Week 3 Saigon

Dear Ethel, Family and friends,

Posted by Louise

Still here … and so far so good. We have been teaching for a week and have about 6 to 8 candidates/student each. Ric is teaching in the afternoon and I teach in the mornings 4 hours each. The candidates are all tradespeople who have found positions in regional Australia and are sitting their IELTS test to get their working visas. They think its very unfair of the Oz Gov to put the IELTS up to 5.0 not like the previous Gov who only made them have 4.5.

The school is starting to shape up … we’ve gone from having everything on the front desk ie: all computers and printers, the scanner, all books and stationery … to getting distributed throughout the school. A computer in the staff room and stuff in the class rooms. I don’t know what they thought we were going to do in the staff room without any computer or books.

Our living quarters are adequate and clean. We have a very big bedroom and a small sitting room with a kitchen and bathroom over the hall … the school is quite a big building and after the students leave at 5.30 we have the place to ourselves until the next morning when the receptionist arrives at 7.45 and the students at 8. From our room there are 5 locked doors between us and the street so it is quiet and very safe.

Our receptionist …. Snow (who has the blackest hair … as in calling redheads - Blue) … went down to a local restaurant and got a copy of there menu and translated it into English. It’s an Australian beef steak restaurant … she thought we like beef because I have a cow on my handbag!!!! Perfectly logical. For two steaks (minute size) with chips and salad and drinks it costs us about $8 Aus … things a very cheap. We went into Saigon Q1 yesterday (about 15 min by bike) to do some shopping and decided it was expensive in town and rushed back to the burbs.

We seem to be able to find most things we need … we play charades a lot … and many of the women my age and a little older speak basic English with an American accent. Some of the children just stand and watch you for about 15 minutes and then suddenly say “Hello … how are you” and when your reply with “fine thank you … how are you” they say “I’m well” and then skip away very pleased with themselves. Having used there English lessons.

So lots of love and positive thoughts to you all.

All the best for now.

Louise & Ric

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