Saturday, March 15, 2014

Saturday is my longest work day – language school all morning, then 4 hours of private split between the afternoon and evening.  I got a new private student today though (from Osaka, Japan), so it was really interesting. We’ll be meeting 2 hours each week. In the afternoon, I relaxed a bit at home, watched episode 20 of How I Met Your Mother, wrote my blog and hung out with Patrick for an hour (he also has a long Saturday work day L) Unfortunately, our shower sprung a leak, so there’s been a plumber hacking away in there for a while (so much for your afternoon siesta nap, Patrick! haha)

I tried out a new place for lunch today that is about 6 minutes walk from my house.  It was delicious and cheap and the lady there spoke excellent English.  Her customer service was amazing, too – she cooked this specially up for me – it wasn’t even on the menu!

I don’t know the Vietnamese name of it, but it is essentially fried flat noodles, pork, spinach and onions in a tamarind sauce, topped with cilantro. [NB: Tamarind is a common ingredient in Vietnam.  The fruit is in the form of a brown pod and tastes sour-sweet. It is full of vitamins and calcium.  See this blurb about tamarind.]  This dish had a large portion of pork meat and vegetables and was very tasty!  It didn’t even need the soy sauce on the side. It came with Vietnamese iced tea and cost 35,000VND, about $1.75!

In the evening, I taught my Taiwanese private student.  I wanted to go out to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at “Cargo” afterwards, a place holding a St. Paddy’s event with live bands, but I finished work at 9pm and had to wake up on Sunday at 6:30am... so not the best idea!