ILA Christmas party.

My favourite Pho Bo restaurant

This past Tuesday evening was the ILA Christmas party. It was held at a posh hotel called the ‘ice palace’ which despite the name was not made of ice, or a palace. It was free to go and there were free drinks all night. Sadly I had to work at my other school the next day so had to exert self control at the free bar which I successfully managed. The only disappointing thing was that they didn’t play any Christmas music but opted for dance music instead. I requested some from the DJ but he looked at me like I was mad. I kid you not, he then asked me ‘why do you want Christmas music?’ to which my reply was…… ‘It’s a Christmas party!?’

Market, 2 minutes walk from my house

It was nice to see everyone dressed up though. Sadly I forgot to take my camera so don’t have any pictures. I will try and pester some people for some in the next few weeks as it was pretty impressive.

I needed to get a suit made for the party. Although I have had some trousers and shirts made before I don’t have a jacket. I went on Sunday to a shop where the tailor measured me up. I got to choose the material, style and lining.  I picked the suit up two days later and it fitted perfectly! All this cost $110 (70 pounds!) for the jacket and trousers.

The river north of my house - words can't describe how bad it smells

As I've said before I’m doing more hours at my new school so have been pretty busy all week. I’ve not been doing any other fun stuff. I’m looking forward to Christmas! There are 35 of us going to a posh hotel for Christmas lunch then were going to a house party in the evening.

I can’t believe it’s only 10 days until Christmas! It seems even stranger that it was May, seven months ago, that I left England! At the moment the plan is to come back to England next November / December. I’m not sure if this will be for a visit or for longer. I’m still liking the teaching and being in a different country.

Some other good news is that it’s getting cooler! The mornings feel fresh on occasions but putting it into perspective its only cooler compared to the usual relentless heat. It’s still 20 plus degrees and still rises to at least 30 most days. The heat doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. I’m not sure if this is because I’m getting used to it or because im used to being hot and sweaty.

Football tournament and disappointment in the Xmas poster competition

The infamous HCMC traffic

I started working more hours at the ERC – the business school this week which has been going well. My work schedule is changing now so from January I will be working Monday – Thursdays then having Friday, Saturday and Sunday off work. It will be nice to have three days off in a row which will also mean I’ll be able to go away for a few days to places like Dalat and the Mekong Delta.

View from the ILA cafe on the 9th floor

I've also got nearly three weeks off mid January for the annual Vietnamese holiday called TET which will be cool. Unfortunately everything stops in Vietnam so travelling around might be difficult so at the moment I’m thinking of going back to Cambodia to do the places I missed earlier this year.

I took part in an ILA football tournament this week which was fun. It’s amazing how my fitness has deteriorated since I’ve been away but I was still comparatively better than my team mates.

My team - no one got the email about what colour to wear

Our team performed ok but our results didn’t match this so we crashed out in the group phase after 4 games. We only scored 3 goals (I got 2) drew 2 games and lost 2. We lost to a Vietnamese team who were good but one of the guys was wearing bare feet!? As they were short on referees I volunteered to referee a game between two Vietnamese teams who were both pretty good. It was quite nice to do some ref’in again.

Me in the middle - Referring the all Vietnamese match

I’m disappointed to report we didn’t win the poster competition. Not only did we not win but our art work has not even made it onto the wall in the school reception. Not sure why it’s not there, one theory I have is that it’s been put forward for the turner prize but that’s unlikely. When I heard the news I challenged one of the judges who used phrases like “It was good…. but not that good” and “too much glitter”. I shall be using these quotes when I to break the sad news to the children next week.

Enjoying playing football again

Apart from this I’ve not been doing much fun stuff. Found a shop that sells all the latest films on DVD for 50 cents each (about 30p) which is exciting. I watched a film last week and it was just like being in the cinema, since this is the place it was filmed. It even had someone’s head in front of the camera at the bottom of the screen - but then what do you expect for 50 cents.

Christmas poster competition

My teaching assistant - aka 'assistant project manager'

As I’ve previously mentioned I’m working part time at two schools at the moment, ILA and ERC. ILA is the school where I teach lots of young learners and ERC is where I lecture e-commerce. ERC, the business school, has asked me to work more hours and as my cover classes finished at ILA this past weekend, I’ve agreed. This mean I will only be at ILA 8 hours a week whilst doing a lot more at ERC. I will be teaching English to BBA students who are young adults (18-24), it should be good experience and good to get some adult teaching on my CV.



Glitter-tastic

It was a fun week at ILA this week. With Christmas around the corner I got to spend my time making and decorating Christmas posters with my junior classes. After bombing out of the Halloween poster competition I wanted to win this one. As you can see it was great fun. We were short on time so had to rush it which meant the classroom was a mess at the end of the lesson, there was glitter, paper, glue and paint everywhere.

Finishing the artwork

There were three cleaners waiting outside when I left. One had obviously taken a peek into the classroom and seen what was going on and called for reinforcements, they didn’t look impressed when I left the classroom. I got to play some Christmas hits whilst making this poster too. It was if Shakin, Mariah, Wizard and Cliff were in the room with us.

There are quite a few Christmas lights up now. There is a place near the park I go to which I've dubbed ‘Christmas corner’, it looks pretty cool. I will get a photo of it for next week.

Hoping to win the competiton with this!

I’ve been taking Vietnamese lessons provided by ILA for the past two weeks. It’s been good fun but tough. So far we’ve learnt the usual stuff, like saying ‘hello’, ‘my name is Joel, what’s your name?’ and the numbers 1-100. We also learnt some countries which was fun. Sadly I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to keep it going with my new schedule at ERC, If I can’t I’d like to get some lessons elsewhere.

Happy Christmas

It’s still very hot here. I’m told December gets cooler but I have my doubts. I went out with a friend last night. We were on a bike, it was 9:30pm and it felt slightly cooler than usual. I looked up at one of the buildings which displayed the temperature…. 27 degrees. It makes me wonder how hot it normally is. I saw a teaching job advertised on the Internet a few days ago in Siberia, it’s tempting at times.

Pub quiz and my first 'thanksgiving'



Glorious scenes at Traders bar



With darts season well and truely over I thought it would be a while before a got that high feeling of success again, however glory was just around the corner in the form of the ILA pub quiz at traders bar in downtown HCMC District 1.

Last Sunday was our works charity pub quiz and out of the 7 teams that entered we came first. It was a great achievment and as you can see we enjoyed the moment. Getting presented with a nice trophy made it even better.

I was thinking about an open top bus to parade the trophy round the city but it would take far too long with all the traffic and would probably break down anyway.

Roast Turkey

This week was 'Thanksgiving' in America and as 60% of my household are American we ordered a delivery thanksgiving meal from one of the restaurants in the city. It was just like having a Sunday roast but with different side dishes to usual. The side dishes included sweet potatoe with cinnemon, corn and sesame carrots which is basically carrots smothered in spicy tomato sauce with sesame seeds thrown in. The turkey was great and perfectly cooked – this was made even better by the fact that I’ve not had a roast in at least 6 months. The only thing that was missing was a Yorkshire pudding.

carrot cake and pumkin pie

For desert we had carrot cake and pumkin pie. This is another first, although im very familiar with carrot cake pumkin pie is new to me and was quite nice.

Work is going well but still very busy. Not seen SCM for a long time. I want to get a photo of one of the retail outlets he delivers to where they make the sugar cane drink. I’ll try and sort this out during the week. I brought a laptop last week as my last one died about 3 months ago.

Pork won-ton noodle soup

Lots of the shops are selling Christmas decorations now and at night if you can forget about the heat it actually feels somewhat Christmassy when looking at the lights.

I’ve attached a photo of the won-ton pork noodle bar in the city. The won-tons are really something special. This dish cost about $2.50!

Unfortunatly this won-ton shop is the other side of the city where I used to live so I don't get to goto it that often.




A night to remember



Winning team photo



Darts season finishes and a visit to Ho Chi Minh City zoo

HCMC Zoo and gardens

Darts this week was a home fixture at the Blue Gecko and I’m sad to report was the last match of my first rollercoaster season. I didn’t know darts leagues had seasons but they do. It might be a bit late for me to make it to the lakeside this year but there’s always next year. Our opponents were bottom of the league and had only won one game this season so we were expecting an early Christmas present by giving them a whooping. Sadly they didn’t turn up so we won via a walk over.

Museum in the gardens. I didn't go in

The new season starts in February which gives me plenty of time to practice. I’ve no idea what I’m going to be writing about on my blog now darts season is over.

I had planned to go on a trip this week but due to having too much e-commerce work to do I’m not going to be able to. I think my next holiday won’t be until mid-January which seems like a long time away I’m sure it will come around quickly. I‘ll be able to have a good break then.

Grumpy white tiger

I went to HCMC botanical gardens and zoo this week. I can’t remember the last time I went to a zoo so wanted to go and see some animals despite being a bit uneasy about how they might be being looked after. Overall it was pretty good. They had a nice variety of animals like rhinos, giraffes, elephants, crocodiles, tigers, hippos, pythons. Also the gardens were nice to walk around. It was good to get away from the city.

 

Lazy crocs - not very entertaining



I haven’t seen swearing man since last week. I did go for a run in the park but he wasn’t there which is unusual for him. I hope he’s ok.

There are a lot of shops selling Christmas decorations now which is strange to see as I walk down the road sweating. I did chuckle at the ‘let it snow’ sign – I’m thinking that might be asking a bit much. At the moment id settle for ‘let the temperature drop under 20 degrees’, doesn’t really roll off the tongue though.

Lady cleaner at the gardens

Also just realised today is 6 months to the day since I flew from London to Bangkok (May 17th). I can't believe its been that long! Looking back its been quite an amazing 6 months. Ive seen and done so much as well as learning new skills and more about myself.

I'm still enjoying what im doing and still have lots to learn. I'm starting Vietnamese lessons next week which im looking forward to. It will be great to try and learn the local language.

Rhino at the zoo - he seemed happy

Views of our house, the talented local and darts.



The dart board installed on the 7th floor of out house



The Stella bar on Bui Vien in the heart of the backpacker area was the next stop for my darts rollercoaster adventure. This team are third in the league so it would be a tough evening. I didn’t arrive in time for a doubles match due to work but was put into the singles matches.  After the high of last week I’m pleased to report that I won again!!!! the dream continues!!!!! It was a 2-1 victory after being 1-0 down. Sadly our team took a bit of a pasting and we lost 10-2.



HCMC from our roof garden. Bitexico tower in the distance.



Some more good news is that we have a dart board installed on the 7^th floor at our house so I’ll be able to get some more practice in – see the attached pictures!

Still working hard but the business school I work at is closed next week so I’ve applied for some time off from ILA to go on a 3 day road trip. The options at the moment are the Mekong Delta, Dalat or the beach. I’m going to look into this more towards the end of the week. It will be nice to write something different from the darts, SW and SCM.



The very talented local.



I went on a night out this weekend with my teacher buddies. We went to a restaurant where one of the locals showed us his talent (see picture). He could play the harmonica but not just that, he could play it through his nose whilst drinking a glass of beer. If ‘Vietnams got talent’ rolls into town  think he could get on their show, however I fear its one of those acts which is amusing for a minute then it gets a bit samey.

Looking down our house staircase - 7 floors!

I’ve not been to the park for a week or so but  bumped into swearing man (SM) hanging out on our street a few days back. He said he had not seen me for a while and asked if it was because he talks to me too much!!! I was shocked and re-assured him it was because I was busy and will make more effort to come down in the mornings.

Keeping good on my promise I went to the park yesterday and SM was there as usual. It turns out he wants to try and set me up on a date with an Amercan woman he knows who belongs to the martial arts group that trains in the park. Not sure how to handle that one. He was in good spirits though and was pleased to see me; we had a chat and went our separate ways.



My favourite VN food Pho Bo - beef noodle soup

Dart board view from our rooftop garden



A night to remember at the Blue Gecko

Victory at last!

1^st November 2011 at the Blue Gecko will be a night to remember. It was the night it happened; I finally won my first singles darts match. I beat the guy 2-0 – it was a pretty comfortable win too. I checked out on the 3^rd dart in the first leg (double 16) and in the second leg he’d only just got to an out shot when I finished (double 2).  Unfortunately as a team we didn’t do very well and lost the match 9-2, our opponents were pretty good and third in the league, but as you can imagine, I was pretty happy.

ILA Halloween party at Traders bar

All that practice at the Boston bar has started paying dividends – something I’ve not seem from my RBS shares in a while.

I went to a Halloween party last Sunday night. As my hair style resembles the grim reapers I decided it would be best to go as him. I managed to get some death robes, a scythe and some face paints at a shop that had set up outside the school. It was a good party and there were some very creative costumes. It was strange having a Halloween party when it’s really hot. This caused a few problems with the face paint running but it was still a good night.

A hard day at work - I'm not sure but think he repairs bikes

I’m still working very hard so not much fun things to report. I went for a coffee the other day which gave me a good view of the traffic. I took the attached pictures which may be of interest. It shows some of the things people carry on the back of their bikes. I’m starting to meet a few other characters in and around the place I live. I’ve noticed there is a lady who walks around in her pyjamas (a lot of the women do this) but this one is always carrying a briefcase. I’m not sure why or where she’s going but it might be worth following her one day.

Mr clean is not Mr safety

I should have a bit more free time towards the end of the week so will go and see swearing man in the park tomorrow or Friday. I’ll let you know what he’s been doing.

Rice man

Some of the people you see.