Welcome to Vietnam

30.5 hours, 9,131 miles and 11 time zones. I am happy to report that me and all my luggage made it safely and in one piece to Vietnam yesterday. Since then a lot has happened so here is a short list.

1. My first day of orientation (Day 2 for the rest of the group) and it was all day on teaching English as a second language. This topic runs for two weeks and the gentlemen teaching it is very knowledgeable. The basic premise is that you are perhaps slightly inept (or grossly depending on your own self-image) but qualified. Take a deep breath and breathe.
2. I met the other ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) and they are wonderful. Such an open and easy going bunch with awesome stories and experiences. This weekend all 15 of us are tentatively planning on going to Ha Long Bay.
3. I have converted all my US dollars into dong (pronounced dun) and I am rich and official. Today 1 dollar = 20,866.87 dong. Currently I am a millionaire. Yippy!
4.  I have learned how to cross the street. Here is the basic overview: Tonnage determines right of way. This means that a bus or car will NOT stop for you. In fact nobody will stop for pedestrians, but smaller vehicles can swerve if they so choose to avoid you. A bus or van or truck can’t swerve without knocking down a palleton of motorbikes, Vespa’s and bikes triggering a crash like those seen in the Tour d’France. So don’t leave the curb if a car to bus is in the area. A tangent to this rule is that driver’s don’t stop so from the moment you leave the curb to the time you scurry shaking to the other curb NEVER STEP BACKWARDS. Vietnamese drivers assume a constant forward motion and try to avoid your future path, which means in the moment they are aiming at you. Thus if you move backwards you will most certainly die, if you walk diagonally you may die, if you stop you have a slim chance of living, and if you move forward head down you may live.
5.  I learned how to say watermelon, coconut, strawberry and pineapple. All are the same word, just different tones. Pineapple is Dứa (note the up-tone), coconut is Dừa (note down-tone), watermelon is Dua (no tone) and strawberry is Dâu (note the fat or round-tone). The good news is I like all these fruits so no matter what I say at the market I am good. Unfortunately this doesn’t work for Ca. The up-tone means fish, the flat tone means cup, and the down-tone means bad (which is something of an insult…or so I'm told). This could end badly.
6.  Also the food is GREAT.

I have to end this as I have homework to do tonight. That’s right our teacher assigned us readings. You can imagine our stunned looks at orientation today. I think our teacher enjoyed dispensing the assignment very much, as is his right. I'm off to hit the books. I will post photos at some point in the near future. I promise.