Busy (but great!) day.

Today's training included banking, medical insurance, and IT things.

After a few sessions we hopped on a bus to have lunch in District 7...

I had pho that one of the Vietnamese staff members ordered for me... I ended up eating the noodles but not the meat because of these spiky 'things' that I couldn't quite get over (maybe chicken skin??)...

UGH. Seriously. I have not been happy with meat since I've gotten here. I do like the fish. I will stick with fish and become a vegetarian (unless, maybe, at a five-star hotel). My Australian friends, Riki and Saleshni, are both vegetarians so they can help me. (And honestly, each time I've eaten with them, I've been super jealous with what they end up ordering.)

I WAS happy with my fresh strawberry juice.  :)

After lunch, we continued on to the new campus that is being built. This will be K-12 and also have a dormitory for boarding students. They are concentrating on finishing up the middle/high school (on the left)... hopefully for next school year. (The elementary school is on the right.)

Right now, AIS has 3 separate campuses (Elementary, Middle, and High)... their first year as a school they had about 40 students and now, going into its 5th year, there are over 900 students! AIS had to keep renting more and more space... but have been working on this new campus for quite some time now. It is in a district called Nha Be, just past District 7, and is quite a ways outside the city... but the area is growing.

I'm not sure it'll be done by next year ...but it was really cool to see so far!

Walking up to the front of the middle/high school.

Karen and I in our 'cute' hard hats.

Looking out from the middle/HS towards the side of the elementary school. The dormitory building is on the left; they plan to have students from all over Vietnam come to the school once the new campus is built. There will also be buses that will pick students up from different parts of the city each day.

The main staircase in the middle/HS.

Main hallway.

Saleshni said that I looked like one of the Village People in my hard hat and Ray Bans... so we took a picture! haha... Saleshni / Riki / myself. I love this photo.

The swimming pool.

Steve (head of school) and Mr. Truong (head contractor and owner of AIS with his wife).

Side of the pool.

Gymnasium.

Auditorium with balcony seating on both sides!

Anastasia and I. Anastasia has lived and taught in Russia!

Mr. Truong describing the finished product and hope for what AIS can become in the future.

Future conference room on the top floor.

Mr. Truong taking us to the rooftop.

Looking down into the conference room from the rooftop.

Looking out from the rooftop.

The girls using umbrellas so they do not get dark from the sun.

You can see the Saigon River out and to the left!

There were a lot of workers getting things done... I thought it was crazy how these guys were up so high on the side of the building!

The elementary school.

You can see the plans for the campus' finished product here... Nha Be AIS Campus (I love the hot air balloons!)

After leaving the campus I got off the bus with Riki and Saleshni in their district and we spent the afternoon together. It was so nice to see their place! They have a beautiful apartment and live in a GREAT area. If the new campus does open next year, I definitely plan to move near them... the area does not feel like HCMC - the roads are wider, the stores all have front doors and AC, there are nice restaurants, and the area is very green. I'm very happy in my 'local' neighborhood for this year but I think it would be a welcome change to move to their area next year.

We went into a great little grocery store... it was expensive but carries products that I have not been able to find yet. Saleshni even found skim milk! I look the picture of it below so I can remember what the word for 'skim' is... this one was not refrigerated so I didn't get it.

 Then we went to dinner at this Indian restaurant:

...Best meal I've had thus far and I could eat it everyday! I'm glad to see that they have a location in District 1 as well, since that is closer to me. It was delicious. Below is a picture of the juice that I got...

I love these girls! Saleshni and Riki are from Australian and so nice. We 'clicked' from the start and I'm excited to have found friends already. They are both teaching at the elementary school but we figure we can get together on weekends and do some traveling on breaks!

I took a xe om up to District 1 after dinner and stopped by the Binh Thanh Market. I got these sneakers to wear while driving my scooter and a $4 hammock! I see hammocks all over and have thought that it'd be great to hang one on my balcony. I hope Mr. Nhan can help me figure out a good way to do this.

You often see Vietnamese men hang a hammock from a fence on the side of the road at night and that's where they sleep / live.

When I got back to the apartment and set up my time for the xo om to pick me up sang mai (tomorrow morning), Mr. Nhan gave me a bag with these goodies in it. Phuong (library assistant) went to Dallat this past weekend to visit her aunt and cousins and brought me back these gifts! She is SO sweet. I love them :) The strawberry candies are local and very delicious... fresh tasting! What a treat :)

Well, it's late - it's been a long, but fun, day and I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is another full day of training but we split up between our schools tomorrow. The past two days all of the new teachers have been together at the elementary school but tomorrow I'm off to the middle school!