 6 seasons and sit down and watch them. There are so many box sets around here seriously, tell me what you want i i can prob get it for you. An aus newspaper howevery is near imposible to find.

Becuase sibyl and Emily and in Hanoi central, they have namaged to find the coolest litte cafe that do the best egg coffee. I know egg coffee??? but it is really good - very sweet, but good! there is photos of it too, but you will have to wait a little longer... but trust me, its worth it!

I would like to add also, i dont think i have drunk so much alcamahol in my entire life! Did i tell you all about the shots a few days ago? i dont know how to check previous blogs, but i swear i had about 15 vodka shots, one each with all the teachers at my school, so it is very possible that i had more than that. This is all well and good, but here i have turned into a complete light wieght! one sip and i'm gone. Does that put ot all into perspective? In HCMC there was some serious partying as we all got to know each other, but again i could only take 1/2 a bottle of beer. Its not like its strong, me just weak. Anyway, back to my initial point... beer is cheap and good if you can get it cold. I havn't had so much to drink EVER and if people wanna come visit, i can show you some seriously kool places and people...

I have many achievement while i have been here. Despite insurance, the only way to get around my placement is by Xe Om - pretty sure i already explain that one. Today, completly by myself for the first time ever, i caught a local bus, 2 xe-om's and a longer 2 hr bus. Most of this was with a really heavy bag and a DVD player twice my size!

I have lost weight... but the people are so small, that i tower over them all and nobody notices me... Its rather odd. I have had to learn how to hand wash my clothing, and for all of you "you what, that's piss easy" people out there, i had a nasty experience of my clothing comming out smelling worse than before i washed them! apparently there is a system involving 2 bowls, minimal clothing, two washes with washing powder and 4 separate rinse cycles, changing the water constanly! i feel so wasteful, but it rained cats and dogs and a few power lines the other day, so i can get over it quickly.

My place is surounded by patty feilds which is just crazy at times. Bridge and i went for a walk tonight, and it was a leasurly stroll untill this little girl poked her head out of her house and started screaming "hello!!!" at us. As normal, we smile and say helloback and keep walking. The little girl had other ideas however and ran up to us, grabbed B's arm and proceeded to lead us into her house. Her mother was there and she sat us down and poored us tea. The girl started getting out her english books and asked us to give her a mini lesson. It was rather bizzar, but the whole time i was thinking, How many other city Gappers would get invited into a locals house for a quick english lesson before bed? My answer would be non. We got given a dancing lesson and a peice of fruit each and as we were saying goodbye, the little girl, only about 6 gave us a beautifl, hand drawn picture. It was beautiful. so much so that we felt we couldn't take it as a gifdt even. The girl gave us the dirtiest look for trying to give us back, so we had to take it! We are now bound to here and we are going back to give her a present, and teach her english.

Ok, that is tones for now. I hope that can satisfy your appitites for a while.
I wouyld also love to hear from you all, and one term starts and i'm teaching more frequently, i will have time to talk to you all individually.

Talk soon!!!

Peace

hey hey!

So i have now kinda settled into my placement. Everybody is very very nice, and bridge and i seem to be invited out left right and centre! We already have 3 teachers who want to show us thier families and how to cook traditional Vietnamese food! we have had many a lunch and dinner, which is good, cause a girls gotta each - even if i only just got my appitite back!
just the other day infact, we went out with all the teachers from the school, just to the school canteen, but it was good food, and as tradition dictates, we had to have a shot of "wine" - which is more like vodka, but stronger - with every teacher for good luck and good health. Even though we were told we didnt HAVE to "bottoms up" it was clear that if we didnt we wouldn't be regarded so highly. As a result we downed about 15 shots each and became somewhat tipsy in no time. It was all in good fun however, and we got walk to our door by Ms. Rose - thats right, her english name is Rose, not as bad as some others ... Ms. Water, Ms. Birth... - but they are all loverly.

Everything is very cheap, as you may have guessed, and its lots of fun just kicking around looking for things. Becuase my placement is pretty rural, there are only a few shops, and we get bored rather easily, we are travelling around alot.
Viet Duc is the school, and close by there is a small town called Song Cong Town. its about 5 minutes by Xe Om (Motor bike, pronunced ze om) That is an exciting experience in itself speading down these roads. Normally, we catch a bus to either Thai Nguyen or Hanoi, each 45 minutes or 1 1/2 hours respectfully. This can be a little coslty however, but becuase of the isolation, it is nice to head into Hanoi for a short while and stay overnight with other gappers.

We havn't started teaching yet, but today we got the books that the students work out of. They are just simple comprehension typoe things so they dont seem to be like much fun, but i have BIG plans. It will be interesting to see if they work though...

Pictures will be comming soon, so just hold your horses

First week in VN

Hey guys!!!
i finally have a blog for all to read if youhave a spare minute.
After spending a week in teacher training in HCMC, i became close with many
people. Fortunatly, some like my new Uk friend Sibyl, are up in Hanoi with me.
The week in HCMC was so exciting. We went to school from 11am till 7:30pm everyday, and as youmay have guess, because of my lack of school for the whole year, doing 9 hours a day was a bit of a shock! We all had a blast though, because most nights we just went out and "got trollied" - one of the new expressions everybody is using these days... we would end up all back at school with massive hangovers, but one night we didnt go out so didnt get a hang over and our teacher decided that he prefered us better when we were hung over. oh teacher Duncan, you peter petigrew look-alike. he was a crazy man.
HCMC is very different from Hanoi. Where we were staying was sort of industrial, so there wasn't much around except for a few local places to eat which were a bit sus... but great fun nun the less.there is alot of traffic in HCMC, there are sooo many bikes, but the road eticute ismuch the same everywere - crazy! The hotel we were staying at was great also, we had good air conditioning and everything was smooth - good shower and homely comforts.

When i arrived in Hanoi it was very different. Every thing is so green, and from the airport to the centre of Hanoi, there are rice fields every where. They seemed to have this system in the fields of one cow per handler so the cow could eat, but not go ape and destroy the whole crop. Every now and then, you would see 2 or 3 each accompanied by a small boy or old woman.
The hotel was sposed to have more stars than the hotel in HCMC, but the room was the size of a small shoe box- so i dont know how they determined their star ranking!!!? I just kept thinking that it cant get any worse than this. And i was kinda right!

My placement.
Ok so if you dont know, i am rural, about 1 1/2 our from Hanoi by bus. On the way out, it seemed pretty busy, but right now it is a public holliday so there is no school and it's really is dead! My place looks really spectacular. Its up on the fourth floor surrounded by a class balcony. The room is HUGE, with dividers dividing bridget and my room from the centre living room. The kitchen looks horrid - we havn't even taken the padlock off it to see in side properly...!
the bathroom is another interesting feature. It is dark and there is the bare minimal. A shower head attatched to a tap - which is pretty standard for VN - a sink, a mirror and a toilet, oh and a urinal. Super. There are tiles in my room that is really just a distaction away from the fact that there is a whole just underneath them. Unfortunatly, there all broken and stiking up at odd angles RIGHT in the middle of the room. I have decided that it just gives my room extra charactor. While the lodgings are a bit questional, the people are not. They are all loverly - the 4 that we met. They took us out to dinner with the principle last night and he got us drunk on really strong Vodka shots. They were nasty... but we already have an invite out to lunch with the english co-ordinator at her house and our GAP rep is generally really close with alot of the GAppers who have taught her almost perfect english so she is almost expecting that we spend alot of time at her house - which we might just do for a change...

The country is hot, and like i thought, internet is fantasic because they all play internet games on the computers. you really need an airconditioner or a fan though and its pleasent when you have both or either. Because the room is so big, bridge and i are going to try and make it really homely. I have already put up an Aussie flag and we also have a "kangaroos next 14km" on our door, so it already feels better.

That is alot of information, but i had to catch you all up on a weeks worth of goss!

Having a ball

Peace out!