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.