Day in the life - O

I’ve been asked often what a typical day is like for me. Here it is, probably not too unlike your day.

I get up at 6am. I stretch and do a bit of yoga for half an hour, and then I wake up Peter at 6:30. He grumbles a bit but mostly, Peter has the sweet and annoying habit of waking up happy. Even after almost 30 years, I marvel at how consistently happy he is in the am. I, on the other hand, am generally not a morning person.

So P gets up and goes downstairs to make coffee while I paddled upstairs to check email and to check if anything of importance has happened in the world while I was sleeping.

I then shower and get ready for work while P brings me a cup of coffee. I leave the house at 8am for a Monday through Friday class from 8am-11:30am. This is my TOEFL class that I blogged about a few days ago. Three hours, five days a weeks: 15 hours of face time. I have 17 students who are depending on me (and two other teachers) to teach them the necessary skills to pass the TOEFL test so they can attend college in Oklahoma and return to VN to work at the largest petrol company in the country. Many of these students are not particularly interested in oil but they are very committed to fulfilling their parent’s wishes for secure employment. Almost without exception, these kids express their desire to have a secure job so they can take care of their parents and repay them for all their sacrifices.

I have all 17 students in the am and Peter and one other teacher each have half of the students in the afternoons from 2-4 on Monday and Wednesday. I mostly teach essay writing, sentence structure and vocabulary, P teaches speaking and the other teacher is responsible for listening and reading comprehension.

After my class, I come home, change clothes and meet Peter for lunch. I then have a couple hours before my evening classes. I spend that time, preparing lesson plans for my next classes, doing laundry, running errands, etc.

Monday, Wednesday and Fridays I have one Beginner English class of 17 students from 5:45pm – 7:15, a 15 minute break and then another Beginner English class of 6 people from 7:30pm – 9pm. I usually arrive at the school around 5:15 or so and Patrick, the owner, has a fresh cup of coffee ready for me. He and I chat for half an hour or so before my 5:45 class begins. As much as I enjoy a cup of coffee at this hour, I find that it is also keeping me up at night so I am going to have to ask Patrick to cease the coffee. Bummer.

I get home around 9:30 and I pretty much get ready for bed. I need my 8 hours so there is not much time for anything other that to greet P, cuddle for a few minutes, check in with each other while I get ready for bed and then lights out.

This is repeated five days a week other than Tuesday and Thursday when I have my second three hour TOEFL class from 5:15 – 8:30pm (15 minute break). Again, I get home around 9ish and it’s off to bed for me.

So Monday through Fridays are rather brisk for me. I have definitely bitten off more than I can chew with this schedule. Thirty face-time-teaching-hours are a bit much. This does not account for lesson planning time – I easily work 40 plus hours a week. While the schools have much material to draw on for lesson planning, ultimately it is up to the teachers to research material and to plan the lessons. Makes for a busy week.

So weekends are usually spent socializing with friends. In addition to pictures we've already posted of Patrick and Lan Anh ( owners of English Hanoi) and Donna and David ( the couple we went to Perfume Pagoda with), here are two other couples we hang out with on a regular basis.

We met Justin and Jyoti on the Ha Long Bay weekend. Once we realized that Justin is a huge punk rock fan, well, the friendship was cemented. Justin and Jyoti are both outgoing and welcoming. We'll be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at their house - they have a much coveted oven.

Colin and Natalia smiled at us at a restaurant, we smiled back and said hello and within minutes they had invited us over that evening for drinks and to accompany them to dinner. A very sweet and fun couple.

One big change in my weekly activities is that I no longer take a motorbike everywhere. Can I just grumble about Hanoi traffic a bit? It is over-the-top insane!

It even seems more crowed and hectic than when we arrived a mere four months ago. The exhaust, from motorbikes, cars, trucks and buses that do not use unleaded gas nor are equipped with any kind of emission control, was finally causing an ugly cough as well as headaches. Sitting in traffic surrounded by a variety of vehicles, each emitting black exhaust is an experience I do not need to continue (not to mention how dirty and gritty I am by the time I reach my destination).

Vietnamese people are generally mild-mannered, respectful and kind…until they get behind a vehicle and then it is every man, woman and child for themselves. All roads and especially intersections are a free for all. Each vehicle trying to squeeze into the slightest opening in an effort to overtake the vehicle in front. I just got tired of all the near and not-so-near misses with other motorbikes, cars and even buses. Two vehicles will often continue headlong towards each other until the very last minute when one will suddenly swerve, or come to a screeching stop. A strange form of chicken? I don’t know – what I do know is that I have exchanged the motorbike for the relative safety of a taxi.