Teaching contract signed for 6 month :)

So now I feel even more settled than beforehand. At least I know that I can stay here in Da Nang for another 6 month and I will have a job :)

My new teaching contract is signed and sealed (with a red stamp) and I can bring this paper with me tomorrow for my Visa extension!

As I wrote beforehand, signatures and seals are the most important things in the Vietnamese world.

But I am always surprised over and over again. During my contract negotiations with the University I was trying to get an agreement that the University might cover some of my costs I had already for my paperwork (translations, medical certificate etc.). I had myself prepared mentally for Budget restrictions etc. and have a guess what happened! The director and his assistant talked for one minute in Vietnamese and then the response from the University was: ”Do you have the red receipts for it?” I looked at them and said: “The red receipts? Yes, I have receipts and if I can remember correctly they are red”. Then everything was fine :) They can reimburse me if I hand in my red receipts.

So one more chapter in Vietnamese experience on what's important: “red receipts” ;)

Today then I got even another offer from the English Language Institute here in Da Nang to teach for them. I really liked the centre when I was there for an interview in June, so we agreed I will start with 4 hours teaching per week - I can fit this in with my work at the University. So I am very happy today, that everything seems to work out so well!

The University is closed the last week of July so I decided to fly over to Singapore to meet up with Nicole & Denis! So looking forward to my trip. Only one more week to work so ;)

Please have a look at the gorgeous pictures - I took them in Hoi An last weekend (the cute ancient tailor town) which is just 40min away from Da Nang! I just love this town :) Good food, good tailors, jewelries, shoe shops and art galleries!

Power cut in the 2nd half of the Semi-Final!

Another day to remember.....here in Da Nang. I had a good one I have to say - I found a studio where they have Yoga lessons, I got my documents back translated in Vietnamese and I got my hair cut for $4,5 and it looks good :) So far a pretty good day.

Until the match started.....and we had a scoreless 1st half. The Germans were scared and had too much respect for the Spanish! All their self-confidence which they showed against England and Argentina was gone. We got a bit better in the last 15 minutes of the first half.

I was still positive and believed in a great 2nd half! And then exactly when the 2nd half started the power went off in Da Nang!!! At 2.30am in the middle of the night! I was sitting in a pitch black room with no TV - nothing. Thank God my 2 mobiles were still working (Irish and German) so I at least could text.

However I went in front of my house where quite a few Vietnamese people were out there and as annoyed as me about the loss of power. I couldn't talk with them as they cannot speak any English and my Vietnamese is very limited!

After 10 minutes I decided the power is not coming back. I got on my motorbike and tried to find a place with a power generator and a TV on. I only had to drive 500m and there it was. There were a few Vietnamese men sitting there watching our game in black/white. I didn't care and they invited me to sit with them and watch. The next minutes the place filled up and we were around 40 people in this living room watching the game. The goal for Spain happened and the Vietnamese were shocked. All the Vietnamese people were cheering for Germany!!!! But unfortunately it didn't help. We lost anyhow. Now we need to win the game for the 3rd place.

Surprisingly enough after the game, I was just home for 10min, the power came back on.......was that a coincidence?!

Please have a look at the pictures I posted - the Lady Buddha is watching over Da Nang from the mountain Son Tan. The cousin of my landlady brought me there with her Motorbike. You have a gorgeous view over Da Nang!

Hope to hear from you all very soon.

Medical certificate and Notary translations

If you think Irish or German bureaucracy is difficult or frustrating than come to Vietnam ;)

The administrative work that needs to be done to get a work permit is unbelievable!

Firstly you need to get a Medical Certificate done. I started by ringing the Family Medical Centre in Da Nang as they could speak English, but they are not authorised from the Government in Vietnam to issue a Medical certificate for a work permit. They did send me to a place called Hospital C in Da Nang. I went there on Tuesday morning before 8am (otherwise they don’t take you). I showed them my paper that said in Vietnamese “Medical check for work permit” which I looked up on Google translator. However as I cannot speak any Vietnamese they refused me and I had to call my University and Ms. Duong had to come over. Now the fun started. I got one A4 paper with my name, date of birth and picture on it and 7 different receipts as I had to pay 73 US$ in advance. If you believe it or not but I had to see 15 different doctors!!!! They took a blood sample, urin, looked in my ears, nose, tested my eyes and I got a chest x-ray. Other doctors just wanted to chat to me as I was a Western person and then I got my signatures and seal on the paper.

It took 3 hours and at 11am I finally had my paper, stamped and sealed and I passed the medical check. Have a look at it - I scanned it!!! Unreal, how many signatures and seals you need in Vietnam for one piece of paper.

So today then I decided to make an attempt for the 2^nd step. I needed to get my degree and police check translated into Vietnamese. The biggest challenge was to find out where I could get it done. The University didn’t know! The Director from the English Languages Institute actually helped me out and gave me an address and phone no. So I rang them and I was able to go there this morning before I was teaching. I came in the building and there were 10 people sitting behind glass barriers, some reading newspapers others writing receipts and seal papers.

I found the woman I talked on the phone beforehand (seems to be the only one who can speak English there) and showed her my papers. She looked at them and told me before we can do anything I need to get 3 copies of each in the copy shop. I actually shouldn't be surprised anymore, as the most important thing here in this countries are Copy shops, signatures and seals ;) So I walked to the place, got my copies done, got back to the woman and she took all my papers apart and told me she need to give some to the German translator and others to the English translator – I really don’t want to know how this translation will sound in Vietnamese ;)

Anyhow, I will get it back next Wednesday (fingers crossed). Now it was time to pay! It did cost 25US$ and I think they wrote 5 receipts and filled in so many papers, that I don’t have a clue what they are for ;)

One woman actually only sealed papers during the time I was there. And that was at least for one hour. You sometimes ask yourself how this country survives ;) Anyway, lets see what I am getting back! And then lets look at the next steps.......I also need to get a business visa and we will start this process next week ;) That will be fun!

Keep you fingers crossed for Germany on Saturday!!!!!

New House - New Job!

Three month after leaving IBM, I rented a house in Da Nang and started teaching at the Duy Tan University on Monday :) Life is great!

My new house is so spacious :) I feel like a princess! It is only 500m away from the beach :)

Oh and I forgot to mention, I rented a motorbike :) So all is good!

Very interesting experience on Monday teaching 2 classes after each other for 2 hours from 7-11am! The first class is very well behaved and eager to learn. The only challenge is that the students have very different levels of English from Elementary to Intermediate and this is a very wide range. Well, I will manage somehow. I signed a contract for 6 weeks and then lets see what happens. I would like to keep my options open just in case something better might come up ;)

The second class is as I said very challenging. There are some students in the class who have not really any interest to improve their English. So they are chatting to each other all the time instead of paying attention. But as you can imagine, I can be very serious in that case and I was very strict with them. Otherwise I would feel sorry for the students who actually are interested to learn. I am giving listening and speaking classes and there is a lot to do to improve their pronunciation. Anyway, I love my first class and soon the 2nd one will be fine as well ;)

Yes, I rented a house! So cool :) It is such a gorgeous place - spacious, by the sea, 15 min to work with my bike. It has cable TV, 2 double bedrooms, kitchen, 2 bathrooms and a terrace. What more could I have wished for?! Visitors :)

I have a Vietnamese Landlord and if something needs to get adjusted or fixed to the wall you have 10 people in the house....unreal! That is so Vietnamese. They cannot stay alone.

We also got a new bar, which just opened last Friday! Great place and I didn't know that there were at least 50 Western people in Da Nang! Was a nice evening.

On Sunday I finally drove with my motorbike to Hoi An. Took me 50min, but it was worth every minute. I had a delicious meal at the river - grilled beef in Banana Leafs :) So tasty. Life is great! Thinking about to drive there again on Saturday for a nice day out.

And what is happening in your life? Please put some comments on the blog. It is always so nice to read :)

Da Nang Beach :)

Can life be better?! What a gorgeous beach here in Da Nang, the water is crystal clear and I can walk from my guesthouse room from the University to the beach. Well, it is a 45 minute walk, but I don't care. In the end you have a brilliant refreshing swim in the sea!

There are a lot of decisions to make this week and in the following. I got a job offer from a local University here in Da Nang. They want me to work quite a lot of hours and they don't have any other Western Teacher here whatsoever. Not many resources available here either, no course books etc. So lets see what agreement I can find with them. I think it would be something to start off with, but I don't want to sign a contract with them. Had another interview today with an English Language Institute run by an Australian and I liked it a lot. They will let me know hopefully in the next 2 weeks if they can hire another teacher. Keep your fingers crossed for me please, because I think this would be the right thing to do.

For the time being I am staying in the guesthouse of the University which is actually a guest room directly in the University building. It has internet, a TV and is pretty central in Da Nang. Guess I can stay here until I find an apartment etc. to move to.

I was checking out the possibilities to rent a motorbike and it looks like it is possible. So hopefully soon, I will renting one and then I can go to 'Hoi An' the lovely town with all the tailors and good food, which is only 40min away from here :) and of course it is by the sea as well so I can bring my swim suit!

Talk soon

Pictures from the Train trip

Train trip from Hanoi to Da Nang

This trip is the best train journey you can have :) I took this train now the 3rd time and I am always amazed of it. Gorgeous scenery and impressive landscapes with beaches you just can dream of....and this all by looking out from a window from a train!!!

What do you think?!

I shared a cabin with five Vietnamese people, only one was able to say some words in English to me to have a kind of a conversation ;) To the rest I talked with my hands etc.

In June and July it is holiday season for the Vietnamese and the people from Hanoi are coming down to Central Vietnam with their families to have some days vacation by the sea. This was also the reason why it was so tough to get a train ticket down to Da Nang in the first place.

But it was worthwhile and I feel already much more relaxed than in the last 5 weeks.

Sightseeing in Hanoi and Good-Bye

Last week Thursday I finally said good-bye to Hanoi :) It is a nice city, but too noisy and hectic to live there for more than 5 weeks. You can find some pictures from my last sightseeing tour before I got on the train going down to Central Vietnam.

My first Vietnamese Wedding in Haiphong

If you believe it or not, but I got invited to a Vietnamese wedding this weekend in Haiphong. One of the translators, Trang that I worked with during my CSC Assignment from IBM got married in her hometown. There are so many impressions; it is so hard to know where to start. We took a bus from Hanoi to Haiphong Saturday morning at 8am and we finally arrived at Trangs house at 11.30am. Well it sounds so straight forward, but it actually wasn’t. You need to take a Motorbike to the bus station, 2 different busses and then we got a private Motorbike ride from some of Trang’s friends :)

When we arrived we had some lunch with Trangs family and most of the people from the village. It was in the garden of Trangs grandmother’s house where they built a big tent to get some protection against the sun. In the afternoon we sang karaoke and went to a beach nearby. The groom had to leave the bride’s family as the tradition is that he is coming the next morning with his whole family to pick the bride up with some of the guest to celebrate in his village/town.

So we were singing some karaoke on Saturday night and went to bed pretty early. I was so fortunate to get an own room with my own bed in Trang’s uncles house. That was the first time I slept in a real Vietnamese House incl. bed. The Vietnamese don’t sleep with a mattress. They just sleep on the plain wood,; pretty hard you can imagine, but it was so quiet, I really enjoyed this! We had to get up at 6.20am and to be at the bridges house by 6.45am. The groom arrived with his family and a lot of presents at 7am. After a lot of pictures were taken we all got on a bus to go to the grooms place. Around 40 Vietnamese and myself ;)

We drove for almost 3 hours until we had to go on a small little car ferry to go over to the other side of the river. The grooms place is in the middle of rice fields, which have amazing colours from green to orange to yellow to red! Breathtaking beautiful :)

We had lunch again with the entire guests and some people from his village and the couple changed the rings in front of all the guests.

After that, the brides guests were leaving again in the bus to Haiphong. I stayed a bit longer and was able to get a lift from the groom’s boss who actually owns a Car Company in Hanoi. He is also involved in the government somehow as they were driving a government car – Toyota Land cruiser with 9 seats and leather interior! Some people in Vietnam are rich!!! That’s for sure. However they were so nice to drive past a lovely beach, so I had my first swim in the sea since I arrived. Yippie!

An amazing 2 days I have to say! Thanks to Trang who invited me to her wedding. So appreciated!

Teaching Course passed successfully

Who would have thought one year ago, that I would be a certified Cambridge English Language Teacher to Adults today? Yippee! I have passed and with an above average. I feel soooo good :)

These four weeks were intense and a lot of hard work. But it was all worse-while! I enjoy teaching and that was and still is the main aim.

Now a new area is starting with making a decision where to go in Vietnam. I would love to go to Central Vietnam to a city called Da Nang. However, I need to find a job there. I got a job offer from the Apollo Institute to teach in Hanoi or in Haiphong, but I don’t want to stay in Hanoi. About Haiphong I am not sure yet. I would prefer Central Vietnam so. Let's see if I have the guts to go down there and just try to find something.

After living for almost 5 weeks in Hanoi I am looking for some more quietness. Hanoi is unreal busy - you have so much noise all day. The only time which is really quiet is from 11pm - 6am. Living in a city with over 6Mio people in Vietnam is very different to Dublin ;) This week will be very exciting so to see where I will go. Keep your fingers crossed that I find a nice place to work and live.

Attached you can find a few pictures from our party with the students from the Elementary and Intermediate Level which we had on Friday to say good-bye.

Vietnamese students are so much fun and so eager to learn. It a real pleasure to work with them :))