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.