The first holiday was Thanksgiving. I'd booked tickets home ages ago. When it finally came time to head home, part of me didn't want to go. I was still enjoying Vietnam and getting used to things, and I knew that if I went home, I'd have to readjust all over,
and the little things (the nonexistence of lines here, or sidewalks for that matter) would annoy me all over again. What I didn't realize was that when I was home, I'd have to readjust to American culture as well...somehow the concept of reverse culture shock slipped my mind. Jet lag apart, I had an amazing time at home, and as tough as it was getting used to paying 5 times as much for a beer at home (and having to tip on top of it - can you believe it!), it was really awesome to see everybody. The weather was perfect - I got home and caught the last bit of Autumn, and before I left, even got to see a few inches of snow! We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner and while I was home I ate enough BBQ to last me for another few months here...I got back to Vietnam on a Wednesday night and had to be at work on Thursday evening (mostly due to poor planning and an
inability to account for the time difference and date differences when I was booking my time off of work). I certainly hit the ground running...after Thursday evening of work, I was back in for a nearly full weekend. Fortunately we only had to work for half of Sunday since ILA's Christmas party was that evening and they gave us the evening off. The Christmas party was tons of fun - it was at the Intercontinental Hotel, a 5 star hotel and restaurant, and featured an all you can eat buffet and open bar. Zara and I both had dresses made for the party (as did most of the female teachers), and everyone had a complete blast. Fortunately for my liver and my stomach both, I was still pretty jet lagged, so headed home relatively early.For Christmas, Spencer and I decided that if we couldn't have the cold that we were used to, we'd better go for the other extreme, so we headed up to Mui Ne to get some quality beach time in.
The trip was amazing...the weather couldn't have been better, and we stayed in an incredible resort where we had a Christmas Eve dinner feast. We tanned (avoiding sunburn this time!), read more than can possibly be healthy, watched the kite surfers, and thoroughly enjoyed being out of the city. It was rough coming back, but then again, it always is hard to go back to work after a relaxing vacation (especially one spent at the beach...)So now on to New Year's.....I've never been a huge fan of New Year's and all of the parties. It's just too much hype for a night which, to me, has almost always turned out to be a disappointment. One of my teenage students invited me to a New Year's party that she and her family were throwing. I was in a bit of an awkward situation, so I agreed to go before I really got a chance to think about it. I was going to bail at the last minute, but she was really excited for me to come (since I didn't know where she lived, she offered to come to my house across town and pick me up and take me there), and I couldn't say no. Fortunately Spencer agreed to come along with me, so we showed up to her house. In Vietnam, lots of people happen to clear out the bottom floor of their house to make some sort of business, and just live above it. Her house is a beauty salon by day, but had been cleared out and filled with tables for the party. When we got there, we sat with a bunch of older teenagers from her English for Study Abroad classes that she was also taking at ILA, so fortunately everybody could speak English. It was an incredible party - it was fully catered, and had waiters that would come over to bring another drink as soon as you even looked like you were maybe considering another drink. The food was amazing as well - mostly seafood, which I wasn't a big fan of, but very fresh tasting and perfectly cooked. Spencer and I ducked out after a few hours and headed to get frozen yogurt on the way home. In bed by about 11 and watching a movie. Could be one of the better New Years celebrations of my life....
Since the big holiday rush, not a lot has been going on...I got a semi-promotion at work. They took my first two classes away from me (my Jumpies, which I loved, and my J3B's, who were the first class that I got when I started teaching here - weird to think that I've had them for a year now...). Anyways, I'm now officially one of the two "standby teachers" on the weekend. I have to show up a bit earlier (7am!), and wait around to see if anybody calls in sick. If they do, I plan a last minute lesson and go teach. If nobody does, I work on developing the supplemental resources that all of the teachers use. I've only done it for two weekends, but so far it's all going really well, although I was sad to have to say goodbye to my old students...
I've just been hanging in there, getting through the teaching, and waiting for Tet to come at the beginning of February. Spencer and I are flying up to Da Nang (a nice beach town), then going to Hoi An (the fabric and clothes-making capital of Vietnam), and Nha Trang (a busy beach town). It'll be a busy 9 days, and then when we get back, my friends Rob and Sam are coming to visit from Jakarta for a week! - That should all keep me nice and busy!
My apologies for my incoherent writing (and rambling) in this post...I'm working off of only a few hours of sleep and a full weekend... will hopefully be more together with my next update (which also shouldn't be another four months or so from now...)
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