new blog here friends! http://sowrightlove.blogspot.ca/

Just finished my TESL certificate!

and got an 81% on my final.  I am now a certified TESL teacher!! (jeremy)

A little bit of country

Summer, 2011.

We did a lot of fun things this summer here are a few pictures.https://picasaweb.google.com/106026617203937186764/Summer2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7ziqOWt9LiyQE

Pictures from our last year in vietnam https://picasaweb.google.com/106026617203937186764/Vietnam20102011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbb_bDJ8u6a3QE

top 10...Jeremy

A few of my favorite things about living here are:

1. Pho, a rice noodle based chicken soup- but so much more then chicken soup. I try to eat it every day, honestly, it is amazing.

2. The people, I live with a people that are incredibly gifted at patience, self control, hospitality and honor for their elders. The community mindset is so strong here that if your door is open, you walk in and everything is done in groups, even alone time...

3.The weather, for the most part living in a tropical climate is quite nice (once you get used to it and buy an air conditioner) if you like to swim, this is the place to live.

4.Lines, lines or cues (mostly a big mish-mash of people crowded together around whatever it is you want to get to), are an art form here. It is like a dance to move to the front of a "line". If you are trying to get to a cashier you MUST push. Push yourself, push your groceries, and stick out those elbows. Oh ya, and pretend all the while that you are the only person in line and not pushing.

5. Traffic, follows roughly the same rules as water. Flow is the key and travel along the path of least resistance. Never stop. aim for where someone will have been, not where they might not be! It actually works quite well, but always remember your horn if your path is the same as someone else.

6. Beaches, are stunning, despite the cement animals. if you can find one that is not crowded or littered up you are in for a treat (if it is not the rainy season, cause then you just might be in for a riptide adventure.) The other nice thing about swimming in the dry season is that the water is clear outside of the city, so you can spot the sharks before they take a nip out of you!!

7. Fresh fruit, Dragon fruit, passion fruit, mangos, bananas, avacado, and custard apples are a few of the native fruits here. No sarcasm here, best fruit i have had in the world.

8. The coffee, think thick black syrup, thicker then espresso, mixed with sweetened condensed milk, over ice! yumm... and buzz!

9.Sugar cane juice, squeezed with small mandrin oranges, over ice. so refreshing on a hot day.

10. The land itself, impassable jungles, scorching deserts, sandpaper cliffs, endless rice patties, sandy beaches, rugged mountain sides and rolling waterfalls all cover this "s" shaped country, which is smaller then my home province, Manitoba.

Faster connection... and why are Laura and Zaya in an ambulance?

So we can finally post again after our internet has picked up to its usual speed after super slow service... now what to post??

No big news here except....

We are going to have a BABY!!!

So we came back from Thailand and all of us were sick with some sort of stomach bug. Isaiah and I recovered after a really rough week or so but Laura could not shake it. So we started wondering if she had giardia

(we looked up her symptoms in the book "where there is no Dr.") and were looking at one drug in particular to treat it. The side effects label warned against taking when pregnant

so we thought we should check. We got our teammate to buy one of those 25cent pregnancy tests they have here and... +++++++ all the way home to Canada.

So we went a couple days later to the nearest western clinic (5 hours by train) and had it all checked out. We even got to ride in the ambulance to the ultrasound from the clinic!

So we will return to Canada to have a baby. We do not feel that we are done in Asia and will returning next year

These images show us in the ambulance and the boys toasting the babys health with xinto bo (avacado smoothies).

Speaking 2

It's back to class I go!

After a great time in Thailand it's time to get back into routine! Classes started right after we got back and I had a great time reconnecting with my students and picking up where we left off last semester. I was super excited to be back in class and was looking forward to implementing some changes to the way I formatted class and was happy to be able to spend time with the students again.

Then I got really sick. No fun. There was a flu or two going around conference and I was impressed with my stomach of steel (spending time as a kid in another country helped that). But, I didn't make it. I got sick. So I had to put aside my exciting plans and spend some time in bed. A day turned into two days which turned into... sick Laura. Thankfully I'm feeling much better now and am getting ready to head back to school tomorrow!

I'll be teaching Speaking 2 which is a continuation of my first semester course. I have the same students and teach the same amount of hours. I'm looking forward to seeing them grow in their speaking abilities and taking up the challenges that I'll be giving them this term.