Dirrrty South. . . . Mekong Style

I hate making decisions. Boo. I have to decide whether I will stay with VIA for another year and be in Tra Vinh, or will I live an organization-less life in HCMC. It’s not an issue of what I don’t want, more of what I want more. Do I return to my original reasons for wanting to go to VN, my original plans? Should I follow the mentality of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Just go with the flow appreciate life, or start thinking about careers, resumes, ambitions, etc. One option costs nothing, the other will cost me a lot of $$, which is important to think about in this economy. One has a clear outcome, one can be a potential failure. One will be easy, one will be more challenging. I don’t know!!!

I’m always scared of big life changing decisions. I’m the kind of person who easily adapts, and then often if there’s no particular reason to change something, thinks why do it? I can be a bit like Dante from Clerks. However, I’ve been reflecting on many of my past decisions, many of which, if I could do it differently I would. I’ve gotten good experiences out of many of them, but in the long run they haven’t made me satisfied with my life. Do I continue with that pattern? I don’t know. It’s scary not to. I kind of want to go with what seems easy, and safe. However, as Einstein puts it:

 “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

My kiddies!!!! Of course I need to share some pics of my students. Last semester was a bit of a rocky start. I never taught before, had no idea about the Vietnamese educational system, etc. etc. and I felt completely overwhelmed. Now I feel a bit more in my stride. I don’t know if my students learn anything but we at least have some fun in class. My students are wonderful! The more I get to spend time with them the more adorable and endearing they become to me. Also, maybe teaching has gotten smoother because of how TVU changed the schedules. It used to be you teach one class a week, all 4-5 hours at once. Now they break it up, so you teach a couple 2-3 hour classes a week. So much nicer! Students understandably are so burnt out after 2 hours, that the last 2 hours are painful and useless. Anyways….pictures of my kids:

Business Administration B!!!

Business Administration C!!

Some of my English majors. We went to a local pond, Ao Ba Om, and had a picnic and played some playground games. Karaoke followed.

I know it’s been forever since I posted. I just have a lot of pictures, and then it gets overwhelming trying to sort them all out, and then loading them with my super slow internet….it’s just very easy not to blog. I had a dozen ideas for posts already (Tet, my trip, etc. etc.), but I’ll start with something simple that’s been a long time coming. I haven’t really described my life in Tra Vinh or who’s in it yet, so here goes. The cast of “Anh-Thu’s Adventures in Tra Vinh”:

This is Chinh, my aunt. I call her Mo Chinh. Mo is the title for your mother’s brother’s wife. My uncle from the US married her a few months before I got posted to Tra Vinh. It’s kind of weird how Tra Vinh was this place my family had no idea about or connection to, and suddenly I have an aunt there. She’s been really great with helping me out with all my incompetence and having no idea how things work in Vietnam or Tra Vinh. She has also tried to do the impossible task of teaching me how to cook. She also helped me get my first ao dai made, which was quite an arduous task…(I had to go to 5 different tailors, 6 fabric stores until I found the right amount of fabric and the tailor who would sew for me in a timely fashion). In many ways she has been one of the most important people to me in Tra Vinh (if not the most important). I would’ve totally been lost otherwise. 

Tra Vinh University is divided into four campus. On Campus 2 there’s guest housing for teachers, and here are my neighbors, Toni and Jeff! They are collectively like the Murray to my Flight of the Conchords (I am spectacular enough to be both Jermaine and Brett). They’re not starring in the show, but they play a major part and are featured in most episodes. Jeff, the one with the beard, is my postmate with VIA, so we arrived in Tra Vinh around the same time. For the first few months, everyone thought we were married, and treated me as his wife….which means treated me as his translator/publicist. Within the first week, I got pretty good at reciting his stats. Sometimes the wife thing goes a bit far. There was this time I was biking alone, I passed by these xe om (motorbike taxi) drivers, and one said to another “Look, the foreigner dumped her”. 

Toni is the other guy. He’s a UN volunteer from Spain. Specifically Barcelona (said with a lisp). Jeff and I knew for awhile that a volunteer from Spain was coming, so we always referred to that potential person as “The Spaniard”. The name has stuck. From me, The Spaniard started to learn how to talk like a sassy girl, “Aw hell no!” with a finger point (for him it comes out more like “Oh no!”). However, from him, now my own sass sometimes comes out sounding like a Spanish man impersonating a girl from Flava of Love.

I hate WordPress. I dearly miss Blogger. Little things like rotating a photo which used to be no problem is not a big pain in the ass in WordPress (unless you upgrade your account and start paying $$). Sadness that I’m too lazy to change domains.