My First Week as a House Wife in Vietnam

On Monday, I went to school for the first part of the day and left at 1:00 p.m., having fulfilled my obligations to the school and to the new teacher by way of orientation, and having had my last meal of tofu and mushrooms from the restaurant across the street.

I walked out of the school with a lighter step and the hit of a smile in anticipation of hours of freedom stretching ahead into the evening. On my way home, I stopped into a bookstore hoping to find some stickers that Steven had been searching for to use in his class. I wandered through shelves of books in Vietnamese and came out at a rack of greeting cards, in various shapes and designs. I spent the next 20 minutes looking through the cards, mostly hand made with pieces sure to fall off on an international trip, or hand painted, quite suited for a wall in our apartment. Having selected enough cards for upcoming events, I continued my trip around the store and browsed through shelves of souvenirs and home decorations at very low prices ("Wouldn't my Dad love that hand crafted model ship!? But how to get it home...?" "Those wooden puzzles are great. Do they have one in the shape of a dog for Kevin... No...). I purchased a few new pens and completed my purchase at the cash register. Forgetting that I had checked my bag at the counter at the entrance to the store, I walked out the side entrance and directly into a local food store, always on the hunt for new and different food items.

As I walked in, I interpreted the not-quite-approving looks on the shop girls faces as saying, "What could she possibly want in here? She won't know what anything is.." as they laughed to each other. I set about checking out the shelves like a shopper with a true shopping mission, determined to find something I needed to show these woman that I wasn't just a tourist passing by. To my delight, I found a new braided rug for the floor outside of the bathroom, a package of Tupperware, a scrub brush for the tiles in the kitchen and a spray bottle for ironing all together about $3.50. Followed by interested glances from the shop girls, I walked up to the counter and completed my purchase. After retrieving my bag from the first store, I spent the rest of the day sending out emails to local NGOs about possible open positions.

The following day, I spent a leisurely morning responding to emails and reading my book and then took a xe om over to District one to the U.S. Consulate only to be told that U.S. Citizen's services were only available from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. So I headed to Fahasa Book Store, my second stop, for a bus map of the city, determined to take a bus home. After purchasing my map, a wandered around looking for something to eat and happened upon a woman selling the sweet orange sticky rice I had grown fond of at our breakfast buffets. I bought a bag full for 3,000 dong or about 20 cents and found a shady spot on the curb to eat and figure which bus to take home.

On Wednesday, I got an early start and walked down to Tran Hung Dao street to get the number one bus to District One near the Consulate. After getting off of the bus and wandering around lost for 45 minutes, I found the Consulate, got past the guards with a copy of my passport, took a number, waited for 45 minutes and was then called up to provide our absentee ballot requests to the Consulate Staff to be mailed. I could have saved myself all that trouble, but simply mailing them at the post office, but I wanted to ensure that our requests were in US custody, to assure a more secure delivery, so I didn't mind the wait. Back in District One, I decided to wander around a bit before heading back and, more out of curiosity, than real desire, I stopped in for lunch at a Ga Ran Kentucky and left feeling like I'd spent way too much money (53,000d for a two piece and fries) for not so great food (although the chicken was a nice change from veggies and rice). After lunch, I did a little comparison shopping for a bag for me to take to work (thinking optimistically here) and I found a bright orange one that I loved for $10 and a more casual army green one for a little less.

By Wednesday evening,I started feeling the effects of a cold I'd picked up, so on Thursday my outings were limited to a bus ride from our apartment to the school to pick up my passport with my new 6-month work VISA (should I happen to find a job, I'll be ready!) and back. While there, I asked one of the ladies at the school to write "headache, runny nose, cold?" on a piece of paper in Vietnamese for me to show at the nearest pharmacy in the hopes of getting a decongestant. When I got off of the bus around the corner from our apartment, I walked up to the nearest pharmacy with my note and he looked at it, got a knowing look on his face and turned around to his shelves of medicine. He handed me a sheet of eight pills with word Panadol on it and charged me 10,000d. When I got home, I looked Panadol on the internet and learned that it was merely a "fever reducer." Back to bed.

On Friday, I still wasn't feeling so great, but I had a 4:00 meeting with a representative from the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate, so I rested in the morning and got all dressed up and was ready to head out by 2:00 p.m. Armed with my resume, references and a box of tissues, I took my now familiar bus 56 to Ben Thanh Market (near where our hotel was the first two weeks) and walked from the market to the Highland's Coffee at Saigon Center. Half an hour before my interview, I received a call from the woman I was supposed to meet, informing me that an emergency had come up and she wouldn't be able to make it until the following week. I assured her that it was no problem and headed back to Ben Thanh to catch my bus home. On the way, I treated myself to some orange sticky rice with sugar and shredded coconut and some donuts at a local bakery for Steven and myself that evening.