Thursday, December 11, 2008

Remedies

What do you do when you are living in Saigon and one day you are just:

1. ...weary because 6th graders have been asking you all day long: "Ms. Marjorie, can you help me think of a conflict for my story?" and "Ms. Marjorie, when are we going to switch gods again?" and "Which god is the most powerful god in India?"
2. ...sure that the proposal you are writing to take the entire sixth grade on a one week field trip to Northern Vietnam in February to see the ancient ruins will continue to be handed back again and again (I have written it four times, it is eight pages long with detailed lesson plans for each day in Math, Science, English and Ancient History) (it looks like it will be approved tomorrow!) (Chris Brown, I keep hearing your voice..."We can do anything we want" and that is the inspiration that keeps me going)
3. ...really, really tired of motorbikes everywhere, all THE time. You can hardly stand the thought of crossing the street.
4. ...sure that your headache will last all evening?

Here's what you do:

1. When you get home, walk to Nam's village and get the Hieu Tu My soup with all three types of noodles (especially the won tons)
2. Walk back to your village and get the strawberry orange shake sweetened with pressed sugar cane.
3. Go to the Bum Bum for a Tran massage.
4. Since you can't go shopping, take the Vogue dress pattern you found online to your downtown seamstress to have a dress made.
5. While you are downtown, go to an outdoor cafe and order a whole plate of crispy eggplant and eat the whole thing yourself.

That should do it. You will feel a whole lot better.

3 comments:

Annie said...

Hi Marjie,

I'm interested in traveling to Vietnam myself and teaching there. I'm still in college, so I was wondering could I still possibly teach?

-Annie

Marjie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marjie said...

Hi Annie...there are many language schools in Vietnam right now that do not require teaching certificates - the need is quite high. However, I am unfamiliar with the process of acquiring one of these jobs. You might want to look into getting a TEFL degree (teaching English as a Foreign Language). That is a ticket to teach English almost anywhere, and I think you can finish a course online.