Exploring Hanoi

Good afternoon from Hanoi,

It is after lunchtime here and one of the rare days the Vietnamese have as a public holiday - Independence Day. Rob has had a bit of a sore throat so slept in a bit this morning and then has chilled on his laptop and Becky went out with the girls last night so needed a sleep in...

This last week has been busy! We have both been training but also getting used to our new

surroundings. It is safe to say we both really like Hanoi and our local area. We have a Bahn Mi place round the corner - see pictures right and left - and you can grab your Banh Mi Breakfast for around 60p. There are multiple coffee shops within walking distance. Next to the Banh Mi place is Cafe Moc where you can grab a super strong Vietnamese coffee for 68p and if you want something a bit more up market there is Sapio Coffee or a further walk away we have Highlands Coffee which is a bit like a chain like Costa/Starbucks... although the coffee is significantly cheaper. Becky has

View from Fast Food restaurant

shared several trips there with our housemates and the last one involved cake - see picture left. It is easy to grab products for your room and ours is now fully equipped just from using a street 2 minutes away and the
local mall. This street has an array of interesting, if not bizarre shops from the local laundrette where the man who takes your clothes is constantly high to the simple bathroom shop. There is lots of street food, some which you would probably avoid (I'm sorry to say it does include dog - we have not tried) and nice restaurants like our new favourite local place - Fast Food - not really fast food as we see it but really nice fresh juices, burgers, pizzas and pasta (and cheap beer!).

Parental pick up by bike at NGU HIEP Primary School

Cowboy Joes

Apart from exploring and Rob learning the layout of the city inside out we have had not one but TWO trial lessons this week. On Tuesday 29th August Becky was up for the 6:50am bus to make her way to NGU HIEP Primary School which was some way out of town - normally an indicator the level of English is lower. Becky was teaching the Grade 4 students ways in which they might describe how they feel such as happy, unhappy, ok. The lesson went fairly well and boosted her confidence. Rob cannot remember the name of his school but was relatively close to town but had a badly behaved set of Grade 5 students! He had to teach them how to say an address which was quite hard given the Vietnamese addresses seem to work in a completely different way to in the UK! His Teaching Assistance (TA) was nonetheless impressed with how he handled this difficult class. Rob had already been put down to teach secondary because in Vietnam it is fairly standard that they choose male foreign teachers to command respect in front of Grade 6-8. But Becky decided to email asking if she could also do secondary and was then given a trial lesson to do on Friday 1st Sept, as well as Rob. We both went to Tam Hiep Secondary School. We had observed lessons there on the Thursday, it was quite far out of town and we observed the level of English was quite low. We also got to witness a rehearsal opening ceremony for the schools - how they start their academic year. We will see our own opening ceremony for BME next Monday and then our school opening ceremonies on Tuesday. Robert taught his Grade 8 class about musical instruments and really enjoyed the lesson. He felt it went very smoothly and got complimented by his TA. Becky taught her class how to talk about their Homes. As she didn't have a partner she was observed by one of experienced BME teachers - Magda. The lesson went quite well and both of us are looking forward to hopefully getting some secondary school students to teach.

Lantern Lounge

Rachel advertises Miniso shop

Between our two trial lessons we had more lectures and training and finally broke down and needed steak which resulted in a trip to the quite expensive American Diner - Cowboy Joes. We have now discussed a Vietnamese steak place which does nice steak for a much lower price! On Thursday night we had dinner with some of our housemates and other friends. Becky has gone on a few shopping trips with our housemates Rachel, Liv and Sabrina. We also spent an evening having a few drinks in the Fast Food restaurant with our housemate Louise and spent a lot of our training time with Emma. Last night Becky was at the Lantern Lounge which was gorgeous! The mojitos were strong and the Banh Mi had proper bacon in. 

Liv gets protection from the bug spray

Another strange occurrence this week was one we actually missed... but were informed of by our housemates. Whilst we were at secondary school someone frantically banged at the door around 9am on Friday. Liv begrudgingly went to the door, obviously thinking what the hell is going on! It turns out they come into the houses to fumigate - particularly during epidemics of the dreaded Dengue Fever (which there is at the moment). Everyone got kicked out of the house with a warning not to return for at least 30 minutes whilst they got all the bugs out. The street then became crowded with cockroaches and Sabrina described a sort of 'Cockroach Festival' where all the old men started stamping on the cockroaches! We were super confused when we arrived home to find dozens of dead cockroaches in the street. Liv tried to return to see when it was over but the fumes were so powerful that she was given a mask.

Today we plan to relax and go to the Lotte to watch the Independence Day fireworks and party this evening. Goodluck Rob with his 9am start tomorrow - timetable collection. We may have just returned to the steak restaurant... 

We have our BME opening ceremony on Monday 4th September and then start our teaching on the Tuesday after the opening ceremonies... which begin at 7am, pick up at 6am. Rob is delighted.

Anyway all the best for now and we will try post soon!