Phase One: Complete

So today was my last day of the CELTA course, a sweet finish to an intense but fun four weeks. I've definitely learned a ton about learning and teaching a foreign language which will probably help me on my quest to become completely fluent in Vietnamese. The students have been great, eager, and entertaining to chat with and so have my classmates. I've definitely learned tons on this course and I'm excited to start teaching (hopefully little ones =P)

Here is the last class I taught--these guys were great fun and energetic.

On our last day of the course, we took out all the classes to karaoke. Definitely discovered some hidden talents amongst us. I took a go at an old Vietnamese song, "Khong," which basically is about a guy who doesn't love a girl anymore: "No. No. I don't love, I don't love, you anymooooore" is literally how it goes.

My cousin, Tam, has also been a very gracious guide during my time here. We've gone out for yummy food, coffee, drinks, frozen yogurt, and so forth. Here we are at one of the many outdoor cafés:

Now that I'm finally done with this demanding course, I've had a bit of time to explore HCMC a bit. Yesterday, my cousin, Chi Tu, took me out to the market. It was probably what you would expect a market would look like in Vietnam: crowded, teeny aisles, small cubicles with clothes draping all over the walls, food vendors of all sorts, beautiful fabrics for making ao dais...And if you can't imagine it, here is a small visual:

I also went and got my hair cut and permed. I thought, why the hell, it's rather cheap to get those things done here. I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the perm since at the moment, it's a bit of a poofy mess but eh, regardless, it's not a big deal and it was a fun (and long, say 4-5 hours?) experience. A picture of my sexy ridiculousness:

Perhaps after the hair has calmed down, I'll let you see the result. =P