Work, Massage, Drink, Eat.

Bad nights sleep, I think I fell asleep with my neck on a bad angle and had a headache for most of the night so of course just as I finally get into a deep sleep – the alarm goes off. Breakfast and Wah takes me to school. Chan greets me full of apologies for wasting my time with the wrong class material Thursday – I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle this so as long as he gave me the right material for today I accept and move on.

I have had this class before and they are a good bunch of kids, the boys chatter a lot which is distracting but I handle them well. With my head still a bit sore I am cheery through the class but offer a stern stare when one of them is chattering and say “one warning today” to let them know I am not kidding, so when one starts chattering for the second time in a firm raised voice I say “Peter, over there” pointing to a chair on the other side of the room, within twenty minutes I have moved two of them and now they are too far apart to chatter. I’ve got to say I am fairly proud of myself and I think I am pretty good at this job.

This generation is the first in the country’s history that is middle class, they go to normal school but then their parents pay for them to come here to learn English. Tom has told me that he has two classes that just give him the finger and say “my father can get you fired” which probably explains why he has elevensees before work. He has only been reprimanded once for hitting a student. So my kids are pussy cats compared to that.

I have a cigarette and a chat with Brandon in break time and he is more forthcoming with information. Basically as he sees it (and I am starting to pick up) the main focus of the school is money, not unexpected seeing we are in Vietnam but that will in time make it hard to keep up this energy and passion I have for teaching the kids, I really want to make a difference. He says the parents pay about a hundred and fifty dollars a month for their kids to attend which is quite an amount of money, especially when you consider the lack of professionalism and lax attitude towards the curriculum. Brandon also offered up the names of a couple of other places I could get work closer to where I am living, he is in a good mood today, he even smiled slightly at one point.

We are learning words like “journalist” “author” “novel” “publisher” “editor” today and spend time talking about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter and what books the kids like. I am surprised to find that when I tell them my favourite book when I was their age was “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” that two of them have actually read it, man I loved that book, I still have two or three copies in a box somewhere.

Schools out and I get my timetable for this week, another sparse week and I am feeling good. After Wah drops me back to the Blue River, Thay says she will let me know what time we are going on a trip out of town tomorrow and I am looking forward to escaping for a day. I change and head out for lunch at Lam Café but I see Glen in his usual spot and stop for a beer with him first. He is still only doing interviews and doesn’t have a job yet. I ask him about his flies/rain comment the other day and he explains the sticky little flies only come out a few hours before it is going to rain. On the way home from school there was a couple of drops and the cool wind I have noticed that comes before the rain also, yes it will rain later today. I buy Glen a beer and head over to Lam in time to see Tom heading off to teach. The satay at Lams is brilliant.

After eating I head off for a massage to straighten my neck out, two days in a row is a bit indulgent but hey, it’s fourteen dollars! Along the way I see a familiar face and a name pops into my head, he sees me looking at him so I ask “Rainier?” he looks surprised and cautiously answers “yes” I laugh and tell him he has a tarantula tattoo on his shoulder and I met him two years ago and he was the one who recommended “Saigon Ink” where I got my star tattoo. We have a stunned laugh and he is surprised I remembered him, as am I. “I’ll see you on the block then” and I leave him to eat in peace.

At the massage place I tell the girl out front that the massage yesterday was no good and she is apologetic. Luckily one of the good masseuses is free and she does a great job. On my way out I notice the girl who gave me a massage a couple of weeks ago when I was being cautious with my money, waiting for my new bank cards. I only tipped her half the expected amount at the time so today I gave her the other half and said “I told you my wallet was stolen and I promised you I would give you the rest when I had more money” there are a few of the girls standing around by now and I think I earnt a fair amount of respect. The girl who takes the money gives me a slight discount for yesterdays debacle and I think they realise I go there two or three times a week so they should look after me.

All is right in the world and I float off with my painless back and neck and go for a lay down, I am bushed after no sleep last night and class today. I saw Doyen along the way and she is much happier today, her friends from Alley Booz took her out to karaoke last night for a few drinks because she has moved from there to the GO2. When I got back to my room there was a beautiful thank you note from Mun and Min, I gave them five dolars earlier for the extra effort of keeping the cigarette smell to a minimum in my room. Mun refused the money but I insisted, now there is an oil burner in my room.

The Spotted Cow

As dusk sets in I head out for a walk around the block. I stop to say hello to Hung, another friend at the GO2 but I’m not going there twice in one day. Just up ahead I see Lan, we walk and talk for a while and I joke that I will help her sell her cheap basket junk, she doesn’t believe me so I do for a couple of bars, I could not take the constant rejection these girls endure. I separate from her at The Spotted Cow and have a beer amongst a passion ridden crowd of Aussies cheering the rugby finals on TV.

The view at the front of Dung Cafe'

I move onto Dung Café and I am so close to the end of “Zen – Motorcycle Maintenance” but I will not finish tonight. Lan turns up again and we talk some more. Again tonight someone wants to sit outside at MY table but tonight the boys separate the tables a bit so I have a small exclusion zone but I cannot read anymore tonight so I say hello to the fellow. He’s a Jewish guy who seems decent enough but it soon becomes obvious he has a silent air of superiority and in the middle of our conversation he cuts me off rudely to greet a couple of Jewish girls who turn up and they proceed to ramble on loudly in Hebrew, so I order the pork!

                                                                   Lan......again.

After enough beer and cigarettes I head back to my room, on the way in Hai informs me that Thay and I are leaving at 7am in the morning so straight to bed. The rain never came.