Hello again! So another week has passed and I can't believe it's June already! Had another busy one this week. I'm continuing to enjoy working at the hospital and am now a plastacine animal maker and bubble blower extroadanaire! Today was Internationl Children's Day apparently so we had a big celebration with lots of sweets and new toys for the children. It's great working there a bit longer as well as the children start to recognise you and it's truly amazing how much you can comminicate without using language... Nevertheless there are still many reminders that this is definitely not the same as home. I've yet to see bare beds with no matress, motorbikes driving down the corridors and fruit sellers crowding the entrances in the local NHS institution for example!

Otherwise, I've moved out of the volunteer house and into stay with a host family, as the oh-so-well-organised organisation I'm with still hasn't realised that you cannot fit 15 people into a house with 12 beds and even then only designed to house 6. Still, I don't mind as the family I'm staying with are so lovely and generous not too mention very welcoming and quite wealthy so I feel truly spoilt at the moment. However, I think they're hoping to practise their English on me, so I'm trying very hard to speak correctly as possible, although it's weird how, when you start being quizzed on the finer points of English grammer, you realise just how little you really understand your own language! For their part, they've already taken me out to a few places and their daughter is determined to teach me how to drive her scooter, although I think this enthusiasm may have been dampened somewhat after my first, extremely wobbly, first attempt! As the buses here are a nightmare, I've now managed to get hold of a very ancient bicylcle which has been working beautifully until today when the handlebars decided to cease all communication with the wheels in the middle of rush hour... It seems to be a feature of Aisa that just when all has settled down, something will happen that will throw all your plans into chaos!

The food is also amazing and my bravery with trying new things is increasing enourmously (as is the size of my stomach) as time goes past. I had fried maggots the other day I think, and many other similar dishes where I feel happier just eating and not asking too many questions. This is particularly after I stupidly enquired as to the origins of a really good, tangy sauce I was enjoying and discovered it is made from fish which are allowed to ferment for a few months before having the juice squeezed out; needless to say, I don't enjoy it quite so much anymore!

For the weekend, I splashed out a bit on a tour to Halong Bay, which is a beautiful place and I had so much fun relaxing and enjoying the scenery with a group of American girls who were on the same tour. We did a couple of touristy things, but most notable to me was visiting the Hospital Cave which is an old war time hospital built in a very obscure, yet beautiful, cave. We also spent a night in a resort on Monkey Island where, for those of you following his progress, the monkey pencil was very excited to meet real life, genuine, wild monkeys!! (pictures to follow at some point). Was the first bit of relaxing on the beach I've done this trip, albeit for only one afternoon, but it was the perfect antidote the polluted chaos that is Hanoi.:)

Anyways, hope all is good back in England and the weather is holding up. I'm looking forward to the next storm here very much as, once again, the humidity is building up and it's all getting a little sticky! Still only a week and a half until Australia....!

xxx