One Rising Star

#nextchaptervietnam The Southern region of Vietnam exhibits a tropical climate, with wet and dry seasons. For the most part, since my arrival, the weather has been hot and humid with overcast skies. However, it is currently rainy season and though the frequent downpours generally don't last too long, they get quite loud and messy from time to time. Personally, I really enjoy watching and listening to the rain fall, but it does tend to make my walks to and from work, as well as my motorbike rides to and from the gym pretty interesting. Also, the thunder and lightning wake me up in the middle of the night every once in a while, which can be slightly disturbing. The walk home from work on a rainy day. I usually get home pretty soaked. The ride to the gym on a rainy evening.  The main road to the gym floods really badly when it rains, but nobody seems to care much, they just keep riding their motorbikes and bicycles right through it all. Life is not abou...

#nextchaptervietnam When I moved to Vietnam, I made a promise to myself that I would sign-up for some races in and around South East Asia in order to spice up my travels a bit.  A few weeks ago, I decided I should start off the race season with a 10km run and so I registered for the Hoi An International "mini-marathon".  With that said, after being sick for 2 weeks and not doing any form of exercise, I was feeling a little anxious about the idea of running 10km.  In the week leading up to the big day, I was feeling better and so I tried prepping my body as best I could by attending 2 Crossfit classes, 2 Training For Warriors classes and doing 1 long (TORTUROUS) training run. There really wasn't much more I could do at this point. In the days leading up to the race, I found out there was a big Typhoon that was suppose to hit the area around Hoi An. I wasn't even sure anymore if I'd be able to go on my little weekend getaway and participate in my fi...

#nextchaptervietnam It's really no secret, but for those that didn't know, I seriously just LOVE food. That's why I've decided to dedicate this whole post to...FOOD! ;) GROCERIES I've been checking out new grocery stores nearly every week and I've really enjoyed seeing the variety of products in each location. With that said, I've often had just one thing in mind: "Hmm...I wonder if they have almond milk?" Now, let's be honest, it's not like almond milk is a complete necessity, but I just really do enjoy using it in my cereal, oatmeal and smoothies every once in a while. I discovered early on that for the most part, almond milk can't be found in the bigger grocery stores, only in specialty markets for a pretty hefty price. However, this past week I was over the moon when I finally found almond milk in one of the more "modern" local grocery stores. The fact that they also had gluten free cereal made for a really exciti...

#nextchaptervietnam I can't think of many things worse than being sick when living abroad. Over the last 10 days, several times, I thought about packing my bags, getting on a plane and heading back to Canada.  It all began last weekend when I started feeling not quite like myself after a school event out in the sun. Throughout the week, I was struggling to make it through the days and in fact, I left work early two days in a row, once at lunch time and another time by about 10am. It's not like me to miss work, but I had no choice as I could barely function. Of course, I was being stubborn and I didn't really want to take any medications, so I was trying to heal my body with natural things like fruits, ginger, honey and apple cider vinegar, but it just wasn't enough. Eventually, I caved and took some cold medicine and tylenol, which I thought was working for a couple of days. Unfortunately, that too proved to not be enough.  This past weeken...

#nextchaptervietnam Anyone really close to me knows how much I just absolutely LOVE a good hair wash. Well, today, I experienced the most unique hair wash ever! After an exhausting week (I'm truly a crazy workaholic and an abnormal exercise obsessed person) and then a terrible nights rest, I decided that today was the day that I would finally treat myself to my first hair wash in HCMC. I had heard that a hair wash here was quite good and that it usually included a very long head massage, so I was really looking forward to it. At the salon, after waiting my turn, I was asked to remove my shoes and to go upstairs. When I arrived at the top, I noticed that there were a few ladies laying down on "tables" being massaged. I was asked to lay down on one of them too, which had a sink at the head. Already, I had so many thoughts and questions running through my mind. In the beginning, the young lady started washing my hair and massaging my head. Everything seemed fairly...

#nextchaptervietnam Upon my arrival in Vietnam, I truly thought I could get by walking, running and taking taxi cars everywhere around town. I really didn't think I had it in me to get on a motorbike and to ride through the chaotic streets of Ho Chi Minh City.  It didn't take me long though before I learned about the advantages of motorbikes - much cheaper and much much quicker! Motor biking debut Last Saturday, I had my first REAL ride ( I say 'real' because on day 3 in Vietnam I got a ride across the street from my hotel ) on a Motorbike - Vietnamese style! I went to play soccer in another district of the city and it took me nearly an hour to get there in a taxi car. This was the second weekend in a row that I had experienced a very long taxi ride to get to soccer and I knew I just couldn't keep that up. So, after our extended 5-aside game, I asked my new teammates if anyone could give me a ride anywhere close to my home. Luckily, one of my Vietnamese teamm...

    #nextchaptervietnam BACK TO REALITY! It was an incredibly busy week inside  and outside of the classroom, as I tried to get into somewhat  of a regular balanced routine during the first week of classes. This weeks highlights were getting to know my temporary  Grade 5 students and trying to get back on track with my  healthy lifestyle here in Vietnam. GETTING TO KNOW THE STUDENTS I've really only had 3 days with the students, but I must admit, they've really exceeded my expectations so far. For the most part, their English was much better than I expected. We got to do so many fun things in order to learn about each other; we played workout your name (each letter of the alphabet is associated with a certain exercise),  we made name art (each letter of their name contained words or pictures to represent them), we made an all about me 'rainbow' (each strand had a descriptive sentence starting with "I am..."), we did speed i...