busy, busy, ...xin loi!

Xin loi (sorry)... for slacking on the posts lately. I returned from New Zealand over a month ago now... but am still posting about the trip. Part of that is because the trip included SO much.

...The other part of my slacking (ok, ok... an excuse is coming...), is that I have felt extremely busy lately. In a good way!

A plethora of great people have been in Vietnam visiting...

• My new friend, Ann Symons, is in HCMC with her husband. She found my blog... realized I am friends with Elizabeth and Vince (whom she taught with while in Russia!) AND she is a librarian. Ann was even the president of the American Library Association. We went to the flower market last week and for lunch over the weekend. She also brought the most amazing gift bag to me - with goodies from the ALA conference and Valentine's day treats!
• Lovely Patrice is back in Vietnam!! Patrice, one of my closest friends from AIS last year, is now living and teaching in Shanghai but is back in Vietnam for about a month. I miss her so much and it is SO good to have her back in the city.
• THEN... turns out a girl I went to high school with has been living in South Korea for the past year. She is currently traveling through Vietnam so we met for dinner last night. It is the first time we've seen each other since graduating from high school... 11 years ago!

It's amazing to have visitors while living abroad. In two days time -> my cousin, her husband, and a good friend from college are all coming for my Tet break! I can't wait to see them.

Also... keeping busy at work, our school's BOOK WEEK is coming up the week straight back from the Tet holiday!

But my biggest excuse... and most exciting announcement for this post... is that I recently returned from a quick trip to LONDON!!!!!!! 

This was my first time to the lovely city. And it was just that... lovely. I really enjoyed my time there... although it was stressful and a gamble to make the trip. I went for a recruitment fair. The fair was attended by over 150 international schools from around the world... and over 600 teaching candidates.

I was hoping to leave the fair with a job.

AAAND... I have signed a 3-year contract with a school!! At the end of August, I will be moving to MILAN, ITALY to be the Teacher-Librarian... at the American School of Milan.   : )

I feel good about this. Really good. I am relieved to know where I will be going next... to have a job after I leave Vietnam... and to be going to a dream location for myself. I have already begun language lessons daily (Lenny and Lexey - thanks for heads-up about DuoLingo!).

Feelin' pretty stoked about this upcoming adventure. ...But also very happy to still have 5 months in Vietnam.

For now... let the New Zealand blog posts continue!   : )