Halloween poster competition

The finished poster

The Halloween poster competition has been taking place over the past few weeks. Each of the junior classes had to make a Halloween poster where prizes would be awarded to the best three. As this was my second year in the competition I wanted to win a prize which I sadly failed to do last year.

My class are a bit older than the other junior classes which I hoped would give me the edge of the other teachers. I thought my poster was pretty good, It was a big house with ghosts in the windows and a big spire with a clock on it and lots of pumpkins in the graveyard in front of the house but sadly, for a second year running, I didn't win a prize.

Making the poster

The kids were, in most cases, pretty good and helpful. Some of them were intent on just mucking about and not helping which did try my patients during the project management process. I think I'm just going to have to come to terms with the fact that I'm not very creative.

We also had the haunted house this past week which was pretty good. It basically a big room made up to look like a haunted house which has loads of teachers dressed up with the sole purpose of terrifying the kids. It was pretty cooI and very creative.

 

My class with my teaching assistant

I covered one class of 10 / 11 year olds at the weekend who were really scared and just grabbed me the whole way round. When I took one class to the haunted house, one young kid had come out so scared that he puked all over the floor. I think the objective to scare the kid was a success in that case.

Nearly Halloween

Some traffic police taking a well deserved rest

I'm coming to the end of my teaching e-commerce. Next week will be my last week at ERC until at January so I will have some more free time. As I've said before I will be working at only one of my schools after next week until 26th November when I stop work and have a 6 week holiday in Asia and England.

 

As I've been working not much exciting stuff has been happening. Halloween in upon us and we have a Halloween party soon. We also have the traditional poster competition at the school which I'd like to do well in this year.

 

Balls on the back of a bike

Also a few more of my mates are leaving in the next few weeks so there will be a few leaving parties to attend.

 

Quite sad saying goodbye to people but it kind of goes with the job. Some of them are going home and others are looking to go and work in Europe and South America, it all sounds quite exciting and something I could do in the future.

 

I'll make sure I get some pictures of my Halloween posters that my kids make and put them on the blog.

 

 

Crazy Traffic Videos

Thought I'd upload a few videos that I took recently whilst travelling on the back of a motorbike. They show how crazy the traffic is in the city.  These were taken around the time of the mid autumn festival so shows the city at its most manic.

 

 

Currently my lectures finish at 5:30pm and its rush hour. Rush hour is always pretty mental. Most people use motorbikes so although its bumper to bumper and slow the traffic still moves. There are a lot of 'amber gamblers' in HCMC on motorbikes but usually it works ok as people anticipate this, however when cars try it its a different story as they get stuck in the junctions dude to not being quick enough and work as a road block of all the motorbikes. Usually at this point its gridlocked and one of the traffic police has to come along and sort it out. This usually involves waving a stick and blowing a whistle but it does seem to work.

 

 

Driving around the city when its busy is still an amazing experience. You see so much crazy stuff. The city is so alive and fun. I'm talking about riding with a few makes from HCMC to Dalat in the hills in November, then to Mui Ne and maybe Nha Trang over 5 days which would be awesome. It's still not confirmed but there is a good chance it will happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid Autumn Festival

 

 

 

Shop selling lanterns

One of the big festivals in Vietnam is the mid Autumn festival. This took place on 30th September this year. Its a Chinese holiday and quite important to Vietnamese people.

 

There is quite a big build up to the event (about a month) and they sell things called 'mooncakes' all over this time. There quite expensive and not very tasty. Saying not very tasty is a bit of an understatement because the ones I had were nasty. They put anything into them, meat, veg, egg, cake mix and other unidentifiable flavours. I had one which was ok and taste like a cake until I got to the middle where I bit into an egg.

 

 

The reason for the event is explained below courtesy of wikipedia:-

 

'The Vietnamese version of the holiday recounts the legend of Cuội, whose wife accidentally urinated on a sacred banyan tree. Soon after desecrating the tree, Cuội sat on one of the tree branches and the sacred tree began to grow and continued until it finally reached the moon, leaving him stranded there. Every year, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, children light lanterns and participate in a procession to show Cuội the way back to Earth.'.

 

Kids with lanterns going down the street.

 

The good thing about this event is the lanterns. They are pretty cool. I bought some where where two of the characters from the TV programme 'mokey magic' from back in the 70s, there pretty cool. They are made of paper and come with candles. I lit one (pigsy) and it caught on fire but managed to blow it out before it took my bedroom with it. They shall be for decorative purposes only from now on.

 

 

 

 

Busy traffic

 

I went on a cruise around the streets to China town with a friend, the roads were very busy and I've got some great video footage for a later blog. We saw lots of lanterns and some street processions (see the video). One thing is the Vietnamese know how to celebrate. It was a great experience and a great evening.

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!