Life's a Beach

 Good evening from Hanoi,

We are sat in our room about to grab some dinner before relaxing after a long day at school. Robert spent this afternoon at a new school for BME which they have asked some of the best teachers to teach at - he teaches there with Daniel and Stephen. He was obviously flattered but a bit sad because as a result of this additional school he will no longer be teaching some of his grade 4's whom he really enjoyed teaching. Becky has also had a timetable change this week which means she will lose grade 1's she has taught since the beginning and is quite sad about this. Our timetables are subject to change all the time and you really have to be ready to teach new students and grades whenever and even different syllabi.

As you can see from the photo above we spent a relaxing weekend in Cat Ba this last weekend and this time we did not experience flooding! Indeed we even got some sunshine! We headed off on Friday evening with Aaron and Liv to Hai Phong. The journey took us a while but we travelled in style - opting to get an Uber Suv instead of the cheaper bus option. When we arrived us two headed out to meet our friend Liz for a catch up. She had quite an ordeal waiting for us during our long journey, surrounded by lots of intrigued Vietnamese men in a Bia Hoi. Bia Hoi's are where the Vietnamese get their beer in Vietnam. A Bia Hoi is local brewery beer all mixed together and it is super cheap. They are typically made up of lots of small plastic chairs and tables and normally a beer will cost you around 6000-10,000 VND which is less than 35p. They can be massive or pretty intimate social gatherings and are really popular with us Foreign Teachers as well as the local Vietnamese people. When we finally got there Liz had already got us some Bia Hoi and a delicious plate of squid. We had a fabulous catch up and then headed back to our hotel. In the morning we had an interesting journey on the speedboat. The sea was quite rough and it was really bumpy - definitely not an experience for anyone who is nervous of the sea or gets sea sick! We kept giving each other quite concerned looks as the boat made a loud crashing noise when it hit the sea....

Liz waits for us (photo Credit: Liz Dyer)

Beautiful Liz

We arrived in Cat Ba at 8am and this time had successfully done the quick route rather than taking a bus to Cat Hai before getting onto a boat. The man from our hotel was there to meet us and after dumping our stuff we headed out for breakfast and the crucial coffee. Once we were checked in we got into our swimming stuff and headed to the beach. The weather didn't look great but we were determined to make the most of it...however given it looked like it was going to rain we didn't bring sun tan lotion. This turned out to be a huge mistake as both of us got burned because the sun did actually come out! Nonetheless we had a really relaxing time on the beach soaking up the views of beautiful Cat Ba and swimming in the sea. Aaron, Rob and Becky built a sand castle whilst Liv relaxed and then we went to the Cat Ba Beach Resort for a tasty lunch, more beer, and pudding. Whilst at the restaurant we made friends with the cutest puppy ever and it pretty much made Liv's trip.

Sand Castle efforts - RP

New dog friend and Liv and I

Back at the hotel we had a nap before heading out to the cannon fort to see the history, including a WWII tunnel and of course cannons, and the spectacular views across Cat Ba. When we got down we went out for a delicious dinner, some drinks, a few rounds of cards and pool before getting an early night. The next morning we were leaving, Aaron and Liv had an extra night booked, so we got some breakfast with Liv and then had a few coffees with them both before leaving on the Cat Ba Express. At home we decided to binge and cook ourselves some cheese and ham toasties before both preparing for the teaching week. We both had teaching on Teacher's Day which is commonly a holiday for teachers - the bulk of the other teachers were not teaching. Luckily although Becky was teaching the morning the school did decide to shut in the afternoon so she was able to get back and do some domestic tasks whilst Rob headed out to a new school. In the evening we treated ourselves to a late pay day meal at Spices.

Last week's teaching largely consisted of making cards for Teacher's Day and Becky took photos with one of her favourite students doing the 'what's your name' clap that Becky has taught them. Robert got a rather interesting teacher's day card from a student describing him as fat pig and saying he weighs 100000000kg. This week Rob has had quite a few new classes so that has been a change and so far they seem really pleasant with a high level of English. Becky is already thinking about how sad she will be when we leave the students we have got to know and also the Teaching Assistants such as Mai, Hang, Yen, Thao and Nga.

Many people on our internship have now begun to think about what the next steps are for them. There is a big mix of people who have come out to Vietnam. Many, you won't be surprised to hear, have graduated recently and are having a sort of post-Uni gap year so have come to teach to earn some money whilst travelling. Others have left jobs and even careers to try something new and exciting and some are unsure what they want to do career wise. Some people have been given offers to stay on with BME in Vietnam - we got an offer but want to travel after which is not possible if you stay on. Lots of teachers are going to other countries to teach, for example Dani to Singapore.

For Becky obviously she is still determined to pursue a legal career and intends to apply for pupillage this year to start in Autumn 2019, hopefully this time she will be successful. Robert is not entirely sure what his career plans are... on one hand a PhD really interests him, but also potentially a Civil Service career or something similar. Indeed he has even suggested he has enjoyed teaching so much that this could be an avenue for him to explore. What is clear to both of us is that we enjoy the teaching and do not feel a draw to come back to the UK just yet. We miss our friends and family but travelling and working and living abroad has been incredible. For this reason we both applied for teaching jobs with English First in Shenzhen, China.

We found out a couple of weeks ago that we were successful in these applications and are now beginning the process of arranging visas and moving to China in June. We have decided to do this for three reasons really: 1) we love teaching and although we are both focussed on our long term plans for now it really suits us, allowing us to earn good money, whilst seeing a new place and making a difference to students' lives; 2) we have loved living abroad and immersing ourselves in a new culture; and 3) we have loved living together. In the UK we we not living together and to be honest it was beginning to cause a few problems, not big ones but it was a struggle nonetheless, and we could never imagine we would enjoy living together so much and would like to continue to do so in Shenzhen. At the moment the plan is to move in with our friend Liv. We will be back in the UK at the end of Feb to end of May so have plenty of time to see you all and catch up. Of course it would be fantastic if as many of you as possible could visit us in China - we are only 45 mins by train to Hong Kong!

This weekend we are going to relax - seeing an opera on Friday, having a Lord of the Rings marathon on Saturday and seeing Sam and Jess, who are visiting, on Sunday. We will probably play at tourist that day. The following weekend we are headed to Hai Phong for Liz's birthday and are sure we will have lots to catch you up on.

Oh also.... to prevent further illness we invested in masks this week. hehehe.

Until then, much love.

Pellows on Tour!

Good afternoon from Hanoi,

We are writing from our bedroom in Trung Hoa, Hanoi but not feeling 100%. Becky has had a fairly persistent cough for several weeks and Robert now feels under the weather so is using a day off to recover at home. Nonetheless we have had an exciting and enjoyable few weeks and apologise for not catching you all up earlier!

Last time we wrote we were awaiting the visit of Rob's parents which has now happened and they are moving south, away from Hanoi, to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. The blog title goes along this theme and we will, of course, fill you in on their visit. There were lots of pictures on the last blog of all the work the children did for halloween in making their masks. Since then halloween has been and gone. The Vietnamese love halloween celebrations and one of our favourite Cafes - Cafe In - was creatively decorated with lots of halloween themed scary decorations. We saw a number of children dressed up being transported, presumably to parties/school, on motorbikes and just down the road from us the local kindergarten held a suitably over the top halloween bash.

Becky invested in a tailor made Ao Dai

Kindergarten party

Best friend

Becky's wardrobe getting quite full...

Liv at the street party

Shortly after halloween Becky's cold increased in severity and she had to take her first sick day. Liv and Rob looked after her... Liv through the mutual love of takeaway and Rob just being his lovely self. On this day off our neighbours spontaneously erected a marque and had some sort of party literally just outside our house. In some ways in the UK this would be completely unacceptable and we would probably rant and rave about health and safety, permissions and noise but there was something really lovely about it and it smelt incredible. We literally had to transport our pizza takeaway through the party. The weekend after that week (that week being the first in November) we had a weekend in Hanoi and just relaxed. Naturally we did find our way onto a rooftop bar with Liv and then had a dinner in Tay Ho with her and Aaron having sort of seen the beautiful sunset over the lake.

Liv enjoys the rooftop bar

In terms of teaching highlights over the last few weeks. Becky experienced a student deciding his team should be called 'Team Shit'... her and the Teaching Assistant couldn't help but laugh. The timing was pretty comical and the student clearly had no idea what he had said. Nonetheless we had to explain that he probably shouldn't use that language particularly at only 6 years old! Becky also got her rucksack carried to the car by a lovely student called Zom (probably spelt wrong) which he has done pretty much every week at Tran Phu. This week it was boiling hot but he still insisted on sweating his way to the car with it. The generosity and kindness of some of the students here is incredible - they are always offering you gifts and sweets despite many not having much. Becky had a lovely afternoon with grade 3 and Mai making posters about friends and family and her grade 4's have now recovered from the shock of actually having to do quite a lot of book work rather than fun with her!

The boys play Yugiou cards

Rob has given in his test scores for secondary school and is awaiting feedback. Rob got observed again his week with his horror grade 8 class which seems somewhat unfair but I guess if you still score quite highly with your worst class you're probably doing an ok job and can face many challenges. A little girl has decided she is in love with Rob and insists on holding his hand and guiding him to the staff room when he enters the school at Tay Mo. Clearly Becky is already planning on hunting her down. haha. Rob has had some unfixed lessons in some incredible schools and as a result seems to have been offered fixed teaching at one of the best schools in our district. Rob's ego was boosted even more than it already has been when his students at an unfixed lesson commented on how clever he is.... all because he knows what a newt is! Rob insists it isn't just that. Rob also made a new best friend this week outside of work! A little boy took a shine to him... before proceeding to try and beat him up.

Hello Gary and Joanne from Cafe In!

We both booked a day off on 9th November as Robert's parents had arrived on the Tuesday that week. They spent Tuesday evening recovering and then had a day of sight-seeing on Wednesday followed by a spectacular French meal with us. It was lovely to catch up and find out all about their holiday so far and eat some incredible food and drink some stunning wine. We were both extremely excited by the large lump of melted Emmental in our French Onion soup. We then introduced them to one of our favourite rooftop bars - Skyline - with Sabrina and Liv. After this we had a spontaneous night out and ended up back at the house, after many beers and an excellent Game of Thrones dubstep version, at around 3am. The next morning we got up and met Rob's parents for our day off which started with a lunch at 4P's and then a water puppet show. The water puppet show was amazing fun. After this we had a tour of their hotel which included going into the shelter used during the American War/Vietnam War which was fascinating. Gary was particularly excited to go on this tour. We then had afternoon tea and dinner in the Vietnamese restaurant. Gary and Joanne then headed to Sapa to do some walking in the hills and experience life out of Hanoi.

Gary and Joanne's visit pictures 

Spontaneous night out:

Work returned to normal for us but on Friday evening we headed out of the city to Ninh Binh for a romantic weekend. We cycled over 10km to the bird sanctuary which was beautiful and also saw the Budha Cave on a boat. After a delicious lunch at Chookies we went back to the hotel, played some pool and napped before heading back to Chookies for dinner. The waitress said... nice to see you... again. The following morning we slept in, paid up and then headed into Ninh Binh to the other Chookies branch for a lovely brunch. We had a few hours to freshen up that evening before meeting Gary and Joanne in our area to take them to our favourite steak restaurant and then a local wine bar. Even though it didn't feel like long it was then time to see them off into an uber and wish them all the best for their travels. Thanks to Joanne and Gary for transporting a number of luxuries over to us including advent calendars and a much needed HDMI cable.

Pictures from Ninh Binh: 

Gary and Joanne were quite alarmed by Becky's cough and by Tuesday evening it had intensified and was beginning to stop Becky from sleeping so Tu from ELC (absolute star) booked Becky in for an appointment at a local hospital. Rob and Becky headed there last night and experienced super efficient service and now have a big bag of medicines to hopefully get Becky on the mend.

In other exciting news Amy has now booked a flight out as well as Claire and we have already booked our flights down to Hue for when we finish teaching. The plans we have for afterwards look amazing and at some point we will give you more information on this.

This weekend we are headed to Cat Ba for some relaxation... just our luck that rain is forecast AGAIN. It seems to be the theme of our beach getaways at the moment....

Until then! Much love.