Tet and Rob and Sam Visit

So it's been about a month since Tet, and I figured I should update a bit. Spencer and I took about a week and a half to travel up and see some of the central-north parts of Vietnam. Our initial plan was to fly up to Da Nang, spend some time there and Hoi An, and then take a train to Nha Trang (gorgeous beach town) and then another train back to Saigon. However, being disorganized, we booked our trip a bit late and all of the train tickets were sold out, as were flights to Da Nang. There were, however, first class plane tickets to go to Da Nang. We were booking our trip right after pay day, so, feeling flush (and not having much other choice if we actually wanted to go through with this trip), we went for first class. The day we arrived at the airport, it was an absolute mad house. Tet is the biggest traveling time in Vietnam, and most everyone travels. We started standing in line to check in and realized that it would be about 45 minutes or so. We asked one of the ladies working to make sure that we were in the right line, and she quickly ushered us over to the First Class checkin counter, where we waited about 2 minutes. After security, we headed to the airport lounge to wait for a few hours. The lounge was incredible - free food and drinks, sofas, internet access, no screaming babies, etc. We got onto the plane and were immediately irritated that the flight was only 45 minutes. There was so much leg room in front of us that I could stick my legs out straight in front of me and still have them be about a foot away from the row in front of us. They came around about 15 minutes into the flight with a meal of some sort, complete with metal silverware. Anyways, that's my tangent on how incredible first class is, and how much it's going to suck to go back to economy seating. It's completely ruined me.

We'd heard that Da Nang was a beach town, and requested a hotel near the beach. However, neither Spencer nor I had checked the weather before we left. We got there, and it was COLD! (Not by "winters at home" standards, but definitely by Vietnam standards). Neither of us had brought clothes for cold weather, assuming that we'd just be lying on the beach the whole time. Oops. We got a taxi at the airport, and showed him our piece of paper with our itinerary on it that had the hotel's address. We weren't familiar with Da Nang and how far out the airport was, so after about 30 minutes in the taxi, we asked the driver what was going on. Turns out that when he looked at the paper, he saw that we were going to Hoi An, which is about 30 kilometers away, and was taking us there. He turned around, and took us to the hotel, which was only about 5 minutes from the airport. After paying 500,000 (about $25) for a trip that should've only been about $3, neither of us were too pleased. We got to the hotel and decided to take a look around Da Nang. At that point, I was sick, cold, grumpy, and hungry. Not a good combination...While we were out looking for lunch, it started to rain. Needless to say, our time in Da Nang was spent mostly in the hotel room, complaining about how lame the city was. Rather than be miserable and cooped up in our hotel room the whole time, we decided to go to Hoi An a few days early. We hopped in a taxi that took us there (it was about 400,000) and upon arriving, knew that we'd made the right decision.

Hoi An is lovely. So far, it's my favorite town in Vietnam (not that I've been to that many, but of all of the ones I have seen, it's definitely at the top of my list). It's a quaint little town that feels a bit Disney-land-esque. It's got narrow streets, with old looking shops, and there are always people out in the streets. It's small enough that after only half a day, I felt like I knew the town pretty well. Hoi An is also the place to go to have clothes made. The streets are lined with tailor after tailor, all of whom can make any kind of clothes you want and have them back to you the following day. Spencer and I were both low on work clothes, so we went to a tailor and just went crazy....She pulled out a catalogue, and flipping through, it was hard to stay sane. Flipping through, I'd see something I liked on a page, then something else a few pages later, then a shirt in another few pages that I wanted in a few different colors....I walked out of there having ordered four shirts, two pairs of pants, and a skirt. We picked up the clothes the next day and they were all perfect...what a town! Anyways, after a few days in Hoi An, it was time to head down to where the weather was warmer and we could lie on a beach all day in Nha Trang...

After a cramped overnight bus, we arrived in Nha Trang tired and hungry. We checked into our hotel, napped for a bit, then ventured out to find food. Nha Trang is a gorgeous beach town, and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam. Spencer rented a motorbike, so one day we rode out of town for about half an hour, and the scenery only got even more beautiful. We spent most of our time there lying on the beach during the day, and eating nice meals in the evening. Our last day there, I dragged Spencer to Thap Ba Hot Springs Mudbath. He was not impressed, and really didn't want to go. We arrived and decided what we wanted (and by "what we wanted" I actually mean "what I wanted and Spencer grumbled about") and went to get changed, and Spencer suddenly says "I didn't even bring a swimsuit, so I'll just go sit by the pool and you do your thing." Fortunately for both of us, I'd snuck his swimsuit into my bag, so he had no excuse. We changed, and he complained all the way up to the mudbaths. We got in and he complained some more, but after a few minutes, the complaining stopped and he started to enjoy it. We spent about 15 minutes soaking in a tub of mud, then a few minutes lying in the sun letting the mud dry, then after a shower, we went to a hot mineral bath. We left feeling incredibly relaxed, and Spencer incredibly apologetic for whining so much.

Towards the end of the vacation, we were both ready to get back. We were tired of being tourists - of not knowing where to eat, or what to do - and were just ready to be back in Saigon. We had an 8am bus and after quite a bit of drama with them (they were at the wrong address to pick us up, and we thought they'd forgotten us), we prepared for what ended up being a 12 hour bus ride. We arrived back in Saigon around 7:30pm, and my friends Rob and Sam visiting from Jakarta were due to arrive at 8. I hopped off the bus, gave Spencer my suitcase to take home, and caught a xe om out to the airport.

It was awesome having them visit. Taking people around your city makes you feel proud, and for me especially, made me appreciate it here a lot more. We didn't do a ton while they were here...we ate lots of street food, particularly bun thit nuong, and hit all of the main tourist attractions (the post office, the cathedral, the palace, the war museum...). We also spent a weekend in Vung Tau with them, though by that point I was pretty well burned out on traveling and ready to get back to work and a regular schedule.

Since they left, things have settled down quite a bit. Teaching is still going well, and I'm still having a lot of fun with all of my friends here. I've got a few trips planned for the near future...in March ILA is having its annual trip to Mui Ne. It was a ton of fun last year, even though I'd just arrived, and I'm hoping that it'll be even more fun this year, seeing as I've been here over a year and know a lot more people. Then, at the beginning of April, Spencer and I are going down to Kuala Lumpur to see the Formula 1 Race, and after that, heading for a few days to the Perhentian Islands (if you want to be jealous, do a google image search...). I swear, all of this traveling around here is completely spoiling me for anywhere that I want to go in the future...

The Holidays Edition (Super-Belated)

And again, I haven't written in what feels like ages. A quick Gossip Girl addiction later, and here I am....It doesn't feel like I've actually accomplished a lot since I've last written (especially given the amounts of TV that I've somehow managed to watch), but when I actually look back on the past few months, I realize that I've done quite a bit.

The first holiday was Thanksgiving. I'd booked tickets home ages ago. When it finally came time to head home, part of me didn't want to go. I was still enjoying Vietnam and getting used to things, and I knew that if I went home, I'd have to readjust all over, and the little things (the nonexistence of lines here, or sidewalks for that matter) would annoy me all over again. What I didn't realize was that when I was home, I'd have to readjust to American culture as well...somehow the concept of reverse culture shock slipped my mind. Jet lag apart, I had an amazing time at home, and as tough as it was getting used to paying 5 times as much for a beer at home (and having to tip on top of it - can you believe it!), it was really awesome to see everybody. The weather was perfect - I got home and caught the last bit of Autumn, and before I left, even got to see a few inches of snow! We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner and while I was home I ate enough BBQ to last me for another few months here...

I got back to Vietnam on a Wednesday night and had to be at work on Thursday evening (mostly due to poor planning and an inability to account for the time difference and date differences when I was booking my time off of work). I certainly hit the ground running...after Thursday evening of work, I was back in for a nearly full weekend. Fortunately we only had to work for half of Sunday since ILA's Christmas party was that evening and they gave us the evening off. The Christmas party was tons of fun - it was at the Intercontinental Hotel, a 5 star hotel and restaurant, and featured an all you can eat buffet and open bar. Zara and I both had dresses made for the party (as did most of the female teachers), and everyone had a complete blast. Fortunately for my liver and my stomach both, I was still pretty jet lagged, so headed home relatively early.

For Christmas, Spencer and I decided that if we couldn't have the cold that we were used to, we'd better go for the other extreme, so we headed up to Mui Ne to get some quality beach time in.
The trip was amazing...the weather couldn't have been better, and we stayed in an incredible resort where we had a Christmas Eve dinner feast. We tanned (avoiding sunburn this time!), read more than can possibly be healthy, watched the kite surfers, and thoroughly enjoyed being out of the city. It was rough coming back, but then again, it always is hard to go back to work after a relaxing vacation (especially one spent at the beach...)

So now on to New Year's.....I've never been a huge fan of New Year's and all of the parties. It's just too much hype for a night which, to me, has almost always turned out to be a disappointment. One of my teenage students invited me to a New Year's party that she and her family were throwing. I was in a bit of an awkward situation, so I agreed to go before I really got a chance to think about it. I was going to bail at the last minute, but she was really excited for me to come (since I didn't know where she lived, she offered to come to my house across town and pick me up and take me there), and I couldn't say no. Fortunately Spencer agreed to come along with me, so we showed up to her house. In Vietnam, lots of people happen to clear out the bottom floor of their house to make some sort of business, and just live above it. Her house is a beauty salon by day, but had been cleared out and filled with tables for the party. When we got there, we sat with a bunch of older teenagers from her English for Study Abroad classes that she was also taking at ILA, so fortunately everybody could speak English. It was an incredible party - it was fully catered, and had waiters that would come over to bring another drink as soon as you even looked like you were maybe considering another drink. The food was amazing as well - mostly seafood, which I wasn't a big fan of, but very fresh tasting and perfectly cooked. Spencer and I ducked out after a few hours and headed to get frozen yogurt on the way home. In bed by about 11 and watching a movie. Could be one of the better New Years celebrations of my life....

Since the big holiday rush, not a lot has been going on...I got a semi-promotion at work. They took my first two classes away from me (my Jumpies, which I loved, and my J3B's, who were the first class that I got when I started teaching here - weird to think that I've had them for a year now...). Anyways, I'm now officially one of the two "standby teachers" on the weekend. I have to show up a bit earlier (7am!), and wait around to see if anybody calls in sick. If they do, I plan a last minute lesson and go teach. If nobody does, I work on developing the supplemental resources that all of the teachers use. I've only done it for two weekends, but so far it's all going really well, although I was sad to have to say goodbye to my old students...

I've just been hanging in there, getting through the teaching, and waiting for Tet to come at the beginning of February. Spencer and I are flying up to Da Nang (a nice beach town), then going to Hoi An (the fabric and clothes-making capital of Vietnam), and Nha Trang (a busy beach town). It'll be a busy 9 days, and then when we get back, my friends Rob and Sam are coming to visit from Jakarta for a week! - That should all keep me nice and busy!

My apologies for my incoherent writing (and rambling) in this post...I'm working off of only a few hours of sleep and a full weekend... will hopefully be more together with my next update (which also shouldn't be another four months or so from now...)

Homeward Bound!

It's been a while since I've written...not a lot is going on. I'm really excited cause I'm leaving for home for Thanksgiving on Monday!! I'll be home for two weeks, so anybody who's going to be around, drop me an email and let's hang out!

As for life here, I've been keeping busy, and everything's been fairly normal and uneventful. Spencer got back from his month long trip home at the beginning of October, and noticing how burnt out I was on being in the city, took me on an overnight trip to Vung Tau. We took the hydrofoil over on a Monday, spent Monday night, and came back Tuesday afternoon in time to teach that evening. It was exactly what I needed. We rode around on a motorbike, had the best french toast Vietnam has to offer (at least that we've been able to find so far), and relaxed on the beach (until a huge storm came)...






The only other thing to report is the Halloween madness at ILA. Each level had a different contest (Jumpstarts had a costume contest, Juniors had a Halloween poster competition and got to go to the Haunted House, Seniors had a pumpkin carving contest, and Elites had a scary story story-telling thing). My seniors had a pretty awesome pumpkin design, and we had a lot of fun decorating it. It was a bit weird being the one in charge, though...they were all looking at me to carve the pumpkin (and I had to since I'd been explicitly warned that students weren't allowed to touch the knife).







My Jumpstarts were adorable. They came in in cute little costumes, and I realized it would be a perfect photo opportunity. After about a minute of the TAs trying to corral them into rows so that they'd all fit in the frame, I realized that the actual process of trying to get them lined up was way more adorable (and telling of what it's like teaching a Jumpies class) than the picture would be, so I switched over and took a video (in the video, note the kid in the front, in the Cat in the Hat shirt that strikes his pose, and maintains it the entire time).

The final picture:


The chaos of trying to get there (photo):


More chaos (video):

Other news is that I signed a six-month extension to my contract here, so I'll officially be here through the end of July. Weird to think about, but I'm very excited. I've started to book some trips for after I get back from Thanksgiving...so far plans include Christmas in Mui Ne, Tet (Chinese New Year, at the beginning of February) in the central Vietnam (Da Nang, Hoi An, possibly Hue, and Nha Trang), and Malaysia in April to go see a Formula1 race in KL. Should be lots of fun!

I'm off to start thinking about what to pack for my trip home....hopefully see some of you soon!
xo

Jakarta and Readjusting to HCMC

So a quick debrief of my trip to Jakarta....two of my really good friends, Robb and Sam, are there teaching, so I decided I'd pop over for a quick visit. My first impression of Jakarta was how huge it was. With a population of about 20 million (10 million in the center, 10 in surrounding areas), it was massive. I was met by huge skyscrapers, tons of traffic, and absolutely no sidewalks. I also showed up towards the end of Ramadan, so in addition to the beautiful calls to prayer that I got to hear, there were fireworks all over the city all night.

Day 1:
We went to one of the many shopping malls that Jakarta has to offer. While we were there, we had a quick lunch before the Fish Foot massage. Apparently it's becoming a big trend back home...it was bizarre. We got there, and the ladies working there washed our feet, then we sat on the benches and put our feet into the water. Once our feet were in, hundreds of fish swam up and started eating the dead skin on our feet and legs. It was the most bizarre sensation, and nearly impossible to describe or compare with anything. Later that evening we met up with Vivienne, another teacher that Robb and Sam work with for a few drinks, and at the end of the evening decided that I'd go with her on a day trip the following day while Robb and Sam were working.

Day 2:
Vivienne and I met up and took a cab to the train station (incidentally, going to the wrong train station, so having to get right back in another cab to go to the right one). We were trying to go to Bogor, an old Dutch town about an hour away by train and known for its gorgeous botanical garden, orchids, and presidential palace. According to a Google Image Search, the gardens at Bogor look something like this:



But when we got there, it looked like this (view from the cafe where we camped out for a few hours):



After realizing that the rain wasn't going to let up, we decided to go back to the train station and get on the next train back to Jakarta. By the time we got to the train station, we were absolutely drenched, and shuffling through six inches of water on the streets. We got on the next train, which had the air conditioning full blast, and froze for the entire ride back into the city. Later that night, Robb and Sam and I got a smorgasbord of street food, including chicken satay, fried rice (with extra MSG), and some sort of weird duck egg omelette/pastry type thing.



Day 3:
Nothing too eventful on day three...I went into work with Robb and Sam to see their school, and after a bit of time there taking advantage of the internet, I went to a shopping mall across the street. So excited by western stores, and by the prospect of going into a shoe store that would have more than one style in my size, I bought a new pair of shoes from Aldo. Yay consumerism!

Day 4:
Ramadan was coming to an end, and we were getting ready to go on our trip to The Thousand Islands. Robb and Sam had the day off of work, so we decided to take advantage of it by going on one of the walking tours that their boss had created for a book he's writing. We started at one of the many shopping malls, and walked through some back alleys. We instantly got lost, but enjoyed the wandering around.





That evening, we tried to go to a Padang restaurant, but everything was closed since it was the last day of Ramadan and most people had left the city already, so we ended up at Pizza Hut. Go figure. (some of us were more excited to be there than others of us...)



The Thousand Islands
The next morning we set off for a two-day, one-night trip to a resort in the Thousand Islands (small islands near Jakarta). We got to the port and after an hour and a half boat ride, found ourselves at the island that we'd be staying at. The water was crystal clear, and as we were docking, we could see a pod of dolphins swimming next to our boat. Overall, the resort was beautiful, except that it wasn't very clean (there was a LOT of trash in the water) and there were tons of mosquitos. There were also two or three komodo dragons that hung out around the resort (as we later found out, because the tourists give them their food scraps). Despite our nearly hourly contests of comparing who had the largest or the most mosquito bites, it was nice to get out of the city for a while and lie in a hammock on the beach and read.






We got back into Jakarta that afternoon, and managed to go to a Padang Restaurant. At Padang restaurants, they bring tons of different dishes to your table, and you eat what you want, and leave the rest. There were lots of unrecognizable meats (at least, we think they were meats?) and other foods, but overall, it was really nice.



I hopped on a plane the next afternoon and headed back to Saigon:














I was excited to get back to Vietnam, but upon arriving and getting a taxi from the airport home, my taxi driver tried to rip me off....welcome home...Everything's started to settle down a bit and I've been getting more into my routine here (although seriously feeling the need for a vacation again - somehow a vacation to another big city isn't quite as relaxing as a vacation lying on the beach all day...)

My Vietnamese class that I was taking through ILA has ended, but I've carried on taking lessons with the same teacher and one other guy. I still don't know how to say anything (Vietnamese is a frustrating language!), but at least I feel like I'm making an effort.

August Updates

Not a lot has changed here in the past few months...still working the same schedule, eating at the same restaurants, and hanging out with the same people. I'm still enjoying it a lot, though, so it's not like it's a problem.

I wanted to write about my birthday, but since it was over a month ago, it seems like there's not really a point anymore. My birthday fell on a Sunday, which meant that I had to work all day (teaching four classes, in school for twelve hours). The classes themselves weren't anything special, apart from a few students bringing me small presents. Since I knew that I'd be exhausted by the end of the day, and not feel like teaching four classes on my birthday, I planned ahead with Adam, another teacher, to co-teach The S5 Olympics. We both have S5's (Seniors, so students from age 12 through 15 or so) during the last class, and Adam's class is only about two weeks ahead of mine in the book. We planned a bunch of events - a scavenger hunt with clues hidden all over the school, a three-legged vocabulary sprint in the hallways (which we had to cancel after one trial because it was too noisy), and a few other things. Overall, it went really well, and even though it was significantly more planning than a normal class, it was nice to have a bit of a break from "teaching" at the end of the day.

I share a birthday with another teacher, so we decided to combine our efforts and go out together. A group of 20 or so teachers went out for dinner at Bernie's, a fairly new restaurant where the chef is American and the food tastes like it - I had a burger (recently ranked the best burger in town by one of the expat magazines). After dinner, we went to a bar next door. I had another two drinks and started to feel a bit sick, so I called it an early evening and headed home. I woke up in the morning with what I thought was a terrible hangover, which was weird since I'd only had three or four beers. When I was still feeling terrible that evening, I realized that it wasn't just a hangover. I spent the next four days curled up in bed - throwing up and unable to move.

Minor medical crises aside, everything here is still going really well. I recently finished the free Vietnamese class that ILA offers. A few weeks before the last class, we went on a field trip. Our teacher told us the name of a market, and we had to ask people for directions (in Vietnamese, of course) and once we were there, buy different fruits and haggle over the prices. It was pretty cool being able to do it all in Vietnamese, plus we ended up with lots of different fruit to eat that afternoon. I'm planning on continuing on with private lessons with the same teacher, just so that I can keep practicing.

On Sunday I'm heading to Indonesia for a week. My best friend Rob and his girlfriend Sam are teaching English in Jakarta. It's been almost a year since I've seen them, so I'm really excited about it! I'm not entirely sure what we're doing yet, but I'll be sure to post an update once I'm back.

I recently decided to extend my contract for six months since I'll be going to grad school in September, and would rather be here working, earning money, and spending time with friends than sitting at home bored. With the contract extension, I'll be in Vietnam for a total of a year and a half, which is too long to go without going home. Sooooooo I bought a ticket home for Thanksgiving to break things up. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody, but more importantly, to eating some Allen & Sons BBQ.

Back to lying in bed and doing nothing....ahhh I love days off!

Ball Pythons and Private Lessons

A few weeks ago, ILA had a petting zoo for the kids in summer school. They brought a bunch of small animals (snakes, rabbits, lizards, gerbils, etc.) to the fifth floor of ILA and all of the summer school classes got 15 minutes to go see all of the animals. I'm sticking in a picture of one of my favorite students, Jackson, holding the Ball Python. Jackson used to drive me crazy until I went on the field trip with the class to the zoo (the real zoo, not just the petting zoo), and he was cracking me up the whole time - wouldn't let go of my hand, kept trying to teach me Vietnamese, and sharing his snacks with me.

He and I got off on a bad foot at the beginning of the class. I told all of the students to make nametags with what they wanted me to call them, whether it was their English name, or their Vietnamese name. Usually when students pick English names, they choose characters out of their textbooks (I have a bunch of Andys and Pollys), a complete white trash trailer name (Cindy, Daisy, etc.), or something random (Catfish, Panda, TV, Balloon, Dragon Sky).

When I saw that this kid had chosen Jackson, and I was excited to have a cool, different name. I called him Jackson a few times during the first class, and he started to get mad. He turned over his nametag I saw that the other side said Michael. He insisted that I call him Michael Jackson (incidentally, my second student who wanted me to call him Michael Jackson). I refused. At the zoo, I called him by his Vietnamese name, and about an hour into it while he was holding my hand, he looked up at me and said "Call me Jackson". Hurray for minor teaching victories!

Another tidbit from the petting zoo...one of the TAs posted a picture on facebook of me holding the same snake. One of the teachers I work with posted the comment trouser snake?, and the TA responded It is "Ball Python". Hurray for American innuendos that go over the head of foreigners!

The other new thing in my life is that I've picked up another private lesson. The woman who does scheduling at ILA asked if I wanted it, and I decided to take it. She gave me the name of a woman to call, and the woman said that they were lessons for her manager, who wanted to work on pronunciation and some grammar. She gave me the address of the company, but said she wasn't working that day and gave me the number of the guy's wife. At this point I'm starting to get really nervous about why they won't give me his number. I assumed that it was because his English was so bad that he wouldn't be able to understand anything or arrange a time for me to come meet him. After setting up a time with his wife, she told me his name was Hoàn and gave me his number. I texted him to confirm the time of the meeting, and he called me (his English was actually pretty decent, which was a nice suprise). I headed over to his office (Khai Hoan Land Office) and the receptionist led me to his office. He hands me his card, and he is the Khai Hoan - Chairman and General Director of a 250+ employee company. Zoinks!

He's a really nice guy - he's studied English for a long time, but never gets a chance to practice. He has a translator for everything, but he told me that he doesn't really like his translator, and wants to get rid of him and do all of his business himself. A serious fellow - I quickly realized that this wouldn't be the kind of private lesson where I could go in unprepared and just wing it... He asked me if I liked Vietnam, and if I'd had any sort of problems since I arrived. I told him I hadn't, and said he was glad, but if I had any problems with anything (police, the government, or anything) to let him know and he'd help me out. A useful contact to have....

Vietnamese lessons are still going well. This past week we did ability (can and can't) and the present continuous. The more I learn, the more it all makes sense (duh), and I've gotten a few basic sentence structures so that I'm able to form my own sentences, rather than just the ones that we're taught in class. The only problem now is that I'll say something in Vietnamese, and the person I'm talking to will answer me in Vietnamese and I'll sit there like an idiot for a few seconds trying to figure out what they've said (I don't even know why I try - I really only know about 50 vocabulary words), then have to tell them that I don't understand. Oops.

In Thursday's class we had to interview two Vietnamese people (in Vietnamese, obviously) who worked at ILA, asking them questions about their daily schedules (what are your work hours; when is your lunch hour; when do you watch TV; how many days a week do you work, go for coffee, work out, go shopping, etc). It was pretty cool that I was able to actually have a "conversation" in Vietnamese and that they could understand me. (Not to mention that one of the people I interviewed was one of my TA's, and the other guy in class also interviewed her, and she said that my Vietnamese was better than his. Boo ya!)

Anyways, think that's just about it, really...

Henry, Larri, and the trip North

A few developments since I last wrote. My friend Henry is here visiting, and it's wonderful for more than just the fact that he brought me Firefly sweet tea vodka. It's been weird having somebody from home here, and showing him around and taking him to all of my favorite restaurants really has made me realize that this city is feeling more and more like home to me every day. Henry arrived on a Wednesday night, and things were pretty uneventful (what with him getting over the jet lag and getting used to everything here) until Sunday.

On Sunday, I took the day off of work and we went to champagne brunch at the Intercontinental Hotel to celebrate/mourn Tara's leaving. The brunch consists of all you can drink champagne and all you can eat brunch (complete with roast beef and yorkshire pudding). After an afternoon of drinking champagne, followed by an evening at the Blue Gecko filled with more drinking and darts, I decided it was time to call it a night (it was, incidentally, only about 7pm).

Henry and I came home, and while unlocking the gate, I looked down and there was a tiny stray kitten sitting on the stoop. I've wanted a cat my whole life, and on this particular day, not thinking completely clearly, I picked it up, took it inside, poured it a dish of milk, and, again, not thinking clearly, adamantly demanded that I'd keep it.
The entire time, Henry was telling me what an awful idea it was, and when Spencer showed up about half an hour later, he agreed, and the two of them together tried to talk me out of keeping it. Spencer made the mistake of calling Zara to have her talk some sense into me. He either didn't know, or had forgotten, what an animal-lover Zara is, so when she came home and saw the kitten, she fell in love with it too. We decided to keep it until we could find it a home.

The next morning, Spencer, Henry and I left for the airport for our flight up to Hanoi. We arrived that afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking around the lake and exploring the city a bit. I really liked Hanoi. It's much prettier than Ho Chi Minh City. There are lakes and parks everywhere, and it's cleaner as well. For some reason that I can't explain, though, I still prefer HCMC - I feel like it has more character, as far as cities go. That evening, we booked ourselves a three day, two night trip to Ha Long Bay. I don't really remember much from our time in Hanoi - a lot of time was spent watching World Cup matches, making lots of "that's what she said" jokes (very few of which were actually funny), and drinking bia hoi (beer of the day - fresh-brewed beer that tastes suspiciously like Natty Light, but only costs about ten cents a glass). We also saw a few sites (the Prison where John McCain was a POW, and Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, where he was embalmed - in a word...creepy).



We woke up early to take the three-hour van ride to Ha Long Bay. It was pretty uneventful, though Spencer and I spent the time sharing my ipod and listening to Bill Bryson's memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and periodically cracking up. The ride went pretty quickly, and we got dropped off at the port and made our way to the junk boat we'd be on for the next few days. We got settled in our rooms, had lunch, and went up to the top of the ship to look around and catch some sun. Ha Long Bay is gorgeous; it's about 1600 square kilometers, and consists of almost 2000 limestone islets, some of which are really big, and some that are pretty small. Our ship sailed around for a few hours and we stopped at the Surprise Cave, which was a huge cave with tons of stalactites and stalagmites and shapes that were supposed to resemble animals, though I could never really see what any of them were supposed to be (at one point I think I offended our tour guide by guessing that one shape was a monkey. Turns out it was the Buddha). Of course, we all left our cameras on the boat and have no photos of the cave, but suffice it to say, it was really cool. After the cave, we had about 45 minutes of kayaking around. I'd never been kayaking before, and Spencer was kind enough not to get mad at me (at least, not visibly) when I completely sucked at it. We got back that evening and anchored the boat and went for a swim. Henry, Spencer, and a Kiwi named Rob that we made friends with all jumped from the top level of the boat, but I wussed out and climbed in off of the back. We swam for a bit, had dinner, and the four of us (Henry, Spencer, Rob, and me) spent the evening playing euchre and drinking games.

The next morning, we were woken up earlier than we would've liked (thank you, bottle of Johnny Walker) and ushered onto a boat to take us to Cat Ba Island. We hadn't really paid attention to the itinerary, so we were unsure what we were doing on the island, but as soon as we got there, they told us we were going on a hike. We were all pretty confident in our climbing, so even when things got steep and we only had on our flip flops, we weren't too concerned. It was when we got closer to the top, and things got even steeper (at times it was pretty much a vertical climb up rocks) and muddier that we were a bit concerned. It was pretty miserable towards the end, but once we got up, the view was spectacular. We climbed an old, rickety viewing tower (in hindsight, probably not the best idea) and rested there for a while before the treacherous climb back down. Going down was much more slippery and muddy than the way up, and there were a few moments when we were cussing ourselves for only having brought flip flops. We made it through safe and sound, though, and have a few pictures as proof. After the hike, we went to lunch at a hotel on the island, and then went off to Monkey Island, where we sat on the beach for a few hours and saw a few monkeys (overall, Monkey Island was pretty unimpressive).

We headed back to the boat for the night and found that a lot of the older crowd that had been there the night before had been replaced by younger backpackers. We hung out with them all night, trying our hands at karaoke and various drinking games. The next day was more cruising around the islands and then back into Ha Long City, where we had lunch and all took the van back to Hanoi together.

That evening, Henry met up with a few of the people that were on the boat with us the second night, and Spencer and I, both being exhausted and unable to stand Vietnamese food after three days of fried seafood on the boat, went to a nice Italian restaurant.

We left for the airport the next day, and after a two hour flight delay, made it onto the plane and got back into HCMC safe and sound (though the landing scared the bajesus out of me).

Not much has been happening since then - getting readjusted at work is going well, though I'm still getting used to Saturdays and Sundays of eight teaching hours each. Henry went up the coast on a week and a half long trip, and has just gotten back for a few days before heading home. We also found the kitten a home with our cleaner's sister. She lives out in the countryside in a house with a yard. We had to give her away just a few days ago. It's been lonely around here without her, but she'll be much better cared for.