Newsflash, everything is still cheap

I skipped last week's entry because I've been in a self-pitying mood over boy stuff. I am not letting that happen again. 

Until I am feeling creative again, here's a few non-essential things that I've purchased for dirt cheap: 

1. Gel Manicure: 150,000 VND ($6.60)

2. Pedicure: 50,000 VND ($2.20)

3. Green Smoothie: 55,000 VND ($2.42)

4. Banh Mi (awesome sandwich): 10,000 VND ($0.44)

5. Yoga class: 50,000 VND ($2.20)

6. Full face wax: 300,000 VND  ($13.18)

7. Entrance to a nice-looking pool: 60,000 VND ($2.64)

8. Beer (at a nice-ish bar): 17,000 VND ($0.75) 

9. Silks class (taught by an American, this is just cheap because she's awesome): 340,000 ($14.93)

Me vs. the Maid

This is about to be the boujie-est sounding post in the world, but this has been bothering me for a while now. 

Right now, I live in what is essentially a dorm room with a bathroom en suite. I don't have a kitchen, or a washer and dryer. I don't have any roommates. This apartment is "serviced" which means I have a maid. If you're thinking about getting a serviced apartment, maybe take this into account:

I wish I didn't have a maid. 

I have asked my landlord to have her skip my room, but she still comes.

My Grievances Thusfar: 

1. She is paid to do my laundry, as I have no place to do it. She refuses to wash my underwear. I have asked other people with serviced apartments, they agree this is very strange. So, I have to wash all of my underwear by hand. COOL. As a result, my bathroom is always decorated in drip-drying panties like some kind of pervert hideout.

2. She comes to clean my apartment twice a week. At 8:30 AM! No matter how much I tell her to go away, she will not leave me alone until I let her in my room. She has knocked for 20 straight minutes before when I have been trying to sleep in. She speaks zero English, and I speak zero Vietnamese, so it is usually a bunch of wild gesticulating while I'm miserably hungover and wrapped in a towel.

3. She floods my bathroom. Regularly. I come back home and the whole floor will be wet and the spouts will be dripping. Rad.

4. She moves my stuff. Like stuff that shouldn't be moved. I have tons of worksheets and papers for my classes on my desk. They're constantly just... someplace else. Or when I couldn't find my hot water teapot thing, I eventually looked in the fridge and there it was! Because why not?!

As of yet, nothing seems to be missing, so there's that. Thankfully, my lease is up next month and I'm finding a new place to live that has a washer (that is capable of washing underwear) and roommates and maybe even a kitchen.

I'm a big dumb offensive foreigner

I've been teaching for about two months now but I had my "new teacher training" just 2 days ago. I found out that I have been committing cultural faux pas galore.  

(Except for one: Before I got to Vietnam, I looked up offensive gestures in this culture. Google told me not to cross my fingers, per the American "good luck" signal. Apparently this is a crude sign that refers to vaginas. I've spent some time looking at my crossed fingers, and I just don't see it, but whatever.)

What I didn't know:   

1. Touching the head is a no-no. I actually found THIS on Google as well, but it seemed to be more of a thing in Thai culture and not in Vietnam. I get now why some of the little kids were not so into Duck-Duck-Goose. 

2. Gesturing "come here" with one finger. Apparently this is super offensive because it is how you call over a dog? Whoops, I've been calling the three and four year olds like dogs this whole time. 

3. Showing anger? Well, this should be obvious, and I haven't really been angry in my class ever. But outside of class, when Dropbox was down, when the printer didn't work, the air conditioner was out, the copier didn't work, and the office staff didn't give me either of the books for a class in 15 minutes, I was visibly fuming. Never at anyone, but still. 

4. The floor is "dirty." In my 3-5 year-olds classes, we are constantly on the (carpeted) floor. We also have our shoes off. I have them crawl on the floor or even roll on the floor. And I don't care if this is a faux pas, it's really cute watching them scoot around the room, racing to touch colors. Maybe I'll just make sure they are in their seats when parents come to pick them up. The little ones don't seem to have a problem with the floor at all.