Day 28 - Friday

I cannot really believe I have made it to the end of the month already!  Sure enough, I was taken up to the principal's office for a farewell tea at Thang Cong B mid-morning, where Ms Yen chattered on in vietnamese. It was lovely and flattering, with cake, boiled corn cob (yum), lychees and jasmine tea.  I was given presents: tea, coffee and a dress (which I must now try hard to fit into!) and my email was taken for future ref. I was told the principal's daughter attended one of my classes and liked it so that was a relief! Apparently the children found my teaching quite encouraging.

It climbed to 37degrees today. After classes Giang took me out for Pho. We went off on the bus in the opposite direction to usual and made our way to a mid-range price kerbside cafe. 30k VND ($1.5) for a large bowl of ribbon noodles, meat, tofu and soup in a separate bowl, with soya milk to drink. It was very hot and sticky but extremely interesting and Giang was pleasant company. She told me about the bicycle radio-news sellers, who often cycle past with radios blaring announcements. Not political after all, they are merely selling the news! They make recordings too if you ask.

Boiling hot, I stopped by the Projects Abroad Vietnam office on the way home to check out.  Also went into the Old Quarter to pick up my tailoring (I have a lovely, cool, new pair of cotton and silk 'pantaloons' - what I'm calling them!) and have a last wander and an iced coffee.

Friday evening, after a dinner made specially by Tuyet for me of Com Ga Hoi An, I went out with Nina, Orlaith and Catherine. Nina had suggested trying to find a nice bar on Nui Truc ( the street I walk along every morning to the bus) so we wandered about a bit - some places are really smelly - and then I spotted a place that looked interesting, " Z Bar "  behind a black frontage! It turned out it was indeed nice inside and even had live music!  We had mocktails, which you can get easily here. I had a raspberry and soda thing that was refreshing. Managed to catch a bit of day 5 of Wimbledon before bed.