Harry (my friend from home) got the job, which was a relief as he had just flown half way across the world to be here! He was asked a few questions and then told about his role, so as I suspected, he already had the job. However, it was not plain sailing. My boss told him he would be on $30/ hour after tax and then they looked at his TEFL certificate (which was only 20 hours) and began whispering before walking off and pointing at it. My heart did sink a little bit. It turns out that they were just discussing the pay, and he will now be on $20 instead of $30 because he is a new teacher. This is fine by him as he’s never taught in his life!
I did notice also that they backed out of giving him the apartment, and said they needed to speak to the head of the school… This is annoying because I was told that if he got the job he would be given the apartment for free…. A major inconvenience if he has nowhere to live! This is quite typical in Vietnam, say one thing and do another!
My boss also spoke to me about the email I sent her. She has agreed to me having a contract, but without a salary, until I get my work permit, which was OK with me at the time but I now know that was completely not acceptable and I should have demanded to be given the correct pay! Oh well… you live and learn. The contract came with a monthly payment, plus the apartment, two weeks paid holiday, TET paid holiday, 5 days sick, medical insurance and two weeks unpaid holiday in June. I was happy with that!
Hayden watched me teaching and seemed a little perturbed, I think his exact words were “I can’t do this!!” I told him that he was here now, so didn’t have much choice, and that he needed to stop moaning! We then went for coffee… inside, because there was torrential rain outside.
The next day Harry seemed to be enjoying teaching more since he had decided he fancied the Principle of the school and all of the reception staff have been flirting with him! (Vietnamese girls love Western men. Fact). They told him he is very handsome and looks like a movie star, not a teacher, and that he should be my boyfriend because I am beautiful and he is handsome. He was absolutely loving the attention! (Vietnamese people are also always trying to set people up!).
We went for drinks in the evening with Connor and my work colleagues. It was a really good laugh and we had warned Harry how much my colleague likes to drink and sure enough when he arrived he ordered six beers before even sitting down. We ordered some Vietnamese salad and fried frog’s legs, which tasted like fried chicken but much better than KFC! Haha. It was a good night!
I made Harry teach my class today for practise and he came out refusing to teach the next class. He was teaching the hardest class, the really young ones who don’t speak any English, which I hate. He began by trying to sing “1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive” but he didn’t know the words properly so I ended up laughing hysterically at him and having to take over. Then he was trying to teach “switch on the fan” but when he did this nothing happened, as the fan was broke, which I again couldn’t help but laugh at. (I knew I was not helping the situation, but it was hysterical!) Then he went around the circle trying to get them to repeat what he said, but five of them just sat there dribbling. He said it was the worse thing ever. So I taught the next class but managed to get him to teach the last class, who were an international class, slightly older, with much better English. Also, I teach them four times a week, so they know me very well, which definitely helped. He left the class with a new confidence; maybe teaching will be a possibility for him?!
That evening we went to Miriam’s leaving meal (we met in Hoi An, she is a friend of my Vietnamese teacher) and had amazing food. I literally hadn’t eaten so much in months! We had rice, chips, Vietnamese salad (which is amazing!!), duck with fried vegetables and fried frogs legs. I literally sat eating for two hours.
After refusing to teach the first lesson the next day and insisting he learnt more from watching me, Harry taught two classes very successfully. In the last class I just let him get on with it and sat typing up notes to help him in his future classes. At the end they all ran up and hugged him, which left him pleasantly shell shocked!
I finally managed to get through to Barclaycard today after trying on Monday to book flights home and a trip to Bangkok. Barclaycard had decided to decline my payment, even though I told them I would be in Vietnam. They then rang me on an automated system but half way through, the phone line cut out, and my phone wouldn’t ring international numbers so I couldn’t call them back. In the meantime they called my mum and my sister in England who both hung up on them! Therefore, as they couldn’t get through to me, they blocked my online account! Living as an expat abroad can be extremely frustrating sometimes!
I paid for a xe om to the post office to make an international call but when I got there they told me they didn’t have a phone and I needed to go into town. *Breathe*
Eventually I borrowed my friends phone and have managed to sort my flights! I will be coming home on December 20th or 22nd, returning Saturday 4th January 2014 and I have booked a holiday for one week to Bangkok in August to renew my visa! Bring on the good times.
