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