Sunday 31 May 2009

Waiting with our suitcases half closed

Dear Ethel, Family and friends,

Plans are well advanced now for our trip to Vietnam, we are patiently waiting for our passports with visas to come back from the Vietnamese Consulate in Canberra. We have spent the last two week at the Sea English office in Maroochydore in preparation for our new jobs. Initially we will be running IELTS (International English Language Testing Scheme) classes for skilled immigrants to Australia, so we have been sitting in on some classes in Maroochydore. We are still waiting on information on the address and contact details of where we will be staying but it will be in District 1, right in the middle of Saigon. We will have land lines and mobiles when we arrive, so we will be contactable more readily than the last year and we should have a permanent internet connection so our Skype connection will be on.

We sold our beloved campervan today and got a bit teary as she drove off, but to a good home so all turned out well there. Things seem to be falling into place now and we are now waiting with our suitcases half closed for the green light which might happen tomorrow. We’ll keep you posted.

All the best for now
Ric & Louise

Sunday 10 May 2009

Bathurst Australia May 2009

Dear Ethel, Family and friends,
It has been 6 weeks or so since I last wrote. We have been staying with Louise’s Mother while Louise’s Sister has been away on a holiday. Bathurst is very nice this time of year, with the colourful trees losing their leaves. It’s still not too cold, but cool all the same. While we have been here we have had something to do every week, so we have kept busy.

We were here for Easter and I went to the Bathurst Car races. There were classes of older cars from 1930’s onwards racing. We also went to Sofala and Hill End, gold mining areas to stay the weekend. The following Saturday was the Rally of Lithgow. I went and took some video. Over the Anzac Weekend we went to Lithgow for Ironfest, a medieval festival with Jousting sword fighting and battle re-enactments. We volunteered to help set up and arrived on Thursday to help with making and putting up flags. We stayed in the campervan and it was very cold. The next weekend we went to Dubbo and visited the fantastic zoo there. This week end we have been down to Newnes Valley this side of the Blue Mountains. It’s very beautiful there and we stayed at Louise’s Uncle and Aunts.

As I said we have enjoyed our time in Bathurst and it’s been a great chance to relax after our nonstop travelling. However, we are about to set off again. We are heading back to Queensland this week to prepare for our trip to Vietnam. We have been offered jobs in Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City in the south of Vietnam for a 12 month posting. We will be working for Sea English Academy and running the new Saigon based Sea English campus. We did our Tesol courses last year in Penang, Malaysia and have been teaching in India earlier this year. We travelled to Vietnam about 5 years ago, it was only a 2 week trip but we really enjoyed it. So we are really excited about our new positions and look forward to the challenges ahead. We will keep you posted.
All the best for now
Ric & Louise