The last week of academic year 2008 – 2009

In the last two weeks I haven’t taught a lot. They were weeks for students to revise, to do tests and for teachers to mark papers. However, marking is not always easy. Sometimes demanding and boring. Luckily, everything finished well.
This Wednesday, I attended a parent-teacher meeting at my son’s school. The teacher informed the school and class’s achievements. My son’s result was good. I felt really happy and proud of him. Maybe he is like me. I used to be my parents’ pride when I was at school. I intend to to teach him more English and ask him to practice handwriting during summer holiday.
A long holiday is comming. I make use of the free time now to do an additional job: translating. My colleague gave me more than 80 pages of a report in English and I have to finish in 2 weeks. This is the first time we have translated into Vietnamsese. The report is about impacts of climate change. I have to work late and use any available time I have. Now half of the workload has been completed. I often work at the dining table in the mini kitchen, facing the balcony. So much fresh air. (My son took this photo of me in the kitchen). By the way, my friend just gave me a wireless router. It took time to install it. It is much more complicated than expected to make it work. Poor me, not enough time for it. I will try later. When it works I can sit anywhere in the flat to work. (Of course, I like the dinning table facing the balcony).
Wow, what time now? 9.51. Time to go to bed and tomorrow is my first day of my holiday. I look forward to that.

Life is ...

I intended to write this new entry later because I was going to a birthday party. But life is full of surprises, it is delayed. So time to continue my blog.
Live without regret and life is choice. When choosing a major to study, I decided to study English, although I was very good at maths, physics and chemistry at secondary school. I passed the entrance exam, went to university, graduated and found a job. Not very easy but I tried my best and I succeeded. English is more and more popular and necessary. So many people need it. I earned some money by teaching English when I was still a student. Not bad. After university, I chose my career as a teacher of English. I like this job. When I was a little girl I dreamed to be a teacher. And this dream came true. In the past, I worked for a Korean company as a secretary and an interpreter. They offered me a good salary but I refused and chose the teaching job. As a teacher, I have more time for the family and in general it is a respectful job. I had time to take care of my son when he was a baby. I have time to look after him and teach him when he goes to school. Now, at the age of 34, I decided to live independently. A really difficult decision but I did it. This sentence brings me to what my friend said to me: Life is full of surprises. No one who knows me can believe that I made that decision. So surprising to them. Because they do not know that I really had a very long time asking myself: stay or go. So far, my decision is right. I do not know what my future will be but I think it will be better. I tell myself to go ahead whatever happens as long as you feel happy. LIVE WITHOUT REGRET, LIFE IS CHOICE AND FULL OF SURPRISES ahead of me.

Exam season and Summer holiday approaching

In two weeks, my work will be involved with just helping students to revise and marking paper tests. Not very tiring. After the long public holiday, I feel that time is flying. Exam season and summer holiday are approaching. Just two weeks to go, I can have a long long long holiday.
Last week, the weather was so strange. On the way home from work (about 10 km) I experienced raining and sunshine so often. Putting on the raincoat and taking it off and putting on the raincoat and taking it off. Again and again and again. Even I had to wear it in the sunshine once for a very short time. The sky was often cloudy. Whenever it rained, I was worried about the flood on the road leading to the university. A terrible road. You can not imagine. If it is sunny, the road is so dusty. If it is raining, the road is flooded. In addition, the road condition is so bad. Luckily, the 2.5 month holiday is coming. I hope that the road will be upgraded before the next school year starts.
From the balcony, I can see the red summer flowers blossoming. These flowers are associated with students' summer holiday. And they remind me of my old school years. I have a feeling of missing something. When we look back at our past, we are surprised that time goes so fast. However, I feel very proud of my passing years.
When writing these words I just remember two sentences: 'Live without regret' and 'Life is choice'. And a friend of mine wrote to me in a sms that life is full of surprises. The 3 sentences are really true to me (and true to many other people I think). I will soon talk about these sentences in my situation in the next entry of my blog.

A working week after the holiday

After the long long holiday, I came back to the routine work. However, I will not have to work very hard to then end of the month. This month is when teachers help students prepare for exams: revision tests, sample tests and oral tests. On Tuesday, I had a colleague's birthday party. When my colleagues (we do not see each other often because we have different teaching days) saw me, they had the same opinion that I looked fatter. Yes, I think I weigh at least 52 kilos now. We had a good time then.
Since Wednesday the weather in Hanoi has been not very pleasant: cloudy, a bit chilly and raining. Last night and today, it rained heavily. As a result, the road to my university is flooded. Terrible. Moreover, the power was cut off. The rooms were so dark. No teaching, no learning. I went home at 2 pm. The water almost went into the pipe.
A good piece of news today for me. An old student wrote an article for the university magazine about learning English at school. In the article, she praised me. How nice! She said her class liked me teaching them a lot. And she said some teachers (including me) taught with our heart and enthusiasm.
A bad piece of news. On the way home, I fell onto the road: A scrach on my left arm and some bruised patches on the legs. Poor me.

A long public holiday

This year we have a very long public holiday, 4 days from 30th April to 3 May. I intended to travel to Hochiminh City with the family but I could not. On 30th, we went to Vincom, looking around and had lunch on the fifth floor. My son bought a lego toy and I bought something womanly. On 1st May, I went to the book store in downtown, reading free of charge and bought some English books for my son. On the way home, I went shopping for food. Today, I got up quite early, at 5.45. I hung clothes, had breakfast, made a cup of coffee and sat at the table in the mini kitchen, faced the balcony and tried to finish the novel 'Loneliness in the Net'. The more I read the more I found myself in the story: the same feelings as the two main characters. Maybe I am really romantic and sensitive. Smile smile smile. Mission completed at after 9 am. Then I took my son for a walk around Hoan Kiem lake, enjoying the fresh air, the peace and the nature there. We stopped at 3 places: a book store to buy Conan stories, a boutique to buy nail polish and a cafe-restaurant to have a pizza. Luckily, the weather today is not as bad as two days before: a bit sunny, a bit windy and a bit cloudy. We finished the walk before noon. On the way home, I did not forget to buy 5 more Conan stories for my son. (He gets addicted to this series of stories after Doremon. He even draws a picture of Conan detective). I also called by the beauty salon to have my nails trimmed and polished. I should be ready for the next working week. Wow, another non-working day is passing.

A new living place

I have made one of the most difficult decisions in my life: moving to a new place, a rental flat in a living quarter in the south of Hanoi. The important date was 19 April. I packed my all things in one evening: clothes, books, photos, important documents, etc. in 15 sacks. You can imagine how hard I worked. On Sunday, my bother, who has got a van, with two porters came to my old place and brought all my things to the new flat, which is not very far from the old one. In a week I had to settle down and I made it: buying furniture, appliances, essential things and cleaning the room. With the help of my family and friends now I can live in a place I wish for.

The flat is on the 10th floor of an 11-floor building. There is a lot of light, wind and fresh air. It is not very large with 3 bedrooms, 1 living room, a mini kitchen, two toilets and a small balcony (enough for me). It has got a view of the lake. Above all, it is in a very peaceful place and I can decorate the home in the way I like. A new life starts.