Connor and I went bike shopping to find a bike to rent for our trip to Mai Chau. This is the place I visited when I first came here so it will be nice to experience again in a different light, and Connor has never seen it. Also, this time we are going by manual motor bike, a four hour drive, up through the hills, and will be able to make trips on the bike in the day and may hire a guide to go up into the hills. The guy who owned one of bike shops was really cool (A massive western guy covered in tattoos!) and he is a “jack of all trades” offering hair cuts and beers too. He offered for us to go back and drink with him one night, which I think we will do. We spent the rest of the day working on Connor’s website, which is what he is going to do when he gets home. I helped him come up with content for blogs, titles, tag lines, forums, notes and pillar posts on the website. I also then proof read all of his content. I actually really enjoyed using my English skills again, in a non-academic, non forced environment. It was fun to be creative and to write again. I have also written a few poems since I have been here, which I haven’t done for years, but being here has inspired me to write creatively again, and I’m really enjoying it. Travel opens your mind to so many new things!
At lunch time on Wednesday Harry and I went for lunch (having already got bored of horrible canteen food) and completely lost track of time, talking about life and relationships! When I looked down I had five minutes to get back to the school, get up to my apartment and then back down to my first class. It wasn’t going to happen, so I just looked at the timetable on the wall in the staff room and decided that the students could do without stickers for one day! After teaching however, I headed back to my apartment, hoping to sleep before my private class, to find I had lost my keys… I searched all the classrooms I had taught in and then headed over to where we’d eaten lunch, hoping they’d be there, but not particularly convinced. On my way I bumped into the teacher I am doing private classes for and she said the class that night was cancelled and could we move it to a Sunday? My immediate response was no, to which she asked why, and I just said “I don’t do weekends!” She looked at me as though I had nine heads and asked again, why (?) and I explained that I have a life and go away a lot at the weekends and so don’t want to commit to them. She then suggested that I work the next two Sundays in July and then change the day for August, but Connor leaves on 28th August so we only have two weeks left with him so there is no way I’m working on Sunday! I said maybe we should start again in August and she looked a little disgruntled, and so I just said “Look, I’m very stressed right now, I’ve lost my keys, I’ll talk to you soon!” She was very concerned about my keys and finally let me go and find them. You’ll learn that sometimes, when it comes to teaching private classes, you have to be a little firm!
When I arrived at the café I saw Ralf, one of the older guys I met at the pub with Dan a few months ago, who is a teacher here too, but just shouted at him that I’d talk in a minute but I’d lot my keys and didn’t think they were going to be in the café and so I was very stressed. Luckily, they were, and I was so relived that I said “I love you!!” about five times to the male Vietnamese waiter, hugged him and said “Thank you” countless times. I think I scared the life out of him…!
On my way out I got chatting with Rowan and his friends Jack and Bryony, who I hadn’t met before, but who are teachers in Hanoi also, and have been for over ten years. I rang Harry and he came down and we enjoyed a good chat over beers about teaching, life in Vietnam and riding a motorbike. I then headed to the old quarter for dinner with Connor. That evening at 12am I got a phone call from Hayden to say he’d forgotten the curfew and couldn’t get in the school, so should he climb the gate? I was half asleep and told him to see if he could climb the gate and to ring me back if not… I didn’t hear anything else and text about half an hour later to find out if he had got in, but no reply…. Then I fell asleep!
