Quick Update!

The blog is back by popular demand.  I’ve had something north of four requests for a blog post so I’m feeling reenergized! Either that or I’m feeling great after just finishing up the two week pre-school Christmas camp. The Korean pre-school Libby had been teaching for the past month had a two-week Christmas camp and was in need of an additional teacher. Of course before I knew it, I had been volunteered to fill that position. After Libby showed her a picture of my face (thank god I don’t have a “scary face” –at least according to Ms. Shim), I was in. I never thought I would have been so intimidated stepping into a classroom full of 2, 3, and 4 year old Korean babies, but they are a hard lot to please. I probably learned a lot more than I taught in the past two weeks. Mainly, my ability to sing AND do attached hand motions to what I before had thought of as humiliating songs increased exponentially. I developed a “pre-school” voice-extremely loud and incredibly slow. It was a fulfilling experience, halfway through I even thought they were all cute. By the end, some of their “toddlerness” started wearing on me and I’m just glad it’s over-mainly them learning they could say no to me. With two days to go, my two bad kids were being super difficult and I was venting to Libby about them on the moto-ride home….The venting included a lot of expletives and Libby was like, she’s four years old. I told her I didn’t care. We got paid in 100 dollar bills so it was all good.

Christmas here was OK. We had a Grade-A buffet on Christmas Eve which was by far and away the most decked out buffet either of us had ever seen. It was almost overwhelming...almost. Free flowing champagne, brandy eggnog and mulled wine. Pretty much all the bases were covered on the seafood and meat section. Solid cheese, salad, desert (chocolate fountain, ice cream stand), this place literally had it all. We stayed until it was too uncomfortable for us to sit in a seat any longer. We had walked to the buffet but walking back was simply impossible so we took a cab. I don’t think either of us ate the entire next day-Christmas day. Christmas was very uneventful, we had to work at the preschool, and Libby worked at VUS that night.  Honestly, we should have done the buffet on Christmas day, because it made Christmas Eve so amazing that Christmas Day was bound to be sort of a letdown. Christmas day just sort of turned into a day of digestion, and not much more. Oh well, right now we’re in our prime money-saving season, as well as on the money-saving homestretch. New Year’s Eve was more of the same, nothing special. We hung out with a group of Aussies which was fun, first time ever hanging out with a group of them, so it was a fun first experience.

Before I forget, Libby was in a wedding last weekend. She was technically a bridesmaid. I’ll let her talk about it. She slept over with the bride on the night before the wedding. I had to work both days otherwise I think they would have made me been a groomsman. She said she felt like she was in middle school at the sleepover and there were like 5 girls who all slept on the same bed that night.

We are on the homestretch of teaching right now. As of now we only have 4 weeks of teaching left. Around October when I had a handful of nightmare classes I was honestly asking myself if I could actually continue on for a few more months. At this point teaching is quickly becoming a point in repetition. I still stand by my assertion that a good class makes teaching fun and a bad class makes teaching a nightmare. I’m not sure I’ll be sad when I finish teaching, but I might miss it now and then in the future. That’s not super important though because once we finish teaching we get to go on the greatest trip of our lives. A 14 week trip tentatively dubbed Le’Expedicion. Once we actually get underway with Le’Expedicion I expect the blog to really grow into its wings and take off…primarily due to the limitless amount of awesomeness that I’ll be able to talk about. I will continue to fill in the itinerary details as they get nailed down. But here’s the itinerary/highlights(bolded) in its roughest form.

I.                    7-10 day motorbike tour of the Vietnamese Delta

II.                  Ferry to Phu Quoc-7 days on the beach

a.       We may cut the time period of I and II and spend some time camping and hiking in Laos

III.                4 days in Bangkok

IV.                14 days in Burma (Myanmar)-Hot air balloon ride over the thousand temples of Bagan

V.                  Sapa, Hanoi, Halong Bay (1 week) with my family

VI.                Central/Southern Vietnam (1 week) with my family (too bad Libby’s parents don’t love her as much to come visit)

VII.              Malaysian Grand Prix

VIII.            Indonesia (Diving in Raja Ampat-considered to have the highest marine biodiversity in the world)

IX.                Palawan- Voted by Conde Nast’s readers to be the number 1 Island in the world

X.                  Laos (if not done previous)

XI.                Thailand

XII.              Back to HCMC for about two days to visit the Korean spa and say goodbye