And there won't be snow in Vietnam this Christmas time...

Not a single little smidgen sadly. And though all of you in England are complaining about the dark and rainy weather, we'd love a bit of that right now. As well as some selection boxes, advent calendars, crackers and especially an oven to cook Christmas dinner - Christmas will definitely not be a traditional one this year in Vietnam.

We have a tree though!

It's been over a month since our last blog, and since then, we've been settling down into the quiet suburban life in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. We have our own apartment, our own bikes and we don't pay tax - what more could we wish for? Obviously it'd be nice if the bloke who lives downstairs stops stealing from us, but you can't have everything in life.

No serious bumps yet

We've finally started getting a decent number of hours teaching every week too. This is obviously good - as it means we make more money - but also bad, as it means we have to work. The lessons with the kids are usually good, though the ones with ADHD certainly know how to stress you out for half an hour. Perhaps worse are the kids who act as if you're their mum all lesson. A lot of the battle is often with the teaching assistants - with the best ones putting on Tom & Jerry for the kids with 10 minutes left, and the worst ones heading round the classroom, and beating the children with a stick.

Occasionally they're nice

The build-up to Christmas has been a rather less-festive one that we might've hoped for. Yes we've still had a tree, cards and a James Bond marathon on TV, but beyond that, it's sadly subdued. There are a few festive shops around but you don't really feel that their hearts are in it, and we're fully expecting to be woken up tomorrow (Christmas morning) by the banana-lady who roams the streets at 6am every day trying to sell bananas wake us up at an un-holy hour for no reason.

Having a beer in the street

So Christmas this year will be a little different. We're having to fry our roasted chicken tomorrow, while one of our presents for each other is wrapped up in bin liners. Despite it being a different Christmas - it'll still be a great one. Vietnam is an amazing country - we have amazing jobs and friends here (so long as they're not bringing duck fetuses to our house) - and since we'll be sticking around here for a few months or so, we're putting out an open invitation to anyone who'd like to come and visit!

The only thing left to say, is we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!