A Day In The Life - P.

O. lovingly wakes me at 6:30; no wonder I wake up happy. I put the water on to boil for coffee, and eat a banana and some yogurt while I wait. As the coffee infuses the water in our small French press, I check email and the web. Once the brew is sufficiently sturdy, I stir in a little sweetened condensed milk (no half-and-half available in VN), then take two cups upstairs and continue surfing. I sometimes have a call to the US for VietSoftware.

Once O. leaves, I shower and begin working on VietSoftware, redoing their website and collateral, replying to emails, etc.

When O. gets off for lunch, we walk out to the street and find something delicious and (usually) cheap. On Monday and Wednesday, I teach Speaking for TOEFL to half of O's PetroVietnam class from 2 -4. I usually do the lesson plan for that just before class, since they don't have a book I can take home. The rest of the week I use the afternoons to do lesson plans for my evening classes, to run errands, and do the shopping. I have my favorite street vendors now. The banana lady knows how many and what type bananas I like (though she always tries to sell me more and other fruit as well. The peanut lady knows that I'm good for six serving-sized bags of fresh roasted peanuts once a week. She always laughs at me a tells me through gestures that they will make me fat. From another vendor, I get limes, chiles, freshly-peeled garlic cloves, and other vegetables. And so on.

Once a week I usually also go to one of the bigger supermarkets for more Western stuff--cheese, smoked pork loin or bacon, eggs, tonic, crackers, canned tuna, pasta--staples.

Monday evening I just took on a beginning English course from 6:30 to 8 at Mayfair School. Tuesday and Thursday I teach general English at Apple Learning Centre from 6 to 7:30, Wednesday I teach general English and Friday Pronunciation, both at TopLearn and both from 6:15 to 7:45.

I generally get home at around 8, check email, and either read or watch a movie or TV program I've downloaded (I currently follow Dexter, Fringe, and The Office) until O. gets home. we snack and chat for a few minutes, then she heads to bed, and I head to the computer. 10:00 our time is 7:00 PST, 10 EST, so I can check for updates on my favorite web sites and make any Skype calls I need to for VSII. At 11 to 11:30 0r so I crawl in bed and read for 15-20 minutes before falling asleep.

Not a really exciting existance, except it's taking place in Hanoi.

On weekends we run errands, socialize, relax, sightsee, and generally try not to think about work.

Then Monday morning we're back at it.

P.