Another Full-on Saturday

Jenny joined my walk this morning. She is the newest teacher at VAIE and is also staying at the Star Hotel. We stopped by the market on the way home so I could buy salad vegies for lunch. Văn Dương and Nam were on hand to help.

When I got some printing done last week at one of the many print shops along Lạch Tray, my USB picked up a virus so bad that to clean it up, my anti-virus software completely erased the USB! Very frustrating. So rather than risk picking up a virus that could cripple my laptop, I decided to buy a printer.

So this morning at 8:30am, Tuấn Anh kindly took me shopping. This shop has many floors and is the best place to get any IT equipment. Tuấn Anh negotiated for me...When I asked him to ask for a discount because it was a display model he was pleasantly surprised when I was given 10% off. 

So now I have a gorgeous red Canon Printer-Scanner-Copier...  Woo-oo!!

The price included installation, so I arranged for that to happen at 4:30 after my class at Angelia's. Then it was a rush to get ready to be picked up by 10am to go to lunch at Mạnh’s Centre...

(I couldn't resist taking a photo of this old building just nearby)

Mạnh decided to host a lunch today to give an opportunity for people with good English skills to practice speaking only English. He asked me to cook some western food, so I came with the where-with-all to make a huge salad. I took my vegetable peeler, and those helping me to chop everything up were intrigued by it. I was grateful to have several of the students sitting around me giving me a hand - my large bowl was full to over-flowing.  Mạnh's family were also busy cooking and there were many willing helpers, so when the meal was ready, we sat down to an absolute feast!!

 

 

 

Trung Ho told them I play the guitar, so they asked me to sing something...dear me, it's been a long time since I've done that!!

We had such a lovely meal, and as usual several of the girls cleaned up and it was all done in no time.

By then it was half past two and I had to rush home to get ready to go and teach my littlies... that class has grown from 3 to 8 children already!  Personally I think it is easier to play games with more students, so I'm OK with that.  

Then it was rush home to be here for the delivery and installation of my new printer.  Tuấn Anh dropped by on his way to play basketball so he could be here if we needed a translator...so everything went very smoothly and I found out how to adjust the quality of the print etc without any trouble. He is such a darling.

So I'm all sorted after a busy, wonderful day!

Gene is here! ...a walk down memory lane...

After trying for days to connect with Gene, this morning I walked around to the hotel she's staying in, only to find that she wasn't there! How disappointing! No-one at the hotel spoke English, so I wrote her a note and headed back out into the heat of the morning. Since I was in the neighbourhood, I decided to walk back via my old house and drop in and see Bịch and Hà. Bịch was there so we had an iced tea and I showed her photos of my family. There was no sign of Hà and since Bịch doesn't speak English, I didn't find out if she's still around... but I imagine so.

While I was talking to Bịch, Gene called!...finally!  She had been to Big C and took longer than she expected, and had returned a few minutes after I left. So I retraced my steps and finally caught up with her!  We sat and talked and talked. She is here to visit old friends for a couple of months and travel around a bit - Laos and Thailand are both on the list.  Her doctors say she needs knee replacements, so she's keen to give Isagenix a go and improve her health. I'll get Katie to bring some Product B to get her started, then when she gets back to the US she will look at the full system.  

We decided to walk to H Tower to get lunch. Along the way we stopped and said hello to Thảo, who was there in her usual spot on Văn Cao. 

At first she was shy of the camera, but then she smiled...

By the time we got to the Restaurant, they were out of Vietnamese food, but their Japanese food is good...  Gene chose okoromiyake... a kind of omelette with cabbage, seafood and other scrummy things. Delicious!  And of course, there was no shortage of conversation  haha!

Eventually, we began to walk home and when we parted at my old corner to take the short cut past my old house, Mr Cường called out and offered me a ride home.  It's not far, only 10 minutes' walk, and when we got here I pulled out my wallet but he waved it away:  "No, no!...Souvenir, souvenir!" ...bless him!

Then he happily posed for some photos... such a dear old friend!

I got home in time to get ready for my lesson with Phương and Thủy. They come for an hour twice a week and we go through their pictorial dictionary, concentrating on pronunciation so Phương can help Thủy to learn English. They work hard, and the hour goes quickly.

I made a salad for my dinner (my usual fare when I prepare a meal), chatted to Susanne and then Katie on Skype, and then went to Mạnh's Centre to teach his advanced class - 8-9:30pm.  It was 10pm by the time I got home...quite a full day...but thoroughly enjoyable...no complaints here!