Coat shopping!

I bought a winter coat in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday... yes, a winter coat in a city where snow (or winter) has never existed.  Luckily, with our upcoming trip to Europe, the vendors around the market had what I needed, at the right price!

I got a long North Face coat filled with goose down feathers for 900,000 VND ($45).  The same coat on the North Face website is selling for $300 in Canada.  What a bargain!  Of course there is always the question of "is this product legit?" ... well, I don't know if it's real North Face or real goose down, but WHO CARES?!  At that price, I'm happy with my purchase!  I tried it on and it was really warm.  I was sweating instantly (however, it was also over 30 degrees outside)!

The guy who sold me the coat even rolled it up in a bag and packaged it up really small with the help of packing tape.  I can just throw it in my bag and crack it open in Prague.  No need to worry about a bulky coat taking up half my bag, or wearing a coat on the plane in the blistering heat of HCMC or Dubai.  Gotta love shopping in this country!

Here is my coat all wrapped up, ready for packing...

Europe itinerary!

The Europe itinerary is set...

Prague
Salzburg
Innsbruck
Vienna
Budapest
Dubai

I'm excited!!!!!!  The countdown is on... 10 more days!  Now I just need to buy some winter clothing...

An art-filled weekend!

More art news...

Last weekend I went with some friends to a former student's home (aka mansion) for her mom's art show.  It was quite the event.  Live music, wine, multiple artists' work on display, and even a DJ!  I got invited last year but couldn't go... I guess I was missing out!  The whole event felt very swank and exclusive, as it was by invitation only... very interesting evening!

 

Celebrating Christmas, Vietnam-style!

Christmas is coming soon, even to Vietnam!  It always surprises me how much Vietnamese people actually decorate for Christmas, considering the majority of people here don't celebrate it as a religious holiday.  It's nice to see lights and other decorations up around the city.  It makes me feel somewhat festive even away from home.

In our apartment I put up some lights and decorated our fake potted plant.

Last night we also had our staff Christmas party at a small restaurant downtown.  It was a lot of fun and it was great to see the decorations up and everyone enjoying some Christmas cheer!

John and Greg

Tanya and I

Merry Christmas from Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh City!!!!!!!!

Wine + Painting Evening!

This week I attended a wine and painting evening in district 2, which is on the other side of the city.  After doing a wine tasting, we began to start the painting portion of the evening.  There was an artist there who showed us some techniques and was giving us pointers throughout the night.  We were painting winter scenes in the spirit of the holiday season.  We got a choose a painting to replicate, and then were given a canvas, paint, and more wine and set off to create some art!  I was happy with the way mine turned out.  I hadn't really painted since high school, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It made me feel good that the artist said I had talent and that I should continue painting in the future!

Here are some photos from the evening:

The inspiration for our paintings

Do a base coat first, then paint over and scratch some colours through with the end of a brush

My painting!

Xin chao, toi la Angela ...

Hello, I'm Angela...

And I'm studying Vietnamese!  Last year I didn't put much effort into learning Vietnamese.  I felt a bit embarrassed that I've lived so long in this country and really don't know more than a handful of words.  My friend Alex and I decided to take up lessons with a Vietnamese co-worker's friends.  We have lessons twice a week with 2 female tutors named Phuong and Nguyet.  They are really nice and are good teachers.  They even make PowerPoint slides to teach us, and take us to the grocery store to learn about foods.  The best thing is that these lessons are FREE.  Phuong and Nguyet like to practise English and want us to help them with their language skills too, so they do not charge for any lessons.  It's just a language exchange, which is great!!!  Unfortunately, Vietnamese is extremely difficult (it's a tonal language) and we're not the most motivated of students.  It's fun trying to learn the language and laugh at ourselves when we pronounce a word 20 times and it's still wrong.  Oh well!

Rosemarie

We have a maid/cook who comes every Wednesday named Rosemarie.  It's great to come home from school on Wednesday afternoon to find the apartment clean and a home-cooked meal on the stove.  Here is one of the meals she made us...

Home-cooked Filipino food!  Chicken stew...

Terry Fox Run 2012

This post is coming a bit late, but in November we held a school Terry Fox Run and participated in the 16th annual TFR in HCMC!  It was amazing to see that even across the world there is so much support for Terry's cause.

Jess & I at the school run

John & Alex at the HCMC run

Andy, Julia, and Hidey at the HCMC run

Julia, Nguyet, Phuong, me, and Alex

Tet booked!

Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday is the first 2 weeks of February in 2013.  Since we have no visitors at this time unfortunately... :( , we decided to join our friends Alex and Greg on a trip to...

The mystery destination... from Google images!!!

Can you guess where???  The image above is from Google.  The first person to guess correctly will receive something in the mail... :)

One month

It is now less than one month away from the next big adventure... can you guess where?

EUROPE.

Yes, we are going to Europe for Christmas!  After debating about where to go, Europe randomly got thrown in the mix.  I always wanted to visit Europe at Christmas time, and now we're actually going to do it!

From Ho Chi Minh City, we will fly to Prague, Czech Republic.  After visiting Prague, we plan to travel around Austria and then possibly to Budapest, Hungary before flying back to HCMC.  On the way home, we have a stopover in Dubai.  It's going to be one expensive, crazy day in Dubai, but YOLO (hahaha).  YOLO = you only live once!

I'm really excited about this trip, but now it's time to get some winter clothing before our vacation.  It just might be a white Christmas for us after all!

Teacher's Day 2012

November 20th was a special day in Vietnam... Teacher's Day!!!  On this day, all the teachers at school were recognized for all their hard work.  We received roses and gift certificates for a popular store.  Students brought in presents... it was awesome!  I received lots of cards, flowers, fancy tea, 2 scarves, a hand-made Christmas tree skirt, a key chain, bottle of wine, and a huge cake.  John received restaurant gift certificates, a dress shirt, a silk pyjama shirt, an Armani (likely fake!) belt, a backpack, a bunch of chocolate, and a mysterious elixir in a bottle for his "lungs" among other things.  Too bad every day wasn't Teacher's Day!!!

Thanks for the cake Henry... lol!

Happy Halloween 2012!

Another Halloween has come and gone...

At school we went to a "haunted house" put on by the older kids, had a costume parade, and then went trick-or-treating to other classrooms.  Gotta love when teachers dress up...

John dressed up simple as the colour "red"

Grade 1 teachers

Our class

Free pass into Shanghai!

We left Seoul on Sunday morning and had a layover in Shanghai for nearly 12 hours.  What to do?  Explore the city, of course!  Luckily for us, because we were staying in China for less than 24 hours and had onward tickets to Vietnam, we could just go through immigration and get a special stamp which allowed us into the city for free.  Amazing!!!


John and I had visited China before in 2010, but our travels only took us to Beijing, Xian, Yangshuo, and Hong Kong.  Visiting Shanghai was a new experience for us, and also for Greg who had never been to China before.  I knew Shanghai was going to be a big city, but I was surprised at how clean and nice all the buildings were.

From Pudong International Airport, we took the Maglev (magnetic levitation) high speed train into the city.  It cost 80 Yuan (around $13 USD) for round trip tickets.  We went 30 km in 8 minutes, and the train reached a speed of 301 km/h while we were on it! 

The Maglev train

So fast!

The train brought us to a subway line, where we hopped on and rode towards the People's Square, a nice open square with beautiful flowers.

People's Square

The People's Square was in the heart of Shanghai, surrounded by skyscrapers and buildings that looked more European than Asian.  We wandered around the area by foot and stumbled upon the famous Nanjing Road... a pedestrian road lined with tons of shops.  We ate Shanghai-style duck and some kind of crispy battered beef dish for lunch.  The beef was ok, but I didn't enjoy the duck too much.  I definitely liked the famous "Peking Duck" we ate in Bejing a few years ago much better!

Nanjing Road

Our jaunt down Nanjing Road eventually led us to the waterfront area known as The Bund, where we could see a great view of the futuristic looking skyscrapers that make Shanghai's skyline famous.  We ended up taking the ferry across the water (only 4 Yuan, or around $0.65 round trip), which gave us an even closer view of the buildings before we had to head back to the airport on the Maglev.

The Bund

Hanging out at the waterfront

Shanghai by day

Shanghai by night!

It was a great day in Shanghai!  I would definitely enjoy having a layover there again!

A day in Seoul

We left Busan bright and early to take the KTX high speed train to Seoul.  A one-way economy ticket costs around $50 and is about 2.5 hours.  You can easily book your tickets online through the KTX website and then bring your reservation number to the ticket window at the train station and get your tickets.

John and I had been to Seoul several times before, so we were familiar with some of the sights.  We checked in to a guesthouse near the vibrant Hongik University area, and then headed straight to Gyeongbokgung Palace.  Wikipedia tells me that Gyeongbokgung was first built in 1395, and then rebuilt in 1867 (Canadian confederation year!) after being burned down and abandoned for nearly three centuries.  Korea is a country with so much history... it's amazing to visit sites that date back hundreds of years.  In comparison, many sites in Canada haven't been around so long, since our country is fairly "new" compared to Korea.

Anyway, Gyeongbokgung is a pretty big complex.  The Korean royals used to live there, and it dates back to the Joseon dynasty.  The first time John and I visited here, we took an audio tour.  This time, we all decided to take a free tour with a guide.  During our visit, we also got to see the changing of the guard.

After spending a few hours at Gyeongbokgung, we made our way to Insadong, a cool cultural area not too far away from the palace.  There is one main pedestrian walkway through Insadong filled with traditional restaurants, tea houses, and shops selling artisan goods.  Unfortunately, my favourite tea house (The Old Tea Shop, aka "The Flying Bird Tea Shop" with real birds flying around) had a sign on the door that said "on vacation."  Oh well!

While in Insadong, we ate bulgogi for dinner.  Bulgogi is thinly sliced marinated beef with onions.  It was pretty good!  The night ended with a visit to a DVD room where you pick out your own movie, and then watch it in a private room with a big screen while relaxing on a couch or bed.

Seoul is a cool city, but I prefer the coastal charm of Busan... beaches, mountains, milder weather, and less people!  Seoul city proper has approximately 10 million people, with a metropolitan area population of around 25 million.  Crazy!!!

Lotte Lotte Lotte Lotte!!!

On our last night in Busan, we were lucky enough to have tickets to see a second-round playoffs baseball game... Busan Lotte Giants vs. Incheon SK Wyverns.  John's co-teacher Sumi got us some tickets, which made us very excited!  One of the reasons we decided to stay in Busan the entire week was because of this game, and I'm very happy we stayed in Busan the week to wait for it.

Baseball games in Korea are always exciting.  There is even an "Exciting Zone" that you can sit in, where the mascots/dancers are to get the crowd pumped up.  Playoffs baseball games in Korea are even better!  Many people (including us) showed up hours before the game.  We had unreserved seats, so we needed to get there early to secure a good spot in the outfield.

The game was pretty intense.  In the last few innings, orange bags are passed around and the custom is to fill it with air and tie it, then put the bag loops over your ears and wear it on your head.  I'm not sure how/why this started... I think it's for good luck, but they seem to do it at every game!  At the end of the game, you can take the bag off your head and put your garbage in it, and then toss it in a bin on the way out.  Smart!  Only in Korea...

Lotte ended up beating SK 4-1.  The crowd was going crazy!!!  It was an awesome night and we are very thankful for the tickets that Sumi gave us.  It was sad leaving Busan, but our adventures did not end there...

Chingu means friend

One great thing about visiting Korea again is that we got to see many of our friends again.  I didn't get to see all the people I wanted to, but hopefully will get to another time.  In Korea, the word "chingu" means friend.

We met with old co-workers...

Dinner with Yeong Oak and Sumi

 

Patbingsu with Jiseung

Dinner (ox bone soup) with Monica

Korean mothers I used to teach English to...

Lunch at Outback with Kelly

At Outback with Liz

And other friends (old and new)...

Coffee with Iseul, Yesl, and Joon Uck

Tea with Emily - Alyssa's friend who just moved to Busan!

I'm so happy that I got to visit my friends in Busan... looking forward to the next time we get to meet again!!!

Busan's other famous beach - Gwangalli!

Busan has no shortage of great beaches.  It was great to visit the beach (even if it was during the fall and too cold to go swimming)!  Besides the famous Haeundae Beach, my other favourite beach in Busan is Gwangalli Beach.  Here you can see the beautiful Gwangan Bridge.

There is a boardwalk along the beach, and a street lined with many restaurants, bars, and cafes.  One of my favourite Busan restaurants, Breeze Burns, is located across from the beach.  It was nice to get a burger there just like old times!