Finally!! Geez, June, 2006 (letters home)

Okay I know I have been a horrible person and have not kept you all updated very well.  My new job is going fine but keeping me very busy.  The days I do not work at the language center I spend at the orphanage and day center, and when I am not at either of those places I am preparing lesson to go to those places and when I am not doing that I am spending time with my new friends and when all of that is done and finished I try to fit in sleeping and eating (but how important are those things really?).
 
My Vietnamese is coming along slowly, I can express when I want something like food or to go somewhere, how I am feeling and say where I am going and at what time.  So I can get by okay but need to learn a lot more. I am just proud that I am starting to speak in sentences rather than just one word at a time, but my grammar is another subject.  I just keep hoping that at some point things will settle down and I will be able to spend more direct attention at learning Vietnamese, as it is now I just try to listen to peoples conversations and see if I can understand any part of it and every now and then ask what something means or how to say something.
 
Some things that have happened in the last three weeks are:
 
I went to Ha Noi and Halong bay with Chelsea for a best friends get away.  We had a lot of fun an Halong bay is soooooo beautiful.  We were able to get a private boat to take us out for the day from 8am-6pm for only 20 dollars each lunch included, and kayaks to go exploring in.
 
We got a kitten....We lost a Kitten.  One of the Volunteers brought home a stray kitten and our manager said it was okay to keep but he ran away... I wasn't sad because the boy who promised to take care of it was not very responsible.
 
I started at my new job teaching English at a language school.  Currently I am teaching 3 classes. One has only two students and my job is to help them prepare for the visa interview that they will need to do to obtain their student visas to study in the states, but sadly that class ends today.  I have two other classes with about 15 students each ages 15 to 35.  I am still learning how to teach but I am sure this is a learning process that will never end, because I am sure I can always improve in some way or another.  The positive things is I am now having fun with it and I think my students are as well.
 
I helped a boy from the day center named Huan who is deaf get a job at bread of life.  He is now being trained to be a baker.  This boy is 20 years old, his mother died and his father left to go work in a different part of the country.  So he has been living at the day center for a few years.  He is from the countryside and has 3 siblings that live with family members in his home town. He has now moved into the living accommodations that the managers of bread of life provide for free if their employees need and he seems happy.  At least once a week he goes back to the day center to visit his friends.
 
Chan took me to a big celebration at a place called Village of Hope where many of my friends who are deaf got some of their education. There are many kids who go their, kids with disabilities, children who are poor and underprivileged and kids who are deaf.  This place funded by the giant international corporation Unilever. This celebration is held every year when some people from Unilever come to visit and bring gifts, they treat it as a birthday party for all the kids. The kids live their during the year and after this celebration everyone goes home for the summer.  It was a lot of fun.  A week before this celebration Chan and I went for a visit here and I met with all the girls who live there who are deaf and we had a lot of fun conversing with each other.  So they invited me back for the celebration.
 
I bought a new bike! and it is beautiful.
 
My job required me to get a cellphone, something I have refused to get for the past few years back in the states. have had to learn a lot about cellphone culture, such as, #1 you are supposed to keep it near you or in your pocket at all times so when it rings you can hear of feel it.#2 When you meet someone and you become good acquaintances you have to exchange cellphone numbers regardless if you will be able to understand each other if you were ever to call or text each other.  #3 text messaging is a great way to communicate, that way you don't even have to hear each other's voices but you still get that instant contact that email doesn't bring.  Now will I have a cellphone when I return to the states?  Probably not, but only time will tell, once submersed into cellphone culture it may be hard to get out.
 
As of right now I have a plane ticket to come home on the 29th of September, which was as far in advance as my ticket would allow.  As that time grows nearer I will decide if I will actually go home a stay longer, it all depends on if I like what I am doing here.
 
Oh also I would love to receive letters in the real mail, I don't have to pay to pick those up (only packages.  Hint Hint Nudge Nudge, Letters are a very exciting and happy thing to receive and I would greatly appreciate it, I want to know what's going on in your lives too!
 
I love you and miss you all,
Stella

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