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!