Pictures!

Inside CCPP with kids hanging out and doing a project with Andrew.

The front of CCPP. The left third is CCPP the rest is a guest house.

Saigon zoo - it was a sad sight but I got to feed a elephant.

Floating Market in Mekong Delta.

Alex, we met in Nha Trang and I spent a week and a half to two weeks traveling with him in Southern Vietnam. At one point we were told that we were an odd pair to travel together. I had fun and was happy to have to company.

On a tour in the Mekong Delta - the hat was useful to keep the sun off my face! Sand dunes in Mui Ne! It was great and the sand got everywhere! I still have sand in the pockets of my pants!

This was the first go. Later a kid showed me how to go down on my belly. I manged not to eat a bunch of sand but it was close!

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

I've made it to Sihanoukville Cambodia. Pictures will come when I feel the energy to go through them and figure out which ones I want to put up. I don't know how hot it is but I do know that I am dehydrated and pissy right now.

It's nice to be back with a project and to have a home base again. I traveled on my own from Saigon to Phnom Penh and then to Sihanoukville. All of it by bus. I saw nothing other than my tuk-tuk ride to and from the bus station in PP. I will be back in just a little over a month to really see it. Big cities and being on my own is still something I don't like doing by myself. I didn't mind doing the border crossing alone - I was on a chartered bus and for an extra 5 dollars they did everything for me.

In Sihanoukville I was greeted by Jo one of the coordinators. Right from the start I could tell that this would be a better experience than teaching in Vietnam. I'm working at the CCPP (Cambodian Children's Painting Project) (check under the links section of my blog to see its site). This job is less teaching and more childcare which is tiring but a nice change. The heat here is just killing me. I thought I was aclimated but trying to do anything in the sun makes my brain melt and it's hard trying to think of different ways to keep the kids engaged. The kids here are very cute but dirty little things. We have 60 kids 3-16yrs old - I've only had 48 at one time is the most I have seen. Most of the girls have lice. [This is just like starting my daycare job in Seattle - I arrived and learned that there was a lice outbreak... but in Seattle we acutally did things to prevent kids from re-getting it... here we just hope the shampoo works and can't even get the nit combs!]

Overall I like the project. It's a little more than I bargined for - 7 hours a day and from the heat I stop thinking after lunch... I have taken the afternoon off. I think it is time for a dip in the ocean. Afterwards a nice cold shower and then my book.

Part IV

Today while walking to the market in Saigon I was almost run over by a motorcycle. This is the first time that it has been a close call and woke me up. I was watching the other direction because i was standing in the middle of the intersection. I'm happy to say that I have all my fingers and toes and was happy to let Alex be my "blocker" on the way back to the hotel.

The last week and a half has been spent on the beach in Mui Ne, Saigon, the Mekong Delta, and back in Saigon. It been great traveling with Alex. We aren't the most likely match in the world but he have gotten along and that is all that matters. He is a seasoned traveler and has been able to help me figure out how to get places the easiest and cheapest way... it is always nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.

The Mekong was nice. We did a three day tour. If we hadn't gone on the tour we wouldn't have seen so much in a small amount of time... but it also wasn't the great thing being herded from one place to the next like cattle. The best part was day two sitting on a boat looking at the floating markets.

Saigon is a crazy city. The motor bikes are crazy and crossing the street here is scary at times. I think I wouldn't have seen as much if Alex hadn't been here before and had things he wanted to do. I'm waiting for Liz and Terry to come to do all the museums and whatnot with them.

Tomorrow I'm off to Cambodia. I will spend the night in Phnom Penh before heading towards the coast to Sihoukville (sp). It's been nice having a break from teaching. I'll see what the program is like and if i like it i will spend 5 weeks there before meeting my parents in Hanoi or take off to Thailand for a bit.

This last week has been hard. I've had the feeling of needing to be on the move and even when i have been on the move it hasn't been enough. I think homesickness set in a bit or at least that is the only way i can think to describe it. The main reason for this trip was to find out what I want to do... and if teaching was it... and finding out that it isn't has made me ready to move on. I'm excited to see my parents and to see everyone at home for a bit. i might have my next adventure set up in Europe for a month and a half with a friend from WSU. Lots of planning needs to happen before i can commit to anything.

I'm excited for the next part of my adventure - part 4. love to you all. keep the emails coming! pictures to come once i have settled down a bit.

Beach time in Mui Ne

Since I am back to paying for internet and using random cafes pictures most likely won't be up for a while.

I left Nha Trang early this morning, taking a 5 hour bus ride south to Mui Ne. I couldn't find this place on most maps that I looked at, however, it is in my Lonely Planet. 20 mins into the bus ride the teenage boy sitting next to me threw up. When I covered my ears his mom chanced places with him so I didn't have to sit next to him. He threw up at least 3 times during our ride and the bus wasn't that bumpy or anything. Other than that I didn't have any problems. I have met up with Alex who I met in Nha Trang and have another friend, Katie, who is here... I just haven't found her yet.

The afternoon was spent on the beach and who knows what we will do for the rest of our time here... our plan is to head south to a small island at the bottom of Vietnam. Right now we are playing it one day at a time and will see where we go...

Heading South

On Wednesday I am leaving Nha Trang to head south to Mui Ne. My enthusiasm for teaching has steadily declined and I just don't have the what it takes to drag through it for the next two month. I will spend the next two plus weeks traveling around the south. I am meeting up with a guy, Alex, 30 from England, who I was hanging out with for a few days when I first got here. If we travel well together we will travel the rest of the south before he heads home on the 18th. Another girl, Katie, from England, headed south today and may meet up with us as well. Alex and I are seeking out the sun and the beach.

This has been a fun adventure and I'm excited to travel around Vietnam and see a little more rather than staying in Nha Trang the whole time. The more I have the chance to party and more I realize it is something I don't need to do to have a good time. And Nha Trang is all about parting. Also, knowing that I don't have a good friend who I know will make sure I get home at the end of the night keeps me from drinking.

Today was the first nice day in 8 days of being in Nha Trang. The sun was shinning and it was nice and hot. The new volunteers and I walked to the post office and market before walking back in the waves on the beach. I am hoping that my stuff gets home... it cost too much... but that is what I get for bring a small, full, bag over. I don't know what I was thinking when I packed. I knew I would buy stuff. The water in the ocean looks a little better than it has over the last week but the beach is covered in trash is some spots. It doesn't make me want to swim here.

I will keep you update to where I go next. I still am planning on going to Cambodia and teaching there. I'm excited for a different kind of adventure.

When in Vietnam walk slowly...

...This is just one of the things I have learned. In Seattle I dart across the street so I don't get hit by a car, but here you have to walk slowly... making sure you don't step out in front of a car or bus and the motor bikes will go around you. At least so far they have gone around me.

The weather hasn't gotten any better and even with friends I haven't been doing much. My group from new years eve left and I now have Katie (from England), who showed up last night to teach. She was, like me, sad, that our little groups had left us. So we have become each other friends. Tomorrow we are planning to go to the mud bath together along with another guy I have met here from Oregon. Plus, tonight two more volunteers should be showing up.

I have been teaching for nine weeks with a total of one and a half weeks off in between all that. I have figured out that teaching doesn't excite me. Yes, I knew it was hard work, I have been in the classroom before, but I don't enjoy it anymore. The first week of teaching here was hard (I didn't really have anything to follow and this is the most advanced class that i have had), half the time on my own, but I was able to do it. But after realizing that I have answered one of the questions I went on this trip to figure out... I don't want to teach right now. I haven't made up my mind completely, I figure I will give it at least three more days of teaching before I say I'm going to move on. This means that for my last two weeks in Vietnam I will travel on my own. At this point I think I will head north and then fly to Cambodia. I want to teach in Cambodia... or at least see what it like. I'm not ready to say goodbye to teaching completely but just for right now I need a break - and I know that I won't be going back to school for a degree in education.

I'm get antsy being away. I miss everyone at home. I'm getting this feeling of needing to go back to school but because I haven't figured out what I want to study I'm a little weary of going back right now. This trip has been an amazing experience. I forget that I am in a foreign country at times and have found so many wonderful people to be with. My next personal quest is figuring out what I do want to do with my life. I think I am ruling out being a nomad unless I can carry all the people I miss with me - even though technology is amazing and I can stay in contact with people, it's just not the same.

Here are a few pictures of me. This is me at the beach that is a block and a half away from me. This is what it has looked like for the last week and you can't really see how muddy the water looks. It doesn't make me want to go swimming. Second picture: Christmas lunch, Cara, Rachel, Sungmin, Ye Young, Me, and Matt - my family while I was in Laos. Last picture: most of my favorite class (so far) - they were intermediate level and I had a great time with them.

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.