Happy February!
I am so excited and can hardly believe it is finally February! I have officially been in Nam for six months and am over half way through the school year. It still feels like I got here only yesterday, I'm not sure where the time has gone!
So here is a quick update on why I am so excited it is February... First off, in one week I will be headed off to Thailand with some of my favorite AIS friends. Our plan is to spend a couple of nights in Bangkok and then head down to Koh Chang island for a few days. I am more than ready for some relaxation and beach time!!! I realize this sounds a bit pathetic (and spoiled) since I've only just gotten back from winter break, but the kids are definitely ready for Tet, which has an odd way of rubbing off on us teachers! After Koh Chang we have a few days that are unplanned. I am excited to play the trip by ear. No matter where we end up, I am sure it will be more than amazing!
The next thing I am super excited for is spring break at the end of March because I will finally get to see Lindsey and my momma again! I adore my family and this is the longest I have gone without seeing them. Eight months is long enough, I am ready to see them again! When they come we will be heading down to Phu Quoc, an island just south of Vietnam, for a few days and then I'll be showing them around the city! I am so excited to see their reactions to this crazy, amazing place!
After February and March I have a feeling fourth quarter will fly by! In April we have a few days off and then it's May and a couple weeks in June before I head back home for three weeks.
So there you have it, everything is peachy keen over here! Although I must say, I am a little jealous of all the snow days you Iowa
folks are getting... not the snow, just the days you are getting off
school! I am still loving every bit of Nam and my students are still the most amazing kids ever!
xoxo
Michelle
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
New Zealand: Round Two!
Hello all!
Looks like I have been slacking on the blog front, I think I could write a book about everything that has happened over the last three months! Not to fret though, I will try to keep this blog as short and sweet as possible!!
It's been a few weeks since I arrived back in Saigon after two and a half weeks traveling around New Zealand. I was so happy to go back, I loved it even more the second time around! New Zealand is a place I will always continue to visit (or live...) for the rest of my life! I went back with Krystal and we started up north in Auckland, rented a car and drove all the way down to Queenstown on the south island. It was a fast trip to cover so much ground, but we accomplished a lot!
It was really fun to see the north island since last year we only saw the south. On our first day we drove up past Auckland to a town called Whangarei (the wh is pronounced like an f). It was a fun town, we did some short hikes, but the weather was not in our favor! We then stopped in Auckland and met up with a couple of mutual friends of one of our co-workers. Auckland was fun, but again the weather was not the best, and it was a Monday so going out was pretty calm. My favorite parts of the north island were Lake Taupo, Rotorua, the Waitomo Caves, and Wellington. First after Auckland were the caves. Krystal and I went black water rafting which was so fun! Basically we got into wetsuits, grabbed some donut-tubes and headed underground. We crawled and floated through the caves and jumped off waterfalls into the pitch black! The best part though was the glow worms! Glow worms are beautiful little 'lights' that you find on the roofs of the caves. They sound quite glamorous, but really they are larva or larva poop, so really nothing glamorous at all. Floating underneath them is just like looking up at the sky on a clear night, they look like hundreds of tiny stars!
After black water rafting we headed to Rotorua to Zorb. What is Zorbing, you might ask? Well it is basically rolling down a huge hill in a ginormous, inflatable hamster ball filled with water. It's hilarious and awesome! After a few rolls down the hill we headed down to Lake Taupo for a night. I really wish we would have had more time in this town. The lake was huge and absolutely gorgeous, much like mostly every place in New Zealand. In the morning I was happy to relax and try to even out my tan on the beach before heading to Wellington. In Wellington we met up we met up with a friend we had met last year, Claire, and hit up the town to celebrate the "end of the world." Wellington was a really cute down and it was gorgeous driving in along the coast. It was also a really fun place to go out! There were a ton of great restaurants and bars as well. It was yet another place I wish we could have stayed a bit longer!
After the world didn't end it was time for us to head south, so Friday evening we took the ferry across to Picton. The Ferry was quite flash, but grew rather boring after three hours. On board they had a movie theater, food court, and bar. Krystal and I didn't partake in any fun activities though, we were quite boring! On Saturday morning we drove down to Christchurch to meet up with our friends Matt and Alastair. It was so much fun to see them again! We went out for dinner and drinks and did a lot of catching up! The next day Matt showed us around Chirstchurch a bit and we continued our journey south by heading to Mount Cook. Mount Cook is one of my favorite places in New Zealand. It is absolutely gorgeous and we were lucky enough to have another day with perfectly clear skies. It was also wonderful waking my Christmas morning and seeing the hanging glaciers out our windows, it was like waking up to a White Christmas!
After a day of hiking around Mt. Cook we drove back to our old stomping grounds, Alexandra. We didn't arrive until late in the afternoon so we checked into our campsite then enjoyed a bit of wine.... maybe a little too much wine. It was so fun being back in Alex. It's a small town, but it holds so many great memories. It was fun having drinks, just the two of us and reminiscing! It did make me miss Alex and Ellen though! On Christmas morning we woke up and headed to an old colleague's home for a family Christmas. It was nice being with a family especially when I was missing mine! It was crazy to be celebrating Christmas outside and being so hot!! It reached about 34 degrees Celsius I believe, which if I am doing my math right, is about 100 degrees back home! I think the best part about Christmas day was having such a nice home cooked meal! Ann is an amazing cook, and it was the first real home-cooked meal I have had in 5 months!! (I REALLY miss having an oven!) It was so nice to be welcomed to a family Christmas, I imagine I would have been a lot more sad if we wouldn't have celebrated properly! On the day after Christmas Krystal and I did a bit of shopping and walked around The Terrace, which really made me miss teaching there! Student teaching in Alex was such an amazing experience that I still feel so blessed to have experienced! After leaving the school we met up with some more colleagues and had a really nice time just chatting and catching up! It is really nice to be able to stay in touch with everyone from school in Alex, they are all such great people!
After Alexandra we were excited to head off to Milford Sound. Last year we spent a weekend at Doubtful Sound and it was amazing, but we never got to Kayak which was pretty high on our list. So the night of the 26th we stayed in Te Anau and the morning of the 27th we headed to Milford for a day of Kayaking. I was a bit nervous about the weather, right after Christmas the weather turned on us and it got quite chilly, but we were in luck. We had gorgeous weather and clear skies on the day we kayaked. The fiords (misnamed sounds) in New Zealand are breathtaking! It is amazing how huge they are and how small they make you feel. The best part of the day was when dolphins swan right under our kayaks! We also got to paddle right up to sea lions sun bathing on some rocks. It was so much fun! I would highly recommend kayaking in Milford or Doubtful to anyone who visits New Zealand! The only thing that was missing that day was penguins... sad!
After Kayaking we stayed another night in Te Anau before heading to our final destination, Queenstown. Queenstown was a fantastic way to end our trip.. and expensive. I am absolutely in love with Queenstown, it is such a cute town! Lots of fun shopping, great restaurants and the night life is off the hook! Not to mention it has quite a few activities to get your adrenaline pumping! Last year in Queenstown I bugy jumped twice and absolutely loved it even though it was extremely terrifying. Krystal wasn't able to do the Nevis last year, the highest bungy, and was not going to leave without doing it this time. I wasn't going to join at first, I thought I'd save some money, but I couldn't resist! The second time around was equally as scary.. I don't think I would ever not be scared jumping from 134 meters! And although the second time around was equally as scary, it was also equally as fun! Krystal and I were feeling extra adventurous after the bungy so we decided to do the swing as well. It is exactly what it sounds like... a huge swing, in fact the highest in the world! It also proved to be super awesome and super terrifying!
After doing the bungy and swing we met up with a new friend, a guy whose couch we were going to be crashing on for New Year's eve. Queenstown is absolutely packed on New Year's Eve, so when we tired to book a place to stay in November, there was nothing left! That is when we were introduced to the wonderful world of couchsurfing. A free online network where you meet people and sleep on their couch for free, pretty awesome when you are homeless! Anywho, we met up our new friend, Ricky, and went out for a night on the town!
Most of the time we were in Queenstown was spent shopping and experiencing the nightlife, no exciting details to share there! However, we did have one more exciting adventure while we were there.. Skydiving! On our last day in QT, Krystal and I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000 feet! It was such a rush! It is something I have always wanted to do and I am so glad to have finally had the chance. I was very surprised that skydiving wasn't as scary for me as bungy. I think it's because you have no time to think.... also because you are hooked up to someone who doesn't give you an option.. once you are up, you're going out that plane while it's high above the clouds! The scariest part about jumping out of a plane so high, was how hard it was to breath! At first I couldn't focus on anything because I was so panicked about being short of breath. Looking back it makes sense... one, I was 15,000 feet in the air... two, I was falling at over 120 miles/hour. Once I stopped freaking out it was amazing to be free falling for so long! Our parachute opened at 5,000 feet. I am not sure on the actual amount of time, but it was 10,000 feet of free falling!
Ahhhhhh so that pretty much sums it up! I can't think of a more perfect vacation (given that we only had a little over two weeks)! If you have made it through and read my entire blog, thank you! Also, I am sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors, and I am sure there are plenty. It may be a poor excuse, especially as a teacher, but this blog took too long to write to go back and edit now! I also promise to get back into blogging. In about 10 days I'll be off to Thailand for another great vacation so I am sure I will have plenty to write about in the near future!
I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and are staying warm and safe! I am enjoying 90 degree weather everyday so there isn't much to complain about here!
Hugs and kisses,
Michelle
Looks like I have been slacking on the blog front, I think I could write a book about everything that has happened over the last three months! Not to fret though, I will try to keep this blog as short and sweet as possible!!
It's been a few weeks since I arrived back in Saigon after two and a half weeks traveling around New Zealand. I was so happy to go back, I loved it even more the second time around! New Zealand is a place I will always continue to visit (or live...) for the rest of my life! I went back with Krystal and we started up north in Auckland, rented a car and drove all the way down to Queenstown on the south island. It was a fast trip to cover so much ground, but we accomplished a lot!
It was really fun to see the north island since last year we only saw the south. On our first day we drove up past Auckland to a town called Whangarei (the wh is pronounced like an f). It was a fun town, we did some short hikes, but the weather was not in our favor! We then stopped in Auckland and met up with a couple of mutual friends of one of our co-workers. Auckland was fun, but again the weather was not the best, and it was a Monday so going out was pretty calm. My favorite parts of the north island were Lake Taupo, Rotorua, the Waitomo Caves, and Wellington. First after Auckland were the caves. Krystal and I went black water rafting which was so fun! Basically we got into wetsuits, grabbed some donut-tubes and headed underground. We crawled and floated through the caves and jumped off waterfalls into the pitch black! The best part though was the glow worms! Glow worms are beautiful little 'lights' that you find on the roofs of the caves. They sound quite glamorous, but really they are larva or larva poop, so really nothing glamorous at all. Floating underneath them is just like looking up at the sky on a clear night, they look like hundreds of tiny stars!
After black water rafting we headed to Rotorua to Zorb. What is Zorbing, you might ask? Well it is basically rolling down a huge hill in a ginormous, inflatable hamster ball filled with water. It's hilarious and awesome! After a few rolls down the hill we headed down to Lake Taupo for a night. I really wish we would have had more time in this town. The lake was huge and absolutely gorgeous, much like mostly every place in New Zealand. In the morning I was happy to relax and try to even out my tan on the beach before heading to Wellington. In Wellington we met up we met up with a friend we had met last year, Claire, and hit up the town to celebrate the "end of the world." Wellington was a really cute down and it was gorgeous driving in along the coast. It was also a really fun place to go out! There were a ton of great restaurants and bars as well. It was yet another place I wish we could have stayed a bit longer!
After the world didn't end it was time for us to head south, so Friday evening we took the ferry across to Picton. The Ferry was quite flash, but grew rather boring after three hours. On board they had a movie theater, food court, and bar. Krystal and I didn't partake in any fun activities though, we were quite boring! On Saturday morning we drove down to Christchurch to meet up with our friends Matt and Alastair. It was so much fun to see them again! We went out for dinner and drinks and did a lot of catching up! The next day Matt showed us around Chirstchurch a bit and we continued our journey south by heading to Mount Cook. Mount Cook is one of my favorite places in New Zealand. It is absolutely gorgeous and we were lucky enough to have another day with perfectly clear skies. It was also wonderful waking my Christmas morning and seeing the hanging glaciers out our windows, it was like waking up to a White Christmas!
After a day of hiking around Mt. Cook we drove back to our old stomping grounds, Alexandra. We didn't arrive until late in the afternoon so we checked into our campsite then enjoyed a bit of wine.... maybe a little too much wine. It was so fun being back in Alex. It's a small town, but it holds so many great memories. It was fun having drinks, just the two of us and reminiscing! It did make me miss Alex and Ellen though! On Christmas morning we woke up and headed to an old colleague's home for a family Christmas. It was nice being with a family especially when I was missing mine! It was crazy to be celebrating Christmas outside and being so hot!! It reached about 34 degrees Celsius I believe, which if I am doing my math right, is about 100 degrees back home! I think the best part about Christmas day was having such a nice home cooked meal! Ann is an amazing cook, and it was the first real home-cooked meal I have had in 5 months!! (I REALLY miss having an oven!) It was so nice to be welcomed to a family Christmas, I imagine I would have been a lot more sad if we wouldn't have celebrated properly! On the day after Christmas Krystal and I did a bit of shopping and walked around The Terrace, which really made me miss teaching there! Student teaching in Alex was such an amazing experience that I still feel so blessed to have experienced! After leaving the school we met up with some more colleagues and had a really nice time just chatting and catching up! It is really nice to be able to stay in touch with everyone from school in Alex, they are all such great people!
After Alexandra we were excited to head off to Milford Sound. Last year we spent a weekend at Doubtful Sound and it was amazing, but we never got to Kayak which was pretty high on our list. So the night of the 26th we stayed in Te Anau and the morning of the 27th we headed to Milford for a day of Kayaking. I was a bit nervous about the weather, right after Christmas the weather turned on us and it got quite chilly, but we were in luck. We had gorgeous weather and clear skies on the day we kayaked. The fiords (misnamed sounds) in New Zealand are breathtaking! It is amazing how huge they are and how small they make you feel. The best part of the day was when dolphins swan right under our kayaks! We also got to paddle right up to sea lions sun bathing on some rocks. It was so much fun! I would highly recommend kayaking in Milford or Doubtful to anyone who visits New Zealand! The only thing that was missing that day was penguins... sad!
After Kayaking we stayed another night in Te Anau before heading to our final destination, Queenstown. Queenstown was a fantastic way to end our trip.. and expensive. I am absolutely in love with Queenstown, it is such a cute town! Lots of fun shopping, great restaurants and the night life is off the hook! Not to mention it has quite a few activities to get your adrenaline pumping! Last year in Queenstown I bugy jumped twice and absolutely loved it even though it was extremely terrifying. Krystal wasn't able to do the Nevis last year, the highest bungy, and was not going to leave without doing it this time. I wasn't going to join at first, I thought I'd save some money, but I couldn't resist! The second time around was equally as scary.. I don't think I would ever not be scared jumping from 134 meters! And although the second time around was equally as scary, it was also equally as fun! Krystal and I were feeling extra adventurous after the bungy so we decided to do the swing as well. It is exactly what it sounds like... a huge swing, in fact the highest in the world! It also proved to be super awesome and super terrifying!
After doing the bungy and swing we met up with a new friend, a guy whose couch we were going to be crashing on for New Year's eve. Queenstown is absolutely packed on New Year's Eve, so when we tired to book a place to stay in November, there was nothing left! That is when we were introduced to the wonderful world of couchsurfing. A free online network where you meet people and sleep on their couch for free, pretty awesome when you are homeless! Anywho, we met up our new friend, Ricky, and went out for a night on the town!
Most of the time we were in Queenstown was spent shopping and experiencing the nightlife, no exciting details to share there! However, we did have one more exciting adventure while we were there.. Skydiving! On our last day in QT, Krystal and I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000 feet! It was such a rush! It is something I have always wanted to do and I am so glad to have finally had the chance. I was very surprised that skydiving wasn't as scary for me as bungy. I think it's because you have no time to think.... also because you are hooked up to someone who doesn't give you an option.. once you are up, you're going out that plane while it's high above the clouds! The scariest part about jumping out of a plane so high, was how hard it was to breath! At first I couldn't focus on anything because I was so panicked about being short of breath. Looking back it makes sense... one, I was 15,000 feet in the air... two, I was falling at over 120 miles/hour. Once I stopped freaking out it was amazing to be free falling for so long! Our parachute opened at 5,000 feet. I am not sure on the actual amount of time, but it was 10,000 feet of free falling!
Ahhhhhh so that pretty much sums it up! I can't think of a more perfect vacation (given that we only had a little over two weeks)! If you have made it through and read my entire blog, thank you! Also, I am sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors, and I am sure there are plenty. It may be a poor excuse, especially as a teacher, but this blog took too long to write to go back and edit now! I also promise to get back into blogging. In about 10 days I'll be off to Thailand for another great vacation so I am sure I will have plenty to write about in the near future!
I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and are staying warm and safe! I am enjoying 90 degree weather everyday so there isn't much to complain about here!
Hugs and kisses,
Michelle
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