Yawn, Another day in Vietnam.

It's amazing how rapidly one adjusts to even a radically different environment as one as one establishes a routine within said environment.

Now I'm not saying that the thrill is gone by any means, but some things are beginning to show signs of settling down to the general vicinity of mundane.

We have our routines. Mine: up at six when the rising sun first illuminates our east-facing bedroom window, make coffee, check the net, shower, shave, walk through the maze of alleys nodding at the now-sort-of-familiar denizens of same, emerge into the honking roar of rush-hour Doi Can, hail a taxi, weave through incredibly jammed intersections about 15 minutes to the high-rise where I work on the 24th floor, say hello to the other staff, sit for three to three-and-a-half hours in front of the computer editing and rewriting questions and responses for the online portion of the school's curriculum, break for an hour-and-a-half at noon so the staff can dim the lights and sleep on my desk, return at 1:30 and continue as before until 4:30 or 5:00, take a cab home.

Yawn.

The exceptions are the evenings that I teach classes: Friday and Saturday at present. I think it will be quite a while before this settles into a routine. Facing 15-20 eager young faces, all too often furrowed by total incomprehension is terrifying and exhilirating and bloody hard work.

And then there are our days off: Sunday and Monday (although I just took on a class 4-6 on Sunday afternoon). So far they've been taken up with chores: buying necessities for the house, getting wifi installed (successfully!), trying to find out why our international cable TV package only shows Vietnamese channels (now we find out that the international portion won't be available until mid-September), etc. etc.

We are hoping to do some sightseeing in the days ahead. The B-52 museum is only a block from our house, and we haven't even been there. Sept. 2 is Inedpendence Day here so we'll have an extra day off next week. Whoo-hoo!

We'll keep you posted.

P.