Halftime :)

A lot of happened in the last two week.... it felt like being on a roller-coaster ride! Everything started on the Sunday afternoon 2 weeks ago after somebody decided to steel my notebook from my backpack when I got on the bus - took 5sec and it was gone.......anyway I am over this now. Decided to buy a new MacBook again and not taking it anywhere anymore except leaving it in my hotel room. But back to the start of the CELTA course. We are 12 people from completely mixed backgrounds, age differs from 21 to 68 and we're from Australia, US, Jordan, France, UK, Germany, Sweden. The school and CELTA program is very good. Our 2 trainers are very experienced and we all can learn a lot from them. And we already had to teach on our 2nd day! So far I have taught 5 times, lessons of 40min. There is a lot to prepare beforehand and we also have assignments to submit for specific deadlines. However the students are so motivated and cute. It is really rewarding to teach them. You really have a feeling that they got something out of it after your lesson :) After one week living further outside from the city centre I decided to move into a hotel close by the school. So happy that I did that, as I save a lot of time now which I did spend on traveling on 'xeom's' (motorbike taxis), sometimes in the lashing rain in the morning :) We have around 38 degrees and it is unbelievable humid. I am so glad that it at least rains every 2nd or 3rd day for 30min or so. Then at least it cools down a few degrees.

The time here is flying as the course is so busy. I am working every evening and also at the weekend, but only 2 more weeks to go and then I hopefully can get my certification and look for a teaching job.

Hanoi is very busy. There are around 5-6Mio inhabitants and it feels like the city never stops before 11pm and starts already at 6am :) So my plan is to go somewhere to the Middle of Vietnam after the course to teach down there where it is a bit more quiet and closer to the sea :) Very adventurous times ahead.....fingers crossed everything works out.

My 5th day in Hanoi

I almost can't believe it myself but I am back in Vietnam. In-between motorbikes, taxis, bicycles...noise everywhere and it is hot! Humidity is as high as in September last year and it is only May ;)

I am staying with a friend a little bit further outside at the Westlake. My translator Lan helped me to organize a bus ticket for the full month of May - the application form was of course in Vietnamese and I couldn't understand a word ;)

So nice to have somebody local here which I can meet on a regular base. I already got a homemade vietnamese meal and ate a few baguettes and a lot of pineapples :)

Will meet all the other teachers tonight for dinner for the first time and tomorrow my course is starting for 4 weeks. I am excited, nervous and really looking forward to it!

Christine ( where I am staying right now) brought me out on Friday and yesterday to meet some other friends of hers. Very good to get to know people: Japanese, British, Australian, American's, Indians etc. - feels a little bit like in Dublin at the beginning.

Even met a teacher who was teaching for the Apollo Institute previously and where I will start tomorrow. He said there are a lot of teaching opportunities here and I should also look at his company he is working with now. So fingers crossed everything goes well, I hopefully can start to teach soon :)

Talk soon.

Kerstin

Golden Triangle & Laos

We got up very early this morning to head out to the Golden Triangle where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar Boarders are meeting. We went up on a hill and were able to see all 3 countries. Stunning view and amazing feeling - worthwile getting up so early :)

Another 2.5 hours bustour and we arrived at the boarder of Laos where we had to say goodbye to our Thai Tourleader Mrs. Beam and we welcomed Kham La - our Laos Tourguide. We took a small boat to go over the Mekong River to Laos to the imigration office where we applied for our Visa's. This was so easy going - we all were ready in 20min and were even able to swap money into Laos "Kip". Great service and very efficient :)

I was so happy to be finally in Laos where I was always keen to go. The scenery is just stunning. We had 2 great days traveling on a slow boat down the Mekong River. It was also a great opportunity to get to know the other travellers in the group as we had a lot of time to chat. We stoped inbetween at a Hmong village - one of Laos hilltribes - these people are really poor and shocking traditions from a womens point of view. Just some taste: A man is picking his future wife - the parents of the girl will not know where they are going to live and will not see the daughter again until a baby is born. The women is not allowed to give birth to the baby in the "house" or "hut" - she needs to go into the woods, get the baby there and stay there 4 weeks. Then she is finally allowed to come back and stay with the father, get married and live in the house again. Also in that Hilltribe it is tradition that the man can have more wifes etc.....there was much more, but I better stop writing now ;)

x-mas 2009 - on the way to Bangkok

This was my first time spending x-mas outside Europe and not with my family. I had mixed feelings when I went to the airport on the 24th in the afternoon flying to Asia. Arriving in Bangkok in the heat of 30 degrees was odd for x-mas day. However going shopping to the Chatuchak Weekend market on Stephens day and enjoying the sunshine was very rewarding. Still Bangkok is not my city and the Thai's are not at all as friendly as the Vietnamese. I met the Peregrine Group in the evening then and we went with some Australian travellers for dinner. Felt good to have some company. Next day early in the morning we visited the Royal Place and a few more temples, had lunch and went straight to the airport to fly to Chaing Rai to Northern Thailand. We had a very nice hotel directly in town, a lovely tasty and unusual meal - I got my beef served in a real pineapple! Beautifull and tasted delicious. Afterwards we strolled through the nightmarket and bought some small souvenirs. The people up in the North are a way more friendlier :)

Video CSC - Vietnam Team 6

and even more pictures from Sapa :)

Hospital in Sapa

Children dancing in front of the school

....more pictures from Sapa

Hiking trial through the mountains in Sapa :)

Women from Sapa tribe - embroider

Got a heart made out of leaves from a Sapa Tribe woman on Vietnam's Womens day :)

Riceterraces in Sapa - just amazing!

2nd day in Sapa

I woke up from the sunlight which came into my room. I got so excited that I got up, got my camera and went straight outside onto my balcony to enjoy the view. It was so idyllic like on the pictures I saw beforehand. Sapa in sunshine is gorgeous!
Had a lovely noodle soup with beef for breakfast with the Australians which I met and took some more time out to sit in front of my room to enjoy the view! The mountains are so impressive!
Then our tour started and we walked for 3hours through breathtaking scenery - Fiona from Australia, myself & the tour guide! But anybody who knows Sapa, knows that we were much more people. Sapa has 5 different Hill tribes and so the women who want to sell some bags, pillowcases, duvets etc. are following you the whole way. You actually get used to it and chat with them, as they learned their English from the tourists.
We stopped for lunch and the food is even better then in Halong City. Soooo tasty. Vietnamese just know how to cook!
Then we walked to another 2 villages for another 1.5 hours before we got back to our hotel. Beautiful pictures taken and a great experience again. We passed by a school, where the kids decided to dance for us – so cute. Also we saw a hospital, which did not look so trustworthy to be honest, but who knows.

Today the Official National Womensday was celebrated in Vietnam and every man will buy flowers for his girlfriend or wife. It was fun to see all these flowers everywhere on the street and also all the guys riding on their motorbikes with a bunch of flowers.

At 5pm I had to say goodbye one more time to the Australians and was on my way back to Hanoi on the overnight train. What an experience!

Sapa Experience is starting...

On our walk to Cat Cat Village
Traditional dress + dance from one Tribe in Sapa

Traditional women in Sapa

Cat Cat Waterfall

Sunday Evening I went to the Kangaroo Café in Hanoi and started my tour to Sapa. We were 5 people, 4 Australian’s and I and we got on the overnight train. I was pleasantly surprised how clean the train was – much more modern then the train down to Saigon. I had a great night sleep until we had to get off at 5.30am. We all got on a bus for another 1.5h to reach Sapa & our hotel.
After a great breakfast we were waiting for our rooms. Unfortunately it was very foggy and a few hours later it started to rain. I had a stroll through the town and the markets, but in some shops you could not really see anything as we had an electricity outage.
In the afternoon we then met our tour guide and we had a great walk down to Cat Cat Village and the Waterfall. We also listened to some traditional music from Sapa and saw some great traditional dancing. All these dresses are so colourful as well as all the bags.
I saw it on pictures beforehand, but if you see it live it is even more impressive. The hike back up to our hotel was pretty tough but nice at the same time.
Tomorrow fingers crossed we have nicer weather and the rain is hopefully gone as well as the fog. We ended the evening with a gorgeous meal – I had deer on a hot iron plate and it was the best food I had eaten so far in Vietnam!

Saying Goodbye – Can it get worse?

Karaoke at the Junk Cruise with our translators

Group picture: CSC Team + tranlators

All our translators - what a great bunch of people!

Jump from the Junk Boat with John - that was fun!

Xoan, Kerstin & Lan on the Junk Cruise.

On Friday at 10am it was time to say goodbye to our translators. This was the start of a dreadful experience. We had 3 month of pre-work calls, but nobody prepared all of us how tough it would be to say goodbye. I have never seen so many tears since a long time. However I would like to mention our fabulous time on Thursday on our final goodbye Dinner Cruise with our translators. We finished the CSC program with a stunning experience. Jumped from the junk deck from at least 3-4 meters height and that was something to remember! We had a really tasty dinner on the Cruise and we sang Karaoke with our hearts & souls.
Back in Hanoi, we quick checked into our hotel and had some lunch before we went to the IBM Office in Hanoi for our Press Conference. My first press conference ever ;)
Was a very interesting experience and they will show some parts of it on the Vietnamese National Television. Hope to get a link to it soon.
One member of the team already had to leave to the airport, so saying goodbye started all over again. In the evening we went for another lovely dinner with Mark from ABV and the remaining 9 of the CSC Team. The evening ended with some tasty Caipirinha in a Bar called I-Box with a great atmosphere.

Saturday we had to say goodbye to even more colleagues – no more details as it was just getting worse by the minute. The remaining colleagues and myself had a stroll around streets in Hanoi, did a bit of shopping, went for a nice lunch next to the Revolutionary Museum and so on.
Sunday morning was another time to say goodbye to more colleagues. Next time I will be the first one who is leaving, otherwise I cannot survive this. We met our translators Lan & Trang at 10am, went for lunch and visited the Museum of Ethnology. It was a really nice idea from Lan to bring us there. The wooden houses were the most impressive part! We had a final drink on the 5th floor in a lovely coffee place outside with Palm trees close to Hanoi Lake. We went for our last CSC colleagues dinner (whoever was left), before I left to go to Sapa. Lan & Trang where crying a lot and it was heartbreaking to leave them in Hanoi behind.