Fun and Games

Heya Folks,
I decided on a personal resolution this week to take my camera out of the house more and actually photograph all those weird and wonderful parts of my Hanoi life which I take for granted. For reasons of blogging, and because I only have a paltry 10 days left in the city (next week I'm in HCMC and Cambodia). Here is part one of my photography efforts....last lessons in a few of my kindergartens.
This one is Kindergarten 2010 on Tho Nhuom street, a brand new school in the Vietedutech program. To be involved in the very beginning has been just awesome and the teacher, Ms Trang, was by far my favourite to work with.

And here is Hoa Hong Kindergarten in Dong Da district, in my opinion the best school in the program. All the teachers and supervisors help to really get the kids involved in the lesson, and the English ability of the students is noticeably better for that.

I'll be MIA on the blog next week, as tonight I'm heading down to Saigon to celebrate a birthday weekend. I'm sticking around for a few days longer and then heading over to Cambodia and a rendezvous with my namesake in Phnom Penh. Watch this Space!!!

SarahHeadsEast xx

The Best Kind of People

Heya Folks,
Probably not making the news in the west, but there are some pretty serious floods in central Vietnam going on at the minute, particularly in Ha Tinh, Nghe An and Quang Binh provinces. Current estimates are that some 200,000 houses have been swept away, 142,000 people have been displaced and upwards of 50 people killed. I'm hearing from my NGO-worker friends that 100% of crops in Ha Tinh have been destroyed.
As you can well imagine, everybody in Hanoi is mobilising towards the relief effort. I spent yesterday evening with a few Vietnamese friends bagging up donations to be sent to the central provinces this weekend. This included clothes, food and soap, and the mountain of donations more than covered the hallway of my friends' house and spilled onto the street, with more arriving all the time.

Far too busy to take photographs, suffice it to say that it was a worthwhile few hours when I couldn't help but smile at how compassionate, caring, earnest and hardworking my Vietnamese friends are. I know the best kind of people.

SarahHeadsEast xx

Hanoi Boogie

This one defies explanation. Except to say that

a) EFL teachers have alot of free time
b) This Is Hanoi

SarahHeadsEast xx

I Love Hanoi

Heya Folks,

A mixed-bag reaction to last weekend's 1000yr birthday celebrations in Hanoi. After such an electric build-up, we were expecting sunday to be one long day of parties and Craziness. In true Hanoian style, it was not to be. As with many things here, the celebrations looked GREAT on paper; a colourful parade on Ba Dinh square in the morning and then a dramatic fireworks display at My Dinh stadium in the evening. The TV reports did look truly spectacular.

I got up early on sunday and tried to make my way to watch the parade, but found all the roads surrounding me were blocked off....I was essentially trapped until it was all over. Despite not seeing the parade, the chance to walk down the middle of a deserted road normally chockka with traffic was truly surreal and well-worth the early start.
Here's our own, quirky, take on the festival celebrations the evening before. The T-shirts were standard fare that night, and to-be-indulged-in.

The other reason for the slightly toned-down nature of the celebrations was this (click here) It's actually a little strange but I went to My Dinh stadium exactly a week to the day before this happened to have a peak at the rehearsals for the 10/10/10 performance. I even chatted to the group of German pyrotechnic experts flown in from Singapore to set up the fireworks display. I remember thinking how wonderful it was that these guys were doing what they loved AND traveling the world AND getting paid for it.

Because they were later tragically caught up in the explosion, and because I want to carry through on my whole global-awareness-through-blogging thing, I thought it worthy of inclusion on this week's entry.

SarahHeadsEast xx

Thăng Long

Heya Folks,
I'm blogging from a WiFi cafe again. Don't blame me, it's my new laptop. It demands to be taken out and take its rightful place amongst the expats tapping away in Jomas. It's slimline, light, suave and stylish, it screams 'Citizen Of The World!'. I love it.
The excitement in Hanoi in preparation for the weekend celebrations has now reached fever pitch. Apart from the loss of wages caused by traffic jams and cancelled classes (currently running at $50), I am so happy to be in Hanoi right now. The electric charge of the atmosphere is positively humming along the chaotic streets. I love that this is a celebration most definitely Not For The Tourists, with the souvenir T-shirts, ribbons and flags being sold for real prices to Vietnamese partygoers.
With Hanoi's brash and rapid expansion, it's sometimes easy to forget that this celebration has been 10 centuries in the making, and there are a whole host of chapters of Hanoi's history that deserve to be remembered and celebrated this weekend. I came across a photo exhibition in the park across from the Temple of Literature the other day, and adored the old postcard images of Hanoi's past. Here are my faves:

Because I never have a raincoat...Because it's the market without the Crazy...Because bicycles did rule once...Because it's the bridge without the tourists...

And Because it's just Awesome Hanoi...

SarahHeadsEast xx

City of the Soaring Dragon

This month is simultaneously the best and worst time to be in Hanoi. In merely a week's time, the city will celebrate 1000 years as the capital of Vietnam, ever since Emperor Ly Thai To declared the movement of the capital in 1010 (ah, I remember it well...). All of this means that there are beautiful lights and lanterns around the lakes and streets, statues, banners, posters, open-air stages and other sorts of primping and preening of Hanoi's party frock in preparation for this momentous event.
The countdown clock which has been placed next to Hoan Kiem Lake stoically working up everybody's excitement for the last 993 days is now perilously close to the end. I remember spying this clock first on a trip through northern Vietnam and Laos in January 2009, and thinking what a nice thing it would be to actually be in Hanoi for the celebration. How lucky I am to be here now and how good then that I made good on my word...
I can forgive the extreme traffic congestion that has been the 'Hanoi Crazy' over the past week. It makes traveling anywhere in the city challenging-to-impossible. On these occasions I've abandoned my bicycle in favour of walking to work and thus slowing down to completely soak up the excitement. I dont care about the 'Crazy'. I love the 'Crazy'. The 'Crazy' is Hanoi As She Is. There's a palpable electricity in the city right now and I cant help but feel incredibly lucky that I'm here right now to plug into it all.
SarahHeadsEast xx

Chúc Mừng Hạnh Phúc

Happy October Everybody!

This morning I had one of those 'Strange the places...' moments when I found myself at a Vietnamese wedding! And what a fantastically surreal occasion it was too. I was so happy to be invited along to celebrate with the bride and groom (probably not called 'bride' and 'groom') Huyen and Phu.Many of the standard themes of western weddings were observed.....lots of people, lots of toasts, lots of food and lots of photographs!
And some not-so-standard themes, such as the rule that one could never take a photograph with only 3 people in it?!?! Maybe a superstition about future bachelordom or spinsterism?
Anyway here is a photograph of Huyen and Phu, who were All Smiles for the whole day, and myself and Ashton. Yes I am wearing an Ao Dai. I'm practically Hanoian now...

SarahHeadsEast xx