Good evening from Hanoi,
We left you last time with the news that we had had quite an extravagant week... well guess what... it has happened again! We spent Sunday evening at 4P's enjoying pizza, camembert and truffle paste for Rachel's birthday. Becky had a beef garlic soy pizza at 4P's which was incredible (see right) and Rob had a parma ham pizza. We loved this place so much we simply had to book it for the imminent visit of Charlotte Burns and Leo. After that we headed back for a well-needed sleep before the week begun. The last Becky had heard she had all of Monday off due to a school festival and Rob does not work Mondays unless he gets unfixed lessons.
The way our employment works is almost like agency work. We have a set amount of lessons - fixed timetable - with half a day confirmed as OFF for lesson planning. The rest of the space is unfixed so we could have it as extra time off or we may be given lessons as late at 8pm the night before for a morning session or by 9am for an afternoon lesson. Of course occasionally they cannot even give this much notice - our friend Brent had to take lessons with about an hours notice this week - but then you get paid extra. We work across multiple schools so Becky works at Tran Phu, Thach Ban B, Thuy Linh, Chu Van An and Hoang Liet. Rob works at Tay Mo, Thach Ban A, Thien Liet secondary school, and another one he cannot remember the name of. A lot of Becky's days are half at one school and half another, except Monday. Rob spends whole days in Tay Mo and Trach Ban A so he can get lesson planning done in the staff room and then enjoy their long mid-day siesta. Although we don't get sick pay or annual leave we can ask for one day off after each month we have worked and we will probably take advantage of this to get some weekends away.
Anyway Becky woke up at around 8:30am on Monday to a text from her TA asking to meet in the staff room! Obviously she was quite alarmed given she had been told she had the day off. She relayed this information to the TA but then TA then discovered the school was open and expecting us to be teaching the whole day. At this point Becky and her colleague Therese had basically missed the whole morning due to needing to get ready and take the long journey across to the school. After contacting BME and Therese it was decided the two Foreign Teachers would come in the afternoon so although Becky got a sleep in she didn't get her full day off. Whilst Becky was at school Rob cleaned up our room and it is looking sparkly and clean. Becky made a new friend at school who insisted on making sure she got to her taxi ok and protected her from all the other students.
On Tuesday Rob was observed during his Grade 8 lesson which is probably quite bad luck as this is his worst class by far - as one of his very well-spoken students called it 'the class from hell'. Often you don't actually get verbal feedback so he isn't sure how this went but hopefully some other classes will get observed too. Becky had a new TA at her school Thuy Linh and she is lovely. Her morning classes were half good, half not as good. That evening Becky and Rob decided they needed some comfort food and Rob had spotted a chicken place... a place we assumed would be fried chicken, quite cheap. Anyway it turned out to be like super swanky and expensive but we had already taken our seats by the time we discovered this! We also ordered one dish each which turned out to be a ridiculous amount of food. An SOS was sent around to our house chat and luckily we managed to get a doggy bag for Liv. The chicken was amazing but probably a slight error on our part!!!
On Wednesday one of Becky's grade 1 classes was observed at Chu Van An. This went well and she has some useful feedback to take away and mostly positive comments. Luckily for Becky perhaps a class at this school was a nightmare this week and was NOT observed. Becky and the TA only got through the basic three words to learn and the warmer before the class were completely unmanageable - odd given they are only 6 and also Becky is quite strict! A boy wiped chalk all over Becky and then threatened to hit her! It was all a bit stressful and the first time Becky had experienced this. A special lesson is planned for this class next week... and not special in a nice way. It turned out on that day that everyone in the house had a pretty bad day, probably except Rob who had a great Wednesday. Everyone was down and in need of cheese, beef and chips so we ordered Burger King. In Vietnam you can get BK delivered to your door... which is exactly what we did. It is bad for us but it was needed. We all let off some steam, enjoyed our cheese sticks, burgers and chips and got ready for the next day.
Thursday was fine for both Becky and Rob. Becky had the morning off so went on an adventure to go and pay for a trip we are going on. We are going to volunteer with an organisation called VEO, they organise teaching in villages, for example Mau Chau where we are going next weekend - last weekend September. You get to help some of the young students with their English whilst also seeing places you might not see otherwise. We are really excited for this trip and hope to do more voluntary work. The building was quite hard to navigate. Becky had to go around the side at the back and then find the magic mirror which opened up to the place where the VEO office is. Rob will attend a meeting there Monday - goodluck to him!
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| Pizza ovens at 4P's |
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| Dinner at 4P's |
On Friday morning Becky had a mixed morning. She had done lots of prep for the classes and made a special powerpoint, games etc. but it just didn't work for the first two classes. Nonetheless she left on a high as it got better as they went along. The afternoon at Thuy Linh was great fun. This is probably Becky's favourite school and she gets to spend some of the afternoon with an absolute gem called Dani. Rob's Friday was really good too except his taxi was late and so he was late home. He arrived home to a kitkat chunky treat from Becky... but had also got her one as a surprise! Becky had also laid cold coke and beer out on his desk #keeper. That evening we met Charlotte Burns and Leo for a dinner at 4P's followed by cocktails on a rooftop bar called Skyline; hence the title of this blog. It was really good to see some familiar faces and catch up with them and we wish them the best with their onwards journey to Hong Kong and then home. The views from the bar were stunning and the cocktails were to die for. This really perked us up after a long week.
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| CHEERS! |
On Saturday we had a full day of training starting at 8:00am...... which was interesting after the previous night's cocktails. Rob was in high spirits and was loving all the chanting, singing and dancing. He volunteered to go and pretend he was a robot for a song. Our team also took quite pride in creating a very artistic poster for one of the exercises. At lunch Becky and Rob headed to spices and also to the ADC stationery shop to get a world map. Rob and Becky both want to use this in their classes this week. On Saturday evening we had a light dinner before watching Kingsmen 1 in preparation for seeing the second one in the cinema Sunday. Becky had a few beers and Rob caught up with his parents in Yorkshire.
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| Rob is a robot - also starring Ariel on far right |
As we are entering week 4 we are getting into the swing of things and have trips planned now. After our trip to Mau Chau we are going to Cat Ba for Rob's birthday and then Ninh Binh with our housemates the week after. We will make sure we get lots of stunning pictures to post for you!
Until then lots of love!
Becky had another good week as well. The class from hell were put in their place and behaved insanely well. She is really getting to know her students now and has formed special bonds with a number of them - notably Linh one of her Grade 3 students. Becky was surprised in one of her classes when a whole team of students burst into tears because they did not win. Basically we divide the classes into 4 teams - names can be anything but the starting point is: monkey, elephant, snake, tiger. The winners earn a smiley face stamp which the kids are super excited about receiving. Becky also does a sticker for the best student of the lesson from a team that did not win. The snakes in this particular class are very good and normally win but lost for the first time. Becky felt very bad when they all burst into tears, particularly because it was a tie breaker where they had to play rock, paper, scissors to determine the winner. On Thursday Becky had another great afternoon at Hoang Liet school and then got some Kindergarten teaching to do so was whisked away on the back of a motorbike. This was an oddly exhilarating experience, but not one Becky is going to relive any time soon - hopefully. Becky has also taken a liking to Pho this week - meat, noodles, spring onions etc. in a bowl. Emma and Becky grabbed some Pho at the Cafe In this week before teaching.
The next we woke up early and got a delightful baguette and egg for breakfast and the most incredible coffee. We then gathered for the Amazing Race which was a rather bizarre collection of team building exercises, including a sack race (which we definitely won but lost... because we had more players - not bitter), turning a carpet over with the whole team with just your feet and without coming off, untying a human knot, passing a bottle with just your knees, finding a flag and taking a photo with traditional dress on and then climbing 1200 steps to Chieu Cave. This was a gruelling walk in the blistering heat and we had a much deserved sugar cane ice drink at the top. We look sweaty in the pictures, which is a fair representation, but it was well worth it for the stunning views and cool cave. We got back, grabbed lunch, packed and then headed back on the bus. It was a truly inspiring weekend and we hope to volunteer with VEO again.
