A mere 24 hours in DaLat

Thankfully we had booked our hostel in advance (to all you people who said *just wing it* HA TAKE THAT) so we weren't meandering around DaLat at 5 am. We were able to check into our hostel (Mr. Peace Hostel...top 5 hostels I've stayed at plus Mr. Peace is fabulous see picture below) and were given a room by ourselves to snooze in. I have never been so happy to sleep in a hostel bed as I was at that moment.

It doesn't look like much but after not sleeping for about two days it was heaven.

After being forced to arise from my slumber with the lure of Vietnamese coffee, we managed to get up and have our third banh mi in a little over 24 hours. Less is not more. More is more. 

Thanks for documenting one of the best banh mi sandwiches we sampled while in Vietnam, Chels! Your thumb ring looks great. 

We then took a tour of the DaLat countryside which was beautiful!

^Elephant Falls

^"I'm so fun"

^"I'm not even scared of this waterfall" *internal crying*

^our tour guide took us behind the waterfall and IT WAS SO COOL. Poor Chelsea couldn't come because her camera isn't waterproof like my GoPro suckaaaaa

^you can't look at this buddha and not smile

^silk worms

^silk factory!

^taking shots of rice wine

^not in college anymore

Our last stop of the tour was to see how weasel coffee was made. I thought I was hearing wrong, but it is confirmed that a weasel eats the coffee beans, poops them out, someone washes them??!?!?!, and then coffee is made from those beans. Beans that have passed through a weasel. I drank coffee that came out of a weasel's ass. 

^Can you tell which ones are cleaned and which ones aren't? Me neither.

It turned out to be delicious and the view that came with it was beautiful!

We really worked up an appetite drinking weasel poop coffee, so our tour guide took us to eat some of the best spring rolls I have ever had. 

SO GOOD I am salivating looking at this picture right now

Then we headed back to our hostel where we helped make our second dinner of the night. #portioncontrol

^Mr. Peace feeling himself

^Mr. Peace's daughter whose happens to have the best name in the world. Her name is Laura.

^lol hi

After politely declining the invitation to go out with these fun people with thoughts of flying home from Ireland the day after Saint Patty's Day ringing in my head, we went to bed because we had a flight to catch in the morning! EYYOOOO HOI AN!

Back in Nam

GOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM! After safely landing in Ho Chi Minh City where we have to remind ourselves to stop waiing to people and speaking Thai, our first thing on our list was to get an overnight bus ticket to Dalat for that night. What better way to save money on hostels than to take overnight transportation can I get an Amen?

I distinctly remember thinking it was going to be SO fun, like a sleepover when you were a little kid, except with lots of people you don’t know, who don't speak English, on a moving bus, and no parents to make you delicious snacks or make sure you have enough pillows and blankets. After attempting to bargain the price of the bus ticket and getting shut down (we're no longer in Thailand, Toto) we were READY AND EXCITED. Vietnam is our oyster!!! Considering Vietnam is known for having delicious coffee, and I wasn't ready to put my "travel" coffee pot to use just yet, we figured we would ask some locals what the best place to get coffee was. After talking to a few people, a man and his friend told us they would moto us to a really amazing place down the road. Sure!! (My mom is cringing inside.)

It's hard to look this good on a moto but you can try.

He took us to Trugnyen coffee, which I think would the be the equivalent to someone asking you what is a really good local place to get coffee in Seattle and them taking you to a Starbucks. However, it was delicious. I also can't believe I didn't document my FIRST EVER COFFEE in VIETNAM. Honestly.

After our caffeine fix (it was maybe a sip and a half of coffee…where are the American portions?!?!) the only thing on our mind was bread. Our new moto friends (okay we paid them to drive us but I think their was something there) told us they would take us to the War Remnants Museum which was on our list and on the way stop and let us get sammies. Deal.

Holding the prized possessions. 

We found a stand selling banh mi for less than a dollar and it was DAMN GOOD. After eating rice three times a day (sometimes four, hellooooo mango sticky rice you sweet sweet thang), I forgot what other food groups tasted like. They tasted like heaven.

^please notice the pure ecstasy all over our faces

We then headed to the War Remnants Museum which was an amazing but also horrifying. If you are ever in Ho Chi Minh make it a point to go to this museum!

After a quick pit stop to get another banh mi-I'm on an all carb diet GOD KAREN YOU'RE SO STUPID- we took a quick walk to meet Peter in the park. My mom is probably like, "Who is Peter!?!?!"  While we were in the park a group of 5 or 6 people came up to us to practice their English! It was great and so ballsy of them to just come over and start talking to us considering 2/3 of us have major resting bitch face. Apparently I did rest my eyes for a moment when they were gone and they came back and took a picture with me while I was sleeping. The amount of pictures people in Southeast Asia have of me....

After an awesome dinner of bread- my third loaf of the day- and pho (it’s pronounced like “pho”ck you…I've been to Vietnam so I would know *hair flip*)

we were ready for the sleeper bus!!! I’m going to get such a good night’s sleep! And think of all the money we're saving on a hostel!




This was the worst ride of my life. It was NOT like a sleepover. There was NOT a bathroom on the bus ride that took 7 hours, and I felt the need to chug a liter of water right before to "hydrate".

^you can already tell I'm starting to have second thoughts about this "sleepover on a bus" thing.

After three hours of me saying "okay maybe by 11 p.m. we will have a bathroom break.....okay maybe by 11:15.....11:45....12:30....would anyone notice if I just peed in my seat?.....1:15.....1:30" I got up to ask the bus driver if we were ever going to stop a restroom. I guess there is a literal line you can not cross when going to talk to the driver because I got YELLED at. In half Vietnamese half English. I just kept repeating BATHROOM?!?!?!?! Eventually he told me we would be stopping in "an hour". I go back to my lounge seat and just close my eyes, praying that somehow an hour means an hour in Vietnam, because it most certainly does not in Thailand. Sure enough though, an hour later we finally stop at a restroom. Have you ever peed so long that you actually cannot believe that your body stores that much liquid and kind of wish you timed it? I was astounded.

After another 3 hours we finally reached our destination at a convenient time of 5am!!! Helloooooo DaLat we are here!!!!!!!

Teacha Lala no more

Our time as teachers has officially come to an end. If I could sum (get it...because I'm a math teacher) up my experience as a teacher in two sentences this would be it.

When I try to get my students excited about math using playing cards:

When my students present an English project and I have no idea what they are saying:

When I cover another teacher's class:

When my students ask if we can play a game:

When my students ask what workbook pages we are doing for the 18th time:

When there are 15 minutes left of class and we have completed everything:

When my students complain about how they don't want to be in class:

When my students are being loud and out of control when I want to explain the rules to a game:

When my students try to argue with me and I think they might actually be right but I don't care:

When I write anything on the board:

When I take out my phone and my students want to see my Facebook:

When I try and teach anything:

I joke I joke. I was extremely qualified.

Now that school is over I am free to love my students because I no longer have to worry about getting through workbook pages, explaining vocabulary words, or making up grades grading tests! When I walked into my homeroom on the last day of school, all my students started cheering and clapping and giving me wonderful cards and gifts (one of my students gave me three of her old stuffed animals and I'm just not sure what to do with them?)!  

It was probably the cutest thing that has ever happened to me, but then I got something in my eye and had to leave. Okay fine I sobbed. Sobbed like a blubbering baby. 

But then I remembered I had to grade 90 students' tests that were around 100 questions each and those tears quickly dried up.

At least it was slightly entertaining. 

^I'm expecting my Teacher of the Year award in the mail any day now.

After grading was over I was able to go through the cards my students gave me.

^from Mine...he cackled when he gave this to me and asked if I thought it was beautiful

^From Lumpsum...."Sometime I'm not gave your work" that's right Lumpsum I'm still waiting on those workbook pages....

^from my favorite boys- apparently I taught them ABCs too

^my favorite card because it has all my students' names!!!! <3

^I now have YouTube subscribers so...

^my 6th grade homeroom...LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE!!!! my heart breaks looking at this picture.

^my fourth grade...the one and only time they are not running around the classroom hitting each other with rulers

^aaaand we are back to being crazy. I love them 

^My 5/5 class <3 Most well-behaved!!!

^And my 5/6 who are psycho <3

^MY FAVORITE TEACHAS I WILL MISS YOU ALL <3

It was really hard saying goodbye to everyone. While my students drove me crazy 3/4 of the time (what percent is 3/4 everyone?? this is how I think now), they were amazing kids and I am proud to have been their teacher. The lyrics from See You Again were written on almost all of my cards from my homeroom because we listened to that song almost everyday (...while doing math...) and it makes me so sad. But I am so lucky and fortunate to have done something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

After we stepped out of school for the last time, Chelsea and I went home and blasted Graduation by Vitamin C on repeat for a few hours. We also did this the morning we graduated from college. Nostalgia.

The only thing that got us out of our funk was the fact that we were about to start our backpacking trip! We are traveling for around 3 months, starting in Vietnam, then going to Indonesia, Australia, back to Thailand/Cambodia to meet my fam (BRING ME PEANUT BUTTER MOM), then Laos, and finally ending in the Philippines. We fly home on December 23^rd (I am so lucky that the only Christmas present my friends and family are expecting is my safe return…..) into JFK and then from JFK we fly into Dulles. On the day before Christmas Eve. During rush hour. We really timed it well.

If you want to follow our travels I made an extremely organized and detailed travel calendar while I was supposed to be grading my students' tests in my free time!

Deciding to waste no time, we are leaving a mere day after our last day at school. Considering my bag was a full 15 pounds over the weight limit when coming here (RIP jar of JIFF you have been missed) packing has been interesting. I know I will be wearing the same three shirts and shorts until they have fallen apart but I feel the need to bring everything I own, including my headlamp (when will I ever need this? my inner girl scout is screaming at me ALWAYS BE PREPARED), 10 bags of PopSecret homestyle edition (this is necessary), a jar of peanut butter (shoutout to Emily’s mom), my entire makeup bag (I wore makeup maybe a total of 7 days the entire time I was in Thailand but WHAT IF I NEED IT) a bag of Sweedish fish (this is also necessary), my coffee pot (I figured I would save money on coffee if I just brought along my own coffee pot…I am a genius) my journal (upon arriving in Cambodia back in March I swore to myself I would write a single sentence a day describing what I did. My last and final entry was “Class was hot and boring. Stepped in mud.” It was day 6.) to name a few. After packing everything and ripping my bag in the process (off to a good start) we were READY.

^4 in the morning. Delirious. 

Unfortunately I had to leave Mr. Latonya and my blankie behind because he is just getting too old to travel like he used to and I am 23 years old and probably should not be traveling with a blankie/stuffed caterpillar named Mr. Latonya. Mr. L is also missing an eye, antenna, leg, and his dignity thanks to Hannah Gutcher's dog so he needs to stay home and rest. 

Maybe I'll update my blog but most likely I'll be too lazy! WISH US LUCK!