So it's been rather a long time since I've added anything to my blog. This is due to a combination of being super busy and my laptop deciding to die, thus leaving me without easy internet access and destroying the document I had where I was keeping an account of what I've been doing.

I think it's been about 4 weeks since the last entry - I can't believe how quickly time has gone! In that time the first round of interns: Safir, Frankie and myself, had a great trip to Dalat which is in the mountains about 6 hours away from Saigon. Dalat is known as the 'city of eternal spring' due to it's cooler climate and lush foliage. It was gorgeous, with a lot of European influence in the architecture of most of the buildings there, and so so nice to be somewhere you could walk around comfortably and not end up soaked in sweat. We visited the 'crazy house', which was really cool and was like something out of Alice in Wonderland, full of twists and turns and random things. And our first night was spent in a lovely hotel which is owned by the Sinh Tourist - the travel company that we used to travel to Dalat with. We hit a bar that night, called 'Saigon Night', which is a classic dive bar, dingy with a pool table. There were only the three of us and two other travellers in the bar, but it was great, not only because it was my first drink since I arrived in Vietnam, but because it was relaxed, the landlord was cool (I embarrassed myself at pool and he handed me connect 4 instead!) and it made such a nice from y usual evenings in Saigon. The next day we went on a tour around Dalat, visiting two waterfalls, one of which you could take your own personal rollercoaster to the bottom, which I did, though I was really scared! Luckily the fact that it was personal meant that you could brake/accelerate whenever you wanted, so I went down nice and slowly! We also visited a monastery on a mountain, which overlooked Paradise Lake (which was stunning, even though it's man-made). The monastery was so serene and in such a gorgeous setting, and had wind chimes that were the perfect accompaniment to the feel of the whole place. After that we went to the summer palace of Emperor Bao Dai, which was all art deco and where it was quite hard to imagine that it had once been luxurious. We had lunch back at the hotel, and then then rain started. It was quite heavy and literally put a damperner on our tour, but we carried on. We visited a hand embroidery school, which was incredible. There were so many massive embroidery pieces that from a distance look like they are paintings, and it's only when you get close that you see the intricate embroidery that created such beautiful pieces. We missed out another lake on the tour due to the rain. Frankie wanted to make the trip cheaper so we moved to a hotel accross the road, which cost us $4 each and which definitely fit the 'you get what you pay for' cliche. Saying that though, it did the job and was only for one night. That nigt we joined an American girl, Linda - who was on our tour - for dinner, and then the four of us headed to Saigon Night. There were more people there, a foursome from NZ who were really friendly and it was good to meet more people. The journey back from Dalat took 8 hours due to traffic, which was a bit of a nightmare, but I slept most of the way.

After the Dalat trip our project team worked on a fairytale with a message about HIV for primary school students. I discovered that I have an excellent (if I do say so myself) witch's voice, which created much amusement! The primary school workshop took place on Saturday 23rd April, and was ok, but there were actually only 5 students there, and we read the story to them, but they probably would have enjoyed it more if we'd acted it out. Also there was a language problem as everything we said had to be translated to Vietnamese, so the story didn't flow very well. On the Sunday, however, we had our first proper workshop (minus Safir, who went to Cambodia to renew his visa), which was a complete success. There were about 25 students there, all of whom were enthusiastic and took part in the activities, and we got our message across clearly. The feedback we got was great, with several people wanting to know if they could volunteeer with us too! One girl stood up at the end and said that she had had a family member with HIV, who she did not go near and who was discriminated against, and that after the workshop she realised exactly how wrong that had been, and she felt so guilty about it. It was so moving and shows how relevant our workshops really are.

On Wednesday 27th April I took a flight with Vi to Danang, her hometown, for the long holiday that takes place around 30th April to celebrate Vietnam's independence. We were met by her cousin and mum at the airport, and were given a massive dinner - I was soon to learn that feeling totally stuffed after a meal was normal. Vi's house was really lovely, big and airy. Her mum is a pharmacist and runs the pharmacy out of the front of their house, which is common in Vietnam, most businesses are run out of the family home. The next day Vi showed me a lake near her house, we plucked corn from the cob to cook (no frozen packets here!), and then we went to the beach at about 5pm. I was so excited about the beach, but it was really strange to be there with no sun. Again, the Vietnamese like to keep their skin as white as possible, so avoid he beach when it's sunny. I was the only foreigner there, and discovered that Vietnamese don't really wear swimming costumes or bikinis, but in fact wear shorts, tshirts and, in some cases, jeans to swim in the sea. So it was a little uncomfortable but was fun anyway. By then I had decided not to care though as I get started at here whatever I'm wearing!

On the Friday Vi and I joined her aunt, uncle, their son, her brother, another cousin and the pharmacy assistant, and we all took a family trip to Hue. Thankfully Vi's uncle has a car, and it took us about 2 hours to get there. We visited a large pagoda, which was beautiful, before going for lunch in a restaurant whose name meant 'hell', but which served fantastic food, and then booking into a hotel where we all had a siesta. Once we'd rested we all piled into the car again and headed to a resort where there are hot springs. It was the kind of place that was once probably lovely, but which is now quite old and worn. We had a great time, there wer a couple of water slides, it wasn't very busy, and the hot springs were an amazing experience. It's so strange that water that hot is natural. After dinner in the evening we took a cyclo ride in the city, purchasing some traditional candy half-way through, which was lovely. We stayed in the hotel, which was called the 'paradise' hotel, but which didn't quite live up to the expectations the name gave! The next morning we went to the tomb complex of Emperor Tuc Duc, which was beautiful. It was set around a lake, with pine trees scattered throughout the complex, and full of historic buildings. It was a bit cheeky though as they charge 30,000d for Vietnamese to get in and 55,000 for tourists! It was quite strange as in one of the rooms some random Vietnamese people came up to me and asked to have their photos taken with me - one girl even saying 'i love you' afterwards! It was like I was some sort of celebrity! I dressed up as a Vietnamese queen and more people wanted pictures with me then, it was a bit of a surreal experience. I'm starting to get used to all the attention I get here - I'd better watch the size of my ego I think!

After the tomb complex we headed to some more springs, which was absolutely incredible. It was more like a river, set in the mountains, with large rocks throughout, and with many pools of water where you could swim. A lot of the pools were man-made, but it was still beautiful. On the banks of the river there were raft-like platforms where you could sit when you weren't swimming or clambering over the rocks to explore new pools. Shortly after we arrived I turned around to see Vi's aunt examining a live chicken that a man was holding upside-down - lunch. Everything there is kept as natural as possible. I felt so priviledged as again I was the only foreigner there, and it was clearly a place that the locals prefer to keep to themselves, which is understandable as it's so perfect. After an amazing time there (yes, I ate the chicken and yes, it was delicious) we headed back to Danang. That evening I went with Vi, Phuc her 14-year-old brother (who was a really sweet kid, I got on really well with him), a friend of hers to Danang's annual international firework competition. The traffic getting there was a nightmare! It took forever to get to the right place to park as so many roads had been closed off. Once we got there I saw the seating and started to get scared. It was a massive stand that looked like scaffolding, which you could see through as you climbed up. Vi insisted we went high up so that we got a good view, and I was terrified, but went with it. The view was a good one, I'll admit. The fireworks are set off on one side of the river, and we were sittin.g on the other. The teams that I saw were Italy and China. I absolutely love fireworks anyway, but these were fantastic. Some were so massive, and others had 5 colours come from one firework - all the latest technology was being used and I LOVED IT! The next day was a quiet one, spent around the house, and I spent quite a lot of it asleep as there wasn't anything else to do. On the Monday Vi and I went for breakfast with her friend, and I then went to a museum of Cham sculpture while she hung out in a coffee shop. The museum was really interesting, full of intricate pieces. In the afternoon we visited Vi's friend's mum, who wanted me to get a Vietnamese husband and stay in Vietnam forever, which was sweet, I guess. We then headed to a market to buy food as we were taking charge of dinner. The market was incredible, really traditional, full of all kinds of sights and smells, both good and not-so-good. We cooked a beef dish, a soup, had fish that Vi's mum had made and I wanted to do something Western, so made mashed potatoes. It's strange that they'd never had it before, but they all liked it! We flew back to crazy Saigon again on Tues 3rd May, such a contrast to the tree-lined boulevards and slower pace of life in Danang.

On Weds 4th May I met the three new interns for the first time: Daria from Norway, Grace from Malaysia, and Sarah who's also technically from the UK though who has moved around a lot. I love all of them already and wish they'd been on the project from the start! It's good as they've added fresh perspective on the presentation and on the workshop. It feels like we're constantly tweaking things, which is good as we're improving as we go. We had our first workshop with all 6 interns on Fri 6th May in a large international school. It was ok, but it was the first time we were all together and it was on a stage with microphobnes, which we weren't used to. I, for one, was as nervous as hell! But we got decent feedback and it was good to show us where we needed to improve. This was Frankie's last workshop and he left on 7th May.

On the Saturday Safir, Sarah, Daria and I checked ourselves into a hotel as we had decided to have a night out and didn't want to wake our hosts up. Grace joined us for dinner and pre-drinks, but it was just the four of us who hit the bars. We started off in the main backpacking district, but after ending up in a mediocre club got a taxi to another place and had an awesome time! We got back to the hotel at 5am and all felt a little fragile the next day. My first proper night out in Vietnam was great. I moved out of Vi's place and into the hotel on Sunday 8th May. I had been living with her for five and a half weeks, sharing not only her room, but also her bed, and the time had come where I needed my own space again. I'm proud of myself for lasting that long really! Not that we didn't get on, because we did, and I'm glad she was my host. Hotel Nyugen Khang is really nice, clean, perfectly located and the staff are friendly and attentive, so I'm happy. And as I'm in the tourist area now, rather than being THE tourist in my district, I can be completely independent as people speak English here and I'm super happy to have my independence back again!

This past week has been absolutely crazy! We've had workshops every day, located all over the place. This has meant getting up at 5am to catch the bus at 6.30am to various places in the city. It's exhausting! We spent an average of an hour and a half per journey on the buses. I really feel like I've completely mastered the buses now! But it's been great. We've reached over 2000 students this week, and we've all been able to see our confidence grow. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was to challenge myself, and public speaking is one area I really wanted to work on. This project has really helped me to grow - I never thought I'd enjoy being on stage in front of 400 people! And while there are always those who choose not to listen to the workshops, there are always those who do listen, who ask questions at the end, who get involved, and who hopefully are taking something away with them. The hard work is definitely worth it.

Last night I went to Saigon's largest gay night, themed around Lady Gaga. Incredibly hot and sweaty, it was an experience that I wasn't expecting to have in Vietnam, but it was so much fun!

I've only got one week left here now. It's quite sad really. I've made it through the culture shock and come out the other side abolutely loving being here, enjoying living in this crazy city, still continually learning, experiencing new things and loving the friends I've made here. I'm looking forward to my last week in Ho Chi Minh City and it'll be a shame to leave everybody here, but I'm also excited about the travelling I've got ahead of me.