2010 is over

My Xmas went well, spent the whole day cleaning the house (not fun) and had friends come over for dinner: We jammed on music, drank all the alcohol that existed in the house, and danced all night.

Xmas dinner

On December 27th, I flew out of Hanoi and went to Bangkok, Thailand to meet an old housemate Tom, from England. It was so hot! So good to be in a tropic weather again. The whole day was spent shopping, shopping, shopping. I appreciate Tom handling the girlishness with me while I tried on clothes. That night we went out to the seedy bars of Bangkok; Nana, and a couple of other areas. Let's just say I saw bananas, needles, ping pongs, and other stuff that I couldn't manage a woman can actually shoot out from her pootang.

Next day (hungover), flew out of Bangkok, and into Phuket. I shared a taxi to Phuket town with a french guy named Cedric. He was on vacation visiting a girl friend. After that long ride I got to the hostel, and went out to dinner with my friend from Hanoi, Ashley (also an American English teacher). I went out with her and her friends and then my friends Vikki and Chris, arrived later at the restaurant. Vikki and Chris are friends from England. I met Vikki here in Hanoi and he came to travel with us. Anyways, after dinner we all went out for drinks and had a nice mellow evening.

Next morning, another friend from Hanoi, Vaughan (England) arrived. The whole crew is here! We had lunch and went straight to the pier and caught a ferry to Koh Phi Phi. We got into our beautiful bungalows in the middle of the mountains, and then went to town. We began with BBQ kebabs and buckets. Buckets is a child's sand pail filled with Coke, Sprite, Red Bull, mixed with Vodka and/or Thai Rum that tastes like Whisky. I'm not use to drinking a lot of sweet with hard alcohol, I'm a Beer or Vodka/Tonic person. So yeah, I puked, in a good way, I had fun!

Buckin'

We had a day where we went snorkeling, saw no sharks, cliff jumping, and beach bumming. The weather most of the time was cloudy, but good thing it got sunnier on our last 2 days.

hi!

NYE, we were preparing ourselves: Nap, ate carbs for dinner (to absorb the alcohol), drinking lightly before buckets. Okay, the party started when I found a hot chick for Chris, I met a Finnish girl in the bathroom and brought her over to Chris for eye candy, didn't last long, she was too beautiful for him. Ha! We finished our drinks and headed to the beach, we ordered more drinks and buckets and waited for the countdown. The beach was packed with sexual-raging backpackers, great energy and good music. At the end (5 a.m), I was more sober than anyone else, I took care of drunk Chris and brought him back to our bungalow safely.

Overall, it was a chill week for me. I wanted to do absolutely nothing, other than shopping and eating everything that was in front of me! Now I'm back to bitter cold Hanoi and I must say that I'm glad to be back. I was okay with having a short time in Thailand, because it was a vacation from my vacation. It's all good. Let's hope 2011 will be another good year for me.

Christmas in Vietnam

Not sure what I will do for Christmas here in Hanoi. I'm not a Christmas person anymore, but doesn't matter, all I know is that this years Christmas will be WAY better than last years Christmas in Bangladesh! (edited)

Every Tuesday, my class of 8-9 year olds gather upstairs to our classroom and wait while I'm downstairs preparing lessons. Whenever I'd walk up the stairs I could hear them whisper and giggle, as soon as I'd reach to the classroom the lights would be off, I'd open the door in complete darkness and they'd all scream and roar, trying to scare me. Every week they do this.

Yesterday, I brought my camcorder to capture it this time. Routinely, I'd walk up the stairs with my camera ready, I heard the whispers and giggles, and I got to the door. The lights were off but then flickered back on. I opened the door and...well check it out.

awwwwww, they totally surprised me.

Merry Christmas everyone! And Happy New year, miss you all!

Someday...

I will disappear and chill on a mountain top. No teaching, no work, no art, just me. Thinking about what else to accomplish in my life.

Thanks Brian.

They're all growns up

I've been teaching English at E-Talents for about 5 months. I have already noticed my 8 year- old students growing. I swear that they have all grown at least 1 or 2 inches this summer, or maybe they got fatter, can't tell. But they look so different! Feels like I gave birth to them or something, when I look at them writing in their workbooks, I get all emotional and happy watching them grow and learning. *gush*

My other classes are the toughest, they're way too talkative, but good kids. They take out so much energy from me that I'm extremely exhausted when the day is over.

Another teacher substituted for one of my classes, the 16 year olds. I told her before that she needed to separate the boys and girls seating arrangements, or else they won't pay attention and talk the whole time. Apparently the kids took full advantage that she was a substitute and didn't listen to her. They would NEVER disobey me if I was there. I try hard to be the cool teacher, but when I need to be strict, I am STRICT. Really, it's all about repeating yourself slowly and using intense eye contact. If a boy refuses to move chairs cause he's distracting other students, I'd say "MOOOOOVE." He quickly moves without hesitation. I think to myself "Hah! Yeah, you better." It even works when I'm 5 meters away. Power in the eyes!

The substitute also mentioned that a boy forgot his workbook after class, and when she was searching for its name written inside, she saw scribbles that said "I ♥ Stephania." That could only be me. We still don't know who the owner of the workbook is but I can guess which kid it might be. One boy in particular, Tung. On my first day, I walked into class, he looked at me and said "Oh my god," all the kids were laughing. Since then he'd dress nicer each week; a tie, a collared shirt, or smooth hair. Good thing I don't know all the slangs in Vietnamese, cause most of the time during class, a boy would mutter something, the whole class laughs and looks at me if I understood. Yeah, good thing I don't know what they're saying.

I had to give up my volunteer teaching at the high school in Thact That district. I just don't have any time and energy to travel there. I'm already so busy with teaching English in Hanoi, working at the NGO, and freelance design. Sometimes I can't believe how much work I've agreed to do, thinking that I can actually do them. I feel very guilty because my time there was rewarding, but it was my lowest priority, the school was too far away and during an inconvenient schedule. Either way, I made a positive choice to focus on what I'm doing now; I'm saving money and building more experience.

I can't believe it's December already, time goes by quick. Soon it will be my 9th month in Vietnam. Anyways, Thailand for New Years 2011!! It's all about the beach, tanning, shopping, and relaxing. I had a busy year, I deserve this.

Things my students say...

Class lesson: Make a sentence by using Never, Always, Usually, and Sometimes.

1. I never eat people

2. I sometimes bath

3. I never eat a turtle

4. I never eat grass

5. I usually eat salad

6. I sometimes listen to my mom

7. I always go back to sleep when my mom scolds at me in the morning

8. I sometimes think

9. I always hit my brother

Class lesson: If I could meet anyone in the world, I'd meet...

1. Michael Jackson

2. Albert Einstein

3. Big Bang (korean pop group)

If I could live anywhere in the world, I'd live in...

1. The White House

If I was rich, I'd buy...

1. An airplane

2. Ferrari

3. Lamborghini

4. A sexy girl

5. A rocket

6. Jupiter

7. A sexy girl INSIDE a Ferrari

Rice wine in a village...yum

I've been living in Vietnam for 8 months now. I'm surprised that I'm not anxious or getting itchy feet to move to another country. I'm still loving it here. I was still tired and worn out for 4 days since my birthday weekend. All in all, just been so busy with work and freelance design.

I like how my design job at EMW allows me to explore Vietnam. I took on a new challenge to lead a project where we research hand-made materials in Vietnam, and then producing our own products to fundraise for our organization.

Over the weekend I went to Hoa Binh, 3-4 hours from Hanoi. Hoa Binh is a Thai ethnic village that specializes in making textile fabrics. They don't live in houses, they live in nha sans, wooden houses on stilts. I've always wanted to stay in these when I first learnt about them in my early days arriving in Vietnam. I woke up Saturday morning at 4am (ugh) and rode my motorbike to my colleague's house. From there we got a ride to the bus station and got to Hoa Binh around 10:30am. Mountains! Cows! Dogs! Chickens! Cow shit everywhere! So nice to be in a village again!

Country people are different from city people. In Hanoi I get stared at often, maybe they're curious if I'm Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and I get the same stare when wearing a dress even! I don't like people staring at me, so many days I wear sun glasses or my hat. But in this village, no one cared how I looked or dressed. It felt like I was one of them, no one stared at me funny, regardless of me wearing Converse Chucks and a jacket with faux-fur hoodie.

Thai family invited us for a traditional Thai performance at their nha san.

For lunch, dinner, and breakfast. Rice wine was served. Rice wine tastes like vodka and is very light. I like vodka. Vodka is like water to me. I drank a lot over the weekend! Our first meal, the landlord lady brought out the rice wine (my eyes lit, I couldn't stop staring at it, wondering when someone was going to open it) and THEN she poured 4 cups for people who wanted it. We all cheered "Chuc Suc Khoe" which means "Get Well". WELL...I'm use to drinking the entire shot when I'm served a shot cup...I was the only one that drank the whole thing. When I finished, I put my cup down and everyone was staring at me, then looked away and continued eating in silence. Sometimes I think if it isn't good to show interest in drinking alcohol cause I'm a woman (being in Asia, lack of respect for female independence blah blah) but I haven't received any negative vibes from anyone. One Vietnamese woman there said she liked the way I act. I asked her 'cause I like rice wine?' she said 'yeah!' ...alright then! At the end they said they liked how I'm open to their customs and that I enjoy drinking with them, everyone's happy.

Speaking of itchy feet, while I was in Hoa Binh, I was itching to go back to Hanoi. Hanoi is my home and where I feel comfortable. I know I am attached to Hanoi, just like I was to Nepal. I've been asked so many times how long I plan to stay in Hanoi, and I always say "My contract expires next June. Then I have no idea."

Blogging what I remember on my Birthday

My 8 year old student asked me how old I was. I said 27, then he said "Oh, that's young." Then I said "my birthday is tomorrow," he said "Oh...28...that's old."

Yes that's right, I'm 28 now. I was 26 when I left America. Last year's birthday was in Dharamsala, India. I wanted a mellow get together for my birthday this year but my friends' persuaded me to have a party at their house. Last week my friend Vikki and I went costume shopping, I must say there wasn't a good selection. I didn't have time to tailor my own outfit. So I had no clue. Then I saw it...floating on a coat hanger, a little boys' Superman costume. I thought to myself 'Can I fit into that?' I grabbed it and took off my jacket, and the store lady screamed at me to not put it on, she snatched the costume from hands and re-hung on. FINE!! Don't take my money then, I'll just walk to another store. The second store lady was MUCH nicer, she and her grandmother were laughing at me when I wanted to try it on, the lady couldn't hold her laughter in when she tried to tell me it was for children. The shirt was a bit tight bu do-able, but I wasn't going to attempt to try on the leggings. So I bought the costume anyway. I tried on the leggings when I got home, it wouldn't go past my knees. I used the waistline as a headband and made socks.

Friday night, about 40-50 people came. Everyone dressed up! At least tried to and I appreciate the effort people went through. I drank tons of beer and coconut rice wine. Then the chocolate cake came out...and then I went mental! People said I started the food fight, but I don't think I did...maybe I did, but when it did start I just went on a chocolate smearing rampage. Chocolate in my eyes, my ear, back of knees, my hair was dreaded in chocolate mousse. I washed my hair 2 times, it still stank of rancid milk and was super oily cause of the mousse.

The next morning...hangover! Went back to bed to sleep it off and woke up around 2pm. Had lunch and met up with my friends to clean the house. I opened the roof door to await the mess, it looked pretty bad, but in a good way...cause then you know it was a good party! There were so many paper cups, beer cans, wine bottles, and random pieces of peoples' costumes...fuzzballs, head bands, bats, safety pins.

I found out that day that my great-grandmother wasn't feeling well. She's 103. I don't think I will get to see her. I hope my dad and grandmother are okay.

TaiLau