Busy, busy.

About a month ago, Joey and I booked a trip to the lovely town of Hoi An.  It was one of my favorites on the JBIP trip in 2008, and both of us are in need of some new clothes (Hoi An is famous for its many, many tailors).  At that time we were both about at the end of our ropes.  Since the last time the school was closed (for one day) in April, we’ve worked more or less non-stop, six days a week.  We were super burnt out and a little desperate to get out of this town for a while, so we booked a trip for as soon as seemed reasonable—the end of the month.  Between then and now, however, things got surprisingly busy outside of work: two visits, one beach trip, and two extra days off…

Two weeks ago we went to the beach in celebration of a friend and co-worker’s birthday.  It was a characteristically Vietnamese trip, which means the transportation was uncomfortable and very indirect, time spent on the actual beach was minimal, we made two trips to cafes, and were back home within 24 hours. :)

We were in Bien Hoa just long enough for Joey to teach an important class Tuesday morning, then hopped back on the bus for our first trip to Saigon that week.  We had a wonderful visit with the Beattys, and again, were back in Bien Hoa within 24 hours.

This time we slept in our own bed for a few nights before I left for Saigon again, this time to meet up with Brekke and her lovely friend Sara.  We spent the evening wandering around the city before they returned to Cambodia the next morning.

I made it back to Bien Hoa just in time to enjoy an extra two days off while a group from the school traveled to Mui Ne (a trip full of kids we politely declined to go on).  I spent most of that time sitting on the balcony (with a fan pointed straight at me, naturally) reading or sleeping.  It was lovely.

After less than a full week of work, we’re leaving this morning for Hoi An, where we’ll be staying halfway between the beach and old town center.  It feels a little ridiculous to be going away again, given the amount of class time we’ve missed lately, but I’m sure they’ll survive without us….

I’ll be back soon with pictures and a recap!

The Great Unknown

Our plans for next year are largely up in the air, but I can give you an idea of what we do know.  Our contract at the school runs until the middle of December, and includes airfare home.  We expect to leave around December 17th, probably flying into New York.  My parents will pick us up at the airport, and we’ll have about a week with them in PA.  On Christmas Day they’ll drive us to WV to spend a week with Joey’s family there.  Then we’ll head to Charlotte for New Year’s, and probably Atlanta after that to see my aunt.  Assuming we know where we’re going next (which is sort of a big “if” at the moment), we’ll fly out of Atlanta for our next destination.

The big question, obviously, is where.  And the truth is that we don’t have a clue right now.  Joey really wants to find an international non-profit/NGO to work with, so that’s sort of how we’ll make our decision.  I plan to continue teaching English, which there are opportunities for pretty much everywhere.  The problem is that five months out, there isn’t a whole lot we can do.  Additionally, there isn’t really any easy resource to connect with loads of possibilities.  Joey checks Idealist pretty regularly, and has found a few other regionally specific sites, but nothing super promising.  So if you happen to have any connections, we would really appreciate it!

A few months ago I would have said that we’ll definitely spend another year somewhere in SE Asia.  It’s been really difficult deciding where to travel, and there are a bunch of places we really want to see that we couldn’t fit in this year: Australia, India and the Philippines especially.  After our second year, we would ship the majority of our stuff home, then head to China for a few days before taking the Trans-Siberian Railway from Bejing to Moscow, via Mongolia.  We’d take our time through Europe, and probably fly to the US from London. 

That will still be the plan if we end up somewhere in Asia next year, but where we go will really depend on what we can find for Joey.  We both loved Malaysia and Thailand when we were there, and Indonesia is a possibility, too.  But there are so many other possibilities—Joey’s been talking about Turkey lately, and I keep finding myself looking into Morocco.  We both love the idea of Argentina.  So who knows!

What I can say is that neither of us are ready to be back in the US, starting “real” careers and grown-up lives.  There’s too much we want to see and experience before we’ll be ready for that. 

I’m Still Here…

Obviously I never intended to go this long without posting, but these things happen…right?  I know it’s cliche, but I can hardly believe we’re over halfway through this calendar year!  It seems like just a few weeks ago we were celebrating 2010 with a bottle of bizarre Russian sparkling wine and a very Vietnamese cake.  We’re also well over halfway through our intended time in Vietnam.  We arrived at the end of September, and we plan to leave midway through December. 

(celebrating the Fourth of July with burgers, french fries, corn on the cob, and—spring rolls!) 

Things have been incredibly busy lately.  Our other full-time foreign teacher had to go home for medical reasons at the end of May, and we’ve been desperately seeking his replacement.  Right now Joey and I are teaching around 25 hours a week, which may not sound like much—but it is.  I’m sure EFL teachers with years of experience under their belts have a wealth of resources to pull from for their classes, but we spend a ton of time on lesson preparation.  All of our classes have textbooks, but nobody wants to spend all their time in the book.  Additionally, we’ve been working on all sorts of things we really aren’t qualified to do: course development, writing syllabi, tests, and placement tests.  There are lots of improvements that really need to be made here, but it often feels like an uphill battle.

We also just moved from our tiny studio apartment (with horrible shared kitchen) to an enormous 3-bedroom house.  The house has actually been empty for over a year, but you wouldn’t know it—I think the owners’ sons lived here, and basically left all of their stuff in place when they moved to the US.  Since then, the house has been used primarily for storage. 

Technically we have three bedrooms here, but only one of them is usable.  The gorgeous, light-filled master bedroom downstairs is filled to the brim with…no lie…vodka.  Cases and cases of it, piled taller than I am.  There’s another stash under the stairs, and instead of a kitchen table we have another mountain of vodka.  When we came to see the house, I asked our boss what they were going to do with all of it, and she said it’ll be donated to the church.  What?  Yes, the giant Catholic church that’s been under construction since we got to Bien Hoa will enjoy some—I don’t know, 200?—cases of vodka for their grand opening.  Hmmm.

There’s all kinds of other strange stuff here, too.  Right now I’m sitting in the upstairs front hall, just inside the balcony, across from 25 feed bags stuffed with fabric.  The pile is a solid 4 feet high in some places.  In the kitchen, the higher shelves in our cabinets are unusable because they’re filled with shoes.  Actually, one of them is filled with hats, but you get the idea.  The second bedroom is packed with all kinds of furniture, clothes, etc. that I assume they moved from other rooms to make space for us.  It’s bizarre, and I would love for the weird stuff to be gone, but I’m not really complaining.  The owners asked our boss how much we were paying for our apartment, and offered us the house at the same rate, including utilities—unheard of! 

We’re still trying to get the place clean, which is a huge task—most people here seem sweep and mop several times a day.  Everyone leaves their shoes outside the door, and it isn’t uncommon to sit on the floor while preparing meals, eating, etc.  We have a lot of floor space to cover, and after two thorough cleanings in two days, I still can’t walk around barefoot without turning the soles of my feet black.  I think there’s just so much dust everywhere that it’s going to take a while.  Ironically, our tiny little apartment came with completely unnecessary maid service. 

There are so many little things to share—funny, strange and endearing parts of daily life in this country, but I’m working on a bunch of posts to cover the high points: teaching, where we live, weather, future plans, etc.  I also have a few long, long overdue posts on our trip over Tet (February!) and another one we took in April.

All in all, we’re doing well and I have lots to share!  Let me know if there’s anything specific you’ve been wondering about, and I’ll try to cover that, too.