The area seems great. There is a big supermarket 2 blocks from me and numerous coffee shops :D I have not had time to explore yet, but will and look forward to it.
ALTHOUGH... I thought that it turned into a bit of a nightmare for a few minutes...
A big tent was set up outside my building earlier this evening and it looked like a street restaurant. When I returned from getting groceries, there were many people at the 'restaurant' and really loud music. My apartment faces the street and the music was so loud! I was worried about this happening nightly... it would be unbearable, really.
[View of the party from my balcony.] - I HAVE A BALCONY!! :D
The security guard for the building, Mr. Nhan, does not speak English... he ended up calling the landlord, Mai, for me and I was trying to ask her if this happened nightly and how late the music goes until. She did not seem to understand me and said that it should be done by 10:00pm. I told her that I did not realize there would be loud music every night and I was very upset.
I left to go back to the grocery store after talking to Mai, but she must have kept talking to Mr. Nhan, because I got a phone call from her on my way to the store. She said that Mr. Nhan told her it was a birthday party that someone was celebrating... it is not a nightly occurrence... thank goodness! I was already trying to think of a way to get out of the contract that I just signed.
I told Mai that I was very relieved to hear that! ...That must have been why she was so confused ...she did not know that a party was going on, and I was calling it a restaurant and talking about music, thinking that it happened every night! Thank goodness it was a mix-up and a one-time thing.
...Weird though ...I didn't think the Vietnamese celebrated birthdays. I've read that the entire country celebrates everyone's birthday as part of the Tet holiday. Either way, I'm relieved with how it turned out :P
Earlier today I met up with the elementary librarian for coffee and I love her! Louise is from Australia and has 3 of 4 of her kids here with her... her son, Josh, will be in the middle school with me! Her husband still works in Australia but comes out every other week. She was so nice and I feel like we hit it off. I will look forward to our monthly meetings together. (The high school librarian, Jaye, is home in Kansas City until school begins... but I'm really excited to meet her as well!)
I love living in a serviced apartment! (I'll explain more of what that means in my next post with the pictures.) The 'service' really is incredible so far. The landlord has set up a daily driver to take me to work on his motorbike... I think it will cost me under $60 a month / less than $2 each way! When I went to visit with Louise, however, the driver was on lunch so the landlord set it up for the guard to take me. It was so sweet of him... but he didn't know how to get there! I live two districts away from the center of the city in district 1... I was trying to go to the main tourist place with the famous buildings, etc. but he did not know (I think many natives stick to their neighborhood). He stopped to look at my map twice and finally asked someone. He seems very sweet though and I did get to where I needed to go - so it was perfect!
Also, this morning I had breakfast and took a walk with James... he will be the new literacy teacher at the elementary school and moved here from Parker, CO. We got together back in Colorado a month or two ago and it was nice to have a friendly face today. :)
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