Ms. Money Bags

i don't think i've ever blogged about the currency here in vietnam but it is time people. the currency here is called vietnam dong (go ahead - laugh!) and it is worth approx. 19 000 VND for 1 USD right now.

so, this means that coming to vietnam makes you a MILLIONAIRE! literally! at any given time i have over a million in my wallet and it's nothing out of the ordinary to go to the bank and take out 2 or 3 million. it's pretty exciting actually!

the reason i bring this up is that with art for action taking place yesterday and teachers still purchasing "the goods" i am carrying around MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dong. it's kind of scary to think of it. "i'm pretty much the most important person i know" (please catch the napolean dynamite reference there lol).

looking for adventure

i have to tell you. yesterday (for the first time this year) i rode on the back of kelly's motor scooter and we went all the way down town to district 1. i ride the bike everyday, but this was the furthest i have ever gone. it was super fun though! i was a little nervous i must admit. there are so many bikes on the road and my knees kinda stick out from the bike so it is a little scary. but it was fun. and way quicker than taking a taxi! anyway, i just wanted to tell you that because it was lots of fun and one of those little moments that remind me that i really do like it here! of course then we got home and had to shower cause we had sweaty hair from our helmets and smelt of exhaust...but it was worth it! and i wanted to share it with you!

Wawaites Reunite!

This past week, fellow Wawaite Whitney and her boyfriend Russell were staying with us. They are traveling through South East Asia and stopped for a few days as a vacation from their vacation. They have been backpacking and staying in hostels so they were very greatful for a clean bed, shower and place to do laundry. They also enjoyed some relaxation while watching movies, catching up on sleep and playing Wii! I was really happy to have them here and glad they felt comfortable here.

Anyway, although Whitney is a lot younger than me so I never really got to know her at home, it still felt like a piece of home was here. We were talking about it on her last night here and they were just great guests to have. We didn't have to do anything different or special, I didn't worry that they were not enjoying themselves or that they would get lost. I just let them do their thing and they enjoyed the comforts of our home. We went to work everyday and they did their thing during the day then we met back up for dinner everyday and enjoyed listening to stories about each others travels and all that fun stuff.

Now they are off to see the rest of Vietnam before they head for home on June 10.

Anyway, I guess it really is a small world as Wawaites Reunite in Vietnam!

oh bother

so, i am home. after a week in singapore, hong kong, and macau, i am home in saigon.
i got home, did laundry, caught up on my favourite blogs, checked out my facebook, read some emails, thought about eating dinner, and thought about calling my mom for mothers day. here are some realizations i had throughout this process:
1. i am an internet addict. i had many shows to download and many blogs to read (thanks linds!). and i missed it!! so what?! sue me!
2. it is stinking hot here. 45 degrees at 7:45 pm. the cool of hong kong is greatly missed.
3. i have lots to do this week. starting a new unit on space, get ready for final report cards, prepare for art for action, write a few post cards, prepare flat justin for his trip home, guests coming tomorrow for a few days, ay ay ay!!
4. and most importantly, i am a chicken. there is something in my bathroom. it is making chirping noises. i don't know where it is hiding and i don't know what it is. what i do know is that kelly is not home and i am scared! so i closed my bathroom door and decided i will be using kelly's bathroom and sleeping with earplugs tonight.

that's all for now. more updates to come. must go call my mom now and wish her a happy mother's day!

"and i'm going to miss you like a child misses their blanket..."

well, as you know, sean and christa were here for a visit, what you don't know is that i tried to kid nap them so that they couldn't leave but it didn't work :(. i really stand by my earlier statement that when i have visitors, i should get to decide when they leave! but for some reason, no one is following my new rule. apparently sean has this OPP thing to get back to and then has a trip planned across canada and the states. who would choose that over being here with me?! and then there's christa. something about that rock (newfoundland) that she lives on i tell ya...once you leave there, apparently it is not so easy to get back! she tried to change her flight but then she wouldn't have been able to get back home until the end of april! seriously newfies, let's work on this! the good news is that i will be home for about 7 weeks in the summer and christa has planned to come visit. i had mentioned to sean that he should come visit too and as we were saying goodbye and i was crying, he said he would come to wawa this summer. therefore, i will make sure he stays true to that little promise :).

so, how about some highlights of our time together?!

• me, kel, c and sean all in my bed, having story time. definitely good for a laugh!
• on sean's last night, we had a "fruit platter" picnic in the courtyard at our apartment. it included pomello, dragon fruit, star fruit, mango, asian pears and the ever stinking durian. the first bunch of fruits were fine....the durian was so smelly!!! even outside. kelly claimed to like the smell up close. and kel and sean both claimed to like the first bite of durian. i think it was when they went back for seconds that they both decided their time with the durian was over.

• dinners and drinks at the tavern. our local "watering hole" if you will. sharing stories and drinks with old friend and school friends. lots of laughs.
• our trip to hoi an of course, which you have already read about.
• our trip to hue with christa which you will read more about soon.
• my afternoon of girl time with christa. we went shopping at Ben Than market and the Tax Centre, then had manicures, pedicures, and had our hair washed, blow dried and straightened! (all for the low, low price of about $20!)

of course, these are only the highlights and all the time that we had together, although it wasn't enough, was great! i'm probably forgetting some funny stories but you'll have to forgive me, it's late (almost 9 pm!) and i'm still trying to catch up on my sleep!
anyway, the thing is, i am so glad that my two super, fantastic friends were able to come to vietnam and share in the craziness with us. it's a really great place and i want others to experience it with us. it's strange because you never know how people from your "home life" will fit in to your "away life" but it was great. i was so happy that they were happy. sean said that on a scale of 1 to 10, egypt was a 6.5 and vietnam was a 9.9! so if that doesn't make you want to come and visit, i don't know what will!

complaint free SKB....well kinda....

we're working really hard at being complaint free in skb. they are doing a great job actually. what's funny is that my kids are wearing their bracelets on their ankles, cause they are too big for their wrists. so when they have to change legs, it's a huge process. maybe that's why they have stopped complaining! hahaha

anyway, just wanted to share this picture with you. they are pretty much the cutest!!

Happy Easter from SKB!

p.s. thanks for the Peeps mom!

A Complaint Free World

you're going to love this. i promise!

so at our school, we have started a new initiative as part of our character education. by the end of the week, all of the students at CIS will officially be part of an attempt to make a Complaint Free World.

how it works. everyone, teachers and students, gets a purple bracelet (like the liveSTRONG bracelets), and if you complain, you have to move the bracelet to your other arm and start over. The goal is to keep the bracelet on the same arm for 21 days - that's NO COMPLAINING for 21 days!!! scientists believe that it takes 21 days to make something a habit, so after 21 days you will have established a habit of being complaint free!

i think it's a great idea and a big challenge for teachers - maybe even more than the students!! however, i've read some reviews from schools that have tried it and they all comment on what a positive change this program has made in their schools.

so, we started on monday. my bracelet has moved everyday. i'm going to keep trying though. someday i hope to blog about my 21 days of being complaint free!!! and i'm working on my SK's. "that's complaining!" we'll get there. just think of it... a complaint free classroom!

if you want more information on the program, check out http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/

i told you you were going to love it!

snow angels in vietnam?!

Every year (well for the last two years anyway), Curel (the mosturizer company) holds a fundraiser for the Children's Starlight Foundation (http://www.starlightfoundation.org/). The money from this fundraiser goes to seriously ill children and their families.

So, at CIS Vietnam, we wanted to help. All you have to do is take a picture of a snow angel and send it into curel. For every snow angel, one dollar is donated to the foundation. What an easy way to raise money for a great cause!

If you want to check out our pictures, go to http://www.curel.ca/, choose your language, click "learn more" and then "see all snow angels". When it asks for a keyword or email, type in Vietnam and all of the pics from CIS will appear! Voila!

Please enjoy! :)

Xin Ciao!

My latest article has been posted on Wawa-News.com.
To read about our adventures in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, check out the article at

http://www.wawa-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5549&Itemid=134

Enjoy!

Random Thoughts...

• Sean and Christa arrive in less than 48 hours. That's right - we're down to hours, not days! So excited to see them and it's going to be like Christmas when they arrive cause we've asked for so much stuff from home!
• I just finished writing my article for the newspaper from back home. I'll post the link when it's available.
• Lindsay and Phil got engaged! and two weeks ago Kathleen and Simon got engaged! Seems that love is in the air! Blow some of that air my way... ;)
• The Japanese dollar store - which I love - let me down tonight. I wanted something for my class, I had seen it there before, and tonight it was all gone. Why dollar store, why?! I always spoke so nicely of the dollar store!
• We are going to Hoi An this weekend. The "tailored clothing" capital of Vietnam. I should be looking in magazines and picking out stuff to get made....maybe I'll go do that now.
• Tonight we watched an episode of "The Rules of Engagement". It's hilarious. If you haven't seen it, you should watch an episode. So funny!!
• This Friday we have student led conferences with our SK kids for the first time. I'm sure they will do fine but we have a lot of work to do before then and I feel like there is never enough time! This week we are studying Australia and Korea and will go for a field trip to do Tae Kwon Do. There is no time to prepare for meetings with all this fun happening!
• We have a week long holiday in May and haven't decided where to go yet. Suggestions welcome!

All of this running through my brain. Maybe I'll just go to bed and ignore it all for now. I love my bed! Goodnight!

*wink wink*

it happened again. i was cranky today. again no explanation. maybe it's that time of year? maybe it's that we have no break until may? maybe it's a need for change. maybe it's that i am excited that sean and christa are coming next week. who knows. anyway, i had some guests in my room who saw my morning message that my students are now writing on their own. they were very impressed.


which got me thinking, how can i be cranky with these brilliant kids? then i saw this face...how can you be cranky with this face?


hope you have a good day. and if you start to get cranky, just think of him!

mr. bright side

urg. today was not a good day. i have no explanation for it. i was in a bad mood. period. everything that anyone said to me just got under my skin. finally, the school day ended, after school clubs were over, and it was time to go home. thank goodness. so i get my stuff together, find kelly and we are off on the bike. or so we think. just as i got on, one of the drivers at our school points with a "oh la la" at the back tire of our bike. a flat. great. and turns out that kelly is having one of those days too so we decide to just go for it on the flat and see if we can get home. this is where things got a little bit cheerier. we pulled over on the way home at the main intersection near our house where we thought we had seen a man with a pump before. sure enough, the man with the pump comes over, puts air in the tire, finds a leak in the tire, and fixes the tire. all in about 5 minutes and for a whole $2.50. it was one of those moments where i wished i had my camera. it was so easy. it was so quick. oh and did i mention that he did all of this with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth? now that's talent. thanks mr. tire man for making me see the bright side of an otherwise dreary day.