All change

I tried to write this when I got in last night but fell asleep in the process. My laptop was left on the floor next to the bed, still turned on, and apparently during the night an army of ants believed they had found a warm new city, and moved in. So I have spent the last 15 minutes playing a deadly kind of Whack-A-Mole, each time one pops up from between the keys. Now there seems to be less of them, but I'm sure if that's because they heard reports of the mass genocide taking place above, and they're all hiding out below, quaking.

Now back to my story. Lots of things have changed in the last couple of days, so this post might be long. I will try to intersperse it with photos for those of my friends who prefer their books to have pictures.


I started the new job and it's going really well. All the kids seem cool and a class of 26 isn't as hard to manage as I thought would be. Or at least they were well-behaved in the first lesson. Yesterday morning 3 girls made me cards. They asked me what my favourite animal is and I said "pigs" (as I'm not sure whether 7 year olds know "squid" yet). So the cards have smiley pigs on and say things like "Love Laura".

i swear i didn't set this as an activity

A class on Wednesday afternoon was totally weird. Basically for my new job I am teaching a syllabus and exams set by Cambridge, and so my company is creaming themselves over the fact that I went to Cambridge. I think perhaps they think I did these exams myself, or that I was trained to teach them or something, when in fact the only transferable skills I learned at Cambridge was how to lock myself in a room and not interact with anyone for hours on end. At this school on Wednesday afternoon, I got to have green tea with the principal and some other important people. The principal told me he didn't speak much English but he spoke French. I lied to look clever and told him I spoke "un petit peu de francais". After that he was chatting away to me in French and I didn't understand anything. Then we went to this ceremony before the class started, where people made speeches and there were tablecloths and flowers, and I could hear them saying "Laura....Cambridge...nuoc Anh (England)....Cambridge....(lots of applause)", and I had to hand out welcome letters to all the students starting the course, and there was more applause. I felt like yelling "No! You've got it all wrong! I am a completely inexperienced and sometimes lazy or hungover teacher! Don't be happy that I am here!" But whatever, if it makes them happy to believe it then they can carry on.

I still totally don't know what to do about the fact that I already have a job. This week I have been doing both, and it has been OK and manageable, but at the same time I've been doing 14-hour days and haven't had a day off in 2 weeks, and I just can't really be bothered. So do I try to negotiate something, and carry on working a few hours at both? I am so clueless about the way these things work. Or do I just quit my old job, after I get paid tomorrow, and never come back? The prospect of getting this weekend off seems appealing, but that would make it really hard for my boss to find cover, and plus I would never be able to go back to Apollo. I would miss the 5 year old who used to growl whenever I asked him a question but now is my friend, and was so so so happy with the crown he made yesterday.

some kind of celebration for 1000 years of Hanoi - pretty much as good as live music gets in Hanoi

Other changes: I moved out of my old house yesterday, which is a sad thing. I don't move into my new one until Monday, so I'm staying in my friend's room at the moment, while he's away in Saigon. It's nice having a mattress and a kitchen.

The reasons why I had to move are complicated - firstly the landlady at the old place was starting to breathe down Thoa's neck, because I wasn't registered to live there and it was only supposed to be Vietnamese. Thoa had been telling her that I was just a friend staying for a few days, not paying rent, but the police are getting more stringent because of the big 1000 years' celebration in Hanoi at the moment, and I don't think she was happy lying. Secondly, Thoa found out that her old roommate/best friend, who has been visiting Saigon for the last month, is not coming back to Hanoi to live with her again. So Thoa's moving out, which means I have to as well. I actually just wrote a load more stuff about the second reason but deleted it because it's not really public blog material.

Anyway, here are some soon-to-be-nostalgic photos of my old house:

my old house

my old street - this was mid-afternoon so minus all the happy noodle-eaters that line the wall in the evening

Last night I went out for dinner with two Japanese businessmen. It was really fun but pretty much as weird as it sounds. We talked about food and binge-drinking culture and old age and mountain biking. I learned to say (although not spell) 'Oishi' which means good. I also learned how to say 'Sake' properly.

there kept being more and more courses, it was amazing

did you know that this is an American thing, no one eats food like this in Japan

this is one of the guys' private bottle of alcohol - they store it for him and get it out each time he comes back, which means he doesn't have to drink a whole bottle each time, which makes a lot of sense

i totally partook in the 'eco-wash', it gave me the giggles

I think I have gone on for long enough now. For some reason my laptop doesn't let me reply to comments so Goob - Hanoi is cloudy probably 70% of the time, but it's more smog than mist. When you visit we can adventure to the mountains and frolic in the fresh air. And Daddy - congratulations on your pun, you must be very proud.


I had to edit this to include a link to the European Beard and Moustache Championships. Absolutely epic.