lost

Were you wondering if I'd fallen off the globe? Or if I'd jumped? For a bit there on Friday morning I was considering jumping, but decided to stick it out and things have improved a bit.

Friday afternoon I met up with a group of expat teacher via the lady I'm trying to replace at the kindergarten (she's leaving to have her baby in the States). They were incredibly friendly and bombarded me with information about schools, job prospects, potential students and places to look for rental postings. One of the chicks was nice enough to call the school she worked at for any fill-in jobs and sure enough they needed someone two days hence and would I like to teach a few classes?

Panic set in. Teach? Already? I laughed nervously, then figured I might as well jump into the deep end and go with it. So, today I taught my first class. And my second.

Both were children's classes, level 2 and level 5. They did very well and I had a very enjoyable time with them. The only trip-up was that I was supposed to teach them the days of the week and school subjects, but they already knew them, so it was really just a review. All the activities I'd planned to help them remember were useless, so we skipped them and played a vocab game instead. Yeah, I think I can do this.

This afternoon I met up with a fellow wanting English tutoring and we'll be meeting every evening (M-F) for two hours. Then I will be tutoring two Japanese kids every Monday for one hour.

So, I went from wondering if it would be best to just give up and buy tickets back to the States 'cause it was impossible to find work to being a bit overwhelmed by the availability. Thankfully it will now pay the hotel costs. I'd like to get a regular schedule going, but I've got to find a house and place for these kids to be kids. Living in a single hotel room is proving to be quite difficult for them and it's unfair to expect them to be cooped all the time.

We found the perfect house for us on Friday, but after deciding we'd take it, the landlord upped the rent to $600/mo and required 6-months rent up-front plus a 2-year lease. The kids were thrilled with the place and Audrey, in particular, is heartbroken to not get it.

The search will continue, as frustrating as it is. We need a place and we need it soon. We looked at a shared house today. Have plans to look at one or two more houses in the next day or so, depends on the realtor/landlord. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we find something suitable for us. I have guilt pangs that I need to assuage.

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In other news, we found the best com rang ga in Ha Noi tonight. We know because we've tried a lot of it. Usually the fried rice is too greasy or not flavorful enough or terribly dry, but at Garden --36 Hang Manh-- (just doors up from our hotel... lucky us!) it was magnificent. A bit spendy at 35,000VND, but really worth every dong. We also shared a plate of steamed rice with sweet and sour pork. Everything was delicious; the sauce was tasty, the peppers and onions were cooked just right and the pineapple slivers were the sweetest I've tasted in weeks. A wonderful meal in a nice restaurant (fabric napkins even!) for less than $10US.