updates.

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn festival. I know its a holiday for the children, and thats about all I know. I got two gifts - 1) a box of moon cakes. It was a really nice gift, but this is my least favorite thing in Vietnam. Think beans-and-meat-cake. 2) A bag of pasta, a bag of sugar, and a can of condensed milk. The other foreign teachers got this is well. We do not know what to do with it. 

Thi-Bay (another foreign English teacher) and I went last week to help some of the kids make lanterns. This was my favorite.

My roommates left today! I moved upstairs to the best room in the house and I'm very happy about it. Its brighter, bigger, everything about it is better and I've finally started decorating. I hope people move in, this house is too big to be alone in! Three more people are leaving these next two weeks, its weird. I really hope more foreigners come! I don't know how An does it! Constantly meeting new people is great, but when they leave, its a pretty permanent thing. 

An finished her final exams for school so she's done! And it was her birthday! So we've been celebrating An a lot. Which is okay, because she deserves it!!  We are going to Hanoi and Sapa Valley at the end of the month and I can't wait! I'm ready to travel. 

Pulling my life together for after this. There are quite a few ideas going through my head but once they get sorted out I'll fill you in. I'm also taking a survey of where I should move, if you'd like to contribute. But I do have it narrowed down to the top three, which you probably know.

People have been saying really random things to me lately through im's and email. (I've been stealing a good amount of free internet, I've apparently found the sweet spot in the apartment.) I would like to share some of them with you:

1) Hold on I have to Call Canada.

2) I'm going snorkeling, but I'll be in touch with you soon.

3) I'm going to walk a labyrinth tonight, I'll write more tomorrow.

You're all crazy, but I love you anyway. And I would like to add that Michelle and Chris are doing a really great job at making me laugh, but some things can't be posted for public view. 

I'm starting to teach a pronunciation class this week for first year students. I have no idea how to teach pronunciation, nor do I have experience teaching first year students who haven't practiced speaking at all, let alone with a foreigner who speaks too fast. (I'm working on it..) So I'm nervous about this. Luckily, I somehow scheduled presentations for my other classes for this week, so I must have known that I would need a break with doing course work. I've also corrected my first written assignments. I was warned that the kids have a small problem with plagiarism, but I have two big problems. One I googled and found the entire paper online - word for word. The other one I haven't found yet, but the vocabulary is at a higher level then mine, and I know something is wrong but I haven't figured out what it is yet. It is really frustrating. I definitely already have a higher respect for teachers in a lot of ways that you just don't think of as a student. My favorite thing is when I ask a question and everyone looks down at their paper like they are reading or writing something. I totally did that in class. But it is SO obvious. It is also funny how much you can see. I played a lot of sudoku in my college career, and I thought I was pretty good at hiding it, but its amazing how much you can see as a teacher..

I just finished reading The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama, and a guy who interviewed him. If you are interested in the basics of Buddhism, this could be a good book. I found it very boring and hard to get through, but maybe that means I'm still content? I can't say I don't recommend it, but its a very beginners guide to Buddism principles.

If you are unfamiliar with the soundtrack from Once, listen to it. They are amazing.