Week 4 - Football, Team Building & Motorbikes

Hey Everybody, I must explain why football features so heavily in my email this week.... On Thursday morning at 01:45 I watched the Champions League final between Man UTD and Chelsea (Man UTD won, or should I say Chelsea threw the game away), this game did not finish until 04:30 (Vietnamese time). I watched it with my colleague John, who is a Chelsea fan... ouch!!! poor guy...I cycled from my house to his through the empty Hoi An streets, with only a large number of rats for company, and it was such a wonderfully cool ride around town! That evening after work, we (all 17 staff members from my work) went to the beach after work, where one of our staff has a family owned restaraunt on the beach, and played our own version of 'champions league football', which was followed by swimming in the sea and then being driven on the back of motorcycles to another lovely sea food restaraunt where the staff ordered a fantastic banquest for us for just 45,000 Dong (£1.50) including two beers!!! That is what I call a team building exercise... Today (Sunday) I was even more fortunate to top Thursday's fun, by hiring a motorcycle with three freinds here, and riding over 50k north to a high pass through some hills/mountians past Da Nang, which was quite a strategic point duting the Vietnam war! The scenery was breath taking, and more impressively it was the first time I have ever driven a motorcycle... I had a few near misses as cyclists, ambulances and locals all thought they'd test my reflexes and ability to swerve around them, but I have ended up in one piece with only a few minor cuts! It only cost me 30,000 Dong £1 to hire the motorbike!!! serious bargin!!!!!The other major event for me personally this week has been the start of the placement of the Australian Occupatioanl Therapy Students (Amber & Briee), at my work. They are both very nice and more importantly really down to earth and confident to express ideas. I am learning a lot from them about the Australian training system, and lots more about Australian humour.... hmm.....Other highlights of the week have included a fun barbeque at Doctor Josh's house last night which ended in a very poor sing along guitar session afetr too many beers and scotch!!!! we thought we'd give the local kareoke singers a run for their money! I have found out many things about life here this week and just wanted to share some of them with you all... 1) houses here are very thin, but tall, as you pay more tax the wider your house is... 2) over 14,000 kids drown here every year because they can't swim! (amazing really when you consider Vietnam is one big coast line, and all the kids go in the sea everyday, but just never learn to swim!) 3) there are good and bad 'luck' days to get married throughout the year, today was a good luck day and so there were lots of marriages! 4) the reason I sepnt my first 5 days thinking there were lots of ice cream trucks around, but never seeing any, is because the music is played by the garbage truck, loudly every morning!!! 5) staying on a musical theme, music is played in the street by the government with songs telling you how to be a 'good' citizen and how to love your country! 6) Some students have to live & study for two years in a hostel type accommodation room, housing over 30 students, with the only study space being their bed! Hope you enjoyed that little bit of information!well I felt like I could write so much more, about this week, but I think you don't need to know ALL my thoughts on this week's adventures!
Regards from Vietnam