Long long long holiday

Our new school year has not started yet. Delayed and delayed and delayed until 27 August because our new buildings are  being finalizing. We planned to start at 6 August. As a result, this year I have such a long summer holiday :-). This year, almost all students  study at the main campus so we have different studying times for different cohorts. Second year students study from 8 am to noon and from 2 pm to 6 pm. I teach only 2nd year students. Lucky me, I do not have to start early.

Arrival of autumn

Today, according to the lunar calendar, autumn starts. However, the typical autumn climate has not arrived yet. Hanoi is cloudy and cool and sometimes rainy. However, the cool feeling really makes me low-motivated. I feel I am in the depressing situation these days. I try to keep myself not be too pissed off at nothing :-(.

Here is a view from my balcony.

Autumn comes, which means our school year is about to start. As planned first, the school year 2012-2013 was going to start on 6th August. But our new buildings are not finished as scheduled, our work is delayed until 20th. Two weeks to go. Too enough time to get prepared to return to work :-).

Promises, promises

"We make them, we break them, because some promises are very hard to keep. Here are the top six most common broken promises ...
1. I'll come back tomorrow. (plumbers, builders, electricians)
2. I won't tell anyone. (when somebody wants to tell you a secret)
3. This won'r hurt. (doctors, dentists, nurses)
4. I'll write. (new friends on holiday)
5. I'll pay you back tomorrow. (when somebody borrows you money)
6. I'll always love you."
(From English textbook)

Holiday in Quang Binh

I was so lucky and happy when I had one more chance to travel this summer. After considering where to go, I made a decision: Quang Binh province. When Vietnamese people hear the words "Quang Binh" they immediate think of Nhat Le river, Nhat Le beach, Phong Nha - Ke Bang national forest and white sand and hot weather.

I planned quite well for this short holiday (I learned  how to make plan including the budget from my friend who has travelled a lot in his life). And then we set for the destination.

Everything went on as I thought and as I was told: the sea, the town, the landmarks in the town and caves. We could eat only seafood on the beach, no other choices. Honestly, I was a bit worried when eating seafood. Luckily nothing happened to us:-). What I expected most was to visit the caves. Quang Binh has got 2 famous caves: Phong Nha and Thien Duong (Paradise). The former was discovered long time ago and the latter was discovered in 2005 and it is a very long cave. I planned to visit Phong Nha (shorter distance from the hotel, cheaper, and easier travelling, just sitting on the boat and sailing through cave) but unexpectedly all the people in the tour group wanted to visit Thien Duong. So I changed my plan. Anyhow, I want to visit both of the caves. In the future I will visit the other.

When we went inside the cave, we all admired the beauty which Nature made inside the mountain, behind a very small gate with a diameter of about 1.5 meter. It is worth visiting...