Corona, Floods and Spiraling.

So it's been awhile since I dropped some wisdom, but things have been absolutely crazy here the last wee while.

When I last wrote I was in the middle of a straight 30 days of work. I tasted freedom, but only briefly, and then had to pull another 2 week stunt, which was alot. But it was okay! A group of us decided we would all take some annual leave together and head up to Da Nang and Hue for a few days! We had all been working so hard so we deserved it!

Flash forward a few days and all our leave has been approved so I jump online and buy the plane tickets!

Twenty-four hours later the news breaks that the first new Corona case (we WERE 99 days case free) has been discovered, surprise surprise in Da Nang. Honestly at this point I couldnt even make this stuff up! The sitcom writer of my life is on his 25th season at the job, and is sick of it so hes just going for the cliche bits.

With this happening its leaving us in a weird limbo were some things (bars) are closed till further notice, and you LEGALLY have to wear a facemask in public and we are teaching online as of Saturday, but we arent technically on full lockdown so we can still go to the mall or get dinner. It's kind if emotionally draining as we are constant edge, waiting for the announcement that we arw going back to isolation!

So if the fear of being inside for two weeks straight hasn't been bad enough last night rain pelted the city. When it rains in Saigon, IT RAINS. The roads turned to literal rivers where the broken down cars became the boat and the people trapped inside were the fishermen.

There were reports of the water-level being over bike seats and even a man sitting on the roof of his Porsche, that now came with it's own water feature!

However as the people of Vietnam do, they always find a way to make it work, with some children taking the flooded streets as an opportunity to learn how to swim!

So now we are at Corona and floods, I cant help but wonder what will be install for the season finale of this year.

While working like an absolute dog has obviously had its downside one good thing is I have some really great classes with some incredible TAs as well!

My kids are the sweetest and always keep me guessing. I have one little boy, about 6 years old that for reasons unknown to me will always greet me by putting his hands in the air and just say "Genieeeeeeeee".

I have another student that is just the most polite child I have ever come across. Everything I give him he says "so so much thanks" and whenever I help them with a craft he always tells me "wow! Good job teacher" and "teacher so cute" but above all, he always makes sure that I give myself stars when I do good and then proceeds to give me a sticker from his own personal stash!

The only other note worthy adventure I have been on was I finally got around to applying for my vietnamese driver's license! Even though it wont really stop me getting extorted by the boys in beige! But I it was easy enough and cheap enough to do so I thought "why not"?

My pal Angus and I decided to head to the first place where we needed to get our current licenses translated and notarized. The directions to the place were a little vague so we had a little bit of trial and error, however we think we see a building that looks like an official government building so we decide to pull up and try our luck, but as we get closer we see the security guard is holding a HUUUUUGE gun. We skirt skirt out of there so fast!

We finally find the correct building and head to the photocopy centre so they can make our copies. As we are standing their waiting two guys walk past and see us standing there In all our Western glory and they decide to take it as an opportunity to explore. They casually walk over, pick up our passports and our temporary residency cards and decide that it's perfectly acceptable to flick through them, see where we've visited and chat (what we can only assume was shit) about our passport pictures!

It was such a bizarre situation that we could only look at each other and laugh. Something like that would never fly at home but in Vietnam, it's just apart of your life!

We get our documents back off the civilians and head around the corner to the notary. To us it looks like a take a number situation however we cant seem to find any so we do what we always do...

Stand still looking confused and Hope that someone will help us (which they eventually do!).

We pay 125,000 ($8.16 NZD) and get told to come back in a weeks time. When we return a week later to pick up the forms the security guard informs me that I will not be able to enter the building due to the fact that I was wearing shorts. I've seen live chickens in Malls, or monkeys on motorbikes but apparently the limit is legs in governments buildings.

Thankfully my pal was able to collect the documents and we headed to the next department, the Vietnamese DMV, which is universally just an unorganised mess, no matter what country it's in! Also as we drove in to the building, we really hoped they didnt notice us..drive in... to apply for a driver's license.

After being ignored for around 2 minutes, even after saying hello, in English and Vietnamese, we were finally able to decipher the form we needed to fill out, did what we think was correct, slip them 135,000 ($8.82 NZD) and wait to be called for our pictures. After they mangled a name, one could only guess it was my unfortunate moniker, I rocked up to the seat looked into the camera. I was unsure of the protocol, smile? No smile? I went to ask when

Boom.

"Goodbye" said the lady behind the glass.

"Oh can I...." I started, before she said "goodbye" again but just slightly louder.

Welp. Who knows that that picture will turn out like. But in 10 short days I get to find out!

Well that's all I've got for now! Till next time!

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