My goodness, August is nearly over! I just had the usual busy weekend. A new teacher arrived on Friday. His name is Tony and he's a retired teacher from Adelaide (born in Britain). He moved into the upstairs room and is settling in, getting used to how different everything is here.... he's come just in time, for Lesley is going back to Australia next Sunday. We had a staff dinner at Seamen (seafood buffet) to say goodbye, hello, and happy birthday to Lesley, Tony and Ian respectively.
this video was an accident... I intended to take a photo... anyway... that's Tony in front, and going around the table.. Lina, Linh, Ann, Sun and her husband, Frank, Linh, Gene and Ian
In this shot you can see Lesley, too. Don't you hate it when the camera takes so long to finally flash the picture everyone has stopped posing and turned away!?!
The food was fabulous as before so this time I only took one food pic... this is frog meat on the right of the plate (with bamboo shoots)
And yes, those oysters are to die for.. the little shellfish are delicious, too
This morning Khanh was here bright and early to take me shopping. We started out getting a typical Vietnamese breakfast - Pho Bo
which was, of course, delicious.
Apparently this is the place Ian reckons serves the best fried rice in Hai Phong.
After breakfast, Khanh took me into the city to look for a hat... (I'm over getting sunburnt). The first place we went to had hats big enough to fit me, but the old lady wouldn't budge from her inflated price, so we moved on. The second shop was better... much more realistic prices, but the lady wouldn't bargain much because today is the first day of the lunar month and to sell for less would bring bad luck for the rest of the month... Still, I'm happy with my old lady's hat and a baseball cap (for under my helmet). Then Khanh took me back to a watchmaker not far from school and I bought a nice watch. The band needed to be lengthened, so he tipped out a tin full of bits he'd removed from other watchbands to find a match... Vietnamese people have such small wrists he usually has to shorten them... and found a near perfect match.
After that we went to the big bookshop near here for a look, then finally stopped off to buy bread from a roadside stall, and fruit at the little market near home. We had banana rolls for lunch, then Khanh had to go to Uni. I am so grateful that he would spend the morning taking me around. There is no way I could have done it all on my own, and he is delightful company.
Tonight's classes were both adult beginners and they were great, with everyone enthusiastically participating. This Friday is Independence Day in Vietnam, so it's a public holiday so the school will be closed... AND Saturday, too!!! Two days off!!! Woo-oo! I'm planning to go to Nimh Binh with Gene and Becki. It should be a 3 hour bus ride if all goes well, and I understand the scenery is spectacular, so I'm really looking forward to it.
I'll finish off tonight's rave with this video clip of one of my children's classes from Sunday...
Simba, Leo, Superman (another one) Tracy, Smiley, Sun, Pink, Tony, Tiger, Peter, Lisa, Mimi, Lisa and James. After the video I tried to get a photo of the class too...
now stand still for a photo, kids... hello?!
Here's an older class...
This is Happy, Anna, Susan, Doremon, Jenny, Mary, Lion, Adam, Monkey, Tommy, Ben, and Alex
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