In case of fire

I just love these signs that we see posted absolutely EVERYWHERE.  Note the order you need to take action in case of fire....

                                                      1. Notice Fire
                                                      2. Try to put it out with a fire blanket
                                                      3. Use whatever means necessary extinguisher, water, sand
                                                      4. Oh yeah...call the fire brigade?

Shoes

So having size 10 - 11 feet is a challenge to find shoes for in any Asian country.  My new friend that I met on Friday night gave me the address of the Lady Boy shoe shopping area....perfect!  I didn't get that "You want WHAT size?" look when I walked in.  They actually had some choices for me.  Having said that I may have gotten a bit over excited!

                                   My shoe wardrobe now looks a little more 'normal'?

Doing it without my man

So I am doing things by myself at the moment.  Phil left for Australia on Thursday and I'm hanging out in HCM on my own.  I feel really safe and comfortable and totally ok.  I am going to be covering for 2 of the teachers while they are on holidays for the next 2 weeks so I will be crazy busy.
My schedule currently is....
Monday & Tuesday English teaching 8.30 - 11.30 & 1.30 - 4.30
Wednesday English teaching 8.30 -11.30 Drama 12.30 - 3.30 (3 primary school classes)
Thursday English teaching 8.30 - 11.30
Friday Lunch with my  girlfriend Thoan Drama 7.15 - 8.15
Saturday Drama teaching 9.30 - 10.50 and 2.15 - 3.15 English teaching 3.15 to 4.45
Sunday Drama teaching 10 - 11
All a little cazy but it will definitely keep my busy.

Lunch with Thoan

                                         Arabian Nights Ball last Saturday night

We have met some new friends and I got to have a girls night out on Friday night.  We drank a bit, ate a bit, talked a lot!  Had a really lovely night.  Finished the night off on the balcony of the Caravelle Hotel looking at the vest view in HCM.  Looking forward to more girls nights!

A new week

So Phil started teaching at University this week.  It all went well ... photo for proof!  He also started taking Vietnamese language lessons for himself and is pleased he can now read...something that was really frustrating him.  Neither of us think we'll ever be fluent but he's taking the first steps at least...it's not on my current list...thinking I'll pick up bits as I go for now.

I also started my English teaching course this week.  Teaching Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays 6 hours per day.  I really enjoyed my week last week and it felt like the students did too.  Nice thing was getting paid again for a change as well.  So Thursday was my Saturday...while I was out shopping at the supermarket I found a new friend!  Katharine is a woman from the US who had only been here for 5 days and when I said hi said "I'm so lost!"  We chatted for a bit and since we both needed a new friend we decided to meet up on Friday for lunch.  She doesn't have a lot to do at the moment as he husband is working and she's at home, totally perfect for us to hang out!

Phil leaves for Australia again on Thursday so I am starting to make plans to keep myself busy.  All good.

This is me drinking my favourite drink at the coffee shops a Tea Cino (at least that's what I call it).  I always miss out on the frothy style of cappucino's since I don't drink coffee, now I can enjoy the froth but drink Tea!

Life as usual

So we had our usual days sourcing food, going to the gym and relaxing.  I have now had my first 2 training sessions for the Drama Teaching job and am hopefully getting the hand of it.  Doing my first class on Sunday by myself...a little nervous.
Also have another job teaching English starting Monday.  Not so nervous about that as these are beginners who have no English at all so it's only up from the first class.  Pretty happy I won't have to manage much Grammar, someone should blow Grammar up!  It's way too hard!

That's me on the back of my Motor bike taxi...with my new helmet on!

Visit to Vung Tau

We took the Hydrofoil down to Vung Tau where the Australians had a base during the Vietnam war.  It was kind of sleepy during the week as it's a weekend visiting place but we could walk for hours which we did.  Had a look at the beach, ate more food, relaxed...

Back Beach with in the far distance the Christ statue, apparently bigger than Brasils...don't really believe it?

Ferry Terminal on arrival 

Front beach, local swimming to the left, believe it may be in effluent & all :(?

Proud of my pack for an overnight trip!

Petrohouse Hotel - Phil checking out

Interesting watching the locals at night as it had a real community feel, Salsa dancing lessons in the plaza, group aerobics class by the ocean, musical production sounds filling the streets from behind walls.  Interesting and relaxing.

Sleeping bus

Caught the bus back from Dalat...it was a 'sleeping bus'.  They have lay down seats AND they fit us stretched out!  Surprising!

Settling in

So after our travels to Dalat we are starting to settle in.  We have found a number of supermarkets to source most things, including Vegemite!  Strange things that we have found hard to find so far are loose leaf black tea, a reasonably priced collection of Italian herbs and good quality hair products.  Most things are available for a price so we won't complain just pay the price if we want them.

Fathers Day dinner at home (Cooked by the father though? :( ?

Since we have arrived here we had believed we couldn't eat at home for less than we could eat out, lots of places you can get a meal for $2.50 per person.  We can now do that but not much less, loses the incentive for cooking at home.  I guess we'll just cook when we feel like it and go out when we feel like it.
Loving the apartment, all house cleaning and laundry done for $250 per week rent.  Great area next door to the best shopping centre and the centre of town.