Back to working life

After a relaxing week in Thailand, I came back to a normal working life. Getting up early, riding my Attila to school in hope no traffic jams on the way, teaching, lunching with friends in the canteen and sometimes meeting in the afternoon. No shorts, no T-shirts, no casual sandals, I must look like a "teacher". Long time I haven't watched a film from the beginning to the the end. Long time I haven't read a book. Work pulls me into a hectic time... I promised to eat out with my son to celebrate some of my good things. Unbelievable that we can not find a right time to do it. My son studies from 7.10 to 4.30 and two days to 5.00. In the evening he has to do quite a lot of homework and learns by heart some subjects. At weekends I work.

Once in a while I say that I want to be a normal teacher. Just teach half day and relax in the afternoon, don't have to do unknown work as a group leader. But not the right time to step down yet.

I sometimes miss my lazy time. Luckily, 6 weeks to go I will have a long "holiday". No teaching just tests.

A special gift on Vietnamese Women's Day 2011

This is the second day of a year for Vietnamese women. Besides wishes and flowers from students I got wishes and special gifts from my family and beloved people. Yesterday evening, my son drew a picture for me, a very simple one and inspired by me but I feel proud. Long Bien bridge in pencil. I just told him that I wanted a painting and the bridge was the theme. Reason: I was born and grew up on the other side of Red River, a district called Long Bien and the bridge links the central of the capital and my commune... Today I framed it and hang it above my desk. My friend said that I would treasure it for the rest of my life. I think I will. I have a big collection of my son's paintings from the time he knew how to use a pencil to draw.

Tour of West Lake

This morning I did not have to work. So I spent the whole morning relaxing, shopping and visiting the West Lake, a famous area in the north of the city, quite far from my living area in the south. The weather was so pleasant: sunny (not too hot) and windy and blue sky. I had a special "taxi motorbike cum tour guide' :-). The first stop was a shop where we bought expensive cheese and bread. It was quite small and specialized in imported food. Not surprising because the West Lake area is home to many foreigners. The second stop was Phu Tay Ho, a small temple on the lake. Quiet and peaceful and not crowded at all (unlike on the days around the first or fifteenth of lunar month). I walked into the temple and did pray for good health and good luck and protection from the holy people. When we sat on the bank of the lake, I could see high rise buildings in the long distance. After the temple, we went to a cafe nearby. Simple cafe but good location. We dropped in a tea shop buying a box of green tea for my mum. My tour guide took me to a small restaurant facing the lake and we had lunch there... Nice Sunday morning.

Thailand 2011

I had a chance to come to Thailand again. This time I went to two places: Bangkok and Koh Samet Island. This is the second time I have been to Bangkok, so it was not TOO strange, but I was still impressed.

The traffic was terrible if you travelled by car. Long lines of cars moved slowly, slowly and slowly. The best way to travel around was by sky train (fast) and walk (good for health). :-)

There were so many high rise buildings and only being high in the air you could see the beauty and modernity of the capital. Here is the view from the 44th floor of my 'hotel' in BKK.

There were a lot of shopping malls, which satisfied everyone's shopping needs. So convenient. That was why Bangkok was considered as "shoppers' paradise". Honestly, when I was in a mall, I would not have been able to find my way out if I had been left there alone.

I went to a hospital for medical check-up. First time I have done that and abroad. The hospital was so clean and looked like a hotel. When I entered the hospital in BKK, I wondered when people in Hanoi would have such nice ones... When?...

I spent some days in Koh Samet, an island not far from Bangkok. The island was not very special (dirty, hilly and unpaved roads; mosquitoes) but so peaceful and the beaches were so nice. The water was clean and the sand was white and smooth. A lot different from beaches I know in Vietnam. We walked from beach to beach and stopped for a drink or a meal in a nice restaurant... Not surprised when Thailand can attract so many tourists... A strange thing for me was that we sat on the sand, on the beaches, near the water enjoying our dinner. New experience. Talking about the roads on the island, we went on a motorbike tour. The roads were up and down and had a lot of potholes. Sometimes, I had to get off the motorbike so that my 'taxi motorbike rider' could go over bad parts of the roads.

Two adventurous water recreation activities I did were kayak and catamaran (small). At first I was nervous, in the sea water and far away from the shore. But after a while I felt interested. Partly because my partner in the same boat was very good at water sports.

A week in Thailand was so wonderful. No working and completely relaxing. Unbelievable I could have such a nice holiday in the middle of a busy semester at university and I could make it.

Unexpectedly

I remember writing about this topic somewhere in my blog. Today I want to talk about it again with the phone and email on my Nokia 97. :-)

When we bought Nokia 97, we read in the procedure that I could open the attached file to emails. But for a long time, I managed to do it but I failed and I admitted that there was something wrong with the software. Other colleagues teased me that I had such an expensive phone but so sad that it could not read the attached. :-) Their simple phone could. Some days ago, Mai, my best friend, told me that there was an email to us but with a file attached which sounded interesting. I knew the email but I did not read it. I thought it was rubbish so I did not care for the attached file. After Mai said about the file, I took out of my phone. Immediately she said: "It is in the file attached" with a rising voice meaning that my phone was useless :-). The next day, when I was in class, my fingers did something I could not remember and then I could open the attached... When I met Mai again I told her happily that my phone was not useless anymore. For almost one year did I realize that my phone had a very useful function. Just touch the word "details" on email screen.

And today I (in Vietnam) and my friend (in Ethiopia) could call and text each other for the first time for 4 months. When I accepted that we could not contact via sms, it worked. Unexpectedly. The home phone was the same. Suddenly I could not use it although I still can use the internet. I called the post office via mobile. Could not get through. I ignored the problem because we hardly use the home phone. And suddenly (again) I played with it when I was teaching my son and found out that it worked. So funny.

Someone said we could not make plans for our life, just ready for unexpected things life brings to us.

Storm approaching

I was too busy with work and honestly my mind was too obsessed with tasks to care for other things. Suddenly I heard that a storm on the way to the North of Vietnam and my friend was concerned about it because I am travelling away on Saturday, the day the storm is forecast to affect Hanoi. So scaring for the start of a journey. But Hanoi is deep inland so storms just cause heavy rains. When I am writing this, the TV says that the storm strikes HongKong. Some flights in HongKong have been delayed and cancelled. :-( For the time being, it is still dry and not windy outside the balcony of my apartment in Hanoi.

Busy September

Work work work.... all the time, which takes from me so much free time. I myself realize that for a long time I haven't watched a full film on HBO, my favorite channel, and I haven't updated my blog for almost 20 days... What has happened to me in September???

Meetings are too often these days at work. Teaching in the morning and meeting in the afternoon. Since we changed new teaching materials and new methods, so many events have happened. That is why we meet more often to solve them. I can not cope well with work pressure. Every time I work full day I am back home exhausted and I feel I neglect my son a bit. Luckily, he is independent. After doing homework, he comes to my desk and asks me to check. Still know that when we get promoted we have more responsibilities and more income and that not easy to be a group leader in such a complicated working environment at university, sometimes I still have a negative thought of giving up. My close friends often encourage me to be stronger. Truly, I don't mind hard work but I feel disappointed with the management way and "underworld" practices... For the time being I still work as a vice (with other 6 vices) and I am still highly responsible for what I am assigned to accomplish. There are moments I think if we are wasting time and energy...

My friend took this photo in September. I like it and I ask for his permission to post it in my blog... Freedom. Strength. Determination. Beauty. Loneliness... I wish one day I could see it in nature not in a photo like this. That is when I feel peaceful in my life. But now hurry hurry hurry to meet deadlines.

Hanoi is entering its nicest season, autumn. The temperature is under 30 degrees: sunny, cool and windy, which is so ideal/perfect for a walk. My son has not been to his art class downtown since his academic year started and I have my own class on Sunday. As a result, I miss going for walk around the lake.