(Version française plus bas)

So, as you already know, I quit my job as an English teacher.

I enjoyed being in front of my students teaching them, but I didn’t like what surrounded the actual job: my schedule, the little things that happened during my first week, some people there, working more hours than I was supposed to without getting paid for it, being paid 15 dollars less than I was supposed to for my first week of work. I felt my boss kept asking a lot while she really gave nothing in return. The last straw was on a Sunday morning when I opened a file she gave me to edit: 130 pages!

Seriously?! Didn’t she tell me ”relax and have fun this weekend” when I left school on Saturday at 1.30pm? How am I supposed to do that when I have a such a file to edit, which some students need the next day? Sure she didn’t ask me to do it during the weekend, but when else could I do this kind of thing?! I simply didn’t have time during the week!

So on Monday morning I went to my boss’s office to ask her if she was still planning to hire another teacher, as she had been saying she would do for the past two weeks. She asked why I was asking with big, bulging eyes. I said I couldn’t go on like this, that she would had to pay me more for the extra work. She said I didn’t work that much more, that I didn’t need to work at home over the weekend and that I should be able to prepare each lesson in 10 minutes.

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(Version française plus bas)

Today I was called to my boss’s office. Every possible thought crossed my mind except the actual reason why she called me: to give me my first pay check! First week of work at $83.33!
The next one will be on June 30th.

First pay check!

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I found myself asking this exact question this week.

I’ve been working a ton which has directly contributed to this burnt out feeling. My hours at school have increased so now I have five permanent classes and I’ve been substituting as well. At home, I average a 60 hour work week so I’m no slouch to hard work but 40 hours a week here feels like an eternity. Part of this is that I haven’t mastered the whole “teaching” thing (hopefully soon), so I still need to do some preparation for my classes, and the actual teaching does not come naturally yet. Another reason is that I have to commute by  motorbike quite a distance (1 1/2 hour round trip) a couple days a week for a two hour class through crazy Saigon traffic. Normally this would be relaxing but because of the rush hour chaos on the streets, I do not look forward to it. And the last reason it feels longer and harder than it should is because I work every single day. Some days are only 4 hours of evening classes, but having that looming over my head throughout the morning and afternoon prevents me from being able to truly relax. It’s now been one month without a full day off.

And I’m starting to feel the effects.  That combined with a nasty head cold this week caused me to become a bit of a cranky bitch. I can feel it starting to set in – that painful “Ah crap, I have to work today” feeling. Dragging myself to work. The patience wearing thin. Wanting to curl up with a bucket of Häagen-Dazs and pretend I’m at home in my awesome condo with my awesome job and my awesome friends. But like Willard says in Apocalypse Now: “Saigon… shit; I’m still only in Saigon”.

I figure it’s just a phase. The ups and downs of traveling are often exaggerated, and this is simply the reality of doing what we do. It’s not all ponies and rainbows. I do realize that I’m doing something really awesome in a foreign country and I’m trying not to lose sight of that. I get two days off for Christmas so Serene, Jen and I are headed for the beaches of Mui Ne -hopefully that will reinvigorate me. But sometimes a gruelling 9 hour teaching day makes me seriously consider what the hell I’m doing here.

I know most of you are probably curious as to what I’ve been doing for work and why I’m not sleeping in a gutter. Before arriving in Vietnam, I did a lot of research into ESL teaching and basically every forum said if you’re Asian you will not get hired to teach English even though you’re a native English speaker. But then I got here and realized that it is possible!…. if you have some sort of qualification which I don’t. Luckily, I’ve still been working with a travel agency Turkey editing and rewriting their website so there’s some income coming in. The second thing I started to do is sell Vietnamese knick knacks and what not online. This is not steady by any means but between my two “jobs” I’m making it work.

However, I did apply for one job since I’ve been here. I applied at a bar to be a bartender. The girl laughed and said they couldn’t pay me enough, but when I told her I was serious she went to get the manager to come over to talk to me. He never spoke to me at all, he just kinda walked by and took a look at me and the girl came back and told me the position had been filled. LIAR. Damn these good looks of mine must have been too intimidating….

So while Kris, Laurene and Serene bust their asses working, I spend my days drinking mango shakes and keepin it real.