Still working!

Sunsetting

Just trying to think what I've done over the past week that is worth mentioning and I really can't think of anything. I've been working 6 days of the week and relaxing on my day off. That's pretty much it. I payed football but that is as exciting as it gets.

 

As I've mentioned before I'm stopping work at one of my schools at the end of the semester which is on 2nd November 2012. I'm then working until 26th November at m other school. In the three week period before I leave for England I only work 2 days so I'm going to have a lot of time to relax and go and see places.

 

Some of the tropical trees

I'm in the process now of deciding where to go. The North of Vietnam is one option (Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay) but the middle of Vietnam is quite appealing too (Huy, Hoi An and Danang). There is also a beach place called Nha Trang which is supposed to be really good which I've not been to yet.

 

The rain has been getting heavier and more frequent but I'm happy to report that my house has not flooded. I officially move out of my house on 19th November so will be back in a guest house for a few days before going on an adventure and then returning to England.

 

Traffic

Pictures this week are some random ones I took as we came back into HCMC from Mui Ne earlier this year.

Flights booked home for Christmas



End of course party with my class

Today I booked my flights home to England for Christmas. My flight leaves Ho Chi Minh City on 10th December and arrives in Gatwick on 11th December. I've booked my return flight for 3rd January. At this point it will be a week short of 19 months away from England.

 

I finish my semester at one school on 2nd November and will not return there until the new year. My last working day at my other school is on Sunday 25th November which will give me two weeks to go for a pre holiday holiday and to sort my stuff out. 

 

As usual I've not done much exciting stuff. I'm just working hard and saving as much as I can before the end of the year. Pictures this week come from my class I have at the weekend. This is my class of 11-12 year olds. There English is quite good. At the end of the course there is a party. I put them into groups and told them they had 30 minutes to build a tower that can hold as many sweets as possible. There was a height requirement and they were only allowed to use 10 sheets of A4 paper and a small supply of sticky tape.

 

I made one too and I'm pleased to report I beat all the kids! My tower held 33 sweets until someone threw a shoe at it and knocked it over.One of the other towers did hold more sweets but I disqualified them for using too much paper and tape. My game, my rules.

 

Also, one of my 4 year old student's parents bought me a present the other day. Two very large grapefruits from her home town. I needed some help in preparing them but they were very tasty.

 

 

 

1 year teaching

Sunset at out house

On the first of September it was exactly one year since I started working at ILA. It feels quite nice to have done one full year of teaching and I've learnt so much in this time. I've signed a new part time contract at my school, they asked me to sign a new full time contract but I'm happy working part time in two schools at the moment. 

I'm pretty certain I will be coming back to England over Christmas, Our one year contract expires at our house on 20th September, we've decided to stay for two more months and then I'm going to move out. 

Sunset at my house

The timing is pretty perfect for me as it means I can move back to the guest house which I stayed at when I first came to Vietnam before stopping work at the end of November. I'll then go on a two week holiday and then coming back to England for Christmas. I'm planning to come back to Vietnam in early January and starting work again.

It will be nice to use the time to over Christmas to reflect on the past 18 months and make decisions about the next few years. At the moment I don't feel I've missed England so I can't see me moving back there in the near future.

As Ive been working so hard I've not really done much fun stuff. I'm still both teaching English and lecturing e-commerce. Only news is that we have a new beehive at our house. They've made it on our ladder on the roof of our house which is good because it means burglars can't use it to break in!