So you might have been wondering what Donna has been up to. I am her daughter Ginny, and I just set up a Blog for her so she can share photos of past adventures and keep you updated on where she is going. She has been teaching ESL, English as a second language, for five years and it has taken her all over that world. She started in Mexico, and you all know that she loves Mexico and will always return. When in doubt as to where to go next, she always goes back there.


MEXICO

OK, I first went to Puerto Vallarta in November 2000 to become certified in ESL, English as a second language, with a plan to go to Costa Rica, but never got there "and still haven't". After becoming certified to teach English as a second language, I went to Zihuatanejo, and started teaching the next week. I taught there for a couple of months and then the owner of the school wanted me to start a school for him in San Jerinamito. This was a pueblo about 30 minutes from Zihuatanejo, I was the only gringo in the entire town. The whole town was so curious about the" gringa teacher" that the first day most of the town came by the school to check it out. They didn't have enough money to attend so they would stand outside the school at the window and learn what they could. Most of my students were teenagers and we had great fun. They were so proud of what ever they learned that they taught their families, so it had a great dribble down effect for the community. We decided that this was not cost effective for my boss, so we bused the students to Zih. This was a great decision for us all. I got to teach ,be at the beach again, eat great food and see my friends.

After living in Zih. for 7 months I thought a trip and the possibility of working in Spain would be sort of exciting, so off I flew to Madrid. It was exciting the first time I had encountered a subway and wasn't sure even where I wanted to end up. It worked out with the help of some really nice young kids from Madrid, who made some great suggestions and helped me find a good hostel. I then went to Cadiz, which was my choice from reading the travel books. It was a lovely city and Spain is a beautiful country, traveled most of it except the north, their bus system is great. I'd do it again. I Didn't get a job right away, but did get one for September,I just couldn't afford to hang around for that long. It is expensive in Europe. I got a great trip out of it and decided to go back to Mexico and travel around a bit, as I hadn't seen much of the country.

I left Spain and flew back to see the girls and my grandson for a visit. Then made reservations for Cabo San Lucas , not to go fishing, but to get to La Paz where a friend thought I'd like to live. It was ok but wanted to see more of Mexico, so I kept going. I took a short ferry ride to Mazatlan looked around for a job and the next day had 3 jobs so decide to stay for a while. It was a great school and meant some good friends there. I needed to renew my visa, so another teacher and I drove to Nogales. Now that was an experience. Terry drove like a crazy Canadian and we were laughing for hours. We had a great trip with lots of strange and crazy border checks along the way. I don't think they were looking for drugs, maybe just checking out the girl I was with. I think I spent about 6 months there, that seems like a good time to leave, plus the school decided that all the teachers needed to become legal with FM3 papers ( I do relate to the illegal immigrants, having been one). Well, that costs more than we made in a month so 3 of us decided to leave and we all went to Zihuatanejo.

So I am back in Zih again. I guess it was meant to be because one of the teachers at the school that I had taught at before is leaving. So with a lot of luck I have my old job back and I'm teaching 4 hours a day which is just what I want, leaving me time to work on my tan, go fishing with old friends and just enjoy the life of Zih. Like all over Mexico the pay sucks, so I took a night job at a popular bar and restaurant--JJ's. I am the hostess, which is what? haha, it is great fun for about a month, then I know I am not cut out for the bar business, crazy, crazy. I did meet some really great travelers, one was a lady from Montana who was raised a mile from where I grew-up, hard to believe we would end up in the same bar in Mexico, and then somehow for this to come up in a conversation....what a small and wonderful world. In Zih when summer comes the students seem to take a vacation, so classes end. It is a good time to take off, but always with the thought of returning again soon. I have had more fun and the craziest times here, never to be forgotten. Like my blood-brother Ernesto, learning how to sniff Vodka, picking mangoes with Rojilio and breaking my finger when he cut the mango down yelling "catch it" from 15 feet up the tree, and Madera beach. Thank you to all of those great people for such fun.

So once again I go back to the states to see my wonderful family, spend some time there and go back (home) to Mexico. I started my ESL life in Puerto Vallarta but was so busy studying that didn't really get to know the people or the city, so its fun to return. It is a great place. Very touristy, but off the tourist beat it is a lovely Mexican small city. I loved teaching here, a great school, a great owner, fantastic students. I still get e-mail from some of these students and feel the need to go back to see how they are doing. I taught several levels from beginners to advanced and graduated 2 classes while there. I have thought several times this would be where I'd buy a home and RETIRE here, maybe si, maybe no.

Somewhere in here a Friend and I went to Thailand for FUN-NO WORK. Spent about 3 month or so here. Bangkok is huge, like 6 million or so. It is a wild and crazy city, with horrid traffic, but interesting. Loved Puket, meant some crazy funny young people there and hope that they all are still there, they were very special. Traveled to several islands," Ko's," Ko Somuni, and Ko Somet great beaches. Also had to go into Cambodia to re-new my visa, big problem as the borders to Cambodia were closed because of problems with Thialand. Cambodia had burned their embassy, so it was interesting as it was the first day the border was opened. The border crossings are usually lined with vendors, and there wasn't anyone around, so when we crossed, we were all alone with machine-guns pointing at us from both borders. Weird, but we survived, and it was something to remember.


VIETNAM


I love this country and its people more than I can say. I'd live there if it wasn't 24 hours from my family. Every day was a new and exciting event. I taught at American Pacific University in Ho Chi Minh City. My students were amazing, most of them were from Vietnam Airlines studying English to pass a test to be accepted into an aviation program in Seattle. These students were like having 50 sons and daughters or better yet grandchildren. They were my family and still are. I think it was more of a learning experience for me than for them.
The city of Ho Chi Minh City, HCMC , Saigon, whatever you want to call it, is the most exciting city of 6,000,000 people, yet I never thought of it as too huge. It seemed like several small areas, not one huge city. Every day in HCMC I woke to different noises, maybe birds. vendors yelling, whistles of the knife-sharpener, then I got on a xe om (say-ohm), which is a motorcycle taxi. I had my daily driver, who was always waiting for me, and off we went on the motorcycle along with at least 1 million other people going to work. God, it is a wake up call. By the time I got to school, it took 25 minutes, and I had seen more sights than anywhere I've ever been, plus I was ready to start the day with my heart pounding and full of laughter. My best memories are my students, teaching friends,Mimi, our wonderful secretary-do all be all beautiful lady, singing karoke(if you can believe me singing), the streets of amazing things, riding xe oms, beautiful beaches, great food, the people, dyeing a young mans hair blonde for him, street kids, and laughter. A LOVELY , WONDERFUL COUNTRY. I will return this year for a short trip, and maybe more. Where? Well, that is difficult because I simply loved it all, but I guess my favorites were Nha Trang where you can eat lobster on the beach, Phu Quoc where it is so new that there are not many foreigners, and Vung Tau because it is so close to HCMC that I went quite often. Good dog meat and I knew several local people so it was alway fun. Most people love Hoi An for shopping It has a nice beach but was cold when I was there. Of course, HCMC is a must. NO I didn't go to Hanoi, only because it took more time and during vacations it is always booked in advance. TET (Vietnemese New Year) is an amazing time and you just have to be there to understand it.
VIVA LA VIETNAM. Thank you to all the wonderful people I was lucky enough to meet and spend time with.