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!