My Holiday

So.. We got 9 days off from work for "Lunar/Chinese New Year". February 4th till 13th.
I decided to take an extra 10 days off and go on a long trip to Thailand.. I really needed the break..
Thailand wasn't as great as I wanted it to be, so I ended up taking a detour through Cambodia.
Here are things I loved and hated about my trip, photos to come next post.

10 THINGS I LOVED ABOUT MY TRIP

1. Touching a tiger in Kanchanaburi.
2. Bamboo rafting/Elephant riding in Kanchanaburi.
3. Drinking cheap fruit shakes everywhere I went.
4. Bangkok's street food (pad thai, bbq squid, fruit...)
5. Checking out handsome muscular Thai Rock Climbers in Railay
6. Beautiful tropical limestone mountained peninsula, Railay
7. Beautiful clear watered beaches of Ko Phi Phi
8. Joking around with cute little Cambodian panhandlers/merchants (in perfect English).
9. Feeling like I was in an Indiana Jones movie while climbing temples in Ankor Wat
10.Enjoying a night out on the town in Siem Reap

10 THINGS I HATED ABOUT MY TRIP

1. Realizing that the tigers were probably drugged and constantly tied up.
2. Bamboo rafting/Elephants only lasted 10 minutes just to satisfy tourists
3. I really hope there weren't too many calories in those fruit shakes
4. Couldn't afford eating in real restaurants in Bangkok.
5. Finding out I was the only person wearing a full bathing-suit.
6. Railay looked really ugly when tide time came and had a huge disposal area in the middle of it.
7. Ko Phi phi was so EXPENSIVE!!!! and full of drunken Euro-trash kids.
8. I wish I had shoes to give all the little Cambodian kids, most of them were barefoot.. sad :(
9. Wishing Japanese tourist would stop blocking my view every time I want to take a photo.
10. SPENDING WAY too much money on this trip.. my budget ended one week into the trip.. so am broke again !!!

Christmas in Hanoi

Two months late posting this blog, but alas.

Xmas in Hanoi was rather weird, in some ways, for me, it was the most festive Christmas I've ever had.
First, I had to actually celebrate the holiday with my students and talk to them about Christmas customs. Mind
you all that I grew up in a country where Christmas does NOT exist and though my family is strictly atheist, we do consider
ourselves J.E.W's. I kept telling people that I don't celebrate this holiday and they didn't understand.. because for them, I'm white.
Second, I went to more Xmas parties here than I had ever in the States (just Christie's staff parties.. seeing preppie girls get drunk.. definitely do not miss that).
Third, I actually played Secret Santa with my students and taught them Xmas songs.
Here are a few XMAS in Hanoi photos:

Our "Class Christmas tree".. the board + presents
Pre-Intermediate 2 spreading Christmas cheers:

The mall in Hanoi, Christmas eve.. I guess their holiday tradition is to go to the mall and take photos of themselves in front of a tree.. I've got tons of photos of Viets taking photos at the mall.

another mall photo (damn that western influence, I love their communist flag next to the Merry Christmas):