Christmas 2012
We assume everyone knows where we are....but just in case we forgot to mention it, we
moved to Vietnam in August...still pinching ourselves every day. At this
stage we will be living in Ho Chi Minh City for the next two years. Not sure after that, probably back to
Australia, but let’s see where life takes us.
Phil is working as a lecturer at RMIT (Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology) at the South Saigon campus. RMIT started a campus in
Vietnam about 10 years ago, it is now the world’s largest off-shore university.
A very dynamic place to work, incredible facilities and so modern, everything
you want in a university. I have to
remind myself I am overseas a few times every day. Apart from the 8 restaurants
on campus for lunch and afternoon tea, an amazing gym and sporting facilities,
I also must work sometimes. At the moment I am in the management faculty,
lecturing in Entrepreneurship, possibly management and accounting next
semester. I never pictured myself as a
university lecturer, a change in career, it’s never too late.
Leanne works as an English teacher in two locations.
Firstly, at landmark hotel in Saigon the Caravelle teaching the staff. It’s a five star hotel right in the middle of
the city. During the Vietnam/American War (depends which side you were on) it
was the location of the Australian and possibly the New Zealand Embassy’s. It has a nice history. Leanne’s other English
teaching job is teaching business English for a HR company. On Saturdays she braves two groups of young
children at drama classes, this has been a learning experience since she hasn’t
had much to do with small children for a long time…maybe practicing to be a
grandma? All of the jobs have been very
rewarding.
The girls have had an interesting year, after kicking us out
of the country it is probably getting even better. The three of them packed
their bags and headed to South America early in 2012. Whitney and Jaimee were
away for nearly 3 months, Hannah a little over 6 weeks as she had to return to
Uni. After seeing Equador, Chile,
Argentina, Brasil, Columbia and Bolivia it was time to head on home. Meeting up
with host sister Carol in Brasil for Carnival, was a party to remember, and
seeing Brenda in the USA and again in Bolivia was so nice. Whitney and Jaimee had a chance to meet up
with Hannah’s family, or Brenda’s family. They can fight over that one.
Cameron proposed to Whitney on her return. I would have
thought he would have made a getaway after seeing Whitney off, but no, he wants
to hang around a little longer. So they
are now onto wedding preparation mode. Wedding set for later in 2014. Such a
shame, I am missing the dress, venue, ring, flowers, photographer selections, I nearly cried when I realised I will be
missing all of this. Cameron don’t
forget to keep sending the cheques to keep Leanne away.
Hannah graduated from her first degree last week. Bachelor of International Business, only one
more year and she finishes her law degree. After almost 5 years of study, she
is getting a little excited that it is coming to an end. We are very proud of her, it is not easy
living by yourself on a student income.
Jaimee headed on down to live in Melbourne in August. One of her navy friends, Will, offered to put
her up at his mum’s house. What a nice
boy, they assure me it is not an issue, they have plenty of bedrooms. They do
seem to hug each other a lot for friends…
Young people I don’t know. She is working at an Autistic centre, appears
that the work can be challenging at times. Together with moving, things have
been a little bit unsettling but she has said she is really happy she moved
down there.
We have heard a lot from the host daughters this year. Moe (Japan) started things off this year,
getting married in Perth, and then Tokyo, Justine (France) had a baby son, I
guess that means Leanne is a grandmother and I am the handsome Uncle, Laura
(Germany) was then married and so too Kit (Malaysia). Unfortunately with us
moving also we were unable to get and see most of the happenings. Reiko (Japan) has moved to the USA in the
last few weeks, Brenda (Bolivia) has stayed in the USA after graduating from
uni mid- year. Marit (Norway) doesn’t know how to stay home, every time we look
she is in another country kite surfing, Sigrid (Norway) has almost finished her
studies after taking the last 2 years off after an accident. Mimi (Malaysia)
moved to Indonesia to study medicine, Nabila (Malaysia) is enjoying her second year
in Egypt studying medicine.
That seems to wrap us up in a few words. We hope you have a great Christmas and New
Year and aren’t too unhappy about not getting a real letter this year.
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