Rain, rain, go away (don't come back another day)

Good afternoon from Hanoi,

This weeks blog title has two meanings for us: 1) Becky has sung rain, rain, go away to her little grade 2's learning how to make the ai sounds (train, rain, snail) all week and 2.) Typhoon Doksuri passed over Vietnam and brought with it a HUGE amount of rain. Luckily for us we are well away from the coast and were not in any danger but lots of people in Vietnam further south and towards the coast have lost power and their homes have been destroyed.

Becky sings Rain, rain, go away with Grade 1 at Thuy Linh (photo credit to the lovely Nguyen Thanh Hang) 

Today Becky is feeling slightly worse for wear after a wild birthday night out which concluded in playing in the park with Sabrina at 3am. Rob enjoyed looking after all the drunk ladies and is relaxing reading a book. This week has been another busy week in Vietnam and our first full week of teaching. We are both a bit knackered. Becky now has a busy timetable teaching Grades 1-4 so between age 6 and 9. Rob is teaching grade 4-8 (9-13 years old).

Becky ready for steak

We last posted on the 8th September before heading out for steak. We had a fantastic evening with Dan, Liv, Rachel, and Sabrina. The steak was very tasty and after dinner we headed to our local Bia Hoi where the beers are about 25p. Sabrina and Liv then headed to a bizarre club in the middle of nowhere... literally in a field... called Bird Cage. Rob, Rachel and I headed home and we spent quite a lot of Saturday and Sunday doing our lesson plans and relaxing. On Sunday Becky headed out to watch IT with the ladies - the local Platinum cinema shows films in English. Becky was extremely nervous the film would be in dubbed Vietnamese and when it started playing in English she was very relieved. The cinema here costs about £3.00 and the popcorn is about half that price. It was a really enjoyable experience. In the meantime Rob had been running around trying to print our lesson plans and get Becky's flashcards printed. He also had lots of time to come up with a cunning trick. The BME Accommodation printer was out of ink so printed the flashcards in blurry black ink. He had actually found a printer round the corner who did them really nicely but thought he would play a trick on Becky for a few moments by pretending all he had were the smeared inky sheets.... the look of panic on Becky's face meant he dropped the joke pretty fast.

Best friends

Becky experienced her first full day in one school on the Monday. In Vietnam they take a sort of siesta in the middle of the day. It hits 11:30, they eat and then by around midday everyone is asleep. Therese and Becky took advantage of this and had a nice long nap at Tran Phu. Becky also terrified Therese by informing her of the venomous snakes that are in Vietnam... this led to a search of the staff room for snakes and the doors being closed for safety purposes. On Thursday 14th it was Becky's birthday and she spent the morning tidying the bedroom and then was teaching in the afternoon. Her lovely TA Le got her a gorgeous birthday present and got all the Grade 2's to sing Happy Birthday! Unfortunately her taxi did not show at the school so she got home quite late but was then taken for a yummy curry dinner at Spices by Rob. After dinner we headed to a lovely cafe for a bit of cake and coffee. A little boy took an interest in Rob and also staring at himself in the ceiling mirrors! The teaching on Friday was great fun. Becky made a new best friend - bonding through singing Let It Go and then spent the afternoon with the cutest little grade 1 girl.

Spot the Becky! 

Therese with new friends!

Cute!

Birthday buds

Morning dance!

Kelly meets the school dancers

Rob had a bit of a stressful Tuesday. He was given secondary school lessons late on Monday and then didn't have the correct syllabus sent to him! Even though he felt quite under pressure he managed to get through the lessons and actually really enjoyed teaching his Grade 7 in the afternoon. The school had accidentally sent a bunch of the students home so he had a small class of around 10 and made an extremely complex board diagram for learning about health problems. It was nice for him to see and recognise some people in his classes and he feels he has got to know some of them and their personalities despite it being a short time. You can now identify the stronger students who you can engage in conversation with.

Danielle with 20p beer

On Friday we ended up back in our favourite steak restaurant with Liv, Rachel, Laura and Amy which was delightful. Becky and Danielle had invested in 20p beer before us heading out and then Becky had some red wine so was quite drunk. She fell asleep with her laptop on her and phone in her hand, Rob had to quietly prize them from her hands and put her to bed. Whoops. We also treated ourselves to a swanky meal on Wednesday where we had beef and cheese rolls and Rob had the most amazing carbonara pizza with stuffed crust and quail eggs! It looked like art.

Vodka coke (photo credit Rachel)

Last night was the big night out for Rachel, Becky, Steph and Caitlyn's birthdays. During the day the lovely Sabrina and Emma had snuck out and got a gorgeous Red Velvet cake for us. Thank you all housemates for this lovely surprise. We had a house lunch during the day and then got the balloons and party hats ready for pizza and drinking games. After that we headed to a huge Bia Hoi where Rachel invested in a coke and vodka for around £2.50. Dan also kindly gave Becky multiple shots of vodka which might explain why she was so drunk.... A small group of us then headed to Old Quarter where we sat on a terrace bar enjoying beer and chips and then went to a similar cocktail bar. In this bar during happy hour you get an extra shot with your drink so Becky had Tom Collins with a gin shot on the side, Rob had vodka on the side of his Tequila Sunrise. We headed home for around 3am where Sabrina and Becky had fun playing in the park. It is Rachel's birthday today so we are going to a nice restaurant and then tomorrow brings a new week and a new budget given how extravagant it has been.... we thought we deserved it given it was Becky's birthday week!

We hope everyone has a great week - post again soon.

Poser 1

Poser 2

Birthday drinks (credit Rachel)

Beer Street crowds

Birthday celebrations  (photo credit Sabrina)

Off to a flying start!

Evening all,

We are writing from a very rainy and thundery Hanoi, as we relax in our room following the end of our first week teaching. We think it has been positive for both of us and look forward to the rest of our teaching, however that is in the future and for now we will discuss the past week.

In our last blog post we mentioned the BME opening ceremony and weren't really sure what to expect. Whatever our expectations they were certainly exceeded by a weird mix of corporate AGM, Japanese gameshow, and High School prom dance. The ceremony opened with a bizarre rock style entrance from our two main presenters accompanied by loud music before there was a speech by the founder of BME translated broadly by one of the staff who kept giving him puzzled looks - we assumed he went off script. There then followed a team building/bonding exercise which involved, among other things, audience members dressing in baggy clown suits and then having as many balloons stuffed into their outfits as possible before doing a Vietnam's Next Top Model style catwalk, hilarity ensued. There was then an excellent buffet with live music and some interesting dancing from the Vietnamese Teaching Assistants (TAs) before the night ended.

Stuff the clown with balloons game!

The next day saw us attend school opening ceremonies for the new year, whilst not as whacky as the BME opening ceremony, they certainly stirred the heart with their patriotic tone - marching bands, flag parades, and songs not heard in Europe since the 1980s, all combined to give a thoroughly uplifting start to the new school year. Robert went to an opening ceremony at a school where he teaches, whilst Becky attended a school she will not teach at. It definitely gave us something to talk about with the students and teachers and allowed for better bonds of teacherly camaraderie to be made.

Rob's opening ceremony

Becky's opening ceremony

These balloons were let loose then exploded and glitter came out at Becky's ceremony!

Robert started work on Wednesday (6th Sept) teaching six classes of Grade 4 (9 years old) whilst Becky stayed at home because Wednesday is a free day for her. Robert really enjoyed the teaching and certainly feels more confident and positive about our time here. It sounds cheesy but seeing the impact even a short time can have on the children's learning of English is really great and Robert cannot wait to see the progress the students have made by the time we finish in January. On Thursday and Friday Becky and Robert were both teaching and have both continued to enjoy it. Robert is teaching mainly Grade 4 and 5 and has so far done the same lesson 18 times! Becky is teaching predominantly grade 1 and 2 (like the woman she is). Robert is fast gaining a reputation for having a beautiful, younger looking girlfriend - to explain - part of his lesson involves showing pictures of friends and family and Becky's age is always guessed as 20-22... much to her delight... apart from one terrible child who said she is 35!!! Becky's ovaries are exploding at how cute her 6/7 year old students are but maintains a strict level of discipline in the classroom. It has become a running joke that Becky is going to bring her kidnap sack to school. In good news she has been given cuddles, kisses and even cake by students... despite being super strict.

Rob's school canteen lunch

Becky's class creations

The Students do morning exercise in unison at Tay Mo (Rob's school)

Becky goes to Hoang Liet

Parental pick up at Hoang Liet

This last week we've spent more time with our lovely housemates and had a Ring of Fire game on Independence Day (last Saturday), as the fireworks were not on. Robert ended up doing star jumps as part of this fantastic game! We finally broke and decided we were in need of an Indian and all enjoyed this thoroughly. Becky spent this afternoon with Danielle - promising a night of debauchery tonight - but has decided she is way too tired and her voice has almost gone from all the singing for classes this week!

Photo credit - Rachel Lees
l-r Becky, Sabrina, Louise, Liv, Rachel and Rob at the front

Anyway we are off to enjoy our weekend off. Tomorrow we will have a wonderful steak dinner with Liv, Rachel, Sabrina and the wonderful Daniel. Tonight we are relaxing and enjoying a well-earned Bia Ha Noi. Until next time!

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!