Wednesday, March 5

Wednesday was an eventful day! It began with Patrick and I driving our motorbike to District 7 because I had an interview at the Canadian International School.  Unfortunately, they don’t offer short-term contracts (only for 2 years) and they don’t even offer supply positions. It was still great to visit though, and I got to learn a lot about how their international school functions. One day, I’d really like to work in an international school, but the time is not quite right.

Afterwards, we explored District 7 on our motorbike.  It was hard to believe that we were still in Vietnam (aside from the Vietnamese words on signs, of course!) It was open, green and clean, with wide streets, nice cars, a plethora of international schools and other elite learning centres and plenty of great food around.  We passed through Phu My Hung and saw Lamborghinis and beautiful villas. Parts of District 7 are like the Gangnam of Korea, the Beverly Hills of California.  We also found the grocery store/department store, Lottemart of HCMC – the only one here! We went inside and took a huge nostalgia trip back to our days in Korea when we’d frequently find ourselves in Lottemart.  We almost started speaking Korean by accident!

We drove back home and after some delicious homemade sandwiches that we made with the stash we bought at Lottemart, we hit a local pool for a while to catch some rays and cool down. 

In the evening, I went out with my Elle’s ESL posters and business cards, attempting to spread some business and get some more private students! I made a couple of partnerships with nearby coffee shops, including Chi’s Coffee and one across the street from me.  Essentially, they advertise for me and have my business cards out, and when I give lessons (for teenagers and adults, one-on-one or small groups), I come to their coffee shop and they get business from us as well, since we’ll be buying their drinks and food. Sounds like a good partnership, eh? J 

 I also randomly walked into the public elementary school across from our place, hoping to ask if I could put a poster up in a good area where parents pick up their children.  I didn’t expect much, but lo and behold, I ended up being introduced to 2 different English teachers (Vietnamese) who were each looking to hire a native English teacher to visit and guest-teach their classes occasionally, 2+ times per month. They even led me into their classrooms, introduced me to their students and had me speak with their students for a few minutes to introduce myself and to give them my business cards as well! (These were evening classes - One class had high school level students and the other was a conversational class for adults.) Who would have thought I could just waltz into a school and grab a few hours of teaching right off the bat?!

Before I went to teach my private lesson Wednesday night, I got some dinner - I wandered into a Japanese place off the beaten path, on a nearby side road.  Sometime soon I’d like to try their Octopus Balls, but this time I opted for a small bento box (for 39,000VND/$2) that included: 2 chicken/veggie skewers, sticky rice, some cucumber (“salad” apparently haha), and a side seaweed soup.  It was quite tasty, especially the chicken skewers.  Here’s a pic of my Japanese bento box dinner to go!: