Phan Thiet Catch up

The week following my trip to Nha Trang was necessarily quiet. I was exhausted and I don`t generally do much in the week anyway. I am very aware that I have to be in school at 7am and teaching most mornings at 07.30. I think my kids are great but I do need to be at the top of my game to teach a good lesson. One of kids Bear now shouts out "Be quiet NOW!", I wonder where he picked that up from. Some days I feel as if I have hardly any control over my class and that I am a bad teacher because I do raise my voice to my class. Jason,the vice-principal in Nha Trang school was due to come down to sit in on one our classes but unfortunately he was ill so his visit has been postponed. I feel as if I could do with the advice. I don`t feel as if I can turn to Denise,my vice-principal as this is only her second year teaching ESL and last year she taught college students. I don`t know what other,if any, teaching experience she has. I guess I should ask, but then that is symptomatic of my relationship with her. I don`t feel comfortable with her, don`t trust her judgement and so will not go to her for advice. Jeremy, the guy in the Saigon office has asked me for my opinion of her as a manager, which I gave.However there`s no point in getting het up about the situation. Denise will be in situ for this school year and what I can do is be proactive in ensuring that,if I stay, I am happier with the school situation next year. This is what I am trying to do.
Weekends are when I really enjoy life. Most Friday`s Anna and I will go to a coffee house and have our first beer of the weekend. We`ll follow this up with dinner and then maybe a visit to a nightclub. Phan Thiet has two that we frequent, MTV　and Bocano. Bocano is the better of the two as it is always busy but both are expensive and involve a crazy bicycle ride home. We don`t often keep late hours, but when we do, we do it in style. The last Saturday in November we had seafood and beer on the beach with Anna`s friend Vien. The first week in December Anna and I took over Grant`s ESL classes as he was on a visa run to Cambodia. It was only a few hours, but it was a bit of a shock to have to be in the classroom at 07.15 on a Sunday morning. The first weekend in December was more relaxing as I had absolutely no plans and kept it that way. Although saying that I am very aware that as I write this I am half way through my contract. The Tet holiday is only four weeks away and when I get back it will be February already. I must be getting old, I don`t know where the times goes!! There are still a few places that I want to visit and that all needs to be planned and fitted in. And then after Tet I want to sit down with Ms.My and Mr.Hoan and discuss next school year.
The second weekend in December started with dinner on Ba Ke, the seafood restaurant area of Phan Thiet. We went to a different restaurant to normal and it might have saved us. A bit further up the street,close to the restaurant we normally go to, a fight broke out. People were throwing bottles as well as punches. We saw one guy with glass shards in each of his hands. Anna and I hunkered down in the restaurant and then sat and waited until it was over. The police arrived fairly swiftly. The next morning we left the hotel early and cycled to Mui Ne. We got to our hotel but they didn't have a reservation for us, so we took the single room that they did have and went to get breakfast. breakfast wasn't great and so I wasn't in a very good mood as we set off to Mui Ne village. The bike ride went really well, we stopped for a coffee on the way and managed to get to the end of the peninsula. We've decided that we will stay at a resort near the village in May for our birthdays and then have dinner and stuff in the village. We spent a lazy afternoon at Sankara before going to Forest for dinner. The food was good but the menu didn't excite me. Anna and I were so tired that we were in bed by 10pm. Not very exciting. Sunday morning we had breakfast at our hotel, a quick drink at Sanakara and then we went to Sealinks. Anna hit a few balls and we had lunch in the clubhouse. Neither mine nor Anna's bicycle brakes were up to much and so we had to walk down the hill on the way back into town. We were walking past this house when we we're hailed by some people sat in the garden. So we joined the party and had a few beers. We finished the weekend off with coffee with Luyen, one of the receptionists at school. Anna and I have decided that we really don't like Mui Ne. Of course we'll still go there for western food, but other than that.