Rainy Season and New Classes

Rainy season is finally beginning. It was late this year, which meant that up until about a week ago, it was incredibly hot and constantly looked like it was just about to rain. It's been nice so far; it pours down rain for a few hours at a time, and afterward there's the smell of rain on a hot pavement. The evenings are absolutely gorgeous - perfect temperature, bordering on a bit cool. We'll see if I'm still loving the rain on the pavement smell as much once I'm three or four months into the rainy season...

My friend Henry is visiting in about three weeks, and I'm starting to get really excited about it. Apart from the obvious of having him bring me things from home that I've been missing (including Firefly, Mom's homemade jam, and a frisbee), I'm also looking forward to showing him around what feels increasingly like "my city". We don't have a ton planned, but Spencer and I have both taken a week off of work, so we're all going to head up to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay and check things out up there.

My classes are going well. I've had a few of them end, and am starting some new ones. I'm finally done with the J3 class that I hated (the class with eighteen 7-10 year olds, 15 of whom were boys). That class has been replaced by Jumpstarts (4 and 5 year olds). I've only had them for two classes, but they're really cute and once I learn more games for them, I'll really enjoy teaching them...Not to mention that planning their lessons takes all of 15 minutes (mostly because roughly half of the lesson plan is Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes-based).

A few of my other classes have ended and I've started new ones, and almost have a schedule where I like every one of my classes. I also feel a lot more like a teacher. I'm more confident and have a better idea of what I'm doing...I'm getting to know my students better, and have a better idea of how to actually teach them (rather than going in with the mindset of "killing two hours"). I'm starting on a summer school class on Wednesday. It's a split teaching thing class, so I'll be teaching on Wednesdays and Thursdays and the other teacher that I'm sharing the class with will have them on Mondays and Tuesdays. The classes are 3 hours each, which means that I'll be really busy for a few months, but the money should be good, especially since I've got my bank of hours full and will be getting lots of overtime pay.

School-related topics aside, things are still going really well (with the exception of the occasional bout of homesickness). Stuff with Zara is going great - I'm loving living with her, and we've been going to the arcade at Diamond Plaza fairly frequently and honing our zombie killing skills with House of the Dead. Apart from our Diamond Plaza adventures (and the temptation of the KFC that's on the same floor as the arcade), we've been going to the orphanage most every week, though this past Wednesday was my last since I'll have my summer school class starting. We've also been going to a gym near our house a few times a week. It's fairly small, but it has a few ellipticals and a swimming pool, so it's all I really need. I'm teaching an "English Club" there once a week in exchange for membership. The class is about twelve students, all employees of the building (which is an apartment complex and offices) with low levels of English. Because it's English club and not really an English class, I'm not expected to really teach them anything - I'm more supposed to just give them a place to practice their English and build their confidence than to teach them grammar or new vocabulary (though I manage to sneak some in). Basically I show up and play games with them or give them a song lesson for about an hour, then go and work out. Not a bad gig, really.

Apart from that, I haven't really been doing a lot (hence no updates in a while). Zara, Spencer and I are almost done with season 3 of The Wire, so that's been keeping us busy. The other day Spencer and I went to the driving range and he taught me how to play, and I was a lot better than I expected (managed to drive a few 100 yards, though it was probably more like 120 if you account for the extra distance that the hook took them). Hopefully we'll go back soon, and even more hopefully, I'll be semi-decent by the time I leave this country.

I'm giving Vietnamese classes another go. It's another teacher, and so far I'm class all-star (since I've already learned everything that we're going over). Next week it'll all be new material, so I'll no longer already know everything, breeze through, and win all the games. That will be a sad day for me, as the games that we play in class (the same ones that I play with my own students) have made me realize just how competitive I am. The teacher is different, so I'm still getting new things out of classes, and am able to pick up more new things since I already know the basics (at least so far. We'll see if that changes once we start learning new things)...

The only other notable piece of news is that I made the discovery the other day that the KFC down the street delivers. My life as I know it is officially over (or complete, depending on how you look at it...). If there's not a blog post for another few months, it's probably due to my massively clogged arteries...

Phu Quoc: Rum Cocktails and Beautiful Beaches

I got back from a 5-day trip to Phu Quoc, a Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia. About a month ago, Spencer mentioned that he was feeling like he needed a break from the city, and I was all too eager to join in on a vacation. We took Tuesday and Thursday off of work and head to Phu Quoc for the week. Landing in Phu Quoc, it was hard to believe that a place this beautiful is only a 45 minute flight away from Saigon.



There's not a lot to say about the trip - it was very relaxing...most of our time was spent sleeping, sunbathing (managed to avoid a sunburn this time!), swimming, reading, listening to music, doing crosswords, eating, or drinking. Our resort was a gorgeous little place right on the beach, and as we discovered the first night, conveniently right next to a bar and restaurant that had delicious cocktails and BBQ, and about five dogs that roamed the area (to the best of our knowledge, the dogs and the BBQ were kept completely separate). We went back there a few times, and couldn't get enough of the pork BBQ, or the dogs (again - separate thoughts).

Towards the end of the trip, we were having lunch at another resort down the beach, and they mentioned that they were having a seafood BBQ that night. I was feeling adventurous, and Spencer wanted some seafood, so we put in a reservation for that evening. We showed up, and there was a large buffet table set up with all of the raw seafood on it. We walked around, pointing to what we wanted (snapper, scallops, tuna, black king fish, and some beef skewers for good measure), then sat down and they brought the food over to us once it had cooked. I'm getting better about seafood, as this wasn't just bearable, but I actually found some of it pretty enjoyable.

There's not a lot to tell from the vacation, as every day but one we stayed at the resort. The one day we managed to leave, we went to Sao Beach, which I can say is one of the nicest beaches I've ever been to. White sand, clear water, and beautiful green forests lining everything. We only stayed for a few hours, but the whole beach reminded me a lot of the Whitsunday Islands in Australia, though with far fewer people, which was lovely.

It was also nice being out of the city because everybody on the island was beyond appreciative when we spoke Vietnamese to them (and by "speaking Vietnamese", on my part, that consisted almost exclusively of saying "hello", "thank you", and ordering beer in Vietnamese). I'm picking things up, phrase by phrase and street name by street name.

We got back yesterday and since today is a national holiday (Labor Day), have had the day off to get back into the swing of things in big city life. It also means that we only have to work a one day weekend, which will definitely help. The teaching's still going well. One of my classes that I really don't like is set to end on Tuesday (by going on holiday when I did, I managed to avoid giving the speaking test part of the exam, as well as the whole grading of the exams, so I get to come back for just the end of course party), so after the end of course party with them, I'll be switching classes. Other classes continue to go well for the most part, though summer school that's coming up soon may change my schedule for a bit.

I'm off to catch up with Zara for a bit, since we've pretty much only watched The Wire since I got back, and haven't talked much.