Changes

The start of the third week has been a bit unsettling, bringing several drastic changes to the routine I (and the whole group) had grown accustomed to.

Vietnamese lessons have been cut to an hour and a half a day. This is a disappointing shift for me, since I love language lessons, and since I feel like we just need more language instruction. The cut in language lessons has also meant a reduction in the amount of time we spend with our main Vietnamese teacher, Thuy, who we've all come to love. In place of language lessons and Thuy are methodology lessons and Helen. The former are needed and the latter is kind and knowledeable. It's just a big jump from all day language, which is interactive, to all day methodology, with isn't so interactive. Our days are much more rigid and structured now, whereas with Thuy, we might take a longer "break" but during that time talk about cultural differences or more tangential grammar and vocab. We also now have homework, which is fine, I guess, since I was studying language at night anyway. But our lunch break has also been cut (well, it's still an hour and a half but it had been 2 hours) and our breaks have been shortened, as well.

Furthermore, our daily visits from the legendary Dr. Thao and his seemingly magical assistant, Ha, seem to have ended. Ha's boss, Hong, has returned from vacation and Ha is surrendering her oversight of us. Dr. Thao practically made a goodbye speech to us today. I think we'll still see him around, but I don't think he'll be popping in for our daily 3:00 break anymore. As his visits with Ha were a highlight of my day, I'm feeling a bit bummed by their sudden ending.

Aaand, the little spider that I got used to seeing hover in the corner of bathroom was gone today.

I (we) will get used to the new routine and people, of course. But I think I was just grasping to the bit consistency provided (in an otherwise inconsistent new life in Viet Nam) by a regular schedule, conducted in a stable atmosphere, with the same people.

To be fair, though, it's not just me who's been effected by the changes: The shortened lunch break also seems to have thrown off whatever elf mysteriously replaces our fruit while we're out form 12 - 2, as today she (turns out the elf is a Vietnamese woman) came in during class to cut up some unknown, giant grapefruit-like fruit. Whatever it was, it was delicious and lifted my spirits a bit.

I guess today is a low point, but it's still not that that low. Just requires some readjusting.

Plus, I've been missing a few things a little more than normal. For example, I had a dream two nights ago about buying baby spinach at Kroger. I've also had a dream about my favorite winter boots--I'm a winter girl and I miss cold weather and fall/winter clothes. In general I've just been having a bit of trouble sleeping. Last week I woke myself up yelling from a nightmare, and this morning I woke up with my fists clinched so tightly that my palms were covered in thin, red semicircles from my fingernails digging into my skin. I also remember taking out my right earring in a middle-of-the-night frenzy, although I can't recall why I did it....

Tonight will be better, though. It's Meredith's birthday today, and we're going out to a great (and coincidentally vegetarian restaurant) called Tamarind Cafe. Thuy, our language teacher, is actually joining us. (Hopefully she's not bringing any more of the dried squid that she brought us today in class, though!)

And then there's this video: the boys performing on "Musik Berger", the taping of which I was lucky enough to be present for. Brings back fond memories of what was only, like, 6 weeks ago.



Since they're not touring at the moment, I've had little to stalk on youtube, so this is an uplifting find....

I'm sure everything will settle into its "new normal" soon enough. Well, just soon enough for me to have to make a new transition to Nha Trang :).