Jen's Return + 1

February 9th was the last post? Well, I suppose I haven’t had much to say… or share rather. So where have I been? I might describe it as walking a high wire stretched taut between two worlds. The East vs The West. The life I could lead on both ends taunted me with danger, safety, ease and excitement. And it still does…which is why I’m still here.

I started traveling in April ’08 to appease the inner need for great change. Looking back, I suppose I knew from the start that the line would be unsteady at times but I would safely traverse to the end and return to the world from which I started. At an uncertain point, I lost focus of the initial quest and found myself trying to hold balance in the middle…not knowing which direction to step. After many big lunges and small baby steps in both directions, I made some decisions that leave me here where I am today.

I called the little fisherman’s beach town of Ban Phe, Thailand home for the month of August while I got certified to teach English as a foreign language. I’ve now been in Vietnam for three weeks. I returned to my beloved Hoi An after 14 months to find it just as lovely as before. One problem though. There was no work to be found. So here I am in Da Nang which is the 4th largest city in Vietnam and job prospects are slim after two weeks of waiting in this hotel with an apartment lease in hand. Let me say that it is quite a task to search for an apartment in a city where few speak English and no signs are in English. I waited 12 days for an interview with the Foreign Affairs Office. Turns out I would make only $350 a month whereas if I were teaching and working half the hours, I could make double that amount. Patience is key in this part of the world…

Although I dealt you a pontificating analogy at the start of this entry, let me say it is my goal this go around to share, inform, entertain and enlighten with frequent and small doses of life here in Asia.

So at this point let me introduce Danielle because I’m giving her full access to this blog. Together we will perhaps (and hopefully) give you something to enjoy with your morning coffee or evening beer. Our journey together began back in Thailand where when I first saw her I should have said “Hi, my name is Jennifer. What’s your name?” because that it what we said in the upcoming month-long teacher practice classes. Of the four girls in the 10-person class, we were the only two girls who lived in the school building for the provided accommodation. It was adequate enough but we made it fun.

Beautiful Danielle hales from Colorado. She enjoys the outdoors and loves animals (proof by whenever we see a puppy, we have to stop and oohh and aahhh). In her free time, she is a grammar Nazi (best in our class) and cuddles her Mac Book (which she’s been deprived of for 12 days due to a broken charger). She enjoys the occasional beverage of alcoholic nature (adding to the reason of why we are friends) and craves garlic bread. She has a mean look but is actually quite a lovely person when you get to know her. Now that I’ve made her sound like some sort of contestant…

In all seriousness, Danielle is great or else I wouldn’t be sharing my continued Asia adventures with her. She decided to check out Vietnam and it seems to suit her so we are searching for jobs and plan to share an apartment…wherever that city might be…because as of now, we are jobless and heading to our third city in Vietnam.

With that said, I will close for now. Everyone, please welcome Danielle. You’re free to give her a hard time, she’ll like it.

Mawt, Hai, Baa…Yooooooo!