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!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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!
"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!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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
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
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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
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
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