xin chao!

greetings from ho chi minh city, vietnam! first of all, i'm sorry for the delay in reply. we still haven't set up a computer at the house yet - i'm actually in the school office as i type this. *sigh* when i said i was going to be amidst the hustle and bustle of this city, i sure wasn't kidding. it's been on the get-go since i first set my feet in this wonderful city... so, without further adue, here's a breakdown of what i've been up to in the past few days:

tuesday, august 31
after a tearful goodbye to my family and the triple j soul sisters (hesed, i'm so sorry i missed you and your family by only a matter of minutes!), i hopped on a plane for sunny, hot and humid californ-i-a. once i landed in LA, oddly enough the adventures just kept happening one after the another - truth be told, i haven't had such excitement in one day and a half. it all started when kim, my coordinator and i headed out for pasadena after picking me up at the LAX airport. on the freeway, not even 10 minutes after we leave the LAX, we see a small white ford car swerve in between the wheels of a huge flat-bed semi-truck. the truck's wheels completely rolled over the car's hood at over 65 miles an hour... glass breaking, metal crunching, tires screeching, smoke fuming all over the freeway - and we're watching this at only a few meters distance and only one lane over. after the car finished spinning a 360, the driver still managed to bring it over to the side of the road AND get out of his car, unscratched and un-bruised to check out the damage. several cars stopped to help him out, however the driver of the truck that ran the poor car over KEPT ON DRIVING at FULL SPEED! kim and i managed to catch up to him 15 minutes later on the same freeway, took down his licence plate number and called 911 to report the case. it was like watching Speed all over again. unbelievable. but thankfully (read: miraculously) no one was hurt in the end... talk about your warm welcomes :o) ... only in the states i guess ;o)
they had me start training the moment i got there - what was normally a 5-week training session was packed up into 2 days, as i was told that i would be leaving wednesday night for hong kong. watching videos and one-one training sessions filled the rest of my day. i was able to stay the night at the william carey international university in pasadena - such a beautiful campus. waterloo doesn't even hold a candle. just outside my dorm room, right when you step out, there is an incredible view of these mountains, and it's really just breathtaking. the atmosphere and the scenery was just beautiful. i was almost disappointed that i couldn't stay longer and admire it all, and just let everything sink in...

wednesday, september 1
(happy birthday kris!) after more training, a compacted 25 minute practice-lesson in front of the other teachers at ESI, and a superb send-off dinner with kim, i was again off to the LAX. however, i was faced with yet another obstacle - only half an hour before we were supposed to head to the airport, the zipper of my carry-on decides to be fickle and completely breaks, leaving me with no way to open my bag. trying not to panic, kim willingly drives me to the closest marvin's multi-purpose department store so i can find a cheap, affordable, yet stylish bag that i could quickly transfer my entire universe of belonings into before we got to the airport. the cheapest bag i could find was $30 US - yeesh. it wasn't even that cute... :oP but we made it to the airport in good time. thinking that everything else would go smoothly, we then realized that on my visa papers, it had me listed as an american citizen, when clearly my passport and the rest of the documentation i had in my slightly-beginning-to-sweat hands read otherwise - not a good thing. apparently kim was able to set things straight on the receiving end in ho chi minh city, but not in time to get everything arranged and updated in the states. oy. so, we had decided to keep things quiet and just not tell the airline people at cathay pacific unless specifically asked. we made it through - man, if ever i had a james bond moment, that would definitely be it. SO... thinking that nothing else could go wrong, well... it did. when checking my baggage in, one of my suitcases was over the weight limit by 2 kilos. so, i'm here thinking... not a big deal, i'll just switch some stuff around the two suitcases, and everything will be peachy - BUT... what i thought would only take a few minutes, ended up holding the rest of the baggage line up, because the guard had trouble locking and re-locking the locks on my suitcase, and couldn't find the right key... so, here i am, l'il ol' me, looking really sheepish at this point and slightly embarrassed at the fact i was holding everyone up, especially because it was during peak hours and everyone was on the rush to get outta there. *sigh* i guess that since this was my first time travelling by air on my own, it only made sense that i experience everything and anything all at once :oP but thankfully the guards took pity on me and let me proceed, luggages locked and boarding pass safely in hand...
... and then there was customs. man, i knew that the states were strict about it, but dang... if i had to remove any more articles of clothing, i'd be a little exposed - and that's all i gotta say about that :oP but once i got through customs, the coast was finally clear - in a matter of 14 hours and 45 minutes, i would be in hong kong.

friday, september 3
(happy belated birthday yesterday cristina!) - i arrive at the hong kong airport for a 2 hour-stop over before heading to ho chi minh city... not much to say about the hk airport, other than the scenery was once again captivating - the mountains that surrounded the island were just amazing to look at, but were unfortunately covered by a slight fog for most of the time i spent there. the sun popped out finally once i was on the plane.
after another 2 hours or so on another plane, and i am finally in ho chi minh city, vietnam. apparently i had no trouble fitting in, because everyone here actually thinks i look vietnamese - when i had to get my landing visa approved, it took me about 30 minutes to explain to him that i didn't have a clue of what he was saying... but it was funny that we both took humour from it all. it's a completely different world over here, but strikingly familiar to what i remembered when i visited the philippines a few years back. the people here are just wonderful - very pleasant, and very hospitable. once i was picked up at the airport by my newfound friends doung (pron. "tune") and quang (pron. "whang"), we went to see the school office, and then had lunch at a pho (pron. "phah") restaurant nearby. what's pretty convenient and really cool about ho chi minh is that no matter where you go, there's always a store or something nearby - everything is in easy access. the girls and i have this running gag that everything takes "20 minutes" to get to. :o) another thing that i noticed the moment i got here was that everyone who's anyone here rides a motorcycle - the number of motorcycles actually outnumber the cars here. and crossing the street is a challenge all on its own. i haven't had the courage yet to hop onto a motorcylcle taxi just yet (called a "sey on"), but who knows, knowing that i could easily buy one for a little over $300 US (and we're talking BIKES not mopeds), i might just invest some money and purchase my own... :oD
after lunch, the girls took me to where i'll be staying for the next little while - because things seem to be up in the air about some schedules and teacher positions at the moment, there had been an overflow of teachers at the house i was supposed to be staying at. right now they have me staying at another guest house "20 minutes" away from the original house. the houses in vietnam are tall, and extended upwards, rather than sideways. some houses can have 6 floors, whereas others can have 10 - with no elevators at all. my buns are definitely gonna get a good workout while i'm here :o) i'm actually pretty overwhelmed at the hospitality the people here have shown to me so far - i almost feel like i'm living a life of luxury. i've never had someone hired to wash my clothes before, and i've never had someone hired to drive me where i want to go and when i want to go. it's crazy, but these people are so genuinely friendly. so far everyone has done more than enough to help make the transition from living in canada to here so smooth, and it's just been so wonderful to still be able to feel a sense of being at home.

saturday, september 4
there's another teacher named matthew (also from canada, eh!) who came after me, and is also staying with me at the guest house. we picked him up at the airport, and then had lunch again with duong and quang. once he got himself settled down, we got ready for dinner and met up with the rest of our teaching team. there's aaron (who is 6'7"!), jeremiah (from texas), liz (from arizona and my newfound dance partner), max (a former journalism prof), and bill (... really quiet but friendly). such a great bunch of people - a lot of us have different personalities, which is good because we seem to balance each other out :o) after dinner at saigon pho (a really posh restaurant in the heart of ho chi minh city, but with relatively cheap prices), aaron wanted to show me and matt some of the nightlife in ho chi minh city. he then asks me... "do you guys like karaoke?" - not even 10 minutes later, we find ourselves in a crowded taxi and heading down for the nearest karaoke joint. i then make the conclusion that i absolutely ADORE these people - watching them sing and dance to popular 80s hits such as "eye of the tiger", "oh what a feeling", "say you, say me" - it was awesome. we even did a l'il "daaaay-o" on the side :o) definitely good times. the locals must have thought we were crazy, because we were just that loud, and maybe even perhaps slightly obnoxious.

sunday, september 5
aaron took us to this international church service that was held at the duxton hotel in the central part of ho chi minh city (formerly the saigon prince hotel) - gorgeous atmosphere. it was a christian service specifically geared for foreigners who spoke english - it was awesome. the worship band was actually pretty good, and i knew most of the songs, and learned some new ones too. i also met an array of fabulous people, including this guy named alvin gonzales sanchez - he's filipino, and a missionary teaching english in vietnam. he even speaks ILONGO - it was absolutely refreshing to be able to talk to him in ilongo, which was pretty funny, considering he didn't think he would be able to find anyone who spoke the language in vietnam... i also met some more people who were from the states, even from canada. just awesome... after church, we went over to this place called cappuccino's in the tourist district of ho chi minh city. most of the backpackers and westerners in seek of "comfort food" go there to schmooze and browse the tourist attractions. and i must say, their pizza actually does taste like pizza - yummmy... as much as i love my pho, i gotta say that the occasional grease fix definitely does the body good. :o)

monday, september 6
yesterday i was able to sit in on one of liz's classes to learn the ropes and prepare for next week when i start to teach the students. it's a wide variety when it comes to age-range and knowledge-capacity, but it's amazing how eager everyone is to learn english. and it kinda makes me realize how much of it we really do take for granted - these students try so hard to keep up with the class and absorb so much that i just can't help but sit back in awe of it all. and the smiles on their faces help remind me how much i really want to be here and do this... one funny moment was when i was sitting at the back, observing, and this cute middle-aged woman named xinh (pron. "sin") asked me if i was a student or a teacher. once i explained to her that i could be teaching the class next week, she further asked for my age. when i told her i was 23, she then asked me if i was married. after telling her no, she then elaborately explained that she has 3 sons who are 21, 24, and 26 who are all in school, and can speak english, and just happen to be single. she even slyly (but cutely) managed to pass a wink or two while she talked. such a wonderful lady... hehe but thankfully i managed to gracefully sway her into talking about other topics... like fruit markets and motorcycles. :o)

... which brings us to today - nothing much has happened just yet, other than confirming my teaching schedule. it looks like i'll be teaching at the language center either 3 hours on mondays and wednesdays, or tuesdays and thursdays. once october hits, i'll also be teaching a couple of classes at the high school on top of that. their weekends are from friday-sunday, so my schedule seems pretty light as is, so in that free time, i hope to see as many things as possible while i'm here for the next 4 months. this weekend coming up, i think we're planning on heading out to the mekong delta to look at the water markets, see a bit of water puppetry somewhere in the city, and perhaps even manage to fit an exploring of the cu chi tunnels that were used during the vietnam war... other future events include heading down to a local seamstress with liz and have our very own ao dais (cultural dress - pron. "aye yaies") sewn for us four our outing to the opera house, and maybe try to fit in a pagoda tour around the city... wowsers. talking about putting the hustle in the bustle :o)

wish you guys were here :o)
luv always,
estelle