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I got back to Saigon yesterday morning after another uncomfortable twelve-hour train trip from Tuy Hoa. The Xe Om (Vietnamese motorbike taxi) drivers at the train station were trying to make me pay more then double the right amount, but I wasn't buying it. I had to use the 'right, that's it, I'll walk' method to finally get the price I wanted. Works every time.
From where I left off, on my first day in Tuy Hoa, quite a lot happened. As I said, I came up on the train with 2 ladies from the company that arranged for me to go. One of them was born in Tuy Hoa, and seemed to know everyone there. It was pretty funny - we'd be just randomly walking down the street, and someone would wave, and off she'd go for another 10-minute catch up conversation. And this would happen every 15 minutes. I'd be like "Ugh, not again. This is ridiculous..."
And then I was dragged along to all the rello's houses. Which wasn't so bad, seeing as they kept making me eat all this Vietnamese food (which is delicious!). I actually scored another job through her cousin and her stock-broker fiancee, who want private lessons (in Saigon). That starts next week. Yippee. They have a house in Saigon, and a mansion (by Vietnamese standards) in Tuy Hoa. I kicked back eating mango and watching their flatscreen TV in their Tuy Hoa house, while they went out to buy train tickets on the last day. Let me tell you, they have a really nice house. It wouldn't be out of place in Inner Sydney, as the home of a young graphic designer. But she designed the house herself, being an interior designer.
Quite a lot of my boss/supervisor/tour guide's relatives in Tuy Hoa were very wealthy. Apart from the interrior designer cousin and her stock broker faincee (the ones who I am going to give private lessons to, and I am invited to their wedding in May, yippee), there was the uncle who owned a 5-star resort just outside the city, which is almost fully constructed (and which I was taken on a tour of, yay), the aunt that worked in the government and another cousin who lived in the most beautiful house I have seen in Vietnam. I had breakfast there. Actually I'll bet it was also designed by the interior designer cousin, come to think of it...
On the second day in Tuy Hoa, my boss/supervisor/tour guide got some of her relatives in government to help get the permit I needed to work there. I waited outside (it was near the beach). I drew quite a bit of attention, just sitting there. They don't get many foreigners in Tuy Hoa. A bunch of little school kids were having a little beach party and they happen to notice Big Mr Forgeiner Man (ie me), so of course they all rushed over and mobbed me. Vietnamese school kids have a tendency to mob foreigners. Highschool kids too. They all crowd around you and yell and scream at you in Vietnamese and try to practice the little English that they know (which is just 'HELLO!!!!"). Quite funny. And some little girls gave me a pink rose. How sweet.
A few hours later and we had the permit. Apparently it's Vietnamese tradition to buy gifts to people when they help you in a situation like that. So we went to the supermarket to buy a gift for the half dozen or so people that helped her. I thought that maybe she'd buy a bottle of champagne for each or something like that. But no, she didn't stop there. She bought one and a half shopping trolleys worth of gifts and made each of them a big hamper. Vietnamese are the most generous people I know. Actually, it drew quite a scene. Even a forgeiner in the supermarket would have drawn a bit of attention, just by myself. But there I was, standing next to a mountain of bottles of champagne, sweets and so on, holding my little pink rose. I wish someone had taken a photo.
As for the job itself, it was a bit of a joke really. I had nothing to go off and no idea of what I was really supposed to do. All I knew was that I needed to interview about 40 high school students and choose the top ten to receive the scholarships to study in the USA for a year. I had no idea exactly what I was supposed to ask them or how to judge the ten best. There was no criteria or anything for me to go off. It was just a case of 'right, now you sit here and talk to these students'. Luckily for me though, it was dead easy. All I did was get them to blabber on about America for a few mintues each. From that I was able to tell how much of a confident speaker they were, how much they knew about what life was like in the West, and if they really would be able to handle living in such a different country and culture for twelve months, isolated from their families. Family plays a VERY important role in Vietnam. The final choice wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Some were very shy, almost shaking, meanwhile others were little chatterboxes. I had to wait for them to shut up so I could move on to the next student.
They way they had it set up was pretty silly, too. They crammed all of us into the staff room with me up the front sitting at a little desk, all the students sitting at a pair of large tables just in front of me. Then they called over the students one by one. I think they would have been more at ease if they didn't have all of their classmates directly behind them. It was a bit funny for me as well, since I was facing all of them. I'm trying to listen to the student talk in front of me, while just over their shoulders all their classmates are gawking at me. It was kinda hard to keep a straight face at times, especially when they would all slowly creep forward to get a better look and hear what we were saying.
After the interviews were finished and I was about to start to go through the comments I had written to choose the final ten, I became aware that all the students were still there, just outside the door, with a funny look on their faces, some of them giggling. I was like 'uuhhh, ok, something's up'. Then my boss translated that they wanted a photo. As soon as she had said it, they all came rushing back in the room and crowded around me, yelling and laughing and making a hell of a lot of noise. Some of them had camera phones, and began snapping away. Then I was mobbed by dozens of students trying to get my autograph and email address. And then they left, just like that, running off and giggling. Weird.
After the interviews were all done, it was almost time to catch the train back home. Just had time for a quick dinner. In all, it was the best job I have taken in my life. More like a paid holiday, really!
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