You Never Know What You're Going To Get

Elsbeth writing…

So much for my New Year’s resolution. It’s been another month since I last updated this blog. No worries, though, nothing really interesting has happened in my life since then. I’ve just been here in Vung Tau the entire time working, working, working. Come Friday, I’ll have worked 19 days in a row. I’ve covered for the last two weekends, which is fine because I’m racking up hours. I didn’t have a first class on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for awhile so I needed to make up some hours, but today I start that new class. It’s the same level as I have for my second class, which I’m so glad for. Now I can just use my previous lesson plans and update them a little.

I’ve also been working on preparing for something else, which I’ll tell you once I’ve finalized it at the end of this month (I don’t want to blurt something on an open blog—I’ve done enough blurting already and I’m sure many of you, who do read this blog, know already). Then I’ve been starting to think of my mom coming at the end of this April. I’m sooo excited! I can’t wait to see her, but of course, I wish my dad and brother could come as well. I already have all these things in mind that I want to show and do with her. I’m planning to take the train up the country to Hanoi with her, making stops along the way in Hoi An/Danang, Hue, and whatnot. Now it’s just a matter of getting it all organized….soon!

Hmmm, what else. I’ve been trying to fix my bike here, but no mechanic is willing to make it go faster, because apparently it’s illegal. Plus, they think I’m a stupid girl. It says it’s a 50 (engine) on the front of the Cub, but it has a 70 engine, however, the previous owner was ‘smart’ enough to put a piston meant for a 50 engine in it. I’m going to ask some of the Aussie guys at Belly’s if they can fix it or if they know someone who can. Hopefully, they can help. Right now it tops out at 40 K (a.k.a. not very fast, but decent for city driving). Haha, Tony’s been helping me with this bike and one day when we were going to pick it up from the mechanic we almost got into a crash because some idiot pulled out from behind a van into our lane and almost hit us, so Tony pushed the guy, but he just drove off. Then just down the road he almost ran into a little dog. Oh, driving in Vietnam. You never know what you’re going to get.

Otherwise, during the week we’ve just been doing our usual. I’ve been going to the orphanage to teach for an hour or two on Monday mornings. Then we’ve been going swimming at the lap pool, playing tennis, playing football on the beach, and I want to go to the driving range here. Another teacher and I are planning to go on Monday.

The weekends haven’t been too thrilling. I’ve just been trying to get things done and run errands. Not last weekend, but the weekend before, we caravanned out to the Ba Ria mountains to try to find a way up the mountains, but our search was unsuccessful. I rode on the back with Tony, because I didn’t have by bike back from the mechanic then. We went on these bumpy, gravel roads in the back country to a quarry. He gave me his camera to take some video and I thought I did a pretty good job with all the bumps in the road, but I almost fell off on one huge bump because I wasn’t holding on. It was a good time. We stopped on the roadside for some sugarcane juice, which I hadn’t had in a long time, and got our bikes splattered with dirt and water. It’s nice to just get out of town, have a little adventure, and see the countryside.

Then, last weekend our roommate, Tony, left us and moved up to Hanoi. It was sad to see him go, but we’ll see him in a month or so (I’ll explain more later). Kristof, our other roommate, is also coming back to live with us until the middle of April, so it’ll be nice to have him back. He just finished his DELTA and now he’s on vacation in the Philippines.

Well, that’s about all that’s been going on for now. More to come in the next week. I can’t wait for this weekend! Finally, some real down time. I’m hoping to get a bunch of things done. I’d like to also drive around town finally. I’ve been wanting to do that for awhile, but I haven’t been able to with my bike problems and working on the weekends or whatnot.