Happenings ...

Mmmmm ... Vietnamese cherries. Don't they look pretty? And they were very good. I found them to be not as sweet as our sweet cherries and not as juicy as our sour cherries. Very unique. And the pits were very strange ... soft and broke into three pieces as you ate the cherry. My server said this many cherries has as much Vitamin C as 4 oranges. Food continues to be a source of abiding interest.

Colleagues and I went to the Tokyo Deli the other day for lunch and it certainly does have some great Japanese food. I am hoping to find a place that has some dishes with umeboshi. Folks say there are tons of Japanese restaurants around. I have ocntinued to find Vietnamese and Korean restaurants ,,, so far I have only been to one Western-style restaurant when I went out with friends.
All this week I have been preoccupied with looking for apartments. I have quite a bit of time left on my month in the serviced apartment at Eva Silk, but I thought I could take a nice-and-easy-does-it approach to apartment hunting and find something just perfect. Somehow that translated into looking at apartments every day. I have been going out with Ha, a lovely woman with excellent English, whose specialty is in Phu My Hung. Ha is the agent of choice for many people in my department. I actually liked two apartments Ha showed me quite a bit but they both were snapped up ... one by someone in my department! ... so a sense of urgency surreptitiously crept into my looking (and my psyche). Most people in my department are looking for the cheapest possible rent ... I haven't got a big budget, but quality of life seemed more important to me. Size, Feng shui, sound, style of shower, etc. But I wasn't so terribly concerned about price. Then I went to Ron and Kathy Moore's place for a visit yesterday. They've got the best of both worlds ... I think they have really good value for their apartment and it's a really nice place. So then I started thinking a bit more about value for the Vietnamese dong, as it were. At any rate, I found one today that I liked and that is quite inexpensive and so I signed a contract! It is relatively small with 2 loft bedrooms and a tiny bathroom, but I think it will be just fine. It's not on a busy street, so it will be quiet enough. The layout is comfortable. I am hoping it will be fine. It is a bit further away from the pool than some of the other apartments I looked at, but it will just give me a bit more exercise when (not if) I get out there and hightail it to the pool! I didn't have my camera today, so I will post pics later. I do hope my sense of urgency didn't sway my thinking and that the place will be good. However, as I was signing the contract, the landlady told Ha that someone with another agent was coming later today to put a deposit down ... but the early bird gets the worm!

Came home with my first set of papers to mark and I am having a hard time getting around to marking them. First I had to go for breakfast because I didn't have any milk for my expensive muesli. So I had Pho Tai Chin at Pho 36, a neat little place just behind Eva Silk. Yummy. that was 20 VND or a little over $1. Then a nice walk to see some parks along the river on the other side of the big street. In fact I walked along several little parkettes that are dotted through Phu My Hung to get to the main road, which I have just learned is Quynh Van Linh ... I think. Went for a haircut at a Korean beauty shop and had a very interesting experience. Two shampoos ... before and after the cut. During the second shampoo, I got a mini-massage and facial cleansing. For all that I paid 100VND, which is about 5 or 6 dollars. My economical day sort of went off the rails when I went for a manicure/pedicure. The place was quite expensive and the prices and services were different from last time ... overall I paid almost 200VND and that is because every different service is extra. Like nail polish! Ha was astounded that it would be that expensive! So, as I was leaving, silently vowing never to go back there, an English woman who was also peeved about the same thing was saying sweetly ... that she had never paid extra for polish and that while she would pay this time, she would not come back. Amen, sister! So, I still have my papers to mark, but I had a good breakfast, my fingers and toes are very clean and polished, and I have someplace to live. I'm thinking that sometimes procrastination is a good thing.

I had just got back from Ha's office when the heavens opened and it is still pouring down rain and thundering and lightning. People say it is now the end of the rainy season but it often rains two or three times a day. Could this really be the tapering off of an even rainier part of the rainy season??? Oy. After a rain, the sky is lovely and clear and the sights from RMIT are really lovely. I'll attach a couple of shots.

One of the shots above shows two number 34 buses. I have decided to try and take the bus more often and so the other day I got on the #34 and waited for the driver to finish his break. After 10 or so minutes, he got in and off we went. We went about 500 metres down the road when he stopped and crossed two lanes of traffic to attend to something. There we sat for another 15 minutes. When I noticed the next #34 going past us, I started to get annoyed because it looked like it was going to rain and I didn't relish the though of having to walk home from Quynh Van Linh in a downpour. So I pointed to my wrist to let the fare collector know I thought enough time had elapsed. She tried to see what he was doing and she ended up not coming back. Finally I just got off, walked down to the corner, and crossed the road and tried to get a taxi. No luck. Finally a man in a motorcycle taxi came up and offered to take me, so I took him up on it. He told me he'd take me for 5 VND and I only had a 20 and of course he had no change ... lucky, toothless, old guy. Who could begrudge him almost $1? In the end, it still cost me less thn a taxi. I have since learned that the #34 is quite famous for this and I should brave the traffic and cross the road to catch the #102. More professional or something^-^.

Last news. All RMIT people have to have some extra jobs and so I think I will be one of the people to look after the resource room. My colleague, Nick, who has had this assignment, is leaving for Japan at the end of the cycle, and so he suggested I think about taking it on when he leaves. There is some mindless organizing and tidying, but also some committees from the larger school and possibly a bit of buying books and STUFF. Could be worse ... I could be marking exit tests or placement tests! So, I will give it a shot.

Hope all is well with youall. Labour Day is just around the corner in Canada and folks will be going back to school. Fall is around the corner and surely the skunks who have been spraying Billy on a regular basis will have better things to do with their time. Take care.

A week on ...

Well, all the newbies (Carl, Jonathan, Robert, Dan, and me) survived our first week teaching at RMIT. We all moved into our Stage 2 Housing (aka serviced apartments) and will all be back to work on Monday. The first few days of teaching seemed very scattered and extremely busy, but by Thursday things had settled down some and that was good, because we were all looking pretty weary by then. I have 3 English guys as my podmates and I know I am going to have words like 'knackered' rolling off my tongue by next week. If only I could pick up Vietnamese so quickly! I have been going swimming most every days, but some days are a bit more floaty than other days.So, for teaching, the students all seem quite nice. I only had one guy who looked like he was going to fall asleep one afternoon. I have noticed that the girls, especially, really seem to light up when male teachers are in the room. I am not sure if the motherly card is going to work here:-) But they are very sweet and fairly well-motivated and seem to do their homework. I have one class who is new to the school and they seem to be a bit keener than the ones who have been around for a few semesters already. They are very forgiving about names but I think I have mastered most of them except "Hu'ou'ng" and "Thu". I may begin lessons next week and start to get some basic language. There is much less English here than in Qatar ... of course there are many more people here also.

Although Eva Silk (my serviced apartment) has kitchen facilities, I still have not availed myself of them. I did buy some cereal and bread and peanut butter at a local health food store, Veggy, and the prices were ridiculous. It is much cheaper to eat out. But ... I have options, one of which is eating very expensive muesli:-) I did see Australian Manuka honey there, and it is supposedly the world's best (for treating various ailments and right up there with Yemeni Sidra honey), but I will have to wait for payday for that one. Maybe take out a loan. Sooo expensive!

Food food food. Mostly I have been eating out. One night I went to a little Korean restaurant and while the lady spoke no English and I spoke no Korean, I did have a very nice dinner. Some lovely dumpling things called mandoo and chicken soup. Yummy. Another night I went to a bia tuoi ... kind of like a beer garden/tent ... where they make the beer on site. Some of the folks at RMIT go there on Thursdays and this was a special Thursday because The Ashes, an important cricket match, started that day. They convinced the owners to put the game on the big screen TV. Most of my colleagues are British or Australian, so cricket means something to them ... or at least they pretend it does. At any rate, the beer at these bia tuois is about 9,000 VND per half litre or 50 cents a big glass. So ... there are two sides to this ... one group that would not set foot into the Pacific Bia Tuoi, because they think it is a grotty dive with who knows what in their beer. And there are survivors. But, I was game, as were two other newbies ... both Brits. I had a small beer, which was none too cold, and so I added ice, which is a common practice here. My brewing chemist father would have been appalled. We had a nice time and it was great for people-watching. A group of very tall and extremely made-up Vietnamese women with long fake eyelashes and low-cut white T-shirts and skin-tight red pants came to our table to see if we would be interested in trying Budweiser, but when the lads found out the Bud wasn't free, they passed on the opportunity. Part of the appeal of the Pacific is the extremely CHEAP beer ... but it allowed an opportunity to diss American beer in between whatever happens in cricket. It was very interesting, but I was a bit reluctant to take photos. I should have taken at least one of all my British colleagues sitting in a row with all their eyes focused on the big screen.

Although frog stomach was on the menu, along with a variety of steamed organs, I had veggie noodles instead and they were fine. An American colleague ordered a couple of chicken legs, but he got chicken fingers instead ... literally ... well the feet. He said it wasn't the first time that had happened to him. I left after a couple of hours and England lost their considerable lead shortly after I left. Then yesterday, Level 6.1 colleagues went to lunch and we went to the Tokyo Deli, where we had lunch sets and I have to say it was about the best food I have had since I came here. However, today at lunch I had a simple meal of soup, rice, chicken, cabbage, and tea ... and it was very tasty. It cost 25,000 VND or less than $1.50. So you can see how it would be hard to eat more cheaply at home.

I am thinking about going to live in the Hung Vuong apartments, as they are very convenient to RMIT and lots of teachers live there as well ... not a lot of apartments are available, but I will see. I am really not keen on dickering with prices, but I know you can save a lot of money that way. Oy.So, after swimming this morning, I went to see a real estate agent, Ha, and she took me to see a couple of flats ... see the influence John, David, and Howard (my podmates) are having on me? When she found out I didn't have a phone yet, she sent me with her assistant to get me a mobile phone ... heehaww another motorbike ride! We went to a small market area near here. Plus the vendors were so nice as to install my sim card and get the little feller all started for me. Then I met two of the newbies, Carl and Robert in Phu My Hung and they set some more features for me. Life is very good and people are very lovely sometimes. So, now I am able to be reached, if need be. 01-655-150012.

After meeting Ha and getting my cheap Nokia, I went to the city to see some sights ... I ended up at the Ben Thanh Market and that was pretty amazing. Boyoboy, what a bunch of stuff all jammed into that space. There was a market something like it in Wuxi, but divided by 1,000. I loved the rows with the coffee shops ... so fragrant! I am sure it will take me many times to see it all. All public bus routes (fare 3,000 VND or about 15 cents) end up (and start) at Ben Thanh, so I took the #34 home to Phu My Hung and I saw so much on my ride. Much more than I would have seen in a taxi. Maybe I'll take a motorbike taxi one day ... I took pics at some of the places where the bus stopped. I'll put a few here but I'll put most of them on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/raven_chick/) in case you'd like to see more of HCMC.

As always, I love to hear from you and appreciate your messages and notes so much! You are very encouraging and I thank you for that. I'll write again soon.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

As some of you may know, I left the University of Calgary-Qatar in June and have relocated to Vietnam, where I am teaching for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology International University Vietnam ... or RMIT Vietnam. So now I am learning Australian English ... how are you going?
It was a fast and furious summer, what with returning to Canada, looking for and finding a job, gardening, catching up on friends and family, and going to Oklahoma to see Errol's mother and brother. And life continues to move apace ... at least for the moment.
Leaving Qatar was difficult in some ways, as I loved the students there and I am very supportive of the program and its objectives. However, for many reasons, UC-Q was not a good fit for me, and the best thing to do was leave. I keep in touch with some students and staff members and former staff members; I consider myself lucky to have made some lovely friends and hope to continue to stay in touch with them. In fact, last week my former UC-Q colleague, Tam Donnelly was in Ho Chi Minh City and we went out for dinner. She is the loveliest and most gracious person and it was great to see her for a bit. Such a small world.
So, from application to arriving in HCMC was a little over 3 weeks and so I am still in the process of adjusting to this new adventure. First of all, it is hot. Very, very hot. And humid. RMIT has a lovely new campus and so the a/c works wonderfully, which is a major blessing. They are putting me up in a hotel for a week; when my allotted days are up, I will move to a service apartment (meaning a studio, basically with laundry and maid servcie). It is a large and airy room with a great and spotless bathroom ... a fridge and access to a shared kitchen on the top floor. Apparently only 1 or 2 of the 8 residents ever cook and there is a lovely table on the rooftop verandah, as well. Most people eat out or order in here as it is so incredibly hot (did I mention that?) and also the restaurant prices are extremely reasonable, so not having a fully dedicated kitchen is not a big thing for me right now. I imagine I will get a flat in a couple of months, as several people have told me they are coming to visit and will need more space. And I suppose eating out will become blase in about 90 days or so:-) People at RMIT have said some people rush into a rental agreement and live to regret it, as the districts here are so different and as people become familiar with the city, they often find they prefer the lifestyle of a different neighbourhood. Right now I am in District 7 -Phu My Hung, a largely Korean suburb only 5 minutes (by taxi) from RMIT and, as I have 7:30 am classes every day, the thought of not having to contend with rush hour traffic as I commute from District 1 - Saigon is a major consideration for me. Plus Phu My Hung is quite green, less polluted, and much quieter. And more expensive, but there are pros and cons to everything, no?
I am a bit nervous about starting my new teaching position, as the curriculum is so different from what I have been working with recently. On the positive note, there is a curriculum, so that's good. The teaching approach is very communicative and extremely fast-moving. I think it is very CELTA-inspired. There are over 80 people in the department and they all have shopping baskets full of markers and papers and blue tack and games and hand-outs. I am tired just thinking of it all. I have my first day mostly mapped out ... at least the first two hours or so ... and we shall see how it goes. My friend, Patty Ryan, says that many Vietnamese students expect their English clases to be entertaining and complain if their classes are not fun enough. Oh, the pressure ... It is a very diverse lot I'll be working with - from Australia, New Zealand, the States, the UK, Canada and ????
I observed a couple of hours of classes last week and the students seem quite young and very sweet. I hope I can learn to pronounce their names:-) One told me to call her 'Mushroom', so that works for me. Seriously, I do hope I can learn to say their names properly. Some of our mispronunciations are very rude, I hear. I am hoping to take language lessons soon. There are many major differences between Qatar and here, but one of the most noticeable is the immediate accessibility of services. Within a two or three square block section there are so many services ... and so there are a few language schools that offer Vietnamese classes in my immediate neighbourhood. Music classes, art classes ... you name it! Plus in my soon-to-be home, the Eva Hotel, there is a silk importer and tailor. I have already had a manicure, pedicure and spa massage and these were all within a five-minute walk. Nice. On Friday, RMIT organized a city tour and dinner to complete our induction. and it was a very emotional way to end a very busy week. One of the places we stopped was at the War Remnants Museum, and as last week was International Agent Orange Day, the displays were quite graphic and upsetting. In some ways this country has had so much conflict over its several thousand years of existence that the Vietnam War seems like a blip on the screen in their history, and apparently some people here really do consider it that way. But what we saw will take a while to percolate through my consciousness, that's for sure. I met up with some former Londoners, Ron and Kathy Moore, who are teaching at the American International School in HCMC ... more small world. That was very enjoyable, as they are quite familiar with District 1 and knew a nice place to have lunch. The bar and grill was on a small street and it was full of stationery, camera, and electronics stores. So it was kind of neat to see folks drive by on their mopeds with 2 or 3 flat-screen TVs bungee-corded onto the back of their bikes. I also joined a pool. Again half a block away from where I am staying. The pool is well-maintained and long enough for swimming lengths. Yesterday the majority of swimmers were British 30-somethings and Korean fathers with their children. And me. So I went again this morning and the Korean fathers and their kids were there, but no up-and-comers... late night at the pubs perhaps.
My camera battery is dead, so I will upload some pics tomorrow. I will have more news soon, I imagine, and hope the last bit of summer is a good bit of summer for everyone. Best wishes to you all.