Happy New Year

It’s a New Year and work has not changed much, I am still enjoying it, and will not be changing to primary teaching.  I covered two grade one classes on Monday and having had a day dealing with 6 year old's I will not be asking to swap from secondary to primary.  Yes, they were far sweeter and made me feel very popular walking through the playground getting swamped.  But it was a lot of crowd control and teaching them ‘that is ...’ and ‘what’s that?’ is fun but not as intellectually challenging, it is challenging in a different way.  I admire primary school teachers a lot and wonder how they can do it on a day to day basis, I couldn’t.  I am happy to do the odd cover, but not full time.


I can’t believe how quickly the time is going, and that it is 2012 already.  I celebrated New Year with a couple of friends with a meal and going into the centre for the countdown, it was so much fun, and the crowd was really friendly, the atmosphere amazing.  There are loads of lights up for the Vietnamese New Year and the city looks amazing.  I enjoyed my first three day weekend and I felt so relaxed that I felt like I was on holiday for the first time since I got here.    I had a couple of weeks teaching, then a week of tests, now I am in the office for a week preparing for the next term.  Their New Year is next week so the schools have a two week break.  The company I work for give us one week off, so me and my friend Mara are headed off to Thailand!  I can't wait.  It will be great to have a holiday and to get out of the city and relax on a beach and see Bangkok.

I am still living in a guest house, which is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to rent.  I have a room in a house and it is like living in uni halls again.  I don't mind, as I'm out most of the day, and often in the evenings as well.  The guest house owner is lovely, she doesn't speak any English so if I try to say something to her (either in sign language or phrasebook Vietnamese) she rings her son or daughter in Australia to translate.  Occasionally she will come up to my room with a bowl of food for me, or I will come in the door and she will give me food.  I have also come back from work to find a bowl of fruit on my fridge.  The Vietnamese are so kind and friendly.  Her daughter came home to get have a traditional Vietnamese wedding (held in the house), so the house was decorated spectacularly and everyone was VERY excited.  It was held on a Sunday, so I decided to leave the house early so I didn't interrupt the ceremony halfway through.  I left my room a bit before 9am and turned the corner on the stairs to find a procession making its way through the hall!  My timing couldn't have been worse.  Fortunately, I managed to creep out and not get in the way of the three photographers taking pictures.  Although I didn't see the bride, everyone else looked amazing, dressed in their best, the women in traditional costumes: long dress with splits all the way to the waist, over silk trousers.  No one seemed annoyed that I had interrupted a celebration, I was welcomed with smiles, another thing that amazes me about the culture here, they are so welcoming of everyone, especially Westerners.  I feel privileged to be here.

I now need to get back to work:  this term I am covering poetry and drama first, and English Literature students may love that, but I've just spent three years doing history!  I need to go and do some reading about it all.  Happy New Year!