After a few days with little rain it absolutely hammered down today. It was raining when I woke up and I waited for it to stop before going to work but no joy so eventually I had to give up and ride through the rain. My timing turned out to be really good - when I was driving there were rather large puddles but within about half an hour of getting to work the street outside began to flood. After about 20 mins of more heavy rain the water had risen above the pavement and was lapping at the stairs into work - this was the point the morning classes finished so all the students headed downstairs to shout loudly at each other about the flood. The delivery man bringing my lunch managed to get through as the water at that point was only at one side of the street but later on the entire street was flooded. I teach the afternoon class and my students all squelched in after having to wade through the water to get in. I'm impressed they made the effort! I tend not to leave the house unless its absolutely necessary when its raining as I really don't want to end up wading through minging water.

I've not done much recently aside from a lot of eating out. Last Sunday we went for brunch at the Melia hotel - $30 gets you free flow drinks and all you can eat food from the buffet. The Melia is one of the swankiest hotels in Hanoi so the quality of food is good, plus they have a chocolate fountain! The day before I met some people from work for lunch at a place called Cafe Smile - it is a training place for disadvantaged youth and all the staff are being trained so there is good comedy to be had as long as you have plenty of time and lots of patience. Tomorrow is gonna be decent pasta at a good Italian place as Tuesday night is pasta night, and a Moroccan place is on the list for sometime soon.

Other than that I got some awesome shoes the other day -