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MBA Graduation: Reflection, Gratitude, and Adventure
What to do when you graduate from your MBA in the middle of winter and want to celebrate? Take an adventure trip to Lapland!
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Welcome
Thanks for visiting Expat Heather! I’m an international educator, writer, and expat mom currently living in South Korea. On this site you’ll find things about living abroad, teaching in international schools, travel, hiking, and expat life.
During our school October break, we spent 3 days/2 nights at the Mekong Lodge at Cai Be. I booked this place because it had strong reviews on Agoda and Trip Advisor, seemed family friendly, and is only 2.5 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
I was looking for a place where we could get away from the city, relax, and get out in nature for a few days. We booked the 3 day/2 night package which cost $75 per person / per day (for adults, our 2-year old was free), included all meals, a triple room bungalow with private pool, and a full program of activities.
Getting There
We opted to hire a private car through Mekong Loge. It cost $70 for one way. On the way there, we had a nice Ford Escape. The driver picked us up at our house and was about 5 minutes early. The drive took 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Cai Be port. Then we got on a boat to travel the last 15 minutes to Mekong Lodge.
The last time I updated this blog, Gabriel was just over 2 years old. Now he’s a few months shy of turning 3, and we’re expecting our second child two weeks after his 3rd birthday.
He’s as energetic as ever, however he has a much longer attention span now than he did when he turned 2. We went back to the US this summer for 5 weeks, and Gabriel was the best traveler out of all 3 of us. He’s finally discovered HEADPHONES, so for him it was like a two-day movie and juice marathon getting from Saigon back to Boston. In Toyko Narita he loves to run up and down the moving walkways, which is a great way for him to burn off some energy before sitting for the long flight between Tokyo and New York.
We just returned from 3 days/2 nights in the Mekong Delta at Cai Be. Full review of Mekong Lodge to come, however in the meantime here are some memorable moments.
I just got back from leading a grade 12 field trip to Hoi An, Danang and Lang Co Beach. Our whole school goes on 4-day field trips, and this year I served as Field Trip Coordinator. It was hectic getting students signed up and working with other trip leaders to plan the itineraries, but we successfully took 165 students to 5 destinations: Phan Thiet, Nha Trang, Vinh Long, Khao Yai National Park in Thailand, and Hoi An. The most difficult part of the job was to get all students to pay their trip fees and turn in their forms!
The day before the trips were set to leave, Typhoon Wutip threatened to cancel the Hoi An trip, but the storm weakened before it made landfall on Vietnam’s central coast. We had a bit of a rainy week, and we ended up getting drenched at My Son temples, but other than that our itinerary wasn’t affected by the weather.
It’s still rainy season in Saigon, and Duarte and I are a full month into our second year of teaching at ISHCMC American Academy. Duarte was the Math Department Head last year and had a full load of math classes, but now he’s been swapped over to the Science Department where he’s teaching AP Physics, Pre-AP Physics, Conceptual Physics and Grade 8 Physical Science. It’s nice for him to be back to Physics, since that is the subject he got his BA in, however it means he has a lot of prep to do.
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