It seems like an eternity since we posted and although the busy lifestyle in Vietnam is partly to blame this time it is also laziness which has contributed so we apologise for this incredibly tardy post. Last time we posted we had got back from Cat Ba... which seems like a decade ago now.
The week after Cat Ba we had another really lovely week of teaching. It would be fair to say we are both now feeling sad about leaving our students and working out how on earth we will say goodbye. Both of us have really bonded with our classes, on the whole, and realistically when we leave we will never see them again. It makes us wonder about the teachers we had in the past who we had good banter with, or who really helped us and then moved on. They probably felt similar feelings to what we have at the moment. It will be even harder in China when we have taught them for a whole year. Believe it or not the week of 27th Nov - 1st Dec was the week we were meant to be making Christmas cards with our students... Becky is very by the book so did this but felt dirty the whole week. The children enter their cards into a competition where our employer awards them money as a prize if they have the best card.
Daniel and Becky attempted to get some cute pictures with the children which basically ended in Daniel being bundled and chasing/being chased around the playground. It was very funny to watch. ELC, who arranged our placements, actually hold a competition for two photographs so perhaps Daniel has some contenders! On Friday 24th but 23rd in England Becky received the news that one of her best friends Lizzie is engaged to James Hindson. This obviously resulted in a very exciting Skype call and catch up. Many congratulations Lizzie and James.
After a day at school after Lizzie's engagement news we headed to the opera to watch Carmen at Hanoi Opera House. This wasn't quite like seeing an opera in England but was interesting and good fun nonetheless. Robert enjoyed being in the audience and being able to analyse the performances of the stars. The tickets were incredibly good value for money and if anyone visits Hanoi we would recommend trying to pay a visit just because it is so economic. 
The morning after the opera we had our Lord of the Rings marathon with Liv and Aaron which resulted in us only getting through The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers... partly because Liv and Aaron were feeling a little worse for wear. Avid LOTR fans will be pleased to hear we did finish with Return of the King the week after although we still have the last battle sequence to watch. Liv is awaiting this with excitement....
On Sunday 26th Nov Sam and Jess were in Hanoi visiting so we spent a day playing tourist with them. We started at Hoa Lu prison where Vietnamese prisoners were kept by the French and then American soldiers during the American/Vietnam War. It was fascinating but a little gruesome. Then we made our way to the beautiful Temple of Literature where Rob played tour guide given he had learned about the Temple of Literature for his secondary school teaching. We introduced Sam and Jess to our district of Cau Giay with a few drinks in the Bia Hoi and then a meal at a Vietnamese restaurant which had smokey water and stepping stones. Although the food was nice we experienced slightly bizarre treatment from the waiting staff who laughed at the way we ate the food and even started doing impressions of Rob. It is something we have not experienced here at all, as on the whole, the service is slow but people are polite. We certainly won't be returning! Our evening was brought up again with a visit to Trill Rooftop Bar with its stunning views across Hanoi. Becky did a romantic photo shoot of Sam and Jess before they headed back to Old Quarter to get an early night before their trip to Halong.
Temple of Literature photos:
Photos at Dinner and the rooftop bar:
We've already discussed some of the teaching on the week commencing 27th Nov, what we didn't mention was Becky making the room Christmassy. We have a little tree, a snowman, a cardboard wreath and lots of tinsel. Although Rob wasn't sure he could trust Becky with this important task he was pleasantly surprised when he arrived home and it has made our little room a little more homely. The weekend of 2nd/3rd Dec we headed to Hai Phong to celebrate our friend Liz's birthday. She is a teacher in Hai Phong. We went along with Maria and Laura and had a fantastic night out. It was a pleasure to see the beautiful Liz and we hadn't properly caught up with Maria and Laura since the flight and it was fantastic to spend time with them. We followed this up with drinks at Trill Rooftop on Fri 9th Dec and hope to see them for drinks many times before we head off for travelling. Belated happy birthday to lovely Liz.
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| l-r Laura, Liz, Maria, Becky, Rob |
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| At Hai Phong railway station |
The next week of teaching was quite frustrating for the both of us. We ended up getting extra teaching and having quite a long week, particularly Becky who went over our contracted hours. On our teaching program there is a wide mix of people with different backgrounds and also different timetables and we have often found we are both working on the higher end in terms of number of periods a week. Indeed this month Becky is likely to go well over the number of periods she should be working in a month but we do get paid extra if this happens. We also had a training session on tests we need to begin administering in the approach to Christmas. This has been what this week of teaching has been so far. It made us realise how close we are to finishing teaching in Vietnam.
Going to miss these guys!
At the weekend we went to Coi Village on another VEO trip. We were joined by Caitlyn - a teacher in Hanoi with us. You may remember they are an organisation that delivers teaching and infrastructure projects in rural areas of Vietnam such as Sapa. Last time we went to Mai Chau and this time we went to Coi Village. It is the most isolated from the world we have both felt the whole time - Coi Village really was in the middle of nowhere and the colder temperatures and foggy surroundings made it feel really mysterious. It was absolutely stunning and quite surreal to suddenly be around children who do not seem to have met many foreigners. The trip started on Saturday morning (9th Dec) with an early bus journey with a stop off in some tea fields on the way, where we lifted up Tu (from ELC) and watched several people almost fall into the bushes. When we arrived we had lunch and then napped. The standard lunch on these trips is a buffet style sharing at the table lunch with some rice in a bowl, probably some soup and various mystery meats. After we had rested we set off in our groups - this time we decided to take a rest from teaching and join the infrastructure group. The aim was to create a play area for the local children including painting tyres. We helped lifting lots of heavy rocks from the stream, as well as creating a Vietnam flag tyre with Tu and an ocean tyre - beautiful sky with sunset and then sea with little boats. This was a great success and we even got to meet a cute puppy. 
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| Caitlyn enjoys the tea views |
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| Caitlyn and Tu |
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| Rob, Caitlyn and Tu |
When we arrived back we rested before grabbing dinner and taking part in the gala night. We were both knackered so got an early night. The gala night involved lots of activities with balloons. The Vietnamese seem to love games involving balloons! We also tried some corn wine at dinner which was perfect for getting us to sleep. The next day we were up early to head to a cave. We walked up and then entered the cave. We had been provided with flip flops as there was water inside the cave. It was one of the more frightening caves we have been in. It was completely dark, the entrance had a rope to help you climb down into the cave and then a shaky looking step ladder. We then crossed water before the biggest challenge which was walking across this slippery clay like mud. Both of us fell on our arses... Becky managed to do it in front of everyone. After a Vietnamese man slipped and almost went flying down a drop we decided to turn back... we had already seen a lot of the cave. By this point the flip flops were saturated with mud and so useless that we took them off. It definitely would have been better to keep our shoes with grip on! It was particularly difficult for Rob who has size 14 feet - a thing that doesn't exist in Vietnamese flip flops. We then hiked to another cave but we decided to explore after we were told the cave is described as entrance to hell and we heard from good sources there were rickety ladders and thin ledges with drops to your death! Apparently people also get lost in there as there are so many levels. If anyone has seen the film The Descent they will know why we were so nervous! The jungle surrounding the caves was beautiful and we enjoyed taking in the scenery whilst getting to know some of the teachers from Hai Phong.
After an active time it was time to head back to Hanoi on the long bus journey. We ordered in a treat takeaway and begun preparing for the teaching week. This week we have been doing students speaking tests. Becky teachers younger children and for some of them it is very difficult - they literally do not answer questions. We have been told that a 5 is a pass and really we should be trying to pass them. This sounds a bit bizarre but when we thought about it these kids are so young... can you imagine being failed in your French test at 5-6 years old! Harsh. For both of us the tests have also been an opportunity to see some of our students do really well... both of us have awarded the elusive 10/10, much to the delight of those students. You feel fantastic when you award this perfect score and the happy smiles on the students' faces are well worth it.
The last few weeks have had real ups and downs and both of us have actually felt quite negative at some points. The miscommunication you sometimes experience living in another country with a different culture can be extremely frustrating. You also have to contend with people from your own western culture and the different personalities you come across. Many people have had a rollercoaster experience and we do genuinely feel for some of them. It is tough. One of the things we won't regret about this is experience is some of the incredible people we have met - we have made friends for life in Sabrina, Danni and Livvy. We are really excited to be heading to Shenzhen with both Sabrina and Liv. We will be living with Livvy.
The next few weeks will whiz by and then we will be off on our travels. Nearer to the time we will explain what our plans are. At the moment we are going to travel around Vietnam, Thailand and Laos before heading home. It is going to be the most organised trip ever given Becky is sorting it out. This weekend we are headed to Sapa - Rob's parents have kindly funded a trip there on the Victoria Express to the stunning Victoria Hotel as a Christmas present and we are super excited to see beautiful Sapa. Many thanks to Joanne and Gary for this gift. The weekend after it is Christmas and then we are in Mai Chau for New Year with the following weekend being the first weekend that Amy and Claire are here! It is going to be an exciting few weeks.
We will try to keep you updated and make the next few blog posts more regular otherwise they will be longer than even this one!
Until then, all the best, thanks for reading.
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