I had an excellent chat with Dad via Skype from the vast marble lobby of the Sheraton Hotel this evening. Had ventured over there for a swim and stayed to use the wifi. All blessings on international hotels, they are sometimes the only clean pools in town. Dad unwrapped my (green) Stormfly which arrived from China via Hong Kong while we were talking. I ate a biscuit while he opened it. Made the trip over to Ho Tay (West Lake) worth it (300,000 to use the pool for a day, 100,000 tea, 200,000 taxi total - $30). On the way I spied the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the swan shaped peddaloes and the Tran Quoc Pagoda - very pretty red brick pagoda surrounded by palms on the edge of the lake, especially pretty in the sunset on the way home. Definitely a nicer area, probably quite middle class.
Saw X-Men First Class while I ate the last Com Ga Hoi An and later spoke to Jamie on Skype via IM, all in all a very pleasant day!
Day 20 - Thurs - 37 degrees. The kids crowd round my desk when they say hello to me in the morning. No translator again today and for my most rowdy class too! One of the children, Linh, in the older class is new as she just returned from two years living in Australia. She is far too advanced for this class so I gave her the London sticker book to read. Received my present of "Fiona Teacher" drawing of clothes (we are doing clothing in class) today. Very touching and out of the blue! Not a clue what her name is!
Missed my bus stop in the rush hour crush! Tried vacuum fried [sic] lotus seeds. Attended Culture Workshop run by Tam which included a quiz. I did surprisingly well, thanks I think to attending the Water Puppet Theatre on Monday!
Snake Cafe (or rather village - it in the suburbs) is still a no go as its too expensive and everyone's mind is on the weekend, so we went to Fanny's instead for ice cream. I had a banana split this time - dark choc, passion fruit and vanilla, which was delicious. I much prefer ice cream to snake, which I know even having not yet tried it. ;) We walked back around Hoan Kiem and watched the Hanoiverians (my word) dance Dirty Dancing to 90s music. (I'm not sure the others even recognised the Dirty Dancing moves - all too long ago for them!)
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