Sawasdeeka: Bangkok and Beyond

Day 180 - Wednesday 7th December 12.30pm

Sadly it's my last day with Mum and Stu, but today my new little nephew has been born!

 

It wasn't until they piled their cases into the taxi that I had the sudden realisation that I've got to say goodbye yet again, for another seven months. It doesn't really get any easier.

 

I've really enjoyed my time in Bangkok, the first day we spent exploring the local streets, cooling off in the pool and spent the evening at Khao San road for great food and far too much market shopping.

 

On Monday we got the local taxi boat for a trip along the river, past the magnificent Wat Arun to the Grand Palace, where the masses had come to mourn and celebrate the Kings birthday. Wat Po gleamed as beautiful as ever, holding the 46m long sihasaiyas Lord Buddha as he reaches Nirvana. I think this is one of my favourite temples I have ever visited. As part of the temple they have the Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School, where I treated myself and Mum to a well deserved foot massage. That evening we had a slightly disappointing visit to Patpong night market, I had high expectations after everything you hear about the famous rowdy road, although you need to be in the mood and maybe give it a few more hours into the night.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was nice and relaxing at the rooftop pool in the hazy sunshine, before exploring the ancient junk boat temple at Wat Yannawa and a lovely evening celebrating in style at the Sirocco sky bar (that one from the Hangover) with my favourites and a rather pricey Hangovertini.

 

 

 

 

Now the backpacking begins, away from luxury and into the world of cold trickling showers, broken fans and snoring room mates. Why travel half way round the world to feel comfortably at home?!

 

Day 181 - Thursday 8th December 10.17am

Swinging away in my hammock with a view of mountains, rivers and laid back hill country life. Welcome to Pai.

 

It's been a long, bumpy and windy journey here, seventeen hours after leaving the luxuries of our Bangkok hotel. It started with our first Thai overnight bus experience (the trains were all fully booked for the long weekend of course), which turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. We had top deck front row cinematic seats too, full panoramic view with extra leg room and a cosy blanket. Even got some sugar-pumped snacks to accompany us on the 9 hour drive to Chiang Mai. After dozing on and off we arrived to the central bus station at 5am, being told the Pai ticket office doesn't open for another hour. I spotted the safe haven of a 7/11 for an early morning Milo, then the heavenly Golden Arches appeared above the rooftops and lured me in for a very enjoyable sausage and egg McMuffin... Oops.

Another three hours later, with stomachs churning on the 762 curves up the mountains, we arrived to the sleepy town of Pai. The air is crisp and refreshing (aka I wish it was a bit warmer) and the scenery is a really beautiful backdrop behind the cosy row of cafes and hippy shops. I'm excited to have a wonder around, but right now I'm enjoying my mug of tea and my eyes are drifting off for a snooze...

Day 184 - Sunday 11th December 1.56pm

The sun is shining, the rivers are glistening and the mountains are beautiful. Our time in Pai has been an absolute delight, I can see why so many end up staying here forever.

On our first day we had a dreamy nap  up in our treehouse at Up2U Guesthouse; mattresses and mozzy nets on a bamboo shelf above a dorm room. The whole hostel is wooden and open, truly connecting you with nature! Although surprisingly in four days I've only seen a handful of flies and spiders anywhere, after preparing for a nightly bug attack. I've actually quite enjoyed it.

 

Later on we set out to explore 'Walking Street' - the one stretch of road bordered by cute little stores and cafes. They have a daily night bazaar of street food and handmade Pai goods, which kept us occupied for hours, stopping at a small local restaurant for our £1 mussaman curry (which we even shared for extra value).

 

The next morning I woke up early and nestled myself out on the river veranda, snuggled with my blanket in the hammock for the most enchanting sunrise. As the light grew, the eerie mist over the mountains began to lift, making way for a really beautiful show, clouds burnt orange and sun blazing as it crept over the hilltop. Freezing cold but wearing the biggest grin, I was pretty happy I got up so early.

 

 

 

That morning we cycled and climbed up to Wat Phra That Mae Yen, the temple on the hill, and perched under the huge White Buddha statue for the awesome views over Pai and beyond. Time to nap in the sunshine by the river and cool off with a refreshing paddle. We took a motorbike up to Pai Canyon to join the small pack of tourists snapping the sunset, over the bizarre ridges of giant rock wall and tall teak trees.

In the evening we cycled back to the night market for endless quantities of every street food imaginable and more, our diet is going gooooood... The day time is sizzling hot under the sun, but the night time gets incredibly nippy, so I resorted to buying a hand woven cotton shawl as an essential to keep me cosy. I bet this is gonna come in handy!

Yesterday gave us a misty mountain morning, hiding the sunrise and warmth. We shivered our way to our early morning cooking class, learning about the ingredients at the local market then getting to work creating our own Thai dishes. I chose pad thai gai, penang curry including the paste from scratch, papaya salad with crab and a spicy tom yum prawn soup; the latter two I had always wanted to try.

 

They were all surprisingly simple and quick to make, tasting bloody brilliant if I do say so myself! Feeling very full and happy with our creations, we took another break by the river joined this time by a cow, who liked to stare moo very loudly and choose the grass too close to where I was sitting. Can't say I felt fully relaxed there but at least it was a vegetarian. We ended the day with more street food, shopping and beers with live music, new pals and good vibes.

There's a lot more to explore in Pai, temples and waterfalls and hot springs, and some sort of happy herbal grass people seem to smoke...  We have just brushed the surface on our sweeping visit. It's a lot easier to explore around by motorbike, but we're still not buying into it (yes we are just too scared), instead we've been perfectly happy wandering around, reading and enjoying the view. They say you find love in Pai; time to open your heart and your mind and appreciate the nature, life and people around you. Yup, it's a truly hippy vibe! It's definitely a place I would return to, maybe on that 'One Day' trip when I actually have unlimited time to travel and live. One day.

 

Day 185 - Monday 12th December 8.18am

We are about to venture 44km into the jungle to fly through trees, whizz down a 1000m zipline rollercoaster and generally scare the poo out of ourselves. My eyes are heavy this morning but I'm sure that'll change when I'm about to throw myself off a cliff. Adrenaline is pumping!

Our long windy journey back to Chiang Mai yesterday was decorated with the beautiful mountain landscape and sunset. The scenery very much reminds me of our motorbike trip across the Vietnamese jungle, a stone's throw from the Laos border.

 

We are staying at Spicy Thai hostel for a couple of nights, which feels like a big family home with comfy seats and a friendly communal atmosphere.  After we'd checked in and found our feet we explored the bustling markets Chiang Mai has to offer. The Sunday Market was a tad too chaotic and full of the same factory junk you see everywhere, so we stretched our legs for the long walk to the regular Night Bazaar, which is what I remember from my previous trip to this city. We were enraptured by the beautifully creative skill of the local artists, creating such realistic pieces with simple tools and mediums such as charcoal, line drawings and paint dotting. So enraptured that we couldn't help but support the local artists, in particular a sweet elder gentlemen who had sadly lost an arm but painted the most incredible elephants. He had one impressive masterpiece of an elephant family, in such fine detail using dotting and a rainbow of colours, which I vowed to buy if I'm ever rich one day! My favourite was the detail of an elephants eye, with every deep wrinkle and shadow dotted in with effortless perfection. The man said the painting was for happiness, so the kind soul said he would gift it to me for any price I could afford. Extremely tempted but restricted by my backpack and budget I had to reluctantly decline. I hope I'll be back one day.

 

 

Tạm Biệt Việt Nam

Day 167 - Thursday 24th November 3.21pm

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Celebrating for the first time today with a turkey cranberry and stuffing sandwich (with a dunking pot of gravy of course) and pumpkin pie. I am definitely thankful for food! Family, friends and food, thank you for that. Never did gravy taste so good.

 

This week we stocked up at the supermarket and recreated the Ayurvedic curries from our cooking lesson. I've got to say, pretty damn good. They're gonna be on my regular list when I settle down again I think! We also treated ourselves to my favourite dish of Mango Curry at the Hanoi Social Club and that did not disappoint either.

 

But obviously the best food to indulge on is the local cuisine, so we were thrilled when Hoai and Linh (colleagues from my Friday school) offered to take us out for some Phô Cuon and Vietnamese coffee. This soon became our favourite dish and we had a great evening with them learning about everything Vietnamese and making them giggle at random snippets of our mundane lives back in England.

Day 174 - Thursday 1st December 7.24pm

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Whilst everyone sends snaps of their freezing car thermometers back home I'm sitting cosy in a cafe in Hanoi writing Christmas cards over my turkey stuffing cranberry and gravy sandwich (yes that is the second one since Thanksgiving but it's just too good) and a massive slab of the most delicious chocolate cake I've had in the world, with Christmas songs floating along in the background. It's December 1st already!

This also means that tomorrow is sadly our last day living in Hanoi. We've had a busy week cramming in all those "yeah let's do that one day"'s and trying all the street delights we come across (obviously the majority of our Hanoi Bucket List revolves around food).

One of our favourite street treats was when we randomly stumbled across Bánh Cuon, peering curiously into the cooking pot when a French Vietnamese guy offered to help and translate. Best decision ever - little steamed rice pods stuffed with pork and mushroom and all sorts, with a chilli dipping sauce. Another lady was also frying something that had intrigued us for weeks, which turned out to be banana fritters and some weird battered potato things, needless to say the banana ones went down a treat. 

 

Our other local favourite was a stall down the road with Bánh Xeo & Nem Lui; the first is rice pancakes fried with prawns beansprouts etc, wrapped up in rice paper with herbs and dipped into a light chilli sauce, the latter is minced meat barbecued on a lemongrass stick. We've invited Hoai and Linh out again for more Phô Cuốn (and other dishes I couldn't name) and packed in as many home cooked stir fries as we can.

 

For the rest of our final few days we've walked down to the lake for a coconut cone when the sunset looked good, continued counteracting the food with jogging to yoga and the occasional pilates and even attended a slightly odd but relaxing meditation session. Who knew squeezing out the gooey aloe leaf flesh could make such a great foot treatment too?

 

I've tried to visit Phuc Tue as much as I can too to spend time with my old students before I say goodbye once more. It's been fantastic to see them all again all grown up and I hope this won't be the last time too, especially for the beautiful Anh and my lovely teacher Nhien.

 

One thing I wanted to tick off the list living here was playing badminton in the Botanical Gardens (a must do in Hanoi!) and walk to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum at night time, to see the building lit up in its full glory. I'd driven past so many times and thought it looked beautiful at night, but it only took us three months to actually pay a visit.

 

My love of tea has grown too, I really enjoy a dainty little cup of iced Vietnamese tea and my favourite finds so far have been kumquat tea with watermelon and peach tea with passion fruit. Surprisingly Megan and I have also jumped on the beer bandwagon, making the most of the freshly brewed barrels of Bia Hoi that are cheap as chips (well cheaper than water in fact). Last week we enjoyed an evening making friends over beers, boogying and burritos, the latter was highly recommended to any passer by so I think I deserve a tip.

 

This morning I had my last yoga class and health-filled smoothie, and my instructor Thuy very kindly gave me a mini session of simple techniques to continue on my travels and to strengthen my dodgy back, my favourite being a head stand using just two chairs and a wall, head hanging in limbo. Let's see how that one goes!

We have had some free time to plan our next steps into Asia too, over egg coffees and avocado smoothies. After spending some time with my Mum and Stu in Bangkok next week, we'll be choo-chooing to the North to explore Chiang Mai and Pai, before jetting to Myanmar for Christmas. It's going to be pretty strange without the frosty mornings and mince pies, but I am excited to celebrate my time abroad in a new way! Then the plan is head to South Thailand to see in the New Year, spend a few weeks island hopping then casually fly to the Philippines to top it all off... I've worked hard for this I promise!

Day 177 - Sunday 4th December 12.14pm

After six long months of Asian life, I'm  reunited with my beautiful Mum and Stu under the Bangkok blue skies for a few days. After a manic flight and long delays they got to our rooftop hotel and it felt great to have a big mummy hug again. I'm very lucky to have such supportive family and friends around me joining me on my life overseas!

 

Packing and early airport buses have provided us with minimal sleep this week so it's now time to sweat, swim and sunbathe with my favourites.

Friday was our last day in Hanoi, packing up our flat, squishing everything into our rucksacks and not quite sure how to feel about everything. We had one last Bùn cha, my favourite Vietnamese dish (vermicelli rice noodles with mini burgers and bacon in a delicious broth), said another round of goodbyes at Phuc tue and my last lesson with my lovely fun students at Educap. To celebrate we found the little rooftop gem of Trill Cafe for a mojito and surprise dinner watching sunset over the city, getting something completely different to what we ordered!

 

 

 

 

Saturday presented us with a 5am start, unable to keep my eyes open, and the long journey to Bangkok begins. Twelve weeks in Vietnam complete, it has been an absolute pleasure, now it's time to settle into Thai life again. Sawasdeekaaaa.

 

Balancing a Life of Yoga and Desserts

Day 157 - Monday 14th November 11.42am

The sun's out! It's not quite 33* bliss again, but a million miles away from the woolly jumper weather last week, which made me want to eat non stop and find a big blanket!

Last week we discovered Zenith, a local yoga centre not too far from our flat, so I decided to treat myself with my birthday money to a membership for our final weeks. I have just had my third Hatha yoga class and am really, really enjoying it - I've wanted to practice regularly for far too long, but not had the option or opportunity since I left university. The teacher and entire class is very relaxed and non-judgemental, going through each pose slowly and carefully to ensure everyone benefits to their fullest potential. I've done classes before where you can barely keep up with the instructor bending into impossible positions and having no idea how to get there, so it was perfect to begin with full support. We use more equipment like chairs, belts and blankets too, as well as scary looking ropes on the wall to hang off (this is my favourite part!).

 

The community at Zenith is very chilled and friendly, which has helped me to feel at home here. Their cafe has tonnes of healthy food and smoothies that I can't help but give in to, I think I need a healthy physical and mental detox anyway to balance all the stress and desserts! (Talking of desserts - our last great finds were a whole tray of rocky road at Chops and a bread pudding with bacon... So yum). They hold lots of cool events regularly at Zenith too, so we took advantage of their Ayurvedic cooking class and bike ride by the river. 

 

I found the cooking lesson really interesting, it's not related to Vietnamese cuisine but Ayurveda is the holistic yogic healing system originated thousands of years ago in India. Depending on your predominant Dosha, you can learn to balance your mind, body and spirit for optimal health. This system is still used widely in the Eastern world, which I witnessed a lot in Sri Lanka. Dosha's are three energies derived from the five elements (air, space, water, fire and earth) describing physical, emotional and mental characteristics, of which each person is unique. We learnt about what foods are good for certain people and how to incorporate that into your everyday cooking. So for instance if your predominant Dosha is Vata (air and space = cold and dry), you should base your diet on more warm, nourishing foods like sweet potatoes, hot soup and cinnamon. There's so much detail I could talk about, but if you're interested there's tonnes to read online about it! Try http://goop.com/ayurveda-how-to-eat-for-your-dosha/

 

Our teacher was a Canadian guy originally from India, so he had grown up with the Ayurvedic philosophy guiding his medicine, diet and balancing his overall health. We used the most simple natural ingredients like ginger, garlic, turmeric and coriander to form the base of surprisingly flavour-filled dishes and healthy pure cooking, nothing fancy or ridiculous. One dish he showed us was literally onion, peppers and freshly ground peanut powder which he made by roasting and crushing the peanuts earlier that day. Fry those three simple ingredients together, slowly, and you get the most delicious invigorating taste and crunchy texture. He gave us lots of little Ayurvedic lifestyle tips too to keep our health in balance, such as eat the heavier foods in your meal first (like our dhaal lentil curry) as they take longer to digest and avoid water for an hour before and after eating. Definitely learnt a lot and can't wait to try it all out!

 

The bike ride was the following morning - it's amazing what beauty lies five steps outside the city... Apparently endless crops and farmland, anyone who's been to Hanoi will probably think where the hell was that hiding? There's a huge area by the river where all other evidence of the chaotic city is hidden and you can enjoy the peace and quiet of nature. The ride ended with a fantastic three course meal altogether back at Zenith; chunky vegetable soup, baked rice and chocolate brownie. Feeling good!

 

We spent yesterday how a Sunday should be spent. Productive but relaxed, ticking off chores and washing and shopping before enjoying Netflix and a home cooked dinner with coconut ice cream.

Day 158 - Tues 15th November 9.52pm

Today I refound my love of phô when we ventured into the Old Quarter before work. Fresh light herby goodness! Accompanied by two Californian guys giving light on the recent election of Trump and how the world is going to pan out for us all very soon. Trip to Canada anyone?

Day 159 - Wednesday 16th November 3.55pm

A morning of jogging, yoga and pilates, chickpea curry and cacao shake, laying in the park in the sunshine, organising our Myanmar visa and a good old frozen Kit Kat Chunky.

 

Day 160 - Thursday 17th November 2.22pm

Now it's back to 33* bliss, this weather seems more confused than an English summer!

Sitting on a bench by the lake, enjoying my pork and pate Bánh Mi in the sunshine, all I need now is a coconut ice cream to top it all off. Today has been beautifully and actively tranquil; after my tropical fruit breakfast I actually enjoyed a jog to my Hatha yoga class, rejuvenated after by a fresh coconut with aloe and mint (yes Aloe - seriously try it!) before my aromatherapy massage at a local centre that trains partially sighted and disadvantaged youths as masseuses. Since my new daily yoga sessions I ached in every corner of my body! What a great morning eh? Now time to prepare for a headache with two hours of my noisy non-stop class of 12 year olds. I knew the peacefulness couldn't last too long!

Day 164 - Monday 21st November 2.05pm

Morning Yoga and Pilates done, green smoothie devoured, time to enjoy the last day of sunshine before the Hanoian frost comes! Which means laying with my book on the one patch of grass that seems acceptable in this city.

We've had a pretty packed weekend, trying out the Hanoian cinema experience on Friday to see Fantastic Beasts (loved it) complete with an Lotteria burger before class after class after class that evening. On Saturday we went for a burrito brunch after yoga then to a special market at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, generously making far too many beautiful handmade purchases from the Northern minority tribes, then an evening of great food at the Hanoi Social Club.

 

Sunday was spent meandering through the Hanoi Green Market, where we stocked up on dirt cheap Vietnamese local veg and mysterious fruits that looked minging but tasted divine. Then something that should not be legal on a Sunday - covering a rowdy kindergarten class for two hours with absolutely no preparation. Dinner could only be one thing - a street food takeaway delight in front of the TV.

 

Teaching Toddlers and Turning Twenty-Five

Day 135 - Sunday 23rd October 9.24am

Well, quite a lot has dramatically changed in the past ten days!

I had been feeling really nervous about starting a new life in Hanoi and figuring out my future, I really had no idea what to expect or what would happen, with a fear of failure lingering over me. This is something I'd been dreaming about for so long, what if it didn't work out? What if I realised I was actually a shocking teacher and all this effort was for nothing?

I spent every hour of the next two days scrolling through sites and links and adverts to simultaneously find a job and place to live for the next couple of months.

Luckily for us, we're not the only ones who set out to do this in Hanoi. There's a brilliant Facebook community called 'Hanoi Massive - A New Era' (the updated one), which has grown with expat advice and knowledge and events, giving the local know-how and also the best place to find the newest job vacancies. There's another page specific to Hanoi English Teaching Jobs and Hanoi Housing, so for anyone looking to find their feet in this city these are definitely the most useful places to look. I seemed to scroll and send a thousand applications, losing track of all the emails exiting my outbox. At first it seemed never ending and I was getting an increasing number of blind offers for "Great salaries, only three hours from Hanoi!". By Day 2, when I was starting to lose motivation, I was suddenly offered an instant interview for the next evening at Educap English Centre, including a demo class with a nice little wad of cash given at the end. Now it all became real and scary!

Believe it or not I've never actually had a proper face to face interview before, which made me really quite nervous. I was crapping my pants all day. But actually they asked the simplest questions, the class went swimmingly and I instantly got the job. Buzzing!

The next day our luck continued - we saw an apartment advert in the morning, went to visit in the afternoon, then by the evening were ready to sign our short term contract! Moving into our swanky bachelors pad by the lake the following morning, all in time to celebrate Megan's 25th birthday in style. It's all starting to come together!

 

 

Megans birthday consisted of food, good food and even more great food. But first of all, moving our rucksack of worldly belongings into our exciting new flat, hello king sized bed, flat screen TV and rooftop view of the city! It felt good to finally have a home for the next two months, everything was falling into place just in time. We starting off our food babies by discovering Joma's bakery (soon to be our regular favourite treat) for a breakfast burrito and bagel brunch, ending the day with a much-craved and very homely sausage and mash at Moose & Roo, I've missed gravy! Then of course a selection of cakes to top it all off. Happy Birthday Megan!

 

 

 

Monday meant another busy week focusing on work - starting with a hectic day of two cancelled interviews (at the very last second of course), two actual interviews (at different ends of the city of course), then when I was about to flop onto my bed in exhaustion I had an urgent call to rush for a last minute cover lesson with one company AND a class observation with another in order to get the position there. This working life stuff is exhausting. Zzzzzz

Tuesday wasn't much better - my first interview got cancelled (again), I cried at my next one (shockingly unprepared), then in my haste to escape I made more rookie errors and wasted four hours waiting for an agency interview, again completely the other side of town. All before my second lesson at Educap, then a mingingly disappointing phô gá to end the day.

Wednesday offered a lazy morning of Bánh Mi and lesson planning for my next trial lesson at Espeed Adult Teaching Academy. It actually went pretty well - maybe I can do this after all?

Thursday just got weirder and weirder. After crying at the interview, having no preschool experience and not even realising I was applying to teach 4 year olds, I got a job at a kindergarten. Sorry what? And not just any kindergarten. A Montessori International School kindergarten. The legendary Montessori philosophy of teaching your children independent learning and an intrinsic motivation to discover. Where the parents are paying two grand a year to have their kids taught by a nerdy English teacher who isn't able to handle a class of preschoolers. Someone pass me the ice cream.

Friday was the real test - an entire day of students ranging from 2-20 years old. Thank god for GrabBikes though - the Asian version of Uber which has enabled me to easily transport between my life of lessons for about a dollar a journey, saving the hassle and time of a bus in the chaotic city traffic. Leaving the flat at 8am, starting with nursery rhymes at 9am, straight to a class of thirty screaming 4 year olds, lesson planning in my break, repeating the hour to a different group of hyper 4 year olds, whizzing to the other end of the city for my original class of 12 year olds at Educap, then braving myself for my Espeed uni students at 8pm, falling into the flat at 10pm. This week has been exhausting.

The weekend meant a Saturday brunch date yesterday with Mr Eggs Benedict, then a trip to the Old Quarter for a bbq, beer and slightly boozy cocktail. Sunday's are for snoozing, so that's just what I'll do.

Day 150 - Monday 7th November 7.53pm

Five little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away, Mama Duck said "Quack, quack, quack, quack", but only four little ducks came back. Four little ducks...

Round and round and round and round in my head. Hello world of Kindergarten Teaching!

 

After a few weeks of teaching at Motessori International School, I have discovered I can think on my feet pretty well and I'm not quite as bad at it as I'd dreaded. For my little kids I have to do English nursery rhymes, so yes I sit and sing to two year olds for half an hour. I've found it surprisingly therapeutic (I'm not sure they'd agree with my great singing skills) but when they start to clap or sway along it's so much fun, especially when they try to babble a few words back to you! I repeat my class with four year olds twice in a day, which is bloody hard work. Controlling thirty crying screaming hyper kids, given no resources or curriculum and having to use the limited Montessori wooden equipment, with absolutely no preschool experience, was quite a challenge believe it or not. I have certainly learned a lot from my days at Montessori and it's been a great experience, however I've decided today will be my last day today. I'm just not quite cut out to be a preschool teacher and obviously it wasn't in my original plan. My final lesson actually went brilliantly, the children all engaged and behaved and sang along to the songs and actions I made up on the spot. No one cried and no one screamed and everyone seemed to be learning... Can I do this after all..? Ha don't be ridiculous, I have started to dread the exhaustion of a Monday morning! Nonetheless I'm really glad I gave it a go and now know which direction I'd like to continue. Plus no more nursery rhymes stuck in my head I hope!

 

I am really loving the rest of my classes though and feel very lucky to have found these jobs at such great places, especially as I've heard some nightmare stories before. I teach various evening classes at three other language centres: Educap, Espeed and Cleverlearn. Most centres in Hanoi are based on communicative language teaching, so it is more about listening and speaking in natural conversation than skills in reading and writing.

I have my lovely little class at Educap every Friday evening still for an hour and a half; six highly intelligent students around 12 years old who make my life easy, love playing games and are keen to chat about anything and everything. We follow a curriculum in Friends and Family 5, alternating their lessons between myself and a Vietnamese teacher. Everything about the centre is really nice and relaxed - the staff, the students and the lessons, plus I don't even need to mark their homework!

Every Tuesday and Thursday I have a two hour class at Cleverlearn with a larger class of eighteen students from 10-14 years old. A bigger group obviously means more varied levels, which was a challenge for me to learn to accommodate in my lesson planning. There's a real mixture of the loud confident giggling girls in the front row to the brainy guy who will quietly contribute and the silent student in the corner who doesn't feel like engaging. So my mission has been to leave no one behind, which is harder than it sounds! I hope with experience and personal development this is something I will continue to improve as a teacher. At this centre I've helped out with quite a lot of cover classes too, boosting my breadth of experience and giving me a few extra dollars for the end of the month. This weekend I agreed to four hours on Saturday and four on Sunday, which doesn't seem too bad right? But with no break in between and the vaguest idea of the lesson plan AND being told two of the classes are kindergarten, my weekend suddenly became a bit too exhausting! I don't know how teachers do it non-stop back home, I don't know if being in another language makes it even more exhausting, or if I just wasn't prepared enough. Still, great experience and learning for me too!

For the rest of the week I have an ever changing timetable for my 18-24 year olds at Espeed. This means I have random classes at different times each week in various centres spread across Hanoi, but it's worked out quite well to fill up my timetable. Espeed lessons are for a couple of hours, lead by a Vietnamese 'Inspirer', with an hour slot for a foreign teacher. The level of English of most of the students is actually a lot lower than my 12 year olds, so my time with them is a slower paced immersion in the language using competitions and games like hot seat, role plays and quizzes. I really like the structure of the lessons here and all the lessons are planned for you based on their conversational curriculum. For example they do 'Experience Days' where they have to introduce themselves to foreigners or buy things at a shopping mall or have a job interview in English, making their learning useful, realistic and personal. I think this approach should be adapted more widely and is definitely the style of English teaching that I'd like to continue using.

 

It's great fun working with people who are more my age, they've given me really good feedback too which is always a relief to hear. My favourite lessons were when two classes surprised me on National Teachers Day - bouquets of flowers, cute cards and a Teachers calendar to thank me for my hard work!

 

So that's my TEFL life in a nutshell so far. I have really enjoyed the whole experience and feel it's something I want to continue with in the future. I'm looking forward to the wad of cash I'll be flashing before I leave for Thailand too!

Day 151 - Tuesday 8th November 9.06pm

It has felt like a stressful non-stop ten days (it's not all smiles and paradise believe it or not) and it's made me start the inevitable of missing home. I know I put a lot of pressure on myself to do the best i possibly can, so the constant flow of new things and getting settled and continually learning and developing as a teacher gets my head into a bit of a kerfuffle. I want to make the most of my short time teaching here as it will be such valuable experience for me to take forward when I decide what I'd like to do next. It's been fantastic so far, challenging exciting stressful and rewarding. I've received some really encouraging feedback from fellow teachers and students with tips I'm eager to take on board. 

Aside from work, I've tried to make the most of living in here in Hanoi. Last week we finally stumbled across a cheap set of racquets to fulfil mine and Megan's lifelong dream to play badminton, the most loved sport in Vietnam it seems! We gave them a test run on Friday morning, when the sun finally decided to shine after a few foggy freezing days. We found our spot under the blue sky and breezy palm trees, setting off to a disgraceful start, blaming the cheap equipment for our hilarious efforts. But after an hour of intense *ahem* play, the pro's were out and our rally went from a fantastic 3 to a slightly impressive 59. Not too bad for two unsporty amateurs.

I was really excited to be able to visit Phuc Tue again to spend time with my favourite little students, plus a trip to my teacher Miss Nhiens home for dinner, practicing for my kindergarten class with her two small grandchildren!

 

 

 

Finding great food has also seemed to take up a lot of our time - exploring the cafes around the lake, cooking stir fries in our little kitchen and finding the best chocolate cake in Hanoi. Our favourite regulars are a barbecue pork bánh mi with a view of the lake and Bánh xeo crispy pancakes perched on mini plastic stools. However the best cake in Hanoi was discovered on a very special day....

It was my 25th birthday! Feeling old and wrinkly, but we managed to celebrate with another weekend of eating. First was a huge poached egg and avocado brunch at Hanoi Social Club and a food coma nap before the two lessons on my birthday evening.  Next day was a full English brekkie at Home 38 next to Tay Ho, leading to the the cake. Joma's chocolate fudge cake, warmed with a pot of cream, cut to the size of a small village. I was in heaven. I loved it so much we even had to go back again the next day... Good job it's a half hour walk away! We went for a beer to celebrate, but ending up like every other night out attempt in Tay Ho - disappointing failure. The one guy we met somehow walked slap bang full frontal into an oncoming motorbike, so that was our night over. Oh well, our next evening of homemade veggie chilli and movies in the rain was a much better idea.

 

 

Day 152 - Wednesday 9th November 4.16pm

What a difference a week makes. On Thursday we were sweating under the bright sun and blue skies, the air reaching a beautifully embracing 33*C whilst we topped up our Vitamin D on the rooftop.

 

Today I am shivering, wrapped up in leggins long sleeves cardigan coat and ditched the flip flops. The Old Quarter has swapped it's hot pants and sunglasses to puffer jackets and woolly scarves. I can't deal with this cold! Twenty four days until I get to cuddle my Mamma in Thailand...