Takapuna, New Zealand

Because we booked our trip very late, all of the hotels were booked in Auckland city center. The closest place we could find were some apartments in a place called Takapuna, about 10km from Auckland centre.

See Takapuna above Auckland

This sounded like a lot of work but because buses are so good in New Zealand, the commute was really nice. Also We got to drive over the harbor bridge every day which gave us a great view of the city. 

What has immediately struck me about Auckland is how similar the climate and look for the place is to England. Takapuna is a really nice, quite suburb. Staying here has been great as you get a feel for how local people live. 

As you can see, its a lot like England. Its very clean and fresh. The weather has been a bit mixed. Its late spring here so we've has some wet days and sunny days. The cool weather has been a refreshing change from the heat of Vietnam. 

 

Conference in NEW ZEALAND!!!!!

As I've previously said, I work in assessment in my University now and we are currently developing a new curriculum which means I'm heavily involved in writing the assessments. A week or so ago my boss send me an email asking me if I'd like to attend a conference in New Zealand. 

Of course I was delighted to be given this opportunity and a week later my trip is booked and I'm ready to go. 

The conference is a Auckland University and I will only be in New Zealand for five days. This is an amazing opportunity and a country I've always wanted to visit. The flight is a total of about 13 hours.

The first part of the trip is to Hong Kong where we change plane for an 11 hour flight to New Zealand.

The flight was pretty long and tiring and as the time difference is 6 hours I was in for some jetlag!

 

Penang, Malaysia

I've just returned from a four day break in Penang, Malaysia. One of the benefits of living in Ho Chi Minh City is there are lots of reasonably priced flights to places around South East Asia to explore. It was only a two hour flight.

Penang is an Island of the north west coast of Malaysia. It has quite a good history due to its location for trade. Because of this there was some good museums. 

As usual there were also some great temples.

One day we visited Penang hill which required a train to take us to the tops. It gave us great views around the Island.

The capital of the island, Georgetown is an old trading port and a world heritage site. This means many of the buildings are protected and there is some fantastic architecture. 

Also, Georgetown is well known for its street art. There are lots of painting all around the town which you can look for on a map. Some of them are below. 

Finally, Penang is also known as one of the best food places in Asia. It has food courts call Hawkers where there is an enormous variety of food available. Because of all the cultures and nationalities that have arrived over the centuries, the selection is amazing.

This looks like it will be my last holiday of the year, however, we are looking to fly back to Taiwan for New Years to watch the fireworks from Taipei 101 and explore some more of the Island.

ELT Assessment Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam

This past week I was lucky enough for my work to send me and a few colleagues to an assessment conference in Hanoi. This may not sound very interesting to people but since my job is related to assessment it is very useful.

I flew up on the Wednesday and returned on the Friday, It was a two day conference held at the Sheraton in Hanoi and arranged by the British council. They were speakers from all over the world doing presentations on the latest trends and changes in the industry. 

I had a fantastic time and learnt lots. It was nice to get away from the office and spend a few days with colleagues. I didn't get to see much of Hanoi. We drove past Ho Chi Minh's tomb and went to the old down for dinner but that was about it. Below are some of the pictures I took, mainly form the office, the conference and the Sheraton hotel.

Ho Chi Minhs tomb lit up at night

Back to work on Monday for a few days then its off to Penang in Malaysia for a long weekend.

Teaching in Vietnam

As I look after the exams at my University I don't get to teach much any more but recently because of the large cohort of students I had to cover a class for the first four weeks.

It was nice to be back teaching which was helped by them being a lovely class. They are advanced plus, which is the highest level before they start at University. The pictures taken were at the end of week 8 out of 10. This is a special day because they hand in their research reports which they would have been working on the for past three weeks. As a treat I brought them some dunkin doughnuts. 

They have their final exams in two weeks which I have to organize and if they pass they will start at University in a months time.