First Day

I had wondered what on earth I'd be doing the two days before I started working at the school. At first, I imagined myself being kind of a wimp and just hanging around my room all day but I woke up early this morning despite jumping a few time zones and decided I definitely wanted to explore. First of all, when I arrived the night before I realized I didn't have any water so I wanted to track down that. I also realized that while my bed did have sheets, blankets, and pillows as I was worried it may not, I did not have any toilet paper. I did have a small moist towelette from the airplane that I figured would do until I found some. I probably could have made that towelette last an entire day. So, I got dressed and headed down the street to first find an ATM and then find some supplies. I scouted out an ATM the night before right across from APU (the school) so that was easy. Then I also quickly found a store and bought water...well that was easier than I thought. So, I wandered around some more and tried to find toilet paper.

Where I live in Ho Chi Minh City isn't a tourist area. I was the only white person on the street and I didn't see any others the entire day. I obviously didn't mind this but needless to say, no one spoke much English. Many people did, however, say hello and stared at me as I walked down the busy streets. Speaking of which, this town is super busy. Motorbikes whiz by, there are people everywhere. It's basically mayhem but it's pretty awesome. It isn't like New York where literally everyone seems to be in a hurry somewhere. The drivers usually seem to be in a hurry though no one drives much over 30mph but they honk through intersections to announce their arrival and warn others to get out of the way. The people who aren't in transit, however, are kind of just hanging out. Or walking around, or selling something. Most of the stores have completely open facades and people are just hanging out. I walked by this one building which literally was just a small open floor with three guys sitting on the floor, smoking cigarettes and eating. Not sure what that place was as there was no signs or furniture but whatever.

After I bought my water I came back to my room and decided to try to get on the internet. The security guard had no idea what I was trying to say and after I brought my computer down to try to show him still didn't appear to know the password. I then ran into another teacher who lives below me and he speaks English but didn't know the password. I decided to give up for a while and retreated to my room. A little bit after that I heard the door across from mine open so I decided to run out and see who it was. Turns out my next door neighbor is a teacher at the school from Chicago named Scott. He was heading out for breakfast and coffee and asked if I'd like to join him and he'd show me around. He is about to start his second year working as a teacher at APU so he knows the area pretty well.

First, we went to a little roadside bakery and picked up these pastries stuffed with meat and egg. Don't ask me what kind of meat was in it ... I think it was probably beef...or pork? Whatever, they were delicious. Then we walked over to Scott's favorite cafe and he ordered us his coffee of choice. It was an iced coffee likely with sweetened condensed milk - how they usually serve coffee here. It also tasted like mocha-flavored. It was also freakin' delicious. I may become a coffee addict again here...

After that Scott showed me where the grocery store was (toilet paper - score!) and where he gets his laundry done. It was pretty sweet to figure out all of these key things out in one day.

After we got back I realized I needed hangers for my clothes so I trekked back to the grocery store solo. I scanned the produce aisle and saw many fruits and/or vegetables I have never seen before. All of their labels were in Vietnamese so they're still a mystery...for now. I grabbed 2 packs of 10 hangers, a little water bottle, soap dish, and straws (a necessity) all for about $9 US ... gah I love this place. It's like finding deals everywhere except they aren't deals, that's just how cheap they really are!

Later I ran some more errands with a guy from the HR department at APU. He helped me set up a bank account so I can get paid and get a sim card - which turned into an ordeal because I then needed a new phone (see awesome new phone pic below). Anyway, this is when I got my first ride on the back of a motorbike. Trunt, the HR guy, decided we'd drive down to buy a phone (which was only a few blocks away but hey, I'm not one to complain about a motorbike ride). There are clearly NO rules when driving. It seems like people mostly courteously stay to the right side of the road but when we exited the phone store there was a divider in the middle of the road so Trunt just drove along the edge of the far left side of the road, maneuvering mostly with his feet to get around the traffic piled up at a traffic light that people actually follow. Then, when the traffic started to move he made his way across the left lane and over to the right lane through oncoming traffic. It wasn't nearly as scary as it sounds. I also had my first experience crossing the busy street. Not nearly as bad as I expected, actually. When I ran into that first English-speaking teacher in my dorm he had said, "Don't worry, I've only been hit once." That was reassuring.

Around 7pm I decided I should venture out for dinner. Scott was heading out to meet a friend and showed me to a restaurant he usually goes to. He also left me the option of going out onto his deck while he was out. He is lucky enough to have a beautiful porch off of his room with a cute little table and a couch. There is also a spiral staircase up to the roof. My room is bigger but there is no access to the outside at all ... I'm jealous of him, but at least he was kind enough to let me use his deck.

For dinner I found myself at this small, divey-looking sort of place. Basically exactly what I pictured eating at when I imagined myself eating local cuisine. Luckily, the menu had English translations and pictures so it was easy to point to something for the server. Although, I ordered beef with morning glory and even though it was in English, I didn't know what morning glory was...but it looked good in the picture so I figured what the hell. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory#Culinary_uses]

They gave me a huge plate of rice and a small bowl of what was probably some sort of soup. At first I didn't really get it so I scooped some of the seaweed and broth onto the rice. I'm prettyyy positive the waitress was laughing at me and I realized that the little bowl was more likely soup...not meant to be poured on my rice...whatever. The beef was really good. It was tender and garlicky (my favorite) and the morning glory had the same flavor but didn't have any particularly strong flavor on its own. I also got some orange drink (something I pointed to on the menu) and they gave me a tiny banana after my meal ... all of that cost less than $3. I could definitely get used to this.

After dinner I came home and chilled on Scott's deck while he was out. It was kind of buggy so I only lasted so long out there but I figured next time I'd hit the bug spray before going out there because it was really nice. The sound of people yelling and honking their horns constantly was prominent but it wasn't annoying. I also noticed these weird little white lizards crawl around the outside of the buildings at night. They're jumpy and kind of cute ... I saw about 5 on my building. Way better than spiders.

So that about wraps up my first day here. I imagine my blog posts will be much shorter once my days consists of working from 8-5 everyday so sorry if these first two were long and boring! Here's some pictures!

 Dinner!

 Nomnomnomnom...

 The restaurant - there was more to it behind me, I was not the only one in there.

 Seaweed soup?

 Scott's deck

 View of my road from the balconey

Look closely....there's a little lizard guy!

 My weird little bathroom ... so I just shower right in there, huh?

I don't know how to use this thing ... I took a shower but I don't even know if this box did anything.

Black and white screen, no frills - why is it so hard to use?!

Anddd my room ... that's about it!