Wet wet rain, go away, come again another day

The first few days in Nha Trang haven't been very exciting. It has been raining so much that even trying to walk across the street without a poncho or umbrella means that you get very wet and then stay wet for the next hour or so.

On Monday I had another girl, Tuyet, show up to teach with me. For most of the week I have been hanging out with her and then people who have been staying in the same hostel as her. It has been fun becoming instant friends with random people I have met traveling. These people are people I wouldn't normally associated and the group is always a strange mix but I think that is what makes it half the fun. The group I have been hanging out with consisted of another girl from Seattle! (we both thought that that was exciting), Tuyet from Vancouver BC, another Canadian guy, an English guy, I think the most raciest person I have met - a guy from Sweden, and another American guy from Oregon. It has been a good group to hang with the last few days. It made new years eve a lot of fun to be able to go out and party with a group of people I sort of knew rather than a room full of complete strangers. For new years eve we went bar hopping looking for free drinks, it was a good party seen and I had a fun time out - I got to dance! The hard part about meeting all these new people and having a group is that it only lasts for a few days at a time. All but the American guy (who has been living here for the last 3 months) have left this evening, going in different directions. It is sad to be group less again.

I just checked the weather, which normal I don't do, and for the next week I have a 60% chance of rain and 78 degrees. I'm not sure I will be seeing the sun any time soon and it might just be worth buying an umbrella. The down pour just started again.

More about teaching will come soon. Happy 2009, maybe it be a great one for all.

Good Morning Vietnam

I've made it to Nha Trang, Vietnam! It only took me three flights and the rest of the day in airports to make it here, but I arrived. I arrived in the evening only to be picked up by a taxi driver who drove me 30-45 min ride from the airport to Crazy Kim's Bar. The drive was slightly scary - crazy driving, but also pretty - i was able to see the ocean and coast line in the dark. This bar will be my second home and school for the next month. For the next week I am the only volunteer and I'm not excited about that. The whole reason of doing this was to have other people around who I could do things will. So for the next week while I'm not teaching I get to have some personal bonding time with myself. We'll see what happen.

I'm staying in a house that is just around the corner from the bar and sharing it will Kim's nephew who also works in the bar. The house smells as though it hasn't been aired out but I do have my own kitchen and washing machine! I'm not exactly sure what I would cook... but that's okay. Oh, in other exciting new - i don't have to pay for the internet! I'm very happy about it - I can spend more money on food!

Nha Trang is on the coast, I'm staying a block and a half away from the beach. It's been raining that last few days (that is what I have been told and seen today) so the beach is wet and the water is muddy. I feel like I am at Waikiki in Hawaii... but it's not as nice. People walk around in bathing suits, every other shop is a bar or selling swimming suits...

I have found out that teaching is Monday - Saturday 10-11:30 and then I can eat with the students. If i want I can come in at 9 and learn tyquondo (sp) with the students... that may be a laugh. Then at 5 or 5:30 there is another class till 7 or 7:30. So that starts tomorrow.

Today Kim showed me around a little. It was raining so it wasn't a very long tour. I don't know what I am going to do with myself for the rest of the evening. These are the times when I really wish I was traveling with someone else... or that I liked to drink more...

X-mas

Christmas day... my parents sent me gifts which I opened this morning along with a card from another friend. It was nice to get a few surprises and things to open. It has been a very low key day. We sat around and ate too much at lunch to make up for what we were all missing at home. Other than tubers were Santa hats it doesn't feel like Christmas so it doesn't feel like we are missing out on anything. I am sad because tomorrow morning I am leaving the farm even though I am excited to be going somewhere new. More to come from Vietnam.

Ending in Laos

My time in Laos is coming to an end. My five weeks went very quickly and I can't believe on Friday that I will be leaving the farm. I will bus it back into the capitol, Vientiane, and then fly to Nha Trang, Vietnam, on Saturday. I decided that I didn't like they way a 36 hour bus ride by myself sounded.

The farm has been a place where my day to day routine hasn't changed too much so it doesn't seem like there is so much to write about. The farm has been an amazing place. I have met a group of wonderful people who have been my family for the last five week and I don't want to leave them. The students here have become my friends and not just my students.







While I have been here I have had the opportunity to milk goats, find out I don't like caves, go to a Laos night club, eat Laos food, teach wonderful students, learn how to embroider, do dancing with the students... the list goes on and on.

Today, for Christmas eve, we are going to another farm to have lunch - it sounds like it will be a big event. But we have nothing planed for the tomorrow, Christmas Day. We don't have classes so I may spend the day reading so I can give Cara her book back.

Hopefully when I get to Vietnam internet will be cheaper and I will update more often.

I have updated my map. There isn't too much because the map doesn't have much detail for Laos... but you can see more or less where I have been.

Merry Christmas. I can't believe that Seattle is having a white Christmas. Be safe. I'm now half way through with my teaching. Two more placements to go and then three weeks of traveling!

Luang Prabang, Laos

Right now I am in Luang Prabang taking a five day side trip in Laos. The bus ride up here was crazy. We went in a mini van which was great and stopped a bunch a long the way to pee and eat. This ride had so many turns and twists and the driver didn't slow down for them but just went faster through them. I don't get car sick but I couldn't read on this ride. I had to lean back, close my eyes, and listen to my ipod the whole trip. We made it to Laung Prabang in one piece though! I am here with Nina, Valerie, and a girl they met in Vang Vieng, Anja.

On Tuesday morning when we woke up we found that we had no power. For some reason from 7:50am till 6pm on Tuesday and Wednesday there wasn't going to be electricity. We don't know why but it is always when there isn't electricity that you want it the most. So every night we are happy to have power again.

Luang Prabang is a pretty place, very different from Vang Vieng. I love the French influence in the architecture and croissants! The best thing for me is the night market and shopping! I am having a lot of fun with it. I wish I had brought a suitcase that was as big as me so I could bring everything i want back in it! I'm getting better at bartering and have figured out when to walk away to get a better price!

Yesterday the four of us, plus a couple me met a few days ago, were going to share a tuk tuk to a big waterfall. This turned into the tuk tuk from hell situation. Anja had arranged a great price the day before but the guy never showed so we had to find another tuk tuk to take us... in the end we had this one tuk tuk guy following us around telling other tuk tuk drivers not to give us a better price. It ended up with us yelling at the guy to stop following us and to go away. All and all we got a better price but not the best. It was a nice waterfall... pictures to come.

In Vang Vieng and here as well people have put up X-mas decorations. If I hadn't seen them i would have completely forgotten that it is the holiday season. Right now I'm not sad that I'm missing anything.. hell, I don't have to buy gifts this year. The holidays aren't my favorite anyways... I just wish that there weren't the reminders around. Maybe come x-mas day I will be a little sad about it... but right now I'm fine.

Let's see, I'm in an internet cafe that won't allow me to upload photos. Don't know why... but oh well. I think I have forgotten how to smile because i smile so often for pictures. Especially after English camp I didn't want to have to smile for pictures anymore. So if I look funny that is part of it.

That's all for now. I might leave tomorrow or Satruday for Vang Vieng.

Trekking, Caving, and Kayaking...

Finally a picture of my embroidering! I'm much further along now. I think it will be all done by next weekend!




I though while I was here I should do something sort of touristy, so yesterday Valerie, Nina, Matt, and I went trekking, caving, and kayaking. It was a really nice day and worth the 20 dollars - lunch was even included! I wasn't so hot on the caving idea but didn't want to miss out on the other parts by not going. I think I have now really, really, figured out that caves are just not for me. What it is about them I don't know... but I don't like getting the panicky feeling that I get while I am in them. I went into two out of three. One of them was in water and you floated in a tube and pulled yourself through the cave... sort of fun... sort of not... it was very cool water.

The trekking wasn't what I was expecting. I thought we would go into the mountains or something but it was really just walking on a flat road that was wide enough for a truck to drive on. The views from part of it were spectacular but it wasn't hard or anything. The last part was kayaking. We started a little further up the river from the farm and kayaked into town. We went through the tubing area where all the bars and crazy jumps/swings are. I think I don't drink enough and have too much common scene to go tubing for the day - or at least on all the jumps.
Most of the jumps don't look safe and I'm not a thrill seeking kind of person. But I'm glad I got to see it... I don't feel like I will have missed out on a lot if I don't go tubing while I am here. Kayaking was great though, the mountains are just amazing. As Cara put it we were kayaking in the shadows of towering limestone cliffs... which is exactly what it was like.

Tomorrow I should be heading off to Luang Prabang for the week to see some more of Laos. Valerie, Nina, and I will be traveling together.. I'm excited to see something else but am also a little sad to be leaving Cara and Matt... even though I know I am coming back for two more week.

More from Laos

I'm on my 6th week of my trip with only about 16 more to go. Both numbers overwhelm me. I can't believe I have been gone only 6 weeks, it feels like so many more... and 16 more weeks to go feels like forever. I still have two and a half more months of teaching and then my parents are planning to come out for three weeks. I knew this before I left but really having the people I care about with me is more important than where I am. I am still so excited to experience the other places on my trip I am feeling the sadness of not being with the people who I care about.

The weather is starting to get a little warmer... of course I went out and bought myself a BeerLao sweatshirt because I was too cold. One morning I woke up and it was 56 degrees! I am happy to report that I now don't need the sweatshirt I just bought. However, I am sure at some point it will be helpful again. Most people over here are saying that this is quite cold compared to last year. In terms of what is happening in Bangkok I really don't feel the effect of it. I am hearing about people not getting to leave, but in Laos it really isn't a problem. Cara and I walked into town this morning only to find at least two or three places decorated for Christmas. We were very surprised to see that. I still am having problems remembering that it is December.

Me and Tania on our motorcycle adventure exploring the Blue Lagoon Cave.

Teaching has been okay here. It is very different from Thailand. It's hard to explain in what ways... in some ways I would say the children aren't as excited to learn or they are just quieter about it. My mind may change but in this last month and a half I think I have figured out that teaching won't be my life long career. I don't hate what I am doing but I am not as enthusiastic about it as I thought I would be. Last week I was teaching grammar and I found that really hard. Everyone I have talked to agrees with me about how hard English is to learn, and to teach. Next week I am taking the week off and will go traveling with Nina and Valerie, both from T2T Nong Khai, in Laos.

Me inside the cave.

I have noticed that I don't look at my surrounds too closely some times... mostly that is because I am afraid of what I will see... this has to do with bugs, how clean or safe something isn't... but I wonder what else I am missing because of it. I start inspecting something only to freak myself out because I am peeing in a hut covered with bugs or something else like that.

Last week at the end of one of my classes I had a bird fly into the class. I thought the students were all trying to be helpful by trying to catch it. Once one of the students caught it I told him to put it outside. The kid threw the bird outside and I was then told by another volunteer that I just made the kid throw his dinner outside. The poor bird was already dead at that point and I'm sure the student went around the building and picked it up. Talk about culture difference, I thought the kids were being helpful by getting the bird outside... but found out that it was someones dinner. Oops.














Vang Vieng.

I know there is more I meant to write about. I wrote a small list but I don't think that that covers it all. Laos is more expensive that Thailand and Vang Vieng seems like it is more expensive than the rest of the country. As always I love getting e-mails. I hope you are all doing well.

More Vang Vieng and if you weren't able to see the smiley face with the planets and moon... I was!