First Impressions

I left Vancouver at 3:55 a.m. on June,24th and flew for 13 hours until I arrived at Hong Kong.  From Hong Kong I flew another 2 and a half hours until I reached Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as it used to be called.  There was a little bit of craziness on arrival because neither my Mother nor the person who hired me at the school had bothered to mention that I would need $50 USD in order to get my working visa.  After much confusion I found a bank machine that would accept my Canadian debit card and all was well.  Did you know that Vietnamese money is called dong?  Anyway $50 USD equals a million dong, I found it all a little confusing but was much relieved when everything got sorted out.  I was picked up by a lovely Korean woman named Saemi who took me to the school where Valerie works.  The drive to the school was fantastic we drove past all these great sights.  The electrical wires here are insane they are bundled together in huge strands that look like something out of the matrix. The river we drove over was full of boats that people live on, it was so pretty. The school is actually a series of store fronts in the bottom of an apartment building, they are moving this August into a more traditional school-like building. This year was the inaugural year for the school and they only had 280 students. I met all of Valerie's fellow teachers and it went by in a jet-lagged blur.    I met my boss who looked at me and said "I expected someone physically quite different" I have a lot of dance stuff on my resume so I guess he was expecting a lithe dancer-type.  Thats ok I wasn't expecting to be employed by someone who looks like a garden gnome.  It looks as though I will be teaching kindergarten and I will only have 7 students.  I may be staying a little bit longer than intended (by maybe 5 days) which will be fine.  They are not paying me as much as I was quoted which sucks but it is still MUCH better money than chapters. I can't wait to get out and take some pictures. Last night we went out for dinner with some of the teachers from the school to celebrate (it was their last day of work). We had all kinds of lovely dishes, after eating we went to a place called Fanny's which serves gourmet ice cream, YUM! The ice cream place was right across the road from a spot called the Drunken Duck.  I wasn't really excited until I got here and I have gotten really excited.  The culture is much more gentle than Egypt and the people are very kind and polite.  I look forward to exploring this wonderful place.  Tomorrow we may be going to Hoi An or Halong Bay, either spot sounds lovely.

The Book that changed my diet

As many of you know I have been a vegetarian now for nearly two months.  I was inspired to make the change in my diet after reading Skinny Bitch.  The book actually suggests veganism which I am working towards.  I think the thing I value most about this book is it's focus on ingredients and it's explanations as to why certain foods are horrid (e.g. aspartame turns into formaldehyde in your body).  Since reading the book I have become much more careful about reading labels.  However I have made the mistake now several times of assuming something is vegan and then reading the label only to discover the ingredients include milk and egg products.