I think fall is upon us here in
Saigon. Boy does it bring amazing skies. It hasn’t rained in like 3 or 4 days,
so I think the rainy season is finally abating. If I want to translate 4 seasons
to 2 seasons as literally as possible, I guess we’re approaching winter. The
skies have had amazing lighting this past week or so. I’ve been trying to
capture it with the SLR but so far no good. Obviously, it’s hard to explain in
words. There is something tangibly more beautiful and the only reasonable
explanation I can give without resorting to google is that we either have less
atmosphere or at least the angle is flatter for the sun to come through here at
the equator. The one little piece of symbolism that seemed to fittingly
represent the skies these days was as an amazingly huge rainbow arcing over the
Bixteco Tower (largest and only real skyscraper here in Saigon)… What was the
kicker was that it never even rained! The sky was somehow able to magically
produce rainbow. The rainbow appeared on the way home from work Sunday so when
I went home I immediately ran to grab the camera and get back to a good vantage
point, but alas, it was gone by the time I returned.
On the teaching front, a lot of my
classes have ended recently, and some of them have yet to be replaced, so I
have had a relatively light teaching load. It has been heavenly. All my new
classes are dreams compared to my one nightmare class. It really is just like
babysitting in that one class, there are these three absolute ****heads. I
sometimes stick one in the corner and make them face the wall which is pretty
satisfying to do, but really there’s no saving these kids. I took one of their
watches today, and he flicked me off, all 8 years old of him…not sure where he
learned that one. Not all the kids are
grime, some of them jump on you, tell you they love you, follow you around the
school, ect. But some of the kids leave a bad taste in your mouth. Also, I seem
to get all the crazies, too. In one of my new classes which is more of an upper
level one so it’s much smaller, there’s 9 great kids and 1 bad one. He named
himself Sacrifice (The self-designated “English” names are ridiculous) and goes
around saying “I will sacrifice you” to the other kids. It would be annoying
except it is really funny watching the whole class shame him into submission.
They started calling him worse than a dog (which as you know they eat here) and
that really chilled him out for the rest of class. He started rolling around on
the floor with 5 minutes left of class and which remains inexplicable to me.
There must be something in the water here in Saigon.
2 hilarious notes I forgot to
mention last post. First, was at the teacher development workshop. Our very
last activity together was to find a new teacher and ask them why they enjoy
teaching (hah). Well I was pretty burnt out and aimlessly wandered until
finding a Vietnamese teacher. I gave something along the lines of “It’s
rewarding watching my kids develop and when they smile I can’t help but smile
too,” something very safe and perfect cover for my incognito existence as the malcontent
teacher. Of course the seminar woman asks if anyone would like to share their
PARTNER’S answer and sure enough my partner shoots her hand up immediately…. My
partner somehow botches my answer and makes it even more sentimental and sappy
and the whole workshop busts out in “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” and the icing on
the cake was one of the head teachers starts crying, I kid you not; all the
while I’m dying of embarrassment while also laughing on the inside at my
superteacher alter ego that is nothing more than a mirage. A scene like that
belonged in a movie I swear.
Next point has to do with
Canadians. We have a Canadian friend that is, SUPER Canadian. Honestly I feel
like I could start a new blog dedicated to this guy’s –isms. Anyways, my
brother made this very poignant point about Canadians when he was teaching
English in Korea years ago and it rings so true today. He said something along
the lines of “people in Canada act like their domestic activities are GLOBALY newsworthy
and also that non-Canadians CARE about their domestic activities.” It was
regarding their recent Parliament shootings. The day after the shooting we were
teaching together and during break and delivers this slow and somber-“so did
you hear what happened to Canada yesterday.” I was nonchalantly like “yeah I
read the headlines, but I haven’t really read too much into it (because there
was little to read into).” He was like, “this is A BIG DEAL” “things like this
don’t happen in Canada” and drum roll please……………………………………. “this is like our
9/11” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really it took a lot of
self-control to not bust out laughing. Thankfully he redeemed an ounce of
self-respect when two minutes later he conceded the glaringly obvious disparity
in casualties (1 vs. 2,977). I won’t even mention the symbolic difference in
physical destruction.
Hung out with our Vietnamese
friends last week. It really is an enjoyable time every time we hang out… It’s
so innocent and simple it ends up being quite refreshing. We played board games
and ate street food and had a generally jolly time. It’s probably the closest I
ever get to those idealized visions of strolling through the steamy Saigon
streets at night and idk what else. Honestly
I think my daydreams take place in 1950’s Saigon. Our friends range from like 19-23 years old,
and it’s really funny because the two 19 year old girls were already talking
about how it’s high time to find a husband and get married. This led Libby to
ask one of them what she wants to do when she’s older. “I want to find a good
husband, be a good wife, and have a good family.” And yes, she goes to
University.
Libby
was meeting these girls she randomly found who wanted tutoring at a coffee shop
when some guy asked her if he could get lessons too. Well he’s certainly a cash-cow as he wanted 4
hours of tutoring a week and he owns a car which automatically makes you super
wealthy here; so I’m hoping Libby can milk the proverbial cow for the next 3
months as we continue saving. The only problem is his crush on Libby. She’s
trying to increase the hourly rate from 20 dollars an hour to 30 as I write
this blog, I know she didn’t make her middle school or high school play but
hopefully she can play an Oscar-worthy role. It makes me feel like some sort of
pimp, if he continues dishing out these free gourmet lunches I’ll have to don
my suit and go to the nearest Western coffee shop and scatter some English-tutoring
books ha.
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