High heel shoes

As a woman everyone wants to be graceful and have a nice figure. High heel shoes contribute to that. As teachers we want to show students not only that we have expertise/competence but also that we have a style. After a long time no high heel shoes, my feet were very tired of being in my shoes all day at work in the last week. Even the shoes are old. Strange. Perhaps, my feet get used to comfortable casual sandals, not like the forms of the shoes any more. :-). Time to change.

Work again

Summer holiday ended, which means new school year started and it started at the beginning of this week. So nice to meet colleagues and friends again. I and my best friends meet quite often this semester.

I am responsible for teaching students of second and third year. Most of my classes major in architecture. Therefore, boys outnumber girls. Anyhow, they are so nice: not good at English but interested in it. :-)

Four days of teaching consumes a lot of my energy, I think. Life of a teacher. In this photo, you can see our main campus, high buildings with dark green roofs. We have another two but they are rental buildings and not very nice. I teach here on Wednesday and Friday.

Lao Cai trip

Long time no new entry in my blog. Busy with my new responsibility and freelance interpreter. Actually, I would like to write whenever I have feelings. Sometimes impossible.

As assigned to be a leader of the group of teachers responsible for teaching students of architecture and electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Whoa, two different types of people: architectures are thought to be artistic and engineers precise and not artistic. I had to search for two kinds of English books to

teach those students. It took me a lot of time to do that work. Maybe a week. Book stores in Hanoi and online and my friend offered to help me to search in books stores in Bangkok. What I searched was English for Architecture and English for Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Finally, I possessed some books I need, made teaching timetables and I suffered low blood

pressure for a day, as a result of working too much. What remains is some more ESP for architecture students in their last semester. I will have to assign other teachers in my group to prepare soon.

Besides, new English programme used for students cohort 15 contributed to my busy time. I had to go to university three times to get it installed in my computer. Poor me. The first time, I did not bring the cord. So one third of the new programme was installed because of low battery. The second time, 4 of the total 8 modules were not installed. And the third and last time, everything left was installed. My friend was so surprised when I still went to work during my summer holiday.:-)

And at the beginning of August I got another contract to be an interpreter for SNV's mission in Lao Cai. Interesting and tiring trip. I had chances to activate my English, to understand more about how NGOs help to reduce poverty in Vietnam, to widen my knowledge about tea production, to visit ethnic minority people, to admire landscapes in the mountainous areas, to try local food, to work with and to meet nice people and of course to increase my income.:-) However, it was tiring when you had to travel long ways. Luckily I did not suffer any carsickness, unlike the first time to Lao Cai. What impressed me most was the poor and disadvantaged people living in remote areas. So sad that most of them are illiterate and living in extremely poor conditions. They live mainly on cultivating activities and their knowledge is so limited. However, what they have but we do not have in the city is beautiful landscapes and pleasant climate. Here is some photos about my trip.

First assigment in Bac Ha

So surprised when I got a call from Thao, office worker for SNV in Hanoi at about 8.30 on 12 July to offer me the first job: interpreter for a workshop in Lao Cai and that I left with two other women that night. At that time I was still in bed. Oversleeping because I watched the World Cup final match between the Netherlands and Spain from 1am to 4 am or so. You know, I signed the contract with this organization long time ago. When I let it be, not much expectation from it, job came. In fact, I felt a bit nervous and excited anyhow. I just discussed with my friend that I might take another tour in my vacation and thinking of Sapa to explore mountains. Now suddenly opportunity came. What I found nervous was that the training workshop was divided into three sessions. The first and second had an interpreter. I was responsible for the last one. It is much better if you follow it from the beginning to the end. So you know the content well and you are familiar to the foreigner's accent and speed (maybe). I could turn the offer down but I didn't. I thought it was a good chance for me to learn and to apply what I teach to a real situation and to travel. We do not know what we can do until we do it. :-)
It took me time to read the material and pack my suitcase. And at 8 pm I caught a taxi to the train station. I met three accompanies there and as soon as we got to the cabin people started to sleep. The cabin was in the last coach. The interior was nice but it was so shaky to be at the end of the train. Luckily I had 'travelsick' medicine.:-) A bit sick.

We arrived in Lao Cai station early in the next morning. We stayed in a hotel, near the station, until 8.30 am, when a bus came to pick us up to move to Bac Ha, a poor district of Lao Cai, 80 km far away. I could not brush my teeth. Dirty. Cleaned my face with wet tissues. First time. During the time in the hotel, the two trainers explained the programme for me so that I knew what they would talk in the workshop.
We left for Bac Ha on time. Half way through it was fine. But the rest was so winding and up to mountains. On the one side was cliff. On the other side was abyss . So dangerrous. The speed was 30-40 km/h. My first experience, a woman living in flat areas.
We got to the town at around 10.30. It was a town but not very populous. So quiet and peaceful. Therefore a bit boring here. We stayed in a two star hotel. No air conditioner, no mini bar, smelly sheet, broken TV, no wardrobe but wifi. I still got in touch with my friends in Hanoi on skype and via sms. I stayed there for two and a half days. We worked intensively. No time for exploration. In fact nowhere to go in the evening.
When the workshop finished on 15 July, everybody was eager to go home. The participants were from 8 different northern provinces. On the way back to Lao Cai, down the mountains I feft really sick. But nothing came out, I still survived. We got to the hotel at 4 pm and our train was 8.45 pm. I spent time walking around the town while the two women were busy with their project. Hot. There were some bruises on my feet because I walked in shoes. Poor me. According to the map the border gate was just two km from the hotel. I tried to walk there but could not far enough to reach the gate. :=) Too tired and I gave up my wish and came back. Perhaps another time. I sat in the bar on the top of the hotel and enjoyed the view and drinks. At 6.30 I went back to the room and walked together with the two women to a restaurant serving Vietnamese food next to the restaurant my friend suggested. Couldn't eat much. And at 8.15 we checked out and walked into the station and started our journey back to Hanoi. The coach was number 5, which meant I was in the middle of the train. Not much shaky. Lucky. We got to Hanoi at 5.30. My normal life came back again.

Canada in Bob's eyes

While we were in Cat Ba, Bob's art teacher informed me that Bob was invited to the prize-awarding ceremony. His painting was chosen to be in the final round of the contest with the theme 'Essays and paintings about Canada and red-haired Anne (a charater in a story for children)'. This contest was organized by some organizations including Canada Embassy.

At first, we thought he won a prize (we often receive an inviation to the prize-awarding ceremony when he wins a prize). We felt very happy. But it turned out to be that he didn't. He got the certificate saying that his painting was chosen to be in the final round with 29 other paintings. He was a bit disappointed when he knew that. I told him that no big problem if not winning a prize. He needs to try more. The most important is that we do with all our best.

I took a photo of him and his classmate in the art club. Bob's painting is about a hill of pine trees and it is at the top on the left.

Tour of Hue and Cat Ba

Recently I have been Hue. Again. For the third time. So I can say I get to know that city better and better and this time I travelled to different destinations: a ride on bicycle along the outside walls and to the Vong Canh Hill and a ride on motorbike to Thanh Toan Bridge and Minh Mang Tomb and Thuan An Beach (the beach is clean and you even can see your body in the water). I also went to the tailor's to have two long dresses made. Nice ones. Unforgettable holiday. To prepare for this trip I read some articles and checked maps to make sure that I would not miss my target places. Everything went smoothly, even better than planned. There were only two things I regretted. One is Tinh Tam Lake and the other is Kim Long Village. The lake was full of wild weed and not well-preserved. It is said that the lake is very beautiful. But not. And I could not find a garden house in Kim Long.

Unlike the tour of Hue, my stay in Cat Ba was a disaster in term of journey time, service and hotel. All of my colleagues said that they did not want to come back here at least in five years.:-). It took us nearly 10 hours to get back to Hanoi. What consumed our time was the ferry. But luckily I travelled with my best friends so we chatted and made jokes to kill the time. The streets were full of people and litter. Beaches were crowded and waves were too strong and dangerous. One beach on an island we visited in Lan Ha Bay has got sharp stones in stead of soft sand. I hurt my feet when swimming there. I liked travelling on boat around the bay but suffered a bit from seasick.

Enjoy some of my photos.

Being lazy at home

We are in one of the hottest days of this summer. The temperature is about 37 or 38 degrees, terribly hot, which discourages people to go out. The pool in my neighbourhood is always too crowded in the afternoon. I haven't been to the swimming pool for over ten days. High time to go this afternoon. :-)

I don't have to work much in the summer: just going to university to be an exam supervisor (students are doing a computer-based test in this photo), 3 mornings (finished 2, one more left); going to an evening center twice a week; taking Bob to his art class twice a week (Wed and Sat morning) and teaching him English almost every day. I spend the rest of the day going to the market, cooking, cleaning and reading books.

After my trip to the central I bought 2 boxes of jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces: Keukenhof garden for me and Acropolis for my son. Honestly, this is also the last time I bought this puzzle: it took me so much time (5 days) to assemble the garden.:-) Bob quit because he was not patient enough to build the temple. But he gave me a hand. Now a nice picture has appeared in the living room.