It is so long between my blog posts because I literally have nothing to talk about here. Life at the university and in this place follow a monotonous routine most days. Get up, go to uni, teach, plan, back to the apartments to go stir crazy till the next day when it all starts again.....I have never been surrounded by so many people and yet spend most of my time alone.

We have just started the last quarter at Uni for this academic year so yet again 2 new classes with all new students and trying to learn their names which I seem to constantly mispronounce. Students here are actively encouraged to maintain their names and not adopt an English name - very different to China where nearly all students have one. This quarter is only 8 weeks long but because the parents pay for a full quarter we have to fit 10 weeks of work in, hence we are all doing extra hours of teaching. Everyone is doing 22-24 hours of teaching a week so I am guessing we will all feel exhausted by the end. On top of that we did not have a break between the quarters - finished Q3 on a Friday, started Q4 on the Monday!!!

The rainy season is upon us so less opportunity to go and relax by the pool which was one thing that I did enjoy. Also my afternoon walks have ceased because most days it is raining or very hot and humid when I finish work. By the time it cools down a little the storms start and I do not fancy running in a thunderstorm. Knowing my luck I would get struck by lightening!!!

Have had a few trips into Saigon but even that is boring now. I don't want to do any more shopping as I already have too much to try and pack up. Mind you it is still fascinating to people watch and the traffic continues at a frantic pace.

Have accepted I am never going to be teaching the nursing I came here to do so have packed up all my resources and shipped them back to Australia. Thought that was going to be an easy chore but no....the usual Vietnamese "make it as difficult as possible" routine. Went to the post office to arrange for them to come and collect my boxes, thought it was all sorted but on the given day they did not turn up. A 45 minute phone call and I realised it just wasn't happening so had to lug 49 kgs of good down to the car park, get a taxi to take me to the post office and then battled for an hour to get all the paperwork done....can only hope that my belongings get home now...all in the lap of Vietnam Post....eeks!!!

After suffering through that I thought I would do something nice for myself so headed to the hairdresser to get a trim. Told the guy to cut off the ends - you know about an inch at most - but luck was not on my side and he has hacked my hair, taken off at lest 4 inches and it is a mess......why oh why me...so now I feel disgusted and will have to tie my hair back constantly to hide it

Did end up having an enjoyable night out last night. A number of our teachers have quite good musical talents and put on a night at one of the local bars. Played lots of old rock songs that I actually knew. It was so nice to see everyone relaxing, laughing and joking......it just does not happen often enough these days. To finish off the night one of the girls decided we would go to a Vietnamese nightclub. What a laugh, we were surrounded by waiters who outnumbered us 2 to 1 and as soon as you took a sip of your drink it was topped up, they lit cigarettes as soon as anyone got one out....but the music....oh my god it was so loud your whole body vibrated. The bizarre part was that most of the Vietnamese just sit there looking at each other, no one looked like they were having fun and I think we were the major entertainment. I suspect there is a very dubious undercurrent as a few of us got propositioned.....I even had some painted VN girl try to chat me up...holy hell.....

As our contracts draw to an end there are many people busy job hunting....a few have already got new jobs in different countries so we are thinking of planning a group dinner very soon for those of us who all started last September. 4 have already done a runner and left before the end of their contract, I think the rest of us will stick it out. Some are planning on staying for another year but I think most are planning to move on.....new friends, new countries are beckoning

That is it for now. xx