Update after a year and the Summer diving!

It has been a year since I wrote a blog entry and it was about my first scuba diving experience in Nha Trang. For the same reason, I want to write again.

Exploring the Memorial Park where my sis new house is near :)

Yorkshire Dales Field Trip in November 2012

YSD field trip, working with my group - Jinxi, Sienna

Life has taken over this past year and I just couldn't find time to write properly. There are lots to reflect over the year and lots to remember, all of which have entered my diary (even it has experienced quite an unstable diet!)

This year contained probably so many memories I can't count all on my fingers. When I left for England in September last year, I started my first year of A level - struggled a bit with all the new adjustment. During term time, I didn't have much time to go out so I spent almost all of the year in the Geography Library at school. Not too bad eventhough I do want to go out but it would cost a lot on my savings....

My sister moved out of Hall to a house she rented with 4 other people. I come here every holiday via Megabus because it's cheap which takes around 2hours. There is a huge memorial park at the back so it has been fun to explore the area. Sis took care of me well, of course and in turn, I helped taking care of the house. I learnt this year how many things I would have to think about renting a house. I had to deal with the bills, maintenance and all sort of other stuff like who the hell stole our trash can!?!

My visa for Morocco didn't go through so I stayed in Warwick with my sister while my classmates experienced my dream land. I had to give up the offer for the volunteer trip to Tamil Nadu in India because we couldn't pay for it. My student visa in the UK caused quite a bit of trouble and I didn't go home in Christmas so I spent my first Christmas in England. Didn't go to the New York art trip either.

I got my fone stolen, my laptop stolen and also had quite a bad day that day at the train station. Things at home weren't so stable. My swimming training has fallen quite badly (did managed to get back into the swim team though!) I reckon with all the crap that happened to me this year, I could write a book of my life experiences being a foreign student lol

My Christmas drawing in ES room

ES chocolate penguins gift for Christmas

With all that being said about how strange this year has been, good things did happen. Problems that arises came with help in the end. My tutor is the best tutor in the world! ES looked after me for the past 2 GCSE years and now she continues to take care of me. She gives us Christmas chocolatey in shape of penguins because she has quite an obsession with penguins :D She loves animals and that makes her even more special! Since I moved to England to study, I have somewhat become a semi-vegetarian too. I stopped eating meat except for the occasional fishes (simply because I can't give up on sushi...) My love for Japanese food will never die haha

Countdown for New Year 2013

Celebrating New Year and Mandy's bday together

Good things did happen, like the fact that my roomate this year was Mandy (a chinese girl) and she is the most amazing roommate! Mandy and I both like to take care of each other and especially we are both a little OCD. She is more OCD than I am of course. I would cook nice dinner for us and she would clean. What I admire most is the fact that she is just so happy and contented with her life that rarely would you see her stress out or get mad at anyone. She listen to my daily ramble about life and always support me in whatever I do. I don't know what title to give her because she is quite an astonishing person for us all to look up too. However, I do have to push her sometimes to do some work lol

Bhakti and I at IF campaign Hydepark (June)

We led the House Music competition together through up and down and won the cup. My idea of a kitchen percussion performance won us the Assemble price. I also ran Cross country (21 minutes or sth I think! Not too bad) and the 10 miles cup which was meant to be ran by boys but we didn't have enough boys. I played all the Sports there were on Sport day - Played Javeline for the first time hitting my silly head three times, Headshot with a soccer ball first time (being the only girl for the Boarding team!). I am now selected to become the Head of Collinson so I am quite proud of that. I also was involved in the 2013 Live below the line again this year and then attended the IF campaign. I also took my economic teacher around on her first trip in Vietnam.

Touring VGM and Hannah of Cu Chi tunnels

My birthday was spent going back to England as usual with a birthday wish from the immigration officer, but friends and Collinson collective made my 18th birthday quite awesome :) Matron made me a special cake and I got prezzi too. Plus I had a Geography lesson that day so that was good too! Here are a collection of photos from the past year!

Sneaking out to buy Wasabi bday dinner :D

Me and Mandy on my bday

Created Tu Linh's corner in GEOG library :D embarrassingly since I stayed here every afternoon till 6, ppl just call it my spot lol

Top of Epping hill with Sienna and Ploy - Bio field trip :D

There were 2 trips this year that I made me quite happy too. The first was the trip of Yorkshire Dales in November 2012 where I spent the most amazing three days in Yorkshire learning geography. Second was the biology trip in Epping in June 2013 where I met an interesting young man who was guiding us over the weekend, showing me quite a lot of cool stuff and in return I helped him plan his trip to Vietnam,  and also I got to trek up the Epping hill.

Bio field trip to Epping - Made friends with this goat who on the last days, rmb to come and find me!

I was given a lot of opportunities to be the technicians backstage for the Drama department this year, helping out the A2 performances, an annual play and then the AS end of year performances. It is great to be welcomed to the Drama department and learnt to do all the lighting I have always dream of. I helped with their costumes too. Overall, it was all great fun!

My artwork at the End of Year exhibition

The UK this year experienced quite a long winter, so when spring did come at last. I had to capture the wildlife booming! I climb a tree for the first time after 18 years of age. That was quite an achievement.

Last homecook dinner for my wonderful roommate Mandy!

Another of my wildlife photo collection from Mill Hill

Three little ducks parading the school

Sis took me to Hatton Farm during my last half term in Summer before my exam.

Caught my own Guinea Pig at Hatton Farm

Making friend with the goat almighty

First encounter with a Reindeer

It became my getaway place - the tree!

Visit to Nottingham uni geog department

Before I left England, I did manage to squeeze in a trip to the Nottingham University to visit the Geography department there. It was amazing to be amongst people with the same interest. Although that means I have a lot to do with my personal statement.

-------------

I came back home in on the 1st July and spent a week or so at home. Although it bugs me a lot that I wasn't doing anything productive much apart from spending time with my family and working at the backstore. I taught my brother to swim and also my cousin so I'm proud of that too. Old friends reunited and that was quite a beauty night! So much fun!

Moving on to the most important part of this post though. I went back to Nha Trang to scuba dive once again after a year. It took me quite a few days trying to organise the trip with Minh (who went with me last year) and My Linh Hime - my best friend. Minh and I wanted to top up our knowledge with the Advanced Open Water course and My Linh is a total newbie to diving.

(content has been moved to a new post - Review of an Adventurous summer 2013)

Us three on the train from Nha Trang back home.

Gosh there are too much to write about.

Thank you so much to everyone for helping me through the year! 

All I want to say is this :

Bad things come as a wake up call, reminding you of the good things in life that you better appreciate it!

and 

I have learnt through all this, I have to create my own adventure because no one will ever make it happens for me!

Scuba Diving in Nha Trang

I have always wanted to swim with fishes. There was no doubt scuba diving never crossed my mind. I was pretty insistent with mum. I called up to book my course and the cheapest transportation I can find. 

Monday night of the 19th, I got on the train and headed off to Nha Trang to get my PADI Open Water certificate. I met Minh for the first time, our parents work together and he will be my partner for the next few days. We had a few friendly conversation and then fell fast asleep.

5.00 am we arrived at Nha Trang train station. It was pretty early but both of us woke up quickly and walked to Minh's uncle house. I carried my small rucksack and felt very excited.

We met the nice couple who would be taking us in for the time we are here. We ate breakfast and soon enough got on the bike to our dive centre - VINADIVE. Hung was our instructor and he was great! We had to sign some paperwork, watch the DVD and read over the book for the first 2 hours. After that, we headed to Ho Boi Quan Doi (the Military pool) not so far from the dive centre.

Here we got change into our wetsuit and prepare to get our hands on the scuba gear. They were cleaning the pool so the water were pretty low and quite dirty. Not that it stops us from swimming. We put on our snorkel and fins, and started swimming. Hung was pretty happy with us because we were good swimmers and I could keep a steady speed.

We got out and this time to learn how to set up our BCD. Several steps of checking required but they were pretty easy to grasp. We learn quickly and took our gear down the pool. The lesson of the day was to equalization, breathing with the cylinder, how to find the breather, cleaning our goggles, etc. After that, free swim to get use to our instrument until we got sick of breathing from the cylinder.

We finished our day at lunch and we took our books to a cafe to study. Later, we watched a movie and then headed back to rest.

I could not wait to start our second day of the course because today we are heading out to the sea!

7.30 am, the bus picked us up and several others along the way to head to Nha Trang's port. There were two from Hanoi, the rest were foreigners. We got on our boat and sat at the back. Hung told us to set up our BCD. We revised exactly what we did yesterday and finished with a good tick! Now just waiting to actually get off and dive. 

(Hence our first photo of the day here)

We soon had to get into our wetsuit which will keep us warm underwater. I was very excited! 

A picture of me and my BCD!

We finally got to Hon Mun and we were getting down around 10m deep, did some exercise from our lesson yesterday and basically just play! The corals were beautiful and I was so happy seeing so many fishes and my god touch a star fish for the first time. We did two dives at two location but when I got up I was so so happy that I jumped off to swim again until the boat really had to leave. I was able to carry my 14kg BCD up the boat which was a shock to many (haha I'm quite strong!) The crew were great fun and lovely! Many laughter on the boat. We enjoyed a nicely cooked lunch from one of the cook onboard before  we finished for the day. I couldn't imagine how much I would love the underwater world. I knew I love swimming and all but this was on another plane! I was so happy I couldn't sleep that night.

The third day started off pretty much the same as the second. We are diving deeper today, around 15m. We knew the drill of how the day was gonna go. Hung checked the Review in my book and explained some works to me like planning my dive which of course, I'm never good at!

The boat took us out to Pagoda island this time. We got down and dive. Today, we dive with Hung. We just have a tour around, no lesson which was great. The water was clearer too. We saw more fishes and corals. I have a much bigger appreciation for corals now more than ever. 

Here is a picture of Minh and I before I jumped down for another swim (because we have to wait until everyone finished their dives. One of the crew asked if I wanted to jump off from the top of the boat. Hell yea! of course and I jumped three times which made the whole boat laugh because I was a very stubborn girl. I did the "yo-most" way and the head down as well! Fantastic fun! 

Once we got back on the boat, I realised the best part of the trip was over. I no longer swim with fishes neither dive down to see corals. Although I was still high on the flow adrenaline. 

We got to the port and back to the office where we learn how to write in our new dive log book and finally complete our training. We are now officially one of PADI Open Water divers. We said goodbye to Hung and thank him for an amazing 3 days dive of my life.

Before we got on the plane back home to Saigon, Dung and his wife made us a lovely barbe on the top of their house. The weather was lovely and we had a lovely fresh air from the vegetable garden they were growing. They had been wonderful at taking care of us. I am quite sure I have gotten fatter after the 3 days trip!

This was without a doubt the best decision I have ever made. Scuba diving was amazingly awesome. I have finally found my sport. I can't wait to get down into the water again!

Lucky!

Read my story for the challenge and please support me to make a difference!
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/tulinh17

I am joining this challenge for the next 5 days. I am going to live below the line with just £1 of food a day.

WHY I'M TAKING THE CHALLENGE

In today's world, extreme poverty and inequality are unjustifiable and unfair. Live Below the Line demonstrates the problem in a concrete way, while raising money to address the problem. I come from Vietnam, a country that still suffers from extreme poverty. I have had many opportunities to visit and help many charities here and Cambodia. I know how hard it is for many people to earn just 1usd a day and having to feed their entire family with it. I want to help even just a little bit, to change this!

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/tulinh17

Please support me to help others!

Happy New Year!

A photo I took of a friend!

Saigon oi!

I received a Christmas card from my best friend - Eunice today - Christmas eve!
I have had such a stressful time since I came back to Saigon last Tuesday because I'm studying up for my scholarship exam. I'm going to try and ace that Geography scholarship. I really need to. So, I'm gonna try my very best to get it. I'm also taking one for Art but I have less to worry about that than this.

Anyway, lately I haven't had time to blog partly because my laptop charger broke and I constantly have to shed time to do hw first before using it for any other purposes. Here is a review of my week!

Last week, I was going to work with my mum everyday to observe her work (well she let me come and help with the shop she is opening) I was actually learning quite a bit just listening, helping write email in english etc. So I went to Vincom with mum for work and I met Nicole! Omg It was the best thing that has happened to me all week. I had lost a lot of numbers so I couldn't really contact anyone and I thought most of friends would have left by now either temporary or really really left. Meeting with Nicole gave me an uninvited little farewell party that they all made up for Ali. I finally convinced Joshy to come and see me too and that made my day!

We had fun scaring Ali and had 2 sessions of bumper car, and then i gained myself another invitation to Ali's bday party :D Met Vy there. She seemed as awkward as I was which makes me quite comfortable actually xDDD hahaha I did managed to make new friends since most of my friends are now gone to some other places already. We went out later that night. I had quite a blast! :D

This week, I was determined to meet Harith and go to Ala Mezon because there is a live jazz performance thing i found on the internet. So we met in Fahasa to buy drawing pencils before heading off. I didn't know this was my opportunity to make friend with Lam Anh (she lives near my house too :D) lol we then invited Jimmy. Yup got on a taxi, gave the address, driver dropped us off at a random place behind Ben Thanh's market and told us to walk there bc it's only a few minutes away and he can't get in. We got off but realised that he must have mistaken it for another str so we got on another taxi and went back to Le Loi str to find a mass of ppl killing each other to take Christmas pictures. We had to get off the taxi and follow the driver instruction to walk to Ala Mezon.

What a crazy night right? I got scared to death by this fake awesome superman. Why on earth would anyone do that? leave a superman at a table, on a floor, by himself!?!
The music after all was quite enjoyable. I had a great time with Harith, Jimmy and Lam Anh.

Despite the quiet and loneliness of having almost all of my friends all over the world somewhere, I am having a nice time back home in Saigon.

Merry Christmas everybody!