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Back in Phan Rang

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So, quite a lot has happened lately. I finished my class, had some fun, returned to Phan Rang and became business partners with Conrad! So now I am Managing Director of Starsoft QA in Phan Rang, and Conrad is CTO of FlareBright Ltd. More on this below. I had a good 5 weeks in Saigon living mostly like a monk and studying hard, apart from the occasional 0500 drinking finish with Conrad. This paid off with getting 92% in my exam (Elementary Vietnamese Level 1!) and coming second in class. Really chuffed with this as it was a real struggle on times. I found if I did a couple of hours extra study every day then I could keep up, but if I didn't do that then it was a real struggle. My classmates were really good and I made some new friends, which is a great feeling. Class Team! Clockwise from back left: Ingyu, Minjong, Simon, Captain Hong, Mune, Teacher An and me So now I have basic Vietnamese, so I can order stuff and ask for a room etc, but speaking is ... very .... hesita...
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Monk Life

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I've been studying hard for the last week or so even though Conrad is down, he has to work a lot anyway, plus lots of hospital scans etc for Nhac. We've had some tasty table-bbq's and beers now though. I've moved to a small apartment with a balcony overlooking the canal on a backstreet with tons of little street cafe's, real Saigon basically. Just what I wanted. It's this place . Scottish/Vietnamese Buddy! The class is intense for sure. I've been getting in for about 0645 to study for an hour before it starts which is just about enough to keep up, so I'll do a bit more as it's much more enjoyable when not struggling to keep up. A few people dropped out today at the start of the 3rd week (of five) and I can see why, but I've been enjoying it and things are starting to come together, although I've never been good at memorising stuff. My pronunciation and listening seems reasonable for the amount of time I've been studying, and I had...
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The Office

Had a day off yesterday, bottle of wine and kwik-e-mart food in the hotel, reading this: Days without End   which was pretty cool, bit like Blood Meridian by Carmac Macarthey. So don't read it if you don't like nice people encountering horrible people. Was walking back to the hotel and a minibus was broken down at a junction with about 5 skinny little teenage lads (passengers) trying to push it, not succeeding, looking exhausted and a bit helpless with all the cars and bikes behind beeping at them. So to their amazement I joined in, all well dressed with my cowboy sun hat on, a muscular vietnamese guy did too, and we gave it 1 2 3 and managed to bump start it, running as fast as we could down the road in the middle of Saigon. They were so happy, all of them grinning and shouting thankyou and waving as they piled back into the bus and drove off in a big cloud of smoke. I love that sort of stuff, wish I'd got a vid of it. Now I'm working in my office which is dark, c...
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Back to School

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First week at school has been really intense, but also just what I wanted. Learning Vietnamese in a group of 10 fun people with good teachers, in a bustling little university in the middle of Saigon. The class is 8 Koreans, age 22 to 60, 2 Brits including me, and one Japanese guy age 60. Really good mix and I'm glad I've done this. Learning Asian style is also fun, lots of group chanting words to learn them, and the alpabet, and the tones, then doing it individually, then more learning. Then having very ...  hesitant .... conversations in Vietnamese with the teacher or class buddy. The teachers use less and less English too, now they've taught us the word for page, and the numbers, and 'listen and repeat' etc, they use those in Vietnamese, so you have to be totally focussed all the time. Draining but challenging and fun, although I did wonder on day 2 if I'd be able to keep up. Teachers say I'm doing good though and they like my tones, which are  hard for ...
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Living the Dream

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I'm in Saigon now. I walked through the city yesterday to sign up for my 1 month intensive language course and I had that great feeling where things just feel right, a challenge coming up, a new and exciting environment, life as it should be. It was total chaos at the University for signing up, lots of very polite young people looked after me, as did the bemused Franciscan monks when I mistook their Seminary for the University. I spent the last week in Phan Rang with Conrad, working at his office and cycling. I'm working up to a 90km mountain ride to Da Lat, but I need to get used to the heat and distance first. Found a sweet little 40km loop along the coast and then through a hidden mountain valley with a massive natural amphitheatre and a tempting dirt track heading into it. I'll be exploring there again as soon as I'm back in May. Vietnamese back roads are pretty nuts. Miles of salt farms, huts on stilts, pigs chickens and cows everywhere, desert swapping ...
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