Update

Okay, here it goes…I wrote a big post on the top ten things I’m missing right now, but it turned out to be pretty complainy, so I deleted it.  Joey and I are nearly finished with the course: today was our last observed teaching session, and tomorrow we take our grammar and phonology exam.  On Friday we’ll receive our certificates!  It’s gone by incredibly fast, and I can hardly believe that we’ve been here for four weeks.

Currently, our focus is on making a decision about a job.  We have an offer from the school in Bien Hoa, but both feel a little bit iffy about it.  Seriously, both Joey and I go back and forth on a daily basis!  The most attractive part of the offer right now is the idea of knowing where we’re headed at the end of this week—and that sounds really, really good.  So does moving out of our teeny tiny hotel room and into a two bedroom house.

Okay, maybe just a little bit of complaining so you know where I’m coming from… We’ve been living in our little hotel room for almost a full month now, and I am going nuts.  We’re sharing the little wardrobe, and don’t have a dresser, and there’s a constant tangle of cords that frustrates me to know end.  What’s more, there’s nowhere for either of us to go for some alone time (and you know how much I need time alone, right?).  Limited entertainment options (one laptop, tv with a handful of channels in English, mostly playing the same couple of crappy movies again and again, one ipod), no desk or workspace… Weekends are the worst, because I really want to just chill and recup from the long week, but this claustrophobic little room means we’re stepping all over each other.  Needless to say, Joey’s been putting up with an extra-large dose of crazy lately.

So I’m sure you can see how the idea of an imminent move from one tiny room into a house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, a living room, dining room, office and kitchen (kitchen!  no more restaurants!) sounds reeeaaally wonderful.  Very tempting, even if we are unsure about the job/location.

The big question is this: if we don’t take the job in Bien Hoa, where do we go?  A bunch of our classmates are flying to Hanoi on Sunday to look for jobs there, and I’m a little jealous.  I loved Hanoi when I was here last year.  I think Sarah put it well when she said there was just something sort of magical about it…

But Hanoi has plenty of difficulties, too.  Although my understanding is that there’s plenty of work up there, it means moving all of our stuff by plane (we barely made the weight limit last time, and have acquired a few extra items since then), moving into ANOTHER hotel room for who knows how long (I can hardly think about it), and locating housing ourselves.  And Hanoi will definitely be much more expensive than Bien Hoa (salary differences would probably make up for this eventually, but startup costs would be high).

I could go on and on.  There are also a few other possibilities in the south, closer to where we are.  It’s just hard to know.  This is basically the argument I have with myself…oh, say, five or six times a day?