Yay I'm a teacher!! (Teacher Jonanana apparently)
Backtrack a few months, after a fab time at home and skiing with the
fam for Xmas (first Christmas with them in four years!),
back to Vietnam I came! A very bleak and disappointed Jo Jo I was
getting on that plane, after such a great time in the snowy
mountains of Austria, the filthy sweat box of Ho Chi Minh seemed
positively gross. A three hour visa hassle at the airport didn't
help, despite Andy's best attempts to cheer me up with beer and
ice-cream! I was grand though and soon settled back into Asian life.
And by that I mean 50c beers and $2 meals.
The job hunt was short lived after every company said they all had
a job for me...after the new year holidays in Feb!
After a couple of cockerel infested/miles away from anywhere/windowless
pit house searches, we came upon our new
abode which is delightful...a huge improvement on the tiny box room 7
floors up (no lift) on the busiest backpacker street.
Big room with a balcony, kitchen, lounge with tons of English movie
channels and a rooftop-aint bad for $150 a month! And we have new
friends now yay! Hannah - an Irish mate Jo met in America and
hadn't seen for three years, moved here after Xmas too and it just
so happened she was looking for a place the day someone moved
out of our gaff. Great craic despite her being a veggie! Then there's
Sergey a Russian IT dude, enjoys drinking and girls.
Steve from Tennessee, was in the unemployed group before the holidays,
went to Cambodia to get a new visa..over a month ago and hasn't been
seen since! A Japanese guy called Cookie who we hardly ever see and
doesn't speak much but Andy had to leave a note for to remind him to
flush the toilet after a few too many gross encounters in the mornings!
A Russian girl called Maria who enjoys yoga and eating bowls of lettuce!
In our alleyway, we have many Vietnamese friends, they have little English
but nod their heads and mumble and smile or wave.
All the kids hi five us and run after us saying hello. The crazy lady next
door is always dragging us into her hut (seems the whole
extended family all live in these huts/on the street in our alley) and offers
us beers trying to get us to join in the awful and
ridiculously loud Vietnamese karaoke parties! Someone recently
got the cutest little fluff ball puppy that Hannah and I keep kidnapping
and bringing into our gaff for cuddles, we also have various cats that jump in
our window (no walls in the kitchen,just some wide metal bars). Now that
I have put it in writing, our street does seem a bit strange, I must take some
photos...when coming back late at night you have to be quiet as several of
our neighbours are sleeping on old sun loungers outside, they don't
even seem that poor either! They live on the street and cook and eat in one
pot on the pavement but then they wop out their iPads and laptops and hop on their motorbikes!!
So day 1 after the holidays proactive Hannah set me up with one of her unwanted jobs,
I rang them, went for an interview and 10 minutes later was en route to a
'demo class'....3 classes actually! 35 5 year olds singing head shoulders knees and toes and
learning the letter g....a great success, I got the job!! It may be because I'm not exactly
full time, a few hours here, a few hours there...in fact 9 hours in total-but on $16 an hour
that's 32 beers an hour here so I'm still living the life! Got my first paycheck last
week...for 4 days (6 hours work 1.8million :) oh and I caught one of the kids paying
his mate to let him sit at the front of my class after a bit of a scuffle over who
could sit there! #mostlovedteacher #theylovehi5s
Edit Notes, as I wrote this two weeks ago and forgot to post it;
- The bathroom note worked
- The fluff ball puppy is getting much bigger and less cute by the day
- I'm now on antibiotics from a chest infection not helped by roaring old MacDonald all day!
