Happy Birthday Lexey!! :)

Overall today was great. It was really nice to meet the returning teachers. The middle school bunch seem wonderful! I love hearing that they feel like a little family... our campus is a lot further from the other two but a teacher referred to it as our own 'oasis' and I like the sound of that!).

There ended up being quite a mix-up with my xe om driver for picking me up from school. I ended up waiting over 2 hours!! I would have just hopped on another one... but it's a long story and I'm just glad I had a book.

After the debacle of getting home I was feeling a bit defeated and just wanted to de-load and cool off... coming out of the elevator onto my floor I met my new neighbor living next door - Joseph. Joseph is from China and works with Nico - who had been living there before. They do some kind of telecom work and go between China, Hanoi, and HCMC often. Nico was awesome but Joseph seems really nice too! I still have not met the other person on our floor... Lisa. She also works with the two guys and has lived in the building for 4 years... so her position in HCMC seems more permanent than the guys'.

Joseph lifted my spirits... without really doing much... he was just so nice and happy to meet me.  :)

I changed, went across the street for my favorite fish noodle bowl, and then finally purchased some envelopes (the store has been closed the past few times I've gone by). Five envelopes cost 2,000 dong (or 1 cent).  :P

Before taking a shower, I figured I'd have my daily scooter practice session - it went really well again! I'm feeling better and better on the scooter and do feel that I'm ready to drive myself to school once I learn the route (especially after waiting around for a good chunk of the afternoon today!).

I want to be able to put the scooter up on the main kickstand instead of just the side one so that if I park it, the bike is more stable and won't cause a domino effect when in a line of scooters (I would be That Girl!). Mr. Nhan saw what I was attempting to do and showed me... mission completed! I am now able to prop the scooter up and take it down.  :D

Mai (landlord) came into the basement on her electric bike when I was parking mine for the night, so I showed her what I had learned. Both her and Mr. Nhan seemed pretty proud! It feels really nice to have them looking after me and wanting the best for me.

I have been using the terms that I've learned... "xe om sang mai" meaning, motorbike taxi tomorrow morning... and then I write the time down for Mr. Nhan. He calls his buddy and my ride is all set for the next day. Well, yesterday Mr. Nhan started trying to say the time in English like I did when I would show it to him... today he did the same :) It was pretty cool that he was trying to learn and say it in English! It's the first attempt he has made to speak in English to me... many Vietnamese are embarrassed of their English skills (Uh... Hello!... My Vietnamese is terrrrible and everyone is so understanding!). Anyway - it was pretty cool to share that with him and then he taught me how to say it in Vietnamese :D  We both showed (told) Mai what we had taught one another!

Tomorrow I'm at the middle school - I'm looking forward to it being just the middle school staff.

Now it's time for a shower and then I'm planning to finish my current book - the first in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events series... The Bad Beginning; Or, Orphans! I'm really enjoying it so far!

Yesterday I read Mary Downing Hahn's book, The Lovely Bad Ones... also really, really good! I always feel good about hooking a student onto her books if they like scary stories. (And this title is the one that she autographed for me last winter when I had lunch with her!!!)