Oktoberfest

This post is rather over due! It took us a while to get the pictures from our friend and then, well, it just never happened. Last year we were asked if we would like to go to Saigon's Oktoberfest, as there was a group of people going and we could get tickets for a great discounted price. We of course said yes and a few people from work decided to join us.

We got very excited about it and decided to get some outfits made! After a bit of googling, we found some pictures of things that we liked and off we went to the tourist area to find a tailor who could speak English. We described what we wanted, chose our fabric and paid our deposit. After a week, our outfits were ready and they looked fantastic! The tailor did such a good job.

Driving to the event was definitely not an option, so we decided to meet up with the others and catch a taxi together. It had been raining before we needed to leave, so we walked down the road to catch a taxi and bam! there was a huge puddle that we couldn't get across. So we walked the other way up our alley and bam! there was another HUGE puddle. Luckily we noticed that there was a back door open to a billiards club so we snuck through it up to the main road. We've never recieved so many funny looks before... It's like people have never seen two white people walking in German outfits through a very Vietnamese area?!?

The night itself was great. We drank beer, ate loads of food, danced to an Austrian 'oompah band', and made some new friends for the night (including a German guy who used to live in Durban - and now affectionately refers to himself as a Durban meisie)! The beer lines were long but, besides that, we had a great time. It will definitely be on our list of things to do again this year.

Ross, Mel, David, Emily, Chris

The queue for the food was ridiculous and people were pushing in all over the place! Luckily, we discovered that there was more food and a bar downstairs! Not many people knew about this area, so we were able to feast and drink with no lines - score!

"Who is this guy ---->?"

The band had some awesome dance moves going on!!

Yeah, it's time to go home.

Movember

It started off slowly. We grew to love each other. But the time is nearing for me to say farewell my friend. It's been a MOving experience. Until next year...

Halloween

So Halloween is quite a big deal in Vietnam! The kids were so excited about it and they spoke about it for ages leading up. Mel had to hear what every student was going to be for at least a week! We were encouraged to dress up but we weren't really in the Halloween spirit since we've never celebrated so Mel bought some bunny ears and at the last minute, we ripped one of Ross's old shirts and put some fake blood on it... voila! Costumes! 

The kids dressed up so well and it really was a fun day (especially since we were told to do Halloween activities rather than teach - score!).

A line-up of Spidermen. 6 in one class!

Vicky, Mel and Rose.

David as Dracula with some kids.

Our office was taken over by trick-or-treaters!

The English department

Ross (the dead man / zombie / murderer) with one of the teaching assistants.

Grade 5

Will the pretty scary ghost!

Iron Man. Casual.

Nick the astronaut.

Benny and Joseph as Spiderman and Batman. 

Queenie the pumpkin

Terbodore

Vietnam has a really, really big coffee culture – you can find coffee stands on almost every corner! We've visited loads of different side-of-the-road coffee spots for cafe sua da's (iced coffee with condensed milk) and cafe da's (black iced coffee). We've also been to loads of different coffee shops however, none compare to Terbodore! We've visited the Midlands Terbodore many times and in January we were lucky enough to visit our friend Mike at the new Franschoek roastery. The setting is out of this world beautiful, the decor is awesome and the coffee is amazing! Anyone in the area just HAS to try it out.

When ever you walk into either of the Terbodore establishments, you are greeted with warm smiles and friendly staff members - not to mention the euphoric feelings when the delicious, intense, freshly ground coffee smell hits your nose! They offer a range of perfectly roasted blends, and signature flavours - all of which absolutely have to be tasted (and ultimately savoured). This family's passion for coffee, and attention to detail, make Terbodore a cut above your average coffee place. Their Terbo Truck (operating out of their Franschoek roastery) can be seen at various events/festivals, and is hard to miss with its eye-catching design (and again, the wonderful smell).

We are so proud of this hard-working family business, and how far they have taken their brand over the last few years. We visited the Midlands branch before it was even officially open, and now they're selling coffee in Pick n Pay!

Visit their Facebook page to find out more: https://www.facebook.com/Terbodore

Below are some photos from our visit to Michael and Alrishka's roastery down in Franschoek.

The Terbo Truck ready for action

Michael, "The Coffee Man"

Mike and Alrishka

The week(s) that was

So this post is very, VERY overdue but blogging has kind of taken a back seat recently. It doesn't feel like we really get up to much, as our routine is work, gym, eat, sleep and repeat. Weekends have been fairly quiet too, as we are trying to save a little bit of money for upcoming travels. Plus, our weeks are so tiring that chilled out weekends seem like the best option. Anyway... here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Vietnam celebrated Women's Day a few weeks ago and our gym gave all of the ladies cupcakes to celebrate. Carrot sticks would have probably been a more fitting snack to give out, but neither of these birdies were complaining about getting a yummy cupcake! 

A few months ago, Mel saw an advert on the Ho Chi Minh ex-pat group that was looking for Western shoe testers for Adidas. We emailed out of curiosity and so our careers as shoe testers began! Every once in a while we get an email asking if we can test out some shoes. The team comes to our school during lunch time and we put the shoes on, walk around for 30 seconds, tell them what we like and don't like and voila, testing done! After six pairs for the one set of testers, and twelve pairs of shoes for the other team, we get a free pair. Below is a picture of Mel with her free shoes. We're both owed some more shoes which is very exciting.

We used to always drink caramel mocha cafes which were absolutely delicious, but not healthy at all! We've since discovered iced cappuccinos... slightly healthier than the mocha's and waaaay more delicious than black coffee. We're a bit obsessed and we definitely need to start slowing down on our daily coffees!

The outside of our building is looking a bit shabby so management decided it was time for some refurbishing. This guy chucked a ladder off the roof and just hung on it while he was doing the touch ups. No harness or safety gear and an eight story drop. Eish!

We were recently alerted to another market in town. It's called The Russian Market, because it sells loads of winter coats and it has bigger, Western sizes. We really don't need coats here, but we decided to check it out. We both got some sports clothes and a new waterproof bag for a ridiculously tiny amount!

After shopping, lunch was in order so we headed on over to one of our favourite pubs - The Spotted Cow. We both had cold chocolate, which was heavenly!

The mall across the road from our school has been through a major revamp. There are loads of new shops, one of them being Dunkin Donuts and another being a Haagen Dazs ice cream parlour. Oh my goodness, the ice cream is just sooooo amazing. We've managed to have lots of self control, and it's a place we can go to once a month only (it's rather pricey!). We tried out a banana sunday which had caramel ice cream and vanilla ice cream with cookie dough. Amazing!

Halloween is quite a big deal here in Vietnam, and the kids were encouraged to dress up. The staff also dressed up, and below are a few pics. 

Dunkin Donuts had a Halloween special on for the month of October, ghost donuts and a hazelnut dunkachino! We had to take advantage of the deal one last time on Halloween. 

After running some errands, we stopped in at Chi's Cafe for some pho and an amazing mango/passion fruit juice.

We discovered yet another awesome coffee place close to our house. Mel had a mint and coffee smoothy, and Ross had an iced cappuccino which was HUGE!

We can never get enough of Masters Cup! We had some amazing cheese cake and apple pie the other day.