Thousands of dong...

While a class was in the library for a short orientation this morning, I received a package! My mom sent me a great care package - full of things that I've been missing and haven't been able to find here (nice towels, decaf tea, macaroni and cheese... all of the important things)... and birthday presents. I was charged 621 thousand dong in taxes to receive it haha... oh well, still worth it.

Some of the returning teachers told me that it's better to take the tags off of new clothes and things... so they might not think it's new or worth as much.

It seems that after 3 or 4 years, a building is considered old here... and it's completely gutted and remodeled. There used to be a house across the street from me - they've been working on it for about two weeks now. We'll see how long this takes...

It's quite loud during the day - multiple jack hammers and all. Since I'm at work during the day, it hasn't been a big deal. BUT I do think I was a big deal to the workers a few days ago when I came home, was so hot and sweaty, and I stripped down a bit (it wasn't really that bad!)... and when the noise stopped and I looked out the window, I had about 4 or 5 construction workers gaping at me - haha - oops!

I went with a few teachers to an outside restaurant at the Ben Thanh Market tonight. So good! We had the grilled red snapper. (YES! For those of you in the WaterWorld crew... it was Red Snapper eating red snapper!) I also had a coconut and pineapple / carrot juice... so, so good.

Tomorrow's my birthday! Some of the teachers have found out and are so sweet - they've set up a happy hour get-together at a nice restaurant / bar in District 1. I'm excited - it's nice to feel that I already have people here that care about me enough to do something special.  :)  The people I work with are going to make this year so much more fun than it was already going to be.

(I like my Peanuts calendar for my birthday much more than the one for the first day of school... see previous post...)  :P

So cute.