Settling into something of a
routine here in Saigon so haven’t felt the urgent need to update everyone on
our happenings. That and the sad fact that blogspot is powered by google and
hence google analytics happens to highlight a steady and precipitous decline in
page views every time I post a new story. Speaking of friends, we are slowly
accumulating them over here in Saigon. It’s actually been quite funny watching
Libby stress out so much over our ‘loserness???’ We’re kind of opposite in the
respect that I like to wait and see if someone is compatible enough to enter “friendship
orbit” whereas Libby always has her proverbial fishing pole in the water trying
to “hook” a friend. That’s the other thing, with a 20-30 hour workweek of
“graded language” (=English you would speak to 5-7 year olds) and insane
amounts of movie watching and reading 18th and 19th
century English; I can’t help but wax metaphors and similes. We’re pretty much
a regular at our favorite bootleg DVD store-75 cents a movie which is a little
expensive but you know the DVD is going to work. I just counted 30 DVD’s (35 as of this update
3 days later) which isn’t nearly as impressive as “the stack” but having never
been a DVD collector I’m in uncharted territories. The latest group of TESL
participants numbers 8 and we had a great time getting Mexican with them on
Sunday night. Libby was so excited about having what she referred to as “real”
conversations that she gave a preemptive apology to the guys I was sitting next
to for *potentially* talking too much….. ***scoff*** Libby actually hung out
with this decidedly uncool girl because in her words-“she seems to have a lot
of friends so maybe some of them could be our friends.” We’re going to other Language Corps
participant’s housewarming/birthday party tonight. I can’t tell if Libby is
super pumped to go because there’s a chance 1 of the 5 housemates could be
her/our friend or we get to go to something that ends with the word “party.” (Update: the party was actually quite
enjoyable, the droning voice of one of the Girls was pulled back after a few
drinks and shockingly enough revealed a very amiable personality. The house was
a real house so it was quite refreshing to sit in an actual living room with
American size space. We thought there
was going to be a handful of people but the LanguageCorps Director Hien really
has done a great job creating a community of former participants so there was a
sizeable group of people there which made for a great time… Hien was excited
because we already have the perfect spot for the LanguageCorps Christmas Party
ha). I guess all this legwork is necessary since the alternative seems to be me
sitting alone writing these blog posts… (Update
on that!: hung out with” just the guys” for the first time, pretty nice to
get a reprieve from the estrogen fest, not sure what it is, but most of the
guys here are just slightly off in one way or another…or just old, and
therefore off in their own ways. But
there are a few cool people who work with us at VUS).
We’ve been to a handful of
amazing coffee shops and restaurants in old French colonial buildings tucked
away in alleys but rather than write about them we’re going to go back with our
camera and show y’all (Update: finishing
this blog post up at THIS tropical paradise, which is probably our 3rd
or 4th favorite for some perspective). Our exciting news is that
we’re going to Danang for two days and Hoi Ann for a day next week which will
be our first official trip outside of Saigon since arriving in Vietnam. Pretty
excited to get out of the city. Danaang is supposed to be the up and coming
city in Vietnam with a great food scene and we have our friend Linh to show us
where all the good stuff is at. In
not-so-exciting news I FINALLY completed my 4 month and close to 3,000 page
journey of the Winston Churchill epic-The Last Lion. Teaching graded English
sure isn’t making me smarter but at least the books are. At times it definitely
felt like I was slogging through rice paddies but definitely recommend the
read.
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