Travelgoddess.net

Going on vacation this wed. Going to try my first ever, long distance anticipated bicycle trip. I could never justify spending $2000 on a trip like this, so am flying (read, biking) solo. Have an itinerary similar to what a lot of the bike tours in Vietnam do, and it looks very doable. All is dependent on weather, my cat gut reaction to all that exercise (me thinks this will be good for me), and how well the bicycle holds up.

The route is planned something like this; (but I am looking forward to any deviations that come up as I am biking and hear of other places that rock along the way.)

* Hanoi to Hue via overnight train on wed

(all of the following via bicycle)

* Hue to Danang (110 km)

* Danang to Hoi An (35 km)

* Hoi An to Quang Ngai (46 km)

* Quang Ngai to Qui nhon (70 km)

* Qui Nhon to Dai Lanh (80 km)

* Dai Lanh to Nha Trang (83 km)

* Nha Trang to Hanoi via plane

I have 10 days. Will buy bike in Hue instead of trying to lug one along on train (possibility of having it stolen and pain in the ass to check in, me thinks.

I will try and blog as I go, internet cafe dependent.

Am SO excited I could only sleep 3 hours last night, my brain was buzzing with ideas and anticipation of such an adventure. The flat terrain of Hanoi seems to be the same as the route I am taking, so this is a supreme time for me to get this dream out of my system. Or, better yet, get started on doing trips like this.

Hurrah and cant wait.

(Oh, if you have any info on any of the above towns, please feel free to send it to me. Am still doing the last bit of research over the last 2 nights.)

Oh, we were SO cocky.

Sitting around having drinks at a rooftop bar a few days before our CELTA course started.

If I remember correctly the conversation went something like this:

Cocky pre-celta student #1:

“So, what do you think about this class? Can it be THAT stressful?”

(cause the rumor had it that this class would overtake EVERY aspect of our lives for the duration)

Cocky pre-celta student #2:

“No way, I did all the pre-course material and have read a little of the books they recommended. All the stress buzz MUST be about folks who cant manage their time.”

#1
“Yeah, thats what I was thinking.”

(both #1 and #2 breathe a huge sigh of relief and take a BIG gulp from their drinks)

#2

“Besides, there are weekends to catch up or get ahead on assignments. How hard can this be?”

#1

“Yeah, I bet it will be time consuming but not hard at all. I am looking forward to it, actually.”

#2

“Yeah, me too. ”

(more gulps.)

WE WERE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WRONG!

It really IS that stressful.

I will, now that we are more than 1/2 way through, admit one thing. And this time there is no speculation, this is the reality of Celta.

IT’s not that any one task is hard or stressful. Its the fact that we are students for most of the day and then teachers in the remaining time. AND THEN, there are the written assignments, and the evaluating your peers (daily), and being evaluated (every other day), and switching between two learning levels (elementary and intermediate). And if that isnt enough, there is evening planning AFTER your 8-10 hours at school 5 days a week.

Lesson planning would never take this long outside of this environment, but to follow the methods and steps drilled into us, it seriously takes anywhere from 6-8 hours PER LESSON. We have been teaching 2-3 lessons per week. This time includes research time (pics, activities, etc), writing the detailed lesson plan they advise, fighting with the printer and copying machine and working with the other teachers that day (cause we shared grammar points on our teaching days for the first 3 weeks). And I havent covered it all. Oh no! But I will stop there.

Basically, I am beat, worn out, and until I actually had a “good” lesson today, thought that I was the worst teacher, not to mention human being for not being able to follow such detailed instructions to a T.

All the comparisons to boot camp are true.

All of the “get sleep, eat well, and dont travel until its over” advice are well spoken.

And all of my 2 seconds of free time are over til the class ends next week.

Until then:)

D

And I scoffed those who told me how intense this CELTA program is!!!! To be fair, its not that any particular component of the class ... [Continue reading this entry]