Friday began with Nam Phap Church English Club

No excuses...I was up at 5:30 and out walking by 6am. Everything is lush and green along the route. On my own this morning, but I expect that will soon change.

 There is now an astro-turf soccer field where there was only rubble last year.

 

... the same fishing boat under the bridge...

 At 8:10 Tiến picked me up and took me to Nam Phap Church English Club. This morning was Graham's class, but he's not back yet so I offered to take it. There were some familiar faces, but most are new to me....more friendships to be made in the coming weeks!

 

After the class, we went to a gorgeous garden cafe, called The Valley, for drinks...

 Tiến, Quế Anh, Điện and Linh

 Linh, Trang and Nguyệt

 

Lý, Túng and Mạnh

 Mạnh, me and Tuấn Anh

 

 Our conversation turned into a lesson on pronunciation and time flew by!

Later that afternoon, the beautiful Trang and her friend dropped in to say Hello.

 We talked for quite a while about her English Centre and about my business. I will join her class on Thursday night, and she will come to hear more as soon as I return from visiting the Isagenix office in Hà Nội next week.

Chu invited me to join his small party for dinner. Lee was working, but I walked with Graham, Lien, Ross and Silvana to this restaurant on Lạch Tray, where we met Chu and Tiến. This form of BarBQ is such a social way of eating dinner. It's a bit like a fondue in that you cook small portions of food, so it takes a while, leaving lots of time for conversation.

 

After we had eaten everything in sight, we walked to a cafe for coffee or a drink.  There we were joined by Mark - an Aussie teacher who arrived 2 weeks ago, and then Xuân, who had only just finished work.

 

He was riding a lovely new bike. He's now a manager at LG and is doing very well. He's working long hours. Plenty to talk about, so it was late before he went home!