June?!

I've spent the past week completely re evaluating my time spent here. Sometimes it's really the best thing, you suddenly realize you are living in VIETNAM and you have yet to really explore what it has to offer. I've not been to the museums, the temples, the chinese market, the reunificaiton palace, etc. and have been here for half a year. There really is no excuse for that. There aren't even that many good TV channels. Making plans to do all of these things soon, and also to just get out more.

On Wednesday night I went to a performance at the Opera House. A French pianist played one concert of Lizst's works of literary inspiration, and it was quite well done. The weird thing is, in a city of almost 9 million, the house was not nearly full. The Opera House has performances around 3-4 times a month (don't get me started on the waste), and they are horribly publicized. The result is a very limp cultural scene. I went to a performance of the International Choir and Orchestra on Saturday (quite good for non-professionals), and they played some great Mozart and Vivaldi, as well as some great pieces involving a classical guitarist. I was hoping to meet some people there, but apparently most of the classical music scene is the dull, silent auction type. So, I ended up sitting throughout the intermissions reading my book, which apparently is weirder than walking around amongst a bunch of strangers. No idea how that's supposed to be social if you don't talk to anyone. I gotta find some friends with whom to attend my events. There was also a 50's-60's dance party on Saturday, but not a single person I called was interested. Now THAT is sad to me. Who doesn't like motown? I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't trust people who don't like motown. Must have a rotten soul and no sense of rhythm, and I don't know which is worse.

I went to the Dam Sen water park with some friends on Friday. Since it was the last day of school for most kids, it was packed, and I even ran into one of my students. The park was really great, and had a zipline into the water. Best idea ever. I can say with complete certainty that I was the only non-Asian at the park (I'd come with 4 coworkers who are all ethnically Asian, and two TAs who are Vietnamese), and when I stood on the ladder about to zip down into the pool, all of a sudden there was a huge cheering section that involved basically the entire population of people in the adjacent pool. It was funny and also irritating to know that I stuck out to that degree. You'd think at 20 feet high, the blonde hair wouldn't be as visible. Maybe it was the bathing suit. The lazy river was anything but lazy, and involved dozens of children in mobs splashing everyone in sight. The slides were A-mazing, with names like kamikaze and boomerang. Had never seen anything like the boomerang, which more resembled a skating half pipe than a water slide. All in all, a good time was had.

Currently in the middle of figuring out what I want to do after November; considering staying for an extra 6 months, or moving somewhere else (Turkey is really looking interesting). Have realized how over the Saigon club scene I am, and am furiously trying to cobble together a more interesting and diverse social scene. Trips to plan, things to see, and hopefully a few interesting people to meet.

I have my medical check on Wednesday for my work Visa. Have heard absolute horror stories about the hospital, so that will be an interesting experience, and hopefully an eye-opening one. I wonder if they will let me bring in a camera. Apparently, multiple other doctors come in to observe the check, just to see a white person in the hospital. A friend told me to ignore everything they tell me, as they don't know what they're talking about. It sounded a bit harsh, but she went on to say that they told her she had cataracts on her eyes, so I guess I'll wait to form my own opinion. Apparently, they only care if you have TB or are HIV positive, which got me thinking. How much would it suck to find out you have HIV at a creepy Vietnamese hospital? How would that affect your time abroad? Would you go to another country for a second opinion? Could you afford that? Not that I'm especially worried, but it does make you wonder. Apparently it happened to someone at our Hanoi branch. Since he'd been here for a long time and had a lot of VN female friends, it apparently wasn't much of a shock, but still. I haven't come across too many western therapists (or eastern ones, for that matter), and I feel like that's just unhealthy. But what an awful way to come back to the US. 'SO, how was your time in VN?', 'Well, I got a mad case of HIV, but escaped the syphilis altogether. AND, I learned how to use chopsticks.' Talk about a buzzkill. It's not even exotic sounding, like Malaria or Dengue Fever.

I'm in a reading frenzy and there are shockingly few English books in this city. I can handle the clothes thing, but no books? Really?

I'll write about my hospital experience asap!

Halfway to a Vietnamese passport!

At some point, after making a large life change (moving to a new country), normal life eventually sinks back in. You suddenly realize that the novelty of a $1 lunch has completely worn off, and in its place is complete irritation when any meal costs more than $2. You get used to being the equivalent of a sideshow freak walking down the streets (a lovely silver lining), and become accustomed to getting a ride to travel 2 blocks. I am still very much uncertain about the fast-approaching rainy season, so not everything is under my belt yet. My point is, after a while an exciting new life just ends up being everyday life. It sounds cynical (my parents are positive I've become more cynical since coming here. I disagree, and believe their only reasoning is my unwillingness to go crazy over the royal wedding-something I just can't get into).

I still like riding around the city, I still enjoy the food. I still get irritated by the bureaucracy that turns most errands into all-day affairs, and the incredible inequality of this country. I finally feel like I have friends to call in most situations, which is great. I'm making some good developments with work, and meeting new challenges (read: teens classes. Apparently, it isn't common sense over here to not answer your phone in the middle of class. Color me LIVID). I guess, I'm just looking to regain that sense of wonder and adventure I felt when I first moved here. My roommate Tracey was offered an amazing new job managing factories all over the world (damn engineers really can get jobs anywhere), and it got me thinking. I never thought I wanted to teach for the rest of my life. I totally admire people who have that passion, but unfortunately I just don't. I like many aspects of teaching, but to be honest it is usually just not very intellectually stimulating for me. Half the time I leave a class wondering whether the students have really learned anything. Who knows, really. 

I have come to the decision that the States are not a destination for me until I've made a legit plan for the future, presumably involving some sort of grad school. I came here thinking this would just be an in-between year type of deal, but to be honest,  I have no clue what I would do were I to move back soon. Better to be working things out and doing interesting things than waitressing in Ann Arbor. 

Today was my day off, which I spent (as per usual) laying on the couch. After an intense weekend, its just something I like to do. Our maid comes on Mondays, and so when she got here Tracey and I were just sitting on the couch, and ended up basically watching her do our dishes and sweep our floor. It just seemed so terrible to me, even though I grew up with a cleaning woman (Rosa, who doesn't clean above her four foot high line of sight, but is the best)coming to our house once a week. It doesn't make sense, but I for some reason feel guilty about our maid. I mean, I still sat on my ass and continued to watch Dexter on DVD. Laziness often overrides most other feelings. 

Did absolutely nothing all day, save the lovely cooking that went on. Roasted vegetables in banh mi, pork chops in soy-lime-ginger sauce, and the restoration of our soup attempts from last night. Thank god for the kitchen, or I would have actually spent all day on the couch. It's been fun for me, because we have no measuring devices or recipes, so I can just throw things together as I see fit. My mom gets nervous when I do that at her house. I have been meaning to take VN cooking lessons-will really have to look into that.

I'm helping to plan the summer day-camps that we do, and if anyone has any ideas (especially for games you can use as English-teaching tools), let me know. I'm also learning how to do placement testing. Apparently it looks good on your CV. Apparently, my ESL CV is going to look quite nice when I leave Apollo. Too bad it's not the career path for me. I'm holding on to the pipe dream that my voice over job will turn into a TV news job. Not at all likely, but one can dream.

I'll post some pics of the mentoring sisters all making pancakes sometime soon! 

Beach Vacay!

I officially suck at keeping a blog. The whole point is to keep people updated with your life, but that requires people to update. In my defense, it has been a busy few weeks, including my trip home to Ann Arbor for a long weekend which was a blast! In truth, I was a little worried about the whole reverse-culture shock thing (especially in that I would officially consider myself to be super pretentious), but it was fine. In America, I experienced very little jet lag. It was also a steady stream of seeing people after a long time, eating food I can't get over in the Indochine, and parties. Aside from the fact that I had a minor melt down in H&M due to the insanely high prices (it's actually quite reasonable) compared to Vietnam's fresh-from-the-factory prices, it was a wonderful time and had not a hitch. I still feel super guilty about being away for the holidays, but it was nice to have time with the whole family even in April. An amazingly fun wedding which involved a large amount of Randolph-family dance floor time rounded out my 3-day extravaganza.

I had two really quite nice flights involving empty rows of seats and my own tv; the only glitch came on my way back, when the airline flipped out about my visa expiring on the day I got back to Vietnam. I had gotten my HR people to get me a new visa, but their confirmation email was late, and I didn't have it yet. In the end, they let me board, and I printed out necessary documents in Hong Kong during my layover. Not a problem at all unless you include the fact that once in the visa line at the HCM airport, it took a good hour to get things in order. Don't get me started on their placement of atm. Unlike my USA trip, I was attacked by horrible jet lag once home, resulting in far too much napping which sadly has yet to go away.

I finally have some non-children classes to teach, and I think I might just be able to handle teaching for a while. Unlike the children's classes which are more discipline than anything else, I actually get to teach and at times have smart conversations with adult students. SOO nice. Most of my partnership classes are ending as swell, which is good because I don't think I can handle much more of that. I've now done General English, Confident Teens, and Corporate (my favorite). Starting next week, I get my own pronunciation class and I am quite pleased.

This past weekend it was Victory Day, so we got the weekend off. I went to Mui Ne with some friends, and we had a delightful time. Despite the fact that in Mui Ne (a little beach resort town about 5 hours from Saigon) it was even hotter than in Saigon, it was super fun. And by the way, the heat is insane. like, face-melting-I-feel-like-the-subject-of-a-Dali-painting hot. Shared a room with my friend Hannah, and just to make us really sweat, the air conditioning was broken. Nonetheless, we had a lovely time swimming in the sea and eating amazing food. Its funny how on vacation, all we want to eat is western food. And there was some amazing western food. Since we eat VN food every day here, a legitimate burger is exactly what you want on holiday. Though there was supposed to be a big party on the sand dunes, it was cancelled, so our big party night was slightly less cool than it should have been. But we made do at one of the clubs on the beach, so it was still a lovely time. It's still crazy to me that I live but a bus ride away from a touristy, beach party town. A strange town that is comprised of about 3 miles of one seaside-road. On the upside, you are always next to the ocean.

Can't think of anything else to say. More details later.