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!
