Phan Thiet Catch up

I can`t believe that I haven`t blogged in over 4 months. I stopped initially as my life had settled into a rhythm and it didn`t seem as exciting as when I was travelling. So I guess I felt that I really didn`t have much to say and as to what I am actually doing on Monday to Friday that is essentially true. However weekends are a different matter and I am always seeing stuff that I don`t want to forget. For example I was having coffee on Christmas morning at the Binh Minh hotel and I saw a cyclo taxi guy with 12 cases of champagne in his cart, delivering to the hotel. Very cool. Anyway I am going to recap the past few months and then try to keep this up to date.
I started full time work on the 2nd August and after that I only saw Trevor and Minh once more in Phan Thiet. They have moved to Saigon and got married. We haven`t really stayed in touch, I don`t know what Trevor thinks of me staying with APC. Apc may not be prefect but I have received everything I was promised and I get on well with the general manager Mr Huan. So I spent most of August by myself which wasn`t nearly as sad as it sounds. My days were spent in school and/or on Le Loi, the street where I live. I tried new restaurants, drank coffee at the motorcycle cafe with my Vietnamese family and generally hung out. I spent one afternoon on the beach and got bitten about 70 times by these small black mites. The bites at first looked like measles but then changed and became blisters. After that the blisters hardened and I was able to get rid of them, that I`ll teach me to lie on my local beach. Not attractive. I met Phan, the daughter of the owner of the motorcycle cafe and we hung out a little as she likes to practice her English. One of her grandfathers lives in Saigon and we met when he came to stay. He invited me to go to church with him, so I did. I didn`t know this but Le Loi is one of the Catholic centres of Phan Thiet and because I wear a cross everyone thinks that I am a Catholic too. I feel a little guilty about this as everyone knows my comings and goings as at the time I was the only white woman in the city, so they knew that I hadn`t been going to church. The church service was interesting and not wildly different from the services I had attended as a child in England. Although the congregation is segregated along gender lines. And the church was full, I am sure that there are a lot of priests in England who would like to have such great church attendance.
Anna, one of the two other APC teachers arrived in the last week of August on a Monday, which was my busiest day so I wasn`t able to meet her. We had been in email contact before her arrival so I suggested that she hang out with Grant and we would meet after I finished my classes that night. And so started a pattern of drinking beer on the stoop of our hotel. Although to be fair we pretty much drink everywhere. I have found it really hard to say no to beer when it is cheaper than water. On Anna`s first Wednesday we went to Mui Ne together. We went to the fairy spring and wandered around some of the sand dunes and then walked about 4kms back into the centre of Mui Ne reosrt. I had an early night that day! On the last Sunday in August Jeremy arrived in Phan Thiet with the third teaacher, Denise. She is actually the vice~prinicpal of the international program so I guess technically she is my boss. I had to go back to the office to meet Jeremy, I was not terribly impressed by this.
The next day all three of us were in school and I had to teach a class. I think that is one thing I may never get used to here, the constant last minute arrangements. You try to be prepared but I still get surprised.
At the beginning of September we had a day off so the 3 of us went to Mui Ne, it was not a success. It rained all day so we didn`t even get near to the beach. Considering I live right next to a beach it is incredile how rarely I swim. This is in part due to the fact I was badly stung by a jellyfish and so am very wary about swimming now. I have since found out that you shouldn`t swim at dusk, which is when I got stung. Unfortunately this was the exact time of day when I went swimming the most as I am too lazy to go before work. I start work at 7am and so already get up at 6am, I am not sure I can get up any earlier. The three of us have been looking at houses, I want to have space to invite people and Denise wants to have her own kitchen. I have to be honest I don`t really miss not having a kitchen and it is so cheap to eat out here the cost of food is not an issue. Although we were invited to dinner but the parents of one of our students and it was nice to sit down to dinner in a house, it was very relaxing.