Tết

So.

It's the Holiday Season!!!

I am about to celebrate my second New Year!! This time, Vietnamese New Year. I feel incredibly lucky that I get to see in two New Years in such a short space of time.

I've been in Vietnam for 3 weeks and have only been teaching for two weeks, and now I have nearly 2 weeks off.

Tomorrow morning (in 9 hours) I'm flying to Laos. We are going there for two days, and will also take a trip to Thailand. We're flying back to Vinh for two days (the last day and the first day of the years) and then we'll be off to Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh and Binh Duong. My carbon footprint is going to dramatically increase over the next few days.

When I come back from Laos I hope to write a longer update. The past few weeks have been busy but so great! After Tết however, I will be even busier as I have 3 more classes - an extra 8.5 hours a week - to teach!

I better get some sleep anyway! But here is a video from a Vietnamese TV news station where I appeared in the background a few times! I was invited to a Year End celebration from the People's Committee of Nghe An Province (so all the important people were there!) where speeches, food, drinks, dances and lots of hand shaking took place!

The invitation

Second row seats

Awesome food display

Life needs a little chaos to make it interesting.

Lizzie x

Here in Vinh!

So.

I am having an absolutely brilliant time. I love it here! I have met some great people, that I feel I am able to already call my friends. The children and staff at the school are lovely, and the city itself is pretty interesting.

I have been so busy that I haven't had much of an opportunity to write.

I will however try and let you in on what I've been doing in the 11 days I have been here.

My very first day at the school was really exciting!! The pool had it's opening ceremony. I am so happy I was here to join in the celebration. It was a really big deal as it has been a long time in ideas, planning and building. There were speeches, ribbon cutting and then races between students and teachers. All very exciting, and I was lucky to have front row seats (which also meant getting slightly wet).

All the children getting ready for the races

Cutting the ribbon

Teachers race

My first week at the school, last week, I observed Stef and Sean teach some lessons. Well, I watched them on Monday and Tuesday, while still trying to get to grips with how things work. On Wednesday I had time to plan for the two lessons I then taught on Thursday. They went so well, I honestly couldn't be happier. I taught a class of 9/10 year olds and a class of 5 year olds. Even though through training to become a teacher, and being a fully-fledged one in a school I had to get used to being observed, I was still a little nervous to be watched over here. I had 4 people sit in on my lessons, including the principal of the school, and in the pretty small classrooms, it's slightly intimidating. The observers were thrilled with my lessons though and the principal said, and I quote "If all teachers taught like you, especially on the first day, BSA would be a wonderful place". WHOOP!!!!

On Thursday night, I went to a German Beer place with Stef and Sean and met up with some other Expats. Ian, from Scotland. Alex, from Australia (Sydney, if I remember correctly). And Derek, also from Australia. Ian has lived here for 4 years now, and absolutely loves it. He came here at 21 for 6 months, and hasn't looked back.

SO big! I had to hold it with two hands!

On Friday I had a meeting and then had the day to myself. I decided I would take the next step and go into Vinh on my own. I went to the local mall type place, with a supermarket called "The Big C" in there, and spent over an hour looking round.
The thing to remember here though, is you can't do any shopping in peace. I'm like a celebrity. So many people stop and say "hi", and want to start a conversation with you. You then get the young girls who stop and look at you, run away, and then follow you around the stop. It's a very interesting experience, I must admit.

That was a small rundown of my first week at the school. I'm awful, because I didn't post anything and now I can't fully remember what I did, but I know it was all good fun!

On Saturday, the real fun began though.
Stef, Sean and I went out for lunch to a Japanese restaurant. The food was really good, and I tried something I'd never had before. It was a kind of pizza, but with egg for the base. Very interesting, but good.

Ian came and joined us part way through lunch, and afterwards, we all went and played crazy golf! Who'd have thought there would be a grazy golf course in Vinh! I'm so glad they have one though as it was so much fun!!! I was the only one to get a hole in one (YES!!!), but I still didn't win. Third's the one with the hairy chest and all that :)

Climb every mountain!

In brief, we then went for more food, drinks, hung out by the lake (which I still haven't seen in daylight) and then went to a gorgeous bar called Caligo. (Vinh isn't a very big city. I think it's about 5km from one end to the other, so you can see a lot of it in a short space of time. I haven't seen much of it yet, but from what I have seen it's really cool and got a nice buzz! It's also especially good to see it from a motorbike. I've never had so much fun travelling around a city! I'm starting to feel like a local and it's not even been two weeks!)

They had an open mic night, which I think happens every Saturday, or maybe even weekday. The people that played music and sang were brilliant. We were sat with the guy who started the night playing his soprano saxophone, and then he ended up playing the guitar, drums and also sang a song himself. Multi-talented eh!

A girl then got up to sing, and everyone said how good she was. I didn't realise how good she was though. She was amazing. She sang a couple of English songs, and a couple in Vietnamese and accompanied herself on the guitar. A truly, undiscovered talent!! (I have a video but it's not letting me upload for some reason.)

Playing the guitar, while holding a cigarette.

We stayed til close, and then Stef, Ian, the saxophonist, Ian's boss and I all went to get some street food to end the night. Saturday really was a good day.

On Sunday, we went and had a swim in the new pool which is just meters away from where I'm staying. It's fab having a pool on site!! I also had to plan my lessons on Sunday because the next day I officially started teaching.

My first week of teaching is nearly over, but I'll save the stories for another day. The children are brilliant though and I'm loving it. It's so nice to be back in the classroom.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. I am also BSA's new singing teacher =D

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. 

Lizzie x

First day in Vinh City!

So.

Sunday 5th January was my first full day of living in Vinh!

I woke up from a great sleep at around 7am, which was great as I was then on Vietnam time and didn't feel any kind of jet lag.

I met up with Stephan and Sean at 8am as they were taking me out for breakfast and to see a little of the city!

We had an amazing breakfast called  'bo ne' at a place called Hue Vinh. It is steak and eggs that come sizzling out on a hot plate, accompanied by really fresh bread! It tasted so good!!!

Delicious!!!

After breakfast, Stephan suggested we go and get a coffee from a coffee shop he knows, that play live music later in the day! We were brought out some Vietnamese tea as soon as we got there, and then ordered 3 cappuccinos! It was really, really good! The cream on top was sweetened, which I didn't know until after taking a sip. We asked the waitress for some sugar before trying the drink, and she didn't understand us and never actually did bring any sugar to our table (which is a good thing as it was so sweet to start).

The white is the cream!

The coffee shop is opposite Ho Chi Minh Square, so could see the top of the statue of Ho Chi Minh through the trees and fog! We headed over to the square once we finished our drink and had a closer look at the statue. We then went for a little walk around the back of the statue on a path which is sort of like a mini forest!

You can just see his head!

You're not allowed up those steps!

Sean kept getting stopped and asked for pictures (as he is so tall compared to the Vietnamese), which makes you feel as if you are with a celebrity. At one stage a couple of girls stopped Sean for a short conversation and picture and then did the same with Stephan and me. As we were talking to the girls, two guys came over and did the same! It was really nice chatting with them, but such an odd feeling when strangers ask to have their picture with you!

The gardens

Stunning view 

We went back to school for a couple of hours and then went out to 'The Big C' which is a kind of mall/supermarket. We had some lunch and then did a quick shop. I want to go back and spend longer looking around, but the guys needed to get back to teach in the afternoon!

When I got back I eventually started unpacking! I'm more or less finished now, but still have some bits and bobs to find a home for!

In the evening, once the teaching was finished, the three of us went to a really beautiful restaurant for dinner. I can't remember the name if the place but I will show you a picture so you can get a feel for the place!
We didn't know what to order, but both Sean and Stephan had been to the restaurant before and knew what they wanted to get. Sean recognized a man who had eaten with/served them previously and he came over and helped order the food. We had something that was similar to a spring roll with fish in, some fish in a sauce that tasted very similar to Marie rose and then some shrimp. We got given an extra plate of the rolled up fish to celebrate me being a new teacher at the school, as the man that helped us order is the father to one of the pupils! It seems lots of networking is taking place :)

This blog post seems to be a bit of 'I did this, then that, then that', but I mainly wanted to show you the pictures, and I wanted to give you an idea about them!!

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

Lizzie x

Lizzie Goes East

So.

I'm in Vietnam. Vinh, to be precise. It's Sunday 5th January, around noon, and I'm sat in my room after having a brilliant morning with Sean and Stephan - my two new, American and English friends!

On 3rd January, I left my home in England to leave for London Gatwick Airport at 6am, to make sure I was on time to check in! There had been a previous landslide which had stopped the trains running to Gatwick, so we left with plenty of time to spare.

When we arrived at the airport, my Dad, Mum and I checked my bags in and then went to have some breakfast! It was a really good breakfast infact!

Yum! Pancakes, bacon and maple syrup!!

After breakfast, it was time to say goodbye to my parents. I hate goodbyes, and this was a particularly sad one after having a great few months with them, and a brilliant Christmas, but it was something that had to be done. So after some tears and a few hugs, I went through to the Departure lounge with a final wave off.

I had about 45 minutes before the gate was called, but then it was time to head to Gate 52.

I had a few more tears when I was waiting to board the plane, as the reality of me moving abroad was starting to sink in, particularly when my sister sent me a final goodbye text message! But I pulled myself together because I didn't want to look like some sort of weirdo, stood by myself, crying! Haha!!

I was sat in seat 50H, next to an English couple called Callie and Jon, who were both a similar age to me. They were really lovely, and both brought me back a couple of drinks throughout the flight as they were getting some.
A couple of hours into the flight we were given a menu so we could decide what we wanted to eat.
I chose the Vietnamese noodles and fish over the roast pork, and it was pretty decent for airplane food.

      

Prawn pasta salad.
Fish and noodles.
Bread roll.
Cheese and crackers.
Creme Brûlée
Coke.
Tea.


Yum!


I watched a film called 'Paranoia', which sounded quite good from the description, but I ended up falling asleep part way through it for around half an hour as it was pretty bad to be honest! Haha!

Later however, I watched a comedy/drama/romance type of film called 'Stuck In Love' which was much more easy going and I really quite enjoyed it! So that was good :)

I went to sleep for an hour or two and then we were served breakfast, at what was around 8/9pm in England and 3/4am in Vietnam.
The option was a rice dish and fish or an omelette. For some reason I chose the omelette, as I really didn't fancy the rice one.

Cheese omelette, pork, tomato, mushrooms and potato hash brown.
Bread and jam.
Strawberry yoghurt.
Fruit salad.
Apple juice.
Tea.


Not so bad!


The lady in front of me had her seat down for the whole flight, so I had my seat down to give myself a bit more room. The lady behind me was getting annoyed as every now and then she'd shove the chair. After breakfast I put my seat down again and she asked me to put it up because her legs were cramped. I did put it up, as I'm nice like that :) But I did tell her that the lady in front of me was doing the same, so if she put her seat back then she'd have the same amount of room as me, as after all, we are in exactly the same position. People, eh!

We landed in Hanoi just before 6:30am local time and I went to the Visa on Arrival place to hand in my paperwork to get the visa. That was all reasonably easy and then went through customs, which all went smoothly. Then the waiting for the bags began. We waited. And waited. And waited. 2 hours later, after about 2 bags every 15 minutes came out, the majority of the flight's bags came off. People were starting to become annoyed and anxious, but the fact that most people didn't have their bags made me feel better as we were all in the same boat!

I collected my bags eventually and then went to meet my friend, Ariadne, on the other side!! She arrived about 2 minutes after I walked through which was great timing! I went to see if I could check my bags in for my last flight, but I was 8 hours early, so I went and checked them into the baggage storage area. Ariadne then went and sorted out a Vietnames sim for me, and we then got the taxi into the centre of Hanoi.

Wow.

My first picture taken in Vietnam!

The taxi ride took about an hour, and it was so good to see the place I loved again after 7 years. Ariadne hadn't had breakfast, and I was pretty hungry, so our first stop was getting something to eat. She wanted to show me one of the best places to get street food, so the taxi dropped us off a few minutes walk away, and we went and ate some of the best food I have ever eaten!!!

 Pork phở - noodles, pork, bean sprouts, dried onion, peanuts = AMAZING!!!

(Ariadne asked them not to put coriander on mine for me =D)

We then went to another stall about 2 'doors' down and had something else to eat. That was also amazing, but I couldn't eat the noodles. The meat however -  perfect!!

Ariadne trying to show me
how to use chopsticks correctly.

Pork in a soup with a
fruit I can't remember
the name of.

Pork rolls, burgers, and
some wrapped in a leaf
of some sort.

After we finished eating, we went for a walk around parts of the centre. We went to Sword Lake (where the ancient giant turtle is that I saw on my first trip to Vietnam), bought some bubble tea, saw the massive Hanoi library, a gorgeous, expensive hotel that's pretty famous but I can't remember it's name and the stunning Hanoi Opera House.

Milk bubble tea with coconut, tapioca balls
and jelly.

Hanoi Opera House

The last place we went to was St. Joseph's Cathedral, which is beautiful. We sat outside it on the little stools of a restaurant drinking the infamous lemon ice tea, waiting for the bells to chime.

St. Joseph's Cathedral

The little white cup is of extra sugar syrup for me :)

After we finished our drink, we got a taxi back to the airport for me to check in to my flight to Vinh. I picked up my bags from the storage area, and got my ticket for my final flight! Ariadne then went home to get ready for her flight back to England on Monday, and I went through to Departures.

Landed in Vinh

My flight only lasted 50 minutes, which I slept the whole of! I was sat in 10A, so close to the front of the plane, so I was one of the first off. It was only a quick wait for the bags to come off the plane, so after collecting them, I was greeted by Ms. Hanh (the principle of the school I will be teaching in), Stephan and Sean, a few hugs and a huge, gorgeous bunch of flowers!!!

We drove to the school and the guys carried my cases to my room, which was lovely of them! We put my things down and then went straight out to a beautiful restaurant, along with Ms. Hanh's husband and another girl who works at the school.

The food was delicious!

We had corn on the cob to start, then a feast of all sorts of delicious food such as pork, shrimp, spinach, chicken and a variety of dipping sauces, which was followed by more pork, rice and a soup base, which was followed by oranges! Amazing!!!! Sean persuaded me to try a little fruit (that I don't know the name of), which was horrible! He was asked to try the same thing when he arrived a few months ago and ate a whole one. I had a feeling it was some kind of trick so only took a little bite. But it was a salty flavoured thing where the taste lingered for ages! We also had a Bia Saigon which went perfectly with the food.

After dinner we headed back to the school and Stephan and Sean showed me some of the places on site. It will be better to see them in the day, but I got to see the coffee shop, some of the classrooms and the newly built swimming pool (which has it's grand opening on Monday so I'm happy to be here for that). One of the security guards let us into the pool to see it and it's brilliant! Much bigger than I expected and I can't wait to try it out!

After all that travelling and excitement it was finally time to head to bed. I got carried away writing my blog post (yesterday's) but eventually I stopped, had a shower and went to sleep. 

What a fantastic couple of days!!! It's amazing what you can do, what you can see and how much fun you can have in what is actually only a few hours!

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Lizzie x

The adventure is about to begin!!!

So.

I'm in Vietnam!

Wait, let me rewind a little.

My New Year's Eve celebrations were brilliant! It was really great having some of my closest friends with me to see the New Year in. We played games, had some drinks, ordered a Chinese, had a laugh, and chatted so much we missed the actual countdown to the start of 2014.

On New Year's Day, I spent lots of time going shopping for things I needed to take to Vietnam with my Mum, and later on, my Dad joined us. I needed odds and ends, such as toiletries, toiletries and more toiletries.

On the 2nd January, I spent my day shopping. Again. But this time I needed a new computer, as my laptop broke on New Year's Eve a few hours before my friends came round. I ended up getting the new laptop I wanted and needed eventually, after some negotiations were made regarding the old, broken laptop (which was only bought in November, so was only a few weeks old itself).  I then went to get some dollars, because yes, I leave everything to the last minute. Whether that be assignments, getting money or packing. Oh yeah, packing.

After my Mum and I eventually got everything I needed, we went home to start packing. What a feat that was!!!!! I knew I was taking my traveling rucksack, but I needed a suitcase as well. One was too big, one was too small and one was juuuuust right :)
My Mum ended up having to pack and repack 3 times before everything was eventually in the right places and weighing as close to the weight limit as possible.

I then had 'The Last Supper' which was yep, you guessed it, roast chicken! And my, what an amazing roast my Dad cooks!

Then I had my last Lush bubble bath for what is probably going to be a long time!
(What, you don't want to know about that? But this is a blog, and blogs are for writing down life changing events aren't they?)

There were still things for me to do after my bath of course, like fill in my visa form and pack my carry on bags (so much added pressure even that task is) and finish loading things onto my laptop!

And then it was time for bed!

Which is also what it is time for me to do now (it's 23.15). I know this entry has been a pretty boring read of my preparations to go to Vietnam, but I'm just wetting your appetite :)

Soon you will be able to hear all about what happened as I started going East!

But now I'll leave you with a picture and also a goodnight!