Home Sweet Home

Evening from us in Hanoi,

How to tell the time

We have arrived in our new accommodation and thought it was time for another blog post!

Our Orientation Week has come to an end in Hanoi and it has been busy but fun and really useful. Rob hadn't even realised we hadn't posted for a week, it has gone by so quickly. On Monday and Tuesday we had more learning and talks getting us ready to teach. We had a fantastic guy called Alex who teaches in Malaysia for ELC (the place who sort our placements). We also began to learn some Vietnamese and can now count to 30 and say basic greetings. We had some new friends - Hannah and Ed - round for a few rounds of President and beer. We also spent a lovely evening by West Lake hanging out with Sabrina and getting some delicious ice cream milkshakes after a hot hot day. Fortunately the weather broke and it rained extremely heavily, so much so we could barely see out of our window - see the photos below.

Mr Blobby on Tour

It was on one of these slightly cooler days that we started the next part of the work permit process  - the dreaded health check. This was a slightly bizarre experience but apparently we are both fit to work. The health check consisted of a very public blood test, blood pressure, weight, height, general examination, eye, nose, mouth, throat, dental, X-ray, Ultrasound, urine sample and we think that is it.... Anyway we left the health check to head back for more internship lectures and in one of these we met our new bosses - BME. These talks went long into the evening so we got an early night after desperately searching the internet to stream an episode of Battlestar Galatcica and failing (the wifi is still superb though, GOT has not been missed yet!).

The next morning (Thursday 24th August) we had more Vietnamese lessons and then the afternoon was spent observing a class at a local school with a BME teacher. This was a surreal experience. Upon arrival at the school we were greeted like rock stars with the children running towards the bus, screaming and wanting to give us high fives. When we entered the classroom the normally well-behaved children burst into cheers and laughter. The lesson was really useful to observe, Jonny taught them all about daily routines and given they are only about 10 years old their English was good. It was a really motivational experience. We spent Thursday evening with the wonderful Liz, sitting out on our balcony and enjoying some really expensive beer - four tinnies for about £1.50.

Friday was our last full day of Orientation Week. We visited a local village in the morning which specialises in making pottery (see picture to the right and Rob in the Pottery Workshop below). We went and observed this being made and then wandered the village checking out the local market and the Red River (see left). After grabbing dinner it was time to head to the alcohol fuelled Farewell Drinks which were enormous fun. We both sang karaoke - Summer Nights of course. Rob was fairly confident but Becky looked like she was about to shit her pants, but as Rob said if you can sing in front of 140 contemporaries you can probably teach a class of 50. We spent most of our evening with Lucy and Brent taking full advantage of Brent's very strong arms for lots of beers (celebrations can be seen below).

Today was essentially a move in day - we left the hotel around midday and ended up in our new room which is already looking quite homely. Becky got decorating almost as soon as we got into the room - see below. We then headed out to get a few essentials, like toilet paper and water, and grab some lunch. We spent the evening bonding with some of our new housemates - Liv, Sabrina, Rachel and Louise - over pizza takeaway. The delivery of the pizza caused more stress than you can imagine as we don't really understand what our address is or where we are! But it allowed Rob to save the day and he was very happy/relieved when the pizza arrived. Tomorrow we are doing some more teacher training and then we both teach our first trial class on Tuesday.

Highlights of the week include meeting some lovely people, Robert being called Robert 'Huge' Pellow by a Vietnamese lady instead of Robert Hugh Pellow.... and immersing ourselves into the crazy life of Hanoi.

Freshers' Week 2.0

Greetings from Vietnam, or as they say here xin chao,  

We started our journey to Vietnam on Friday 18th August. After a comfortable

12 hour flight with lots of gin and tonic, vodka and coke and three servings of meals (happy Becky and Rob) we landed in Bangkok for our quick changeover. After that it was a 90 minute flight to Hanoi where we were met by the ELC (English Language Company) representatives and attempted some form of conversation, despite being awake close to 24 hours. A coach then drove us through Hanoi. Although we were both knackered we couldn't help but stare out of the windows in the chaos that is Hanoi. The roads are rammed with mopeds and motorcycles and there do not appear to be any rules of the road. Nonetheless the traffic seems to flow and there is a certain beauty to it..... that is not to say we will be getting on a motorcycle anytime soon. We spotted the Presidential Palace and a beautiful lake on our way to our spectacular hotel - CWD - Centre for Women's' Development.

Our views across West Lake are absolutely stunning and we have a pretty decent size double room. We suspect this will be in stark contrast to the accommodation we end up in so are enjoying every moment! The first evening was spent getting some visa practicalities sorted, catching up on a bit of sleep, and grabbing our first Vietnamese dinner. We also wondered out in the heat to explore and ended up going to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum thinking we might find water nearby.... this proved to be a struggle and eventually we found some water in a small cafe near what looked like a bus terminal. Some people in the group are not too keen on the Vietnamese cuisine but so far we have enjoyed it and are pretty certain we will both be in pretty good shape after eating this for over 5 months! There are lots of vegetables (including a dish called Morning Glory) and then soup/stew type dishes with meat, lots of rice, and soup. The hotel dinner is a mix of different dishes so we have tried a variety of foods. Tonight, for example, we had pork rolls wrapped in a green vegetable that looked like seaweed but definitely wasn't. 

The next morning - Sunday 20th August - we were up early to attend the Orientation introduction talk which Rob played very close attention too .... or rather to the camera. This was an opportunity to get to know some other interns and get practical information on our week in Hanoi. The afternoon was set aside for a tour of Hanoi. This was good fun but we didn't see much! A lot of sights were shut and people had not come equipped for temples so we revisited the mausoleum and this time we go to go inside which was interesting. That evening we had our Welcome Dinner at a restaurant and more opportunity to try Vietnamese food - eating clams with chopsticks was challenging. The beer is also remarkably cheap here - some beer is as little as 20p and the most we have spent is a staggering £1. Claire Levi's dream land. After dinner we ended up with the other interns in Beer Street and had a few drinks there before being sensible and heading to bed. 

Today was our first day of learning, hence the sensible behaviour in Beer Street. We had our first two workshops on teaching and Rob was enjoying being teachers pet. The teacher even wanted him to take on an activity by himself - normally done in groups of 5/6! After a successful day we have got the important things out of the way: Game of Thrones, dinner and early evening beer and are now getting ready for another day of excitement and learning. 

Much love x 

Last night in England

 Evening all,

We are sat here checking that we have all our documents - there would be nothing worse than arriving in Hanoi to find one of us had left our visas! We both can't quite believe that tomorrow we set off for the trip of our lifetimes. For Becky this the last night in her family home and she is quite emotional about that (her parents are moving house). Fortunately they have told her they are moving house so there won't be any awkward turning up on the doorstep in February and meeting someone different.

We have spent this last week together getting all the home comforts and luxuries we could possibly afford. On Monday Becky cooked Rob a three-course meal, Tuesday was the spa day, and today Rob was given a workout at Clubbercise. We think this will be the last chance to relax as we are given to understand that next week will be quite intensive - rather like a Freshers' Week - so we have been adjusting our bodies back to student level alcohol this week - see attached pictures.

Anyway we think we will both miss home but are excited to experience a new culture and place in a depth that is often not possible on a shorter holiday-style trip. We look forward to keeping you informed of our adventures in South East Asia.