So in the end my Christmas was pretty tame. I spent the day sitting on my ass watching films. I attempted to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy but halfway through the second film it switched from English to Vietnamese. No amount of fiddling the the settings could switch it to English and the subtitles lagged so much I gave up with it and moved onto another film. In the evening I attempted a variation on the theme of a christmas dinner. The oven in this house is broken so I was disapointed that I wouldn't be able to have roast potatoes until my mum suggested part boling them and then frying them. It turned out almost as good as real roast potatoes! I had some grilled chicken and some veggies, and some lame gravy made from a stock cube. Sadly stuffing mix isn't available in the shops here and I wasn't up for attempting to make that from scratch but at least I had some semblence of a decent meal without a noodle in sight! I had some NZ natural hokey pokey ice cream for dessert which also helped me enjoy my meal.

At the weekend I picked up another copy of Pirates 2 and so was able to finish watching that and I also got a bunch of other DVDs. At this rate I'm gonna have a whole suitcase worth of DVD's by the end of my time here! I am currently re-watching Flight of the Conchords but once that's finished I have a few other TV series plus a bunch of movies to watch.

These past three days I haven't done much other than teach but over the weekend I will no dount fit in a few more films. I've been teaching 3 double shifts this week so I get to work about 7.00, teach for 4 hours from 7.45 then after lunch I have another 4 hour class. It's pretty draining, particularly as I'm teaching low level classes so I have to try and keep them motivated and really pay close attention to what I'm saying - anything too complex and they just won't have a clue what I've asked them to do. Now I'm getting into it it's less daunting and it's getting a bit easier. Also all the other teachers are really friendly and helpful so I'm finding it pretty easy to get any questions I have answered.

I've got myself a otorbike driver who takes me to work every morning at 6.45 for a good price. He didn't try and over-charge me on the first day which is a good sign. An average price to get from Tay Ho to the languae school in 30,000VND but a few have tried to get me to pay 60,000VND+. This guy offered to take me for 25,000 straight up so he is one of the good guys! He waits for me at the top of the lane so Idon't have to waste time in the mornings walking around trying to find a bike so it makes the mornings marginally less horrific. Also this evening as I was walking to the supermarket I passed him and his friend having a drink at on of the random places on the street and after calling out my name he used his limited English to ask me how I was and wish me a happy new year. He's cool guy.

Yesterday my students gave me some weird thing called Banh Com which is a sticky green rice cake. It comes wrapped up in plastic which you peel away to eat. It's doesn't really taste like it's in any way related to rice - it's actually pretty grim. It is green though - a nice snot green. It has the texture of playdoh and smell like stale feet so its not something I will be keeping an eye out for in the future!

Tonight I am spending a lame new years at home. At this rate I might still be awake in an hour or so to see in the new year but my early starts are really getting to me so I may crash before then. I've decided against going out in Hanoi as by the time I get home after a long day at work I really can't be bothered to do much. It's not such an amazing event here, plus I would have to faff about getting a taxi or a motorbike taxi (from now on I'm gonna call 'em by their Vietnamese name, xe om, as thats much quicker to type!) back up here which might be pretty pricy. Am also put off after hearing that there was an increase in traffic accidents on the nights that there were important football games due to people driving in an even crazier manner than usual. I don't fancy dying on the way home tonight due to over-excited drivers!

I got some guide books last weekend so I'm planning my trip for Tet. I'm thinking Malaysia, and possibly a side trip to Brunei, depending on costs of flights and things. Plus I could go to Marks and Sparks in KL and buy things that I can't get here in Hanoi. I could shop in general for more than just tourist tat of knock-off goods!!! Plus it would be warmer which would be a bonus! Tomorrow I'm gonna sit down andwork it all out and check out some prices online, and I'll also look at options for Hong Kong and Thailand so I should be able to book something by the end of Friday! Yay travelling!

Went to the Christmas do last night - was pretty good fun! Shared a taxi with the manager as she lives just down the road from me and it saved me faffing around with the buses and I think we must have got the slowest taxi driver in the whole of Hanoi. It was quite a novel experience to go that slowly - usually taxi drivers just go for it and assume everything else will get out of the way but this guy was giving way and everything!

The place we went to is in the swanky Hanoi Towers where all the rich ex-pats live. The restaurant seemed kinda pricey so I don't think I'll be heading back to eat there any time soon, but as yesterday evening didn't cost me a penny price wasn't an issue! There was an open bar and a buffet style xmas dinner - turkey, stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes, mince pies etc. Yum! Met a whole bunch of people there too, plus there are a couple of people with rooms to rent so I now have some houses to check out too. Not only were all the teaching staff there all the Vietnamese staff who do admin and stuff showed up too, most of them with kids in tow, so there was a really good atmosphere. Once the meal was over people started to drift away but there were still a fair few people staying around to finish off the last of the alcohol so I hung around and chatted to them - including a bunch of British people. Haven't really spoken to many fellow Brits since being here so that was nice!

Got a lift back with Nat and for the first time since being here I've actually needed to wear my fleece! It's a bit breezy on the back of a motorbike late at night!

Still not sure yet if I'm going to do anything at all on Christmas Day - will have to see what happens.

Am also now starting to consider places I can go at the start of next year for a bit of a holiday. I have two weeks off for Tet and most people have recommended getting out of the country. As I have no choice in having two weeks off I guess I should use this as an opportunity to get out of Hanoi. However transport and accommodation in Vietnam are really expensive over Tet and pretty much the whole country closes down so I think this is a good time to leave the country for a bit. It has to be somewhere cheap though as I won't actually get paid til after Tet, plus I'm no doubt gonna have to put down some money on a house soon so I need somewhere cheap. There are some bargain flights to KL and Bangkok but I've been to both of those places before. Air Asia have some dirt cheap flights out of KL to other random Malaysian places so potentially I could fly there then get another flight out to some sort of beachy resort. Might go and try and get a bargain guide book tomorrow and have a read about places Malaysia has to other besides KL. I got a lonely planet for Vietnam for the grand total of £4 the other week and this store had a whole wall of second hand guide books, mostly for places in Asia. Will go hunting tomorrow.

Yesterday I observed a lesson of the woman I'm covering from next week. It made me slightly more confident that I can handle teaching a 4 hour lesson. Plus the students seem really lovely which is a bonus. I finished at the same time as Nat, the guy who did the CELTA corse with me and he lives right near the place I'm looking after so he offered me a lift back once he'd done his lesson prep. Whilst I was waiting for him to finish I went to a palce called KOTO for something to eat. Its an organisation that has been set up to help disadvantages/street kids by training them in the hospitality industry. They get a place to live and have English lessons as well as being taught general life skills and they spend two years with the organisation, then they get placed in a job. The restaurant is really nice and the top floor has a balcony that overlooks the Temple of Literature. The food is really good too. They also offer cooking lessons. You can either attend a series of 6 or go to just one or two. The courses on street food and Hanoi specialities caught my eye. The lessons are $35 each and I think thats something I'm going to look into in future.

Having done a few journeys on the back of a motorbike now I'm less intimidated by them. To the extent I think it would be nice to have my own. Whether I'd have the guts to face the traffic is another matter entirely. Maybe after some more time as a passenger the craziness of the roads will become less daunting! It only cost me jsut over a quid to get to the language school yesterday which is pretty good. Plus its much quicker than getting the bus. I might invest in my own helmet though as the ones they have don't always fit very well.

Yesterday afternoon I went out to get some food. The supermarket nearby stocks quite a lot of stuff but it doesn't really havbe much fresh stuff. Few supermarkets do. So after buying things like bread and rice there I then went to a place that stocks a lot of Western goods. They have a couple fo chillers and stock decent cuts of meat and bacon, plus lots of veggies and some fruit. They're a good place to buy stuff that you don't have to peel to eat as they're pretty hygenic compared to buying stuff from the stalls on the street. I did go to the fruit stall for some bananas and satsumas though. The satsumas are much sweeter than those back home and I'm getting quite addicted to them. You can buy a kilo for just 15,000 Dong which is a bargain! Next time I'm going to buy some of the more obscure fruits to try - custard apples and dragonfruit are currently catching my eye. Next I went to the egg lady and got a heap of eggs for 16,000. They look like free range eggs do back home but are heaps cheper! It was kinda cool going to all the different places to buy stuff but I imagine if you're short of time or its cold and wet It might not be as tempting a way to shop.

Today I back to the cool bookshop to buy a teach yourself Vietnamese CD and book. I think its time to try and learn some proper phrases. Right now I have picked up random words, particularly foods and numbers but I can't exactly say much so I'm going to use the CD to pick up a bit, then I want to get some proper lessons.

Once I'd dragged myself away from all the books I walked back towards the lake. I passed the Ho Chi Minh complex again and decided to go look at the stilt house and presidential palace. There was a bus load of Chinese tourists there getting in the way. They got very annoying very quickly! I then walked past all the government buildings with the thousands of army boys outside then went to the oldest pagoda in Hanoi. It's out on the big lake near me and is really pretty.

I got a bus back up to the house and as I was crossing the road some guy whizzed past on his motorbike with a massive fully decorated christmas tree on the back. That was pretty crazy!

I survived the back of the motorbike!

Had a horribly early start this morning to get to the boat by 7.30 but it was worth it. It was a bit chilly and misty at first so the first bit of the trip down the river was a bit eery. We docked at some random bank and climbed up to walk through a tiny village to a couple of temples. There were loads of fruit trees all over the place and it looked really pretty! The temple was really old too and was next to the river. On the way there some random old boy shook the hand of each of us as he passed. Very random.

Then we got back on the boat and sailed on a bit more to the next temple. This one was in an even smaller village and was made of stone, surrounded by jungle type plants.

We then had lunch on the boat whilst sailing back towards Hanoi. After lunch I sat up on the top for an hour or two basking in the sun - it finally came out! It was really warm and sunny and finally the sky was blue! There was a lot to see on the river. The surrounding countryside looked pretty cool, and there were lots of boats passing. The trend here seems to be to row with your feet rather than your hands! There were also fishermen and people transporting stuff all over the place. Some of the boats looked like they were about to sink at any moment and most seemed to be people's houses as well as their livelihood.

Just before Hanoi we stopped at a ceramics village. We got put into carts pulle by water buffalo to take us to the market. There is so much to buy there but I had to resist most things as I have no space and really no need for stuff like that. I did get a couple of small coasters though.

After that we sailed back down to the wharf. A couple of times on the boat two of the women were dressed up in traditional outifts singing traditional songs which was nice.

It wasn't bad considering I paid less than a tenner for the whole thing, including lunch!

Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe surrounded by western kids who look about 10 years old. They are playing computer games and swearing constantly. Lovely!

Have moved into my home for the next 5 weeks. Met the housekeepar and she's lovely, but she doesn't speak much English. Have had a look around the area too. It's next to the lake and is full of ex-pats so the supermarket stock s a lot of foreign goods. There is also a shop that stocks foreign stuff and it sells marmite! There are still cheap street places around too to get some pho or some bun chai from so theres a nice mix. I'm excited to have a kitchen but somewhat daunted by the supermarket as I don't understand half of the labels in the place. Might just have to buy random things and see what they are!

Tomorrow I am going on a boat trip down the river for a change of scene and then Sunday I think I'm just gonna do exciting things such as laundry and then watch some films. The couple who own the house have heaps of films I can work my way through!

Tomorrow I think I'm going to brave the back of a motorbike. I have to be at the boat by 7am and I'm not at all within walking distance. I don't really want to pay for a taxi and I ahve no idea what the buses are like first thing in the morning so I'm gonna try a motorbike. My logic is that first thing on a Saturday morning it shouldn't be too busy on the roads and so I'm less likely to die. I was told that the quickest and cheapest way for me to get to work from Tay Ho each day will be a motorbike so I guess I'm gonna have to give it a go sometime. I could get a bus but I have no idea how long it will take to get to the language school and they are really crowded at peak times so I think it's gonna be a motorbike.

I am leaving the hotel tomorrow! I am off to house sit at some swanky 5 floor house for five weeks. The people who own it are friends of the director of studeis at the language school and when they told her today that they wanted someone to look after their house whilst they are away from tomorrow she put them in touch with me as she knew I was looking for a place to live. This now means that I've got some time to try and find a decent place rather than going for the first available place.

Their housekeeper will still be cleaning etc whilst they are away so I wont have to clean their house or anything like that. they just really want someone to be in the house rather than leaving it pretty much empty for 5 weeks. Its in quite a nice part of the city - away from all the tourists and the rickshaw guys who pester you every time you hit the streets. It does mean I'm gonna have to find my way into the city each morning rather than jsut walking from the hotel but there are taxis and motorbike taxis plus there may well be a bus. Its gonna make the early mornings even more torturous though. Morning classes start at 7.45 so I'm gonna have to be getting up stupidly early to make it in for then. Still I only have to do that for 3 days a week. The rest of the week I have off! I am covering a woman who only works for 3 days. She does 8 hours a day though which is why she can get away with doing only 3 days. Most teachers seem to work 20-25 hours a week, plus all the prep time but at this language school you get a say in when you work so you can either teach one 4 hour class a day for the whole week or double up and teach more classes over less days. This means I get 4 days to recover from the 3 early starts a week!

I got my nice western breakfast on Saturday (lunchtime) and there was not a noodle in sight! This place also serves toast with marmite! Where did they get marmite from?!? I didn't achieve much on Saturday other than watch DVDs. I have caved and gone to the dodgy DVD stores here and got some TV series and films to watch in my spare time. I am currently working my way through desperate housewives!

On Sunday I found an awesome second hand bookshop. Its run by aussies (they're everywhere here!) and they have a lot of info about Hanoi so I picked their brains about trying to find somewhere to live in Hanoi. I also picked up a Dave Gorman book for about £4. They will buy it back when I'm done too!

Next I went to find a bus stop. whilst I was waiting two random old women started talking to me in Vietnamese and touching my hair and my skirt. I have no idea what they were trying to tell me! They seemed fascinated by me. I got a bus down to the south of Hanoi. It was a bit of a strange place. I went to a cafe next to the river and all the staff stared at me whilst I had my drink. I then went to try and find some silk village place but it was either closed for the day or jsut really crap. I gave up soon after and got a bus back to the old quarter as I couldn't face looking around this dodgy part of town any more. I went to the history museum which seemed to be the most random selection of artefacts they could find, stuffed into an old building. Some of it was interesting but some was just strange. Next I went down to the language school to pick up my certificate for the course and the women in the shop next door told me that my hair was very beautiful (thats one of the Vietnamese words I have randomly leant!!)

Yesterday I got a bus to a village outside of Hanoi. Went through some scraggy looking countryside to get there and then got dumped at some ramdon small town bus station. This place was apparently an old capital but now it just looks really run down. I walked into the village and walked around the streets for a bit and then went to try and find the temple that is there. I got mobbed by school children who all wanted to say hello to me. They kept riding past me on their bikes calling out hello. A groups of girls came over and practiced their English on me whilst they walked back to school and they gave me some random rice snack to eat. There was also a group of boys who pestered me for money but they were the only ones. I'm getting used to kids staring at me in Hanoi and the occasional older person but I don't really notice it any more. However out at this village EVERYONE stared at me. Motorbikes slowed down so the driver could get a good look, and people turned 360 degress in the street to look at me. I guess not so many tourists make it out there!

The temple was next to the school so I felt a bit like the Pied Piper walking there with all these kids following but eventually I managed to shake them off and go into the temple. When I came back out classes had started again so the kids were gone. I walked out of the village on a dirt track but I didn't want to go too far as it was hot and dusty so I turned back pretty soon. Saw some paddy fields though, and water buffalo or something grazing in fields. On my way back to the bus stop I saw people using the water buffalo (or whatever they were) to pull carts. Its completely different out in the country and it was interesting to see what its like there.

Today I had an interview at an Aussie (of course) language school and now have a job there! I'm going for an induction tomorrow, along with another guy who did the course with me. The job starts from next week. The first week I think I'm just observing, and then the next four weeks I'm covering for a teacher who is going away. There is then a two week break for Tet before the next year starts up. Fingers crossed I will get a year long contract then! It will be good to have this short trial before signing anything long term though. Will also be good to get some money - $22 an hour! Just need to find somewhere to live now and get my business visa sorted.

I went to the cinema this afternoon to see Madagascar 2. Childish I know but it has penguins in it!! There was another lone Brit there too so we sat together so we didn't look QUITE so childish. We also made the most of the cheap cinema snacks - popcorn for 85p and a drink for 60p! Bargain!

The course is finished!

After our last teaching practice this afternoon the four of us trainees went out for a drink and something to eat. We went to a place run by some aussies and I eyed up the breakfast menu. It looks good! I plan to sleep in tomorrow as I'm knackered then go and get myself a breakfast from there as they serve all day. This place also serves proper crepe pancakes with lemon juice and sugar so thats an afternoon snack sorted! I don't intend to do much tomorrow. I'm gonna sort out all my notes and then do some researc about the place I have an interview at on Tuesday.

On Sunday and Monday I'm going to brave the bus network and go and see some places further afield. Depending on how it goes on the interview on Tuesday I might try and take a day trip out of Hanoi later in the week, see what the country outside of Hanoi is like.

I started the day with some banana pancakes! Then I walked down tiny narrow streets to try and find the oldest temple in Hanoi. It appeared to be closed though so I went on round to the old city gate. I went to find the Dong Xuan market and that appeared to be the place that sells all the stuff for the tourist shops in bulk. It was a bit too crazy there for my liking so I left. I then just wandered all over the place seeing what I could find.

I wound my way up to the big lake at the top of the city and faffed around there for a while. It was really pretty there but the pagoda on the lake was closed. Think I'm gonna go back another day and see what its like as it looked really nice from the lake shore. Next I headed back towards the main road next to the river. On the way I stopped at a church and also some sort of temple on top of a massive brick square. No idea what that was all about as the guy there didn't speak much English and there were no signs there. It looked good though!

Next I got to the river and decided to go up onto one of the bridges over it. It was kinda crazy! The pavement consisted of slabs that appeared to have been attached onto the bridge as an afterthought. Some seemed to be coming loose and would wobble when I stepped on them. There were gaps between each one and there was a rickety handrail alongside. The land in the middle of the river was being used as farm land as far as I could tell and there were people who appeared to live on boats or in houses on the river. It looked so different to everything else I've seen - maybe because its not the city in that bit of Hanoi. I didn't walk all the way across the bridge as I knew that I had to come back too and the bridge was a monster.

Next I headed back towards the part of the city I know. I went to a cafe to grab something to eat then I went to yet another temple before going to the Hoa Lo prison museum. By this time I had walked for miles so I headed back to the hotel, stopping to buy some stuff to send to my sister on the way.I've not really done much shopping for tourist crap since I've been here but I got a couple of things for me today, mainly because I couldn't buy things for my sister without buying some for me too!

This evening I went to the post office to try and send the stuff to Bec. The amount of forms I had to fill in was astounding! Some random guy helped me out, pointing out all the bits I had to fill in but it was such a faff. The package was taped up several times and all the various forms were attached and it seemed to be such a long winded way of getting something into the mail!

My plan for next weekend if I have some time is to work out the bus network and go and see some stuff a bit further afield. I contemplated getting a bus today when I was up near the bridge but I couldn't decipher the signs at the bus stops I passed so I need to investigate that so I can go see some more things. I have also got myself another map that is in English as well as Vietnamese so that I know what things are. On occasions today I was looking at my map to work out what there was to do near wherever I happened to be and somethings would be on my map in Vietnamese but I had no idea what they were. Things like temples have symbols but there are a lot of things on my map that are just a circle with some Vietnamese words. This is no use to me! So this evening I invested in a tourist map. Its heaps bigger than my other map which is quite annoying but at least it tells me what everything is in English!

This week should be a little less intense too. It's the final week of the course!!

Also - am currently eating some random snack thing. Its a bag of small round things that taste kida sweet and are crunchy. Its vaguely like popcorn but not really. I have no idea what it is - maybe thats a good thing? The lesson learnt from this? It can be good to buy random things for little old ladies on the street - whatever these things are they're nice!

This past week has been really busy. There were two assignments due for the course plus lesson plans and all sorts of other random things. I spent both days at the language school last weekend, plus I've been there most evenings for a least a little while after we have finished for the day.

This week coming up should be a bit calmer which will be nice. I have another assignment due and the dreaded lesson plans but it shouldn't be so bad. I got most of the assignment done today and I've started to work on my lesson plan for Tuesday. I have got everything done so that I can have a day off tomorrow and go see some random sights of Hanoi. I have plans to start the day with pancakes and then check out a temple or two and the old city gate. I might go to a random market but then again I might not bother. I'm also gonna hopefully go see a pagoda and the cultural palace or prison museum. This might all change of course but I want to go and see more of the city than the bits I see every day on my evening walk back or the area around the hotel.

I think I said hello to half the children in Hanoi today. I went to the language school to get on with some work as I have too many distractions at the hotel. On a weekend there are a lot of small beings around having thier weekend lessons so there was a different atmosphere to the week. Usually the students are teenagers or uni students with a few older students. Apparently the kiddies are bust at school all day during the week with no time for things likie private English lessons. They also go to school on a Saturday as every so often I could hear the drums signalling the end of the lesson from the school next door.

The small people seem really eager to talk as whenever I ventured out of our work room if I ever encountered any of them they would say hello to me and try and ask me random questions. I also made the mistake of trying to go down to the resource centre and had to work against the tide of children headin upstairs to their lessons. I think most of them shouted hello at me.

Also on the way home thee were loads of kids out in the streets and a lot of them would call out hello as I passed. Most days one or two people will say hello to me as I pass - usually children or security guards who see me pass each day on my way back in the evenings but today there were loads of kids eager to say hello to me!

We had our last lesson with our elementary class today. As it was unassessed we just played games to practice some of the things they have learnt with us these past 2 weeks. One of the things we did was play a board game in small groups and to do this it was easier for them to sit on the floor. Michelle had mentioned earlier that in her experience Vietnamese students really don't like having anything to do with the floor as they see it as being really dirty. Here a lot of people just drop things on the ground and sweep stuff into the gutter knowing people will come along and sweep it all up so I guess there is the assosication of the floor with rubbish. Michelle said that her students in the past have been relucant to sit on the floor and when they did so they would either crouch or sit on things like their shoes or bags so it was quite surprising when it was some of them that suggested we play the game on the floor. The rest of them weren't so keen however so I saw what she meant when they started trying to sit on their shoes. In the end Michelle gave them paper to sit on which seemed to kepe them happy. That was just such a strange thing to see - tell a bunch of students back home to sit on the floor and as long as its not obviously dirty they will yet over here a lot of them really don't want to. I also noticed that some of the students wouldn't even put their bags on the floor - they sit with them tucked behind them on the chair. I guess I'm gonna have to pay attention to things like this to make sure that I don't offend any of the students I teach!

I can't wait for the weekend. It has been mental busy this week. I have an assignment to hand in tomorrow and I've been set another 2 for next week. On top of this I have had lesson plans to prepare this week that have been so time consuming. Thnakfully as tomorrow is our last day with this group of students we are having an unassessed lesson to do what we want. I think we are playing games!! In an educational setting ofcourse ;o)

We have different students next week but I'm not teaching until Weds so I have a few days before lesson planning gets mental again. Will be working on the assignments this weekend to get them out of the way. What an exciting life!!

Depending on how early I can drag myself out of bed I might go and see a random bit of Hanoi as this past week all I've done is walk between the language school and my hotel and the streets around my hotel in the quest for food each evening.

I found a pretty decent italian restaurant recently which does passable Italian food! The pasta's good anyway. Plus they make garlic bread with regular bread rather than the crappy sweet stuff you often get. I haven't tried a pizza there as they are quite pricey compared to the pasta. Plus I sometimes get a pizza for lunch so I should really try and eat something different in the evenings! We have a system to order in lunch which saves having to go out and find something decent. I usually get some rice thing going on - i only cost me 25,000 dong which is about a quid for heaps of rice. Bargain! This place also does cakes - most are a bit dry but they pull off chocolate cake which makes me happy. This gets me through the long days when I have to stay late for whatever reason and gives me something to look forward after the teaching practice!!! This Italian place is pretty good - for pasta, garlic bread and a couple of drinks it only cost me 100,000 dong - heaps cheaper than it would be back home! The best thing about this place though is that they serve breakfasts with bacon and eggs and stuff! Might go and sample it this morning. I have however realised that it is a wise idea to steer away from sausages. They don't taste good at all! They are like the really processed crappy sausages you avoid like the plague back home!

I went out for dinner this evening thinking I'd just go to the Pho place at the top of the street and then get back to do some lesson planning. Didn't quite work out that way! I went towards the lake and the market area as I fancied something different for a change. My meal wasn't actually that nice in the end - won't be going back to that random food stall. I had some unidentifiable vegetable that really didn't taste good, dry rice and scrawny chicken. Normally the rice here is pretty edible by itself, and the veg I normally get served is spinach (i think) which I am happy to eat but this meal was grim. Still, it didn't even cost £2 so its not that bad. Once I'd finished I went to a random mini supermarket to try and find some washing powder and stumbled upon mars bars which made up for my crappy dinner! They are the real deal too, imported but not too expensive. It only cost me about 50p which is about the same as they are back home. This improved my dinner vastly!

I then walked around to the lake and came across a stage set up with a massive crowd around it. It was near a major intersection which doesn't seem a particularly intelligent place to put it. There were people standing in front of the stage, and then there were motorbikes lined up behind them blocking nearly the road. Other drivers didn't like this and were going crazy with the horns! I stood by the lake, across the road from the stage to see what was happening. I couldn't understand any of the writing around the stage, and had no idea what anyone was saying on stage so I couldn't tell you what it was all about but it was fun nonetheless. There was a Vietnamese beatboxer which was just bizzare - at times it sounded exactly like being at a Beardyman thing in Brighton in terms of what he was doing, then he'd randomly stop to speak in Vietnamese. After him came the boyband who were just like boybands the world over - tight trousers, sunglasses, gelled hair, standard boyband poses and moves. They did have a much more upbeat backing track than usual boy bands though. They seem to like the pounding house or techno music here as the boyband had a bit of it going on, and so did a solo singer. Between each of the acts there were a groups of people dancing around on stage to thumping music too so its clearly the prefered genre here.

By far the strangest act tonight were 3 guys who came out in suits and proceeded to dance around in a Michael Jackson fashion. At one point there was some MJ music in the background, but they were busting the moves for their whole set. Couldn't tell if they were singing too or just showing off their smooth moves.

When the host was talking between acts and I couldn't understand anything I found myself just watching the crowd and what was passing me on the road. The traffic was really busy and the motorbikes were zipping all over the place cutting people up. Then there were taxi drivers getting impatient, and massive private cars driven by people who hate to wait, and then every so often a tour bus would come along that could barely fit down the road. People would just stop when passing to see what was going on, particularly those on motorbikes which caused people to get even crazier in their driving and even more manic with the horns. I noticed that the driving style here is to use one hand to steer the steering wheel, and keep the other on the horn ready to press down whenever anyone pisses you off (ie ALL the time). There were also a few people driving convertible mercedes who seemed to be just driving round and round the lake to show off their flash cars.

People here seem to be constantly trying to break some sort of record as to how many people can use one form of transport. I saw a family of 5 on one motorbike, and one of the tiny boxy taxis had 9 (!) people crammed into 4 seats! I also witnessed 2 poeple on a motorbike with a fold up camp bed balanced between the two of them. Earlier on today I saw a guy on a motorbike with a pole 3 times the length of him balanced over his shoulder. It seems that no matter what you need to transport here you can find some way to get it onto your motorbike!

Things I see on my walk home:

Out of the air conditioned building into the heat. There are motorbikes parked up all over the place. After the (relatively) quiet and air conditioned inside of the language school it's crazy back out on the street - opposite a major road with so much traffic and endless horns beeping.

A building site that you can just walk onto with a big hole to fall into - no signs or barriers or anythinyou would expect back home.

Women seeling fruit on the pavement. Some have a small selection but others have heaps of differet fruits - half of which I don't even recognise!

People walking around in conical hats and carrying things in two baskets attached to a piece of wood and slung across the shoulder

A woman cooking chicken feet (well, that's what it looks like!) on skewers on the street.

People playing badminton on the pavement.

People sitting at tiny tables on the pavement eating their dinner.

Broken and crappy pavement.

Holes (!) in drain covers.

Random stores that sell all sorts of things.

Mentalist drivers in their thousands.

So my first bit of teaching wasn't too bad today! I think they learnt something, and they certainly completed the work I wanted them to. This evening I also had to observe another teacher so I sat in on a lesson by a Canadian guy. It finished at 19.15 so the day was pretty draining - I got there about 8.30 this morning to prepare stuff then each morning we have sessions with the trainers covering a bunch of topics. This runs from 9.30 to 12.30, then we get an hour for lunch. In the afternoon we have our lass for two hours. We alternated teaching each day so that one day we just observe the other teachers then the next we teach for part of the lesson. Afterwards we have a feedback session and then usually we're then free to get on with planning or whatever we need to do. Thats enough for a day as it is but when you then have to sit and observe a class for an hour and a half it just about kills you!

On the plus side, I was observing with the aussie who has been in Hanoi for 6 years and she lives up near me so we walked back and I picked her brains about the area. This country seems quite random sometimes. For example I had to buy a folder to put my notes in. You'd think this would be quite straightforward but no, you have to go find a random stationers as despite stocking electrical equipment, toys, clothes, all sorts of other crap supermarkets don't sell stationery. I looked everywhere for a folder before finally being pointed in the direction of a stationers. Another thing that has taken some getting used to is the lack of global chains. McDonalds and Starbucks don't seem to have got their claws into this country yet. The only chain sa far as I can see is KFC. Also in places like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur there are shopping centres with stores like boots, topshop, gap, marks and sparks, just places you know are going to stock Western sizes. Most of Asia seems to have caught on to this Western influence but not Vietnam. Michelle (the aussie) said that there are no stores like that in Vietman. Unlike Bangkok etc there are no shopping centres with Western brands and so every year she would fly somewhere else to buy loads of things she needed! I am slowly getting used to being in a city where nothing is the same as back home and the brands I am used to seeing just don't exist. I have however noted the location of the store which stocks McVites biscuits and cadbury chocolate!

I survived the first day of my course! There are 6 of us doing it - there is a Scottish woman who has been living abroad for years in places such as India and Singapore and currently lives in Malaysia, an Australian woman who has been teaching in Hanoi for about 6 years, then 3 American students who are in a similar situation to me. We started the day with a lesson in Vietnamese. It was more to demonstrate to us what it is like being on the receiving end of a lesson conducted wholly in the target language, particularly if you are at beginner level and so haven't yet got to grips with the basics of the language. If I stay here I'd quite like to learn Vietnamese but I reckon its gonna be pretty hard if today was anything to go by! It's all about tones and has nothing in common with English at all. In contrast, when I was learning Spanish and German I could try and relate what I was learning to English to help me remeber it, and as the languages are similar to English in that it's all about stress and itonation rather than tones like in Vietnamese. This was a useful way to start the course as it let us see what it was like to be on the recieving end of the lesson and let us see which techniques were good and which weren't.

In the afternoon we met the group of students who are going to be our guinea pigs on the course and observed an hour of one of the trainers teaching them. For the second hour of the lesson we were in charge but we mainly did getting to know you games so it wasn't too challenging. My first proper bit of teaching will happen on Wednesday when I have a 40 minute slot. Thankfully for this first week we get a lot of guidance from the trainers so the lesson is pretty much planned for me and I just have to deliver it.

3 of the people on the course are staying at a hotel right by the language school, one is living with his dad out in the suburbs and the woman who has been here for 6 years has somewhere she is renting. I am about 30 mins (maybe more!) walk away from their hotel which kinda sucks in that I don't know anyone right by me. I don't think I want to move though as I love my little hotel. I have massive room with really comfy bed, there is a bath in my ensuite rather than just a shower plus I have really decent aircon, a TV with a few watchable channels and even a balcony. Its slightly cheaper than the hotel the others are staying at and even taking into consideration that they get breakfast included plus don't have to pay for transport it still works out cheaper here. I really like this part of the city now, plus I am beginning to find my way around without needing to consantly refer to my map so I'm reluctant to move. The guys running this hotel are really nice too. I also get the daily adventure of travelling to the language school each day. I walk back in the evenings but don't want to walk there in the mornings when a taxi is so much quicker. I am trying to psych myself up to try out a motorcycle taxi as it is dirt cheap (not that a taxi is particularly pricey - it cost less than£2 for the journey!) but I don't think I'm brave enough just yet! Still, I didn't eat alone tonight anyway as in the restaurant I went to one of the staff came and sat with me for most of the time I was there - she was a student and wanted to practice her English! I've also joined randoms for meals a few times in the past so I do get human interation beyond the course!

Started the day with a bacon and egg buttie at the hostel! They were also playing Salmonella Dub whilst I was eating which I thought was very cool.

After a good start to the day I set off to be a tourist. I walked past the Hanoi flag tower and the hero's memorial to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I explored the grounds and went to the one pillar pagoda but decided against waiting around for the museum to open and made my way to the Temple of Literature instead. That place is amazing! You walk through several courtyards and the place ahs a very Chinese feel to it. There are stones of ancinet Chinese script balanced on tortoises, and a room with traditional music being demonstrated. At the back of the complex is a really beautiful building with statues of early kings and really ornate decoration and the whole palce is just really nice to walk around. Sadly there is no escaping the noise from the street but it is still well worth a visit.

I grabbed some food at one of the cafes that has been set up to help disadvantaged youth by training them and providing them with jobs, then I headed back towards the Old Quater.

This evening after I'd been for dinner I went to the lake and I have never seen so many motorbikes in my life! It's usually pretty cusy there anyway, but tonight there were loads of bikes parked up all over the place. The lake/KFC/the street stalls is clearly the place to be on a Saturday night! One of the streets was closed off with a market going on on top of all the normal stuff that is available there. Crazy!

Tomorrow I move into my new hotel - fingers crossed the room is decent, and WiFi works! Think I will go over some stuff for my course tomorrow as that starts up on Monday. Slightly terrifying thought!

Soaking wet thanks to a lovely tropical downpour! Was nice for most of the day however so I guess I'd better not complain too much! Went to the lanugage school again to see how long it takes to walk there from this part of the city however I got lost again so I'm still not sure. I wasn't as lost as yesterday - I didn't add an extra hour onto my journey today - but it still took me longer than it should. I then had a look around the area trying to find somewhere to stay nearby but the only places I could find were quite expensive. After that I walked back towards my hostel and came to the conclusion that it probably takes roughly 45 mins to walk to the language school from here. This means that I am going to have to brave the taxis, or even the motorcycle taxis to get there each morning as I have 8.30-9.00am starts each day and don't fancy having to get up early to walk that each day. I think I will walk back though in the afternoons as it's not too traumatic, bar one major road with vehicles coming at you from every imaginable angle.

Once I was back at the hostel I had a look at some hotels on line then went out to try find them as I don't want to stay in the dorm whilst doing this course, and the private rooms here are kinda pricey. Most of the places I found online are near the lake and the touristy shopping streets in the old quater so I walked around there trying to find hotels that looked promising. Some were way out of my price range and others just weren't very appealing. In one place they showed me a room with no window; in another they showed me the standard room and then the deluxe room and tried to sell the deluxe based on the fact it had a balcony - not good when the streets are as noisy as those ones! It then started to tip it down, plus I was getting hungry and so I gave up the search. I got some food - have now finally sampled the local dish, pho, and it is GOOD! Noodles and veg and beef. Yummy!

After that I couldn't face walking round in the rain any more trying desperately to find somewhere to stay so I came back towards the hostel. Then I had the bright idea of cheking out some of the hotels on the same street as the hostel which it now turns out I should have done all along! They are a bit cheaper than most of the other plces as its about 5 mins walk from the really busy touristy streets rather than right in the midst of it, plus they are competing with this backpackers I'm staying at (which is part of hostelling international and therefore has fairly high standards) so the prices are a bit lower. This street is also too narrow for cars and so is a bit quieter than the rest. One place showed me a nice room for $18, and another has rooms for $14 that I'm gonna go and have a look at tomorrow.

Once the course starts I'm going to see where the other people doing it are staying and if they've found somewhere closer to the school or cheaper then I might move but for now I'm gonna stay in this area. I'm slowly learning where everything is right now and no longer need to pull my map out every 2 mins so if I stay here then it saves me having to get to grips with a new part of the city!

The rain stopped pretty soon this morning so I went exploring and after about 2 hours of getting lost I finally found the language school! Took me a while as the map from the hostel only goes as far as the park near the language school, and the map in my guidebook has very few street names so is pretty useless when walking through streets laid out like a grid. I navigated as far as the park no probs, then tried to walk down a street supposedly alongside it to get to what I believed was the street I was after. The street got quite narrow and windy after a while though and looked to be pretty non-touristy so I turned around and went back to the park. I then walked all the way around it (so instead of just walking along one side of it and getting to the school I walked around 3 sides. And it is a BIG park) asking random people where the street was. The street was pretty long and wide so it took me a long time to actually find the school but now I know where it is it should be easy to find again. I then walked back towards the old quarter where my hostel is (the short route this time!) and on the way I came across a shopping centre with a bunch of branded things from Europe and America. Was very strange as the streets all around are crammed with little local shops and street vendors selling food and stuff, and then there's a big air conditioned shopping centre!

I walked around the old quarter for a bit just trying to get used to it all. It is still a crazy crazy place as far as I'm concerned. You will be walking along the pavement and then suddenly you are forced into the road as there are scooters/shops/people eating/big holes making it impossible to continue on the pavement! Am getting better at crossing the road though and dodging the motorbikes. They drive like crazy here anyway so I guess after driving the wrong way down a one way street, mounting the pavement, cutting up a bus, veering in and out of all the traffic and drifting across to the other side of the road its fairly easy to dodge a pedestrian. The only scary moments when crossing are when you are crossing a busy road with an endless stream of traffic bearing down on you. Quite often at the busy junctions they have a semblance of traffic lights and so there will be a little green man when it is safER to cross but even then you may still encounter people coming straight at you on the wrong side of the road.

Have been out this evening to try and find something to eat. Don't want to resort to KFC so was trying to find somewhere cheap and Vietnamese to eat. It's quite hard to tell where's good, and also what the food is if the people at the stall don't speak English however in the streets around the lake in the old quarter there are a least English translations if not English speakers. Ended up in some random shack eating rice, unknown vegetables and chewy pork ribs, with a drink, for less than 2 quid. There were a couple of Australians there who joined me to eat and told me all about Halong Bay so when I get round to making my way out there I have some tips on what to do.

I think I am slowly beginning to get the hang of how it all works here!

Made it! The flight was OK. Didn't sleep too much because of a screaming baby :o/ Also the seats weren't very wide so the dude next to me kept accidentally hitting me with his elbow. I believe I did the same to him several times tho so its a fair exchange! Cathay Pacific are nowhere near as good as Air NZ!! It wasn't too bad I guess but after flying Air NZ nothing else will compare! Managed to make the connection at HK no probs and sat next to a Canadian couple. Am grateful for the fact that they woke me up when the food came round as I could not keep my eyes open!

When I landed in Hanoi I found the guy holding up my name on a card and headed to the hostel with 2 Dutch guys. They are mentalist drivers here! They swerve all over the place, they cross to the other side of the road, they randomly overtake and use their horns endlessly! There are also heaps of people on scooters and bicycles veering all over the place so its a bit like an obstacle course. Some of them have stuff piled high on their bikes - the most entertaining was a guy riding on the back of a motorbike with half a shop mannequin tucked under either arm. What the hell?!

The hostel is pretty standard really. It's down a narrow street in teh centre of the old quater. It's a pretty crazy place but at least there's not a mental road running past right outside. I managed to cross a couple of roads last ngiht which was impressive. The real challenge comes today I think when I cross major roads as the ones near here aren't too busy in comparison. The hostel had a BBQ last ngiht so I was spared from trying to get myself something to eat last ngiht by going for a burger on the rooftop bar. Was far too tired to cope with much else!

Today I plan to go and find the language school. It was tipping it down earlier but it seems to have stopped now. Apparently it has been raining a lot here recently so I think I'm just gonna have to accept that I'm going to get absolutely soaked sooner or later. At least it's really warm here. It's kinda humid too but not too bad right now.

It's very different to how I remember places like Kuama Lumpar and Bangkok, unless I just don't remember them right. It's so different here and kinda strange but I'm sure once I've been ehre a few days it will get a bit better.

Am also going to try and find myself a room somewhere as I don't think I want to be in a dorm whilst I'm doing the course so I need to go and find something eitehr today or tomorrow. There are so many places here tho that it may be quite time consuming.

Aargh I leave tomorrow!

Pro tip - when getting ready to leave the country for an indefinite amount of time, don't leave everything to the last minute. I think I've got pretty much everything done now though so fingers crossed when it comes to leaving tomorrow I will have everything and be ready to go on time.

Attempted to pack everything into my rucksack this evening but I have far too much junk for that so have resorted to a suitcase. It was retively easy to restrict myself to a rucksack when I went off to New Zealand on my gap year but I didn't have to look presentable then or take a bunch of books with me so it was so much easier to limit what I took. I have however managed to pack lighter than when I went to New Zealand back in March. It is the same suitcase but it isn't full to bursting like it was in March (for a trip that was about 10 days long!) which I think is progress. Sadly packing light doesn't seem to work so I shall have to look like a batty checking into the backpackers hostel in Hanoi with a suitcase. Oh well, at least this way I can take some of my books with me, and smart shoes and proper clothes rather than backpacker style outfits.