Thursday afternoon

It is 3:44pm on Thursday. I am sweaty and in need of a pee. I have to "teach" at 5:45 this evening until 9. This school is a joke and I'm tired of it. I'm a joke too since I work there. I can forsee this coming to an end.

I normally have two students in this speaking class and they can barely speak. Tonight, I have been foretold they will not be there. That's fine. I hope nobody else shows up. So I can sit there and do nothing. And get paid all the same.

My second class is just as terrible. I basically act as a moderator for in-class discussions. I always wonder what I'm doing there. I think I will drop these Tuesday and Thursday nightmares and move on. I will try to act on this desire tonight.

Then I will be left with two schools. And that is plenty as it is. And I can play with my schedule to maximize sanity retention. Because lately I haven't been good at that. And now, I will go take a nap and then a shower before heading off to "school".

Moving day is almost here!

I have been at my current abode for about two and a half months. Way longer than I originally anticipated. I was the one of all of my friends who said they wanted to get the hell out of district 1 and more off the beaten track, at least as far as foreigners are concerned. Yet here I still am. It hasn't been all that bad here. Quite comfortable actually, but I am ready to move on.

Next week is the week of weeks. I am moving into a 5-bedroom house and including myself, there will be five of us plus any significant others or prostitutes that the others may bring home. I will have my own bedroom, bathroom and balcony for a mere $130 a month not to mention use of the "kitchen" and "living room" downstairs and the rooftop terrace.

And we will have Internet, a washing machine and maid service. Very desirable amenitites in any new home. It is also quite centrally located, smack dab in the middle of the city, closer to one of my schools, farther from two of them, but closer to two other branches of one of the aforementioned farther schools and also closer to my Vietnamese lessons. In fact, within walking distance. A hop, skip and a jump away.

I will miss the view from my balcony where I presently reside. And watching the rain pour down from a ways away. I will miss the fruit lady. The omelet lady. The bubble tea ladies. The conical hat wearing girl who is always toiling away at her trusty sewing machine. I almost want to rip something just so she can overcharge me and put a little more dong in her pocket. But my guess is that she's honest.

There will be new folks in my new neighborhood. New noodle stands, new fruit ladies, new neighbors and new experiences. And I will be more settled, at least I hope, and less of a vagabond. I might actually unpack my suitcase. And I might get rid of some shit before I move to limit myself to only the essentials. Less than a week to go and I cannot wait. Get me outta here!

The big 200

This is my 200th post
And that is no boast

I have nothing to say
I'm just here today

I feel quite retarded
Somebody farted

Nothing will come
I feel quite dumb

Something is amiss
So I write stupid shit like this

You fool!

A few months ago, I bought a laptop. This heap of steaming shit sitting before me now. It came with free pirated software such as Windows Vista, Microsoft Office and Powerpoint. I thought, hey what a deal. And then, recently, somehow Microsoft recognized my Windows as not being genuine. I guess I shouldn't have been downloading those automatic updates. But they didn't tell me that, not that I would have understood if they did.

So, today, I went to get another copy of Windows. No, not a genuine copy. Why would I do that? I took it to this place and they copied all the important data before reinstalling the software. Only the fool didn't copy all the data! The bastard omitted the most important folder, my pictures, and now I am without an original from the last seven plus months. Since I didn't double check what data he had copied, I suppose I'm the real fool.

Love/Hate

Things I hate, in no particular order:
(this list could go on forever)

-The smell of sewage in my bedroom
-Ants on my toothbrush
-A bag of chom choms mostly infested with worms
-Someone cutting me off in the rain
-Smug teenagers
-My laptop
-The smell of fish sauce
-The smell of durian
-Slow internet connections
-Warm beer

Things I love:

-The wind in my face as I blast around on a motorbike
-Cute kids
-People who smile
-The ice cold watermelon I get almost every morning
-Bubble tea
-A well-deserved cold beer
-Exploring new places in Saigon
-Vegetarian curry at Ngoc Tho restaurant
-The sound of the rain (when it's warm out)
-Fresh coconuts, everywhere!
-Beautiful women, everywhere!
-Fast internet connections

The list goes on!

Headache

I have a headache. A minor one at that, but it's still there pressing the inner contents of my cranium against my skull. Or that's how it feels. I'm hoping this 7up and eggplant, tofu, onions and rice helps it go away. Or at least hope to have the pressure go somewhere else to alleviate the current symptoms. My belly can handle it.

I think it's come forth this evening as I embark one of my more difficult teaching weeks. 10 hours awaits me tomorrow. But it's not even that I am worried about. It's the new classes I have on Sunday morning and the prep work I have to do sometime between 11pm tomorrow and 8am the next morning so I don't look like an ass. And even if I don't look like one, feeling like one is all the same to me.

And after Sunday, normally it is a piece of cake. But I have taken on more hours at a another school. A test, if you will, to see if I like working during the day as opposed to the evenings. So, add 15 hours to a 25 hour work week and what the hell am I thinking? I hate 40 hour work weeks! Why did I do this!?

Hopefully it will only be one week. And if I like it, I can drop some of my evening hours and slowly move away from getting off work at 9pm and having dinner around 10. As much as it works for me now, I don't feel like doing this forever. And as much as I hate getting up for school in the morning, at least it's 9am and not 8. So, here we go. And as for the headache, please go as well!

The healing process

I've been really good about trying not to pick my scabs, but it's impossible. I need to cut my fingernails. Maybe that will help. But I cannot control everything. Like when I got my shorts caught on my scab prematurely lifting a significant portion of it away from my skin. Oww!

Ummm...for your viewing displeasure.

Learning vietnamese

I know I'm improving. It is a very slow process, but I can identify more words with each passing day. My pronunciation, on the other hand, is a different story.

The other day, I pulled into the gas station and asked for 80,000 dong. She stopped filling up at 50,000. Tám and năm do sound similar. So I said, no, tám mươi. But I missed the mark again because she filled me up to 100,000.

The frustration runs deep. Good times.

Wet

Wow, I had this amazing story about my experience driving in the flood last week, but it wasn't meant to be. My touchpad has a mind of its own and decided it didn't like what I wrote. And everything was instantly deleted before blogger had a chance to automatically save it. Ah well, fuck it. You just get the video. And I get to curse and lament my decision to choose this laptop in the first place. Sigh...

The BIG toe

It all began a week ago. I got a lot of dirt in my toenails after running around barefoot during ultimate frisbee. So, I dug it out. It was hard work. I believe I got too far under the nail. It started to swell and kind of hurt.

Then I decided to apply some pressure on the affected region. I sank the "scraper" from my nail clippers into the swollen mass and voilà! I was a happy man.

Then, the next day, I tried again and bam! The happiness keeps on coming. Eventually, it will go back to the same old boring big toe, but in the meantime I am enjoying its slow return to normalcy.