Phan Thiet Catch up

Jeremy and Jason arrived in Phan Thiet for our schools opening ceremony. We all went out to dinner the night before in Mui Ne. The ceremony was something else. I hadn`t seen any of the rehearsals as I was now working five full days at school plus the esl classes on top. I was going to be paid for the extra hours but it was a lot of work and really tough not having a day off at all. Full school had started on 13th September. There were a lot of performances by the students, the school had even brought in a dance teacher especially to prepare the students. She joined one of the performances wearing an APC school uniform, very disturbing. Afterwards we all had lunch at the Caty hotel, it was a good, if slightly weird day.
I didn`t know this and it is always hard to get a straight answer out of anybody about anything but we found out that the autumnal equinox is a big deal here in Vietnam. It is celebrated by school children parading huge lit floats through the street. We were told that our school woiuldn`t be joining the main parade but would have their own parade the day after. I wasn`t sure what to make of this, but as usual this wasn`t the whole story. I saw some of the main parade from the front of the school as I had classes that night. The next afternoon everyone was getting ready for our parade. We left from the school at 5pm and we had police stopping traffic for us and our own lion dancing troupe. It was very cool. We crossed over the river and ended up in a small park where they got the kids to play a load of games before finishing off just before 8pm. It was a really long day for the students, school starts at 7am. Denise joined us after initially saying that she wouldn`t. I am lucky, Anna and I get on extremely well, in part helped by the fact we are the same age and our birthdays are on consecutive days. I don`t get on so well with Denise, who Anna and I have taken to calling Denis. The Vietnamese staff always drop the last "e" of her name and it has sort of stuck with me. It kind of makes sense that Denise and I haven`t clicked as she is my superior and older than my mother.Also I think she was having a hard time settling in and was most put out by the lack of space in the old school. She was quite open about her displeasure even going so far as pissing off Mr Huan. Eventually we all had a meeting with him, Ms. Sam and Ms. My. He told us that he ran the show in Phan Thiet and not anyone in Saigon and that it was he who signed our paychecks and decided our salaries. He said that he was happy to give Anna and I a contract but did not know about Denise. After that she had a private meeting with him and said that apologies were exchanged on both sides and that things were fine. However she didn`t make the best first impression.
We finally moved into the new school in the last Monday in September. Except I don`t think anyone told the construction workers as they were still living there. It seems to be that construction workers will live on site during the job. When we arrived at school there were all of these workers and chickens wandering around, laundry hanging everywhere and their stuff taking up what would be the meeting room. It was hilarious and I have some great photos. During that first week I was actually wishing that we were still in the old school. I never thought that I would say that! Anna and I got our contracts at the beginning of October, but Denise didn`t get hers, Mr. Huan wanted to wait. For what I am not sure. I was glad to get my contract as I needed to send money home having actually been paid at the beginning of September and still having a huge credit card bill. Well huge for me. You need to have a work contract proving the source of your money before you can send it out of the country and you can only send the amount of your salary each month. I shall have to remember that. It could be a problem.
The first weekend in October was seriously rainy which was a little sad as it was my first weekend in two months where I didn`t have to teach ESL classes. The three of us had made it clear that we wouldn`t teach the classes as we all have full teaching schedules during the week. Eventually they accepted what we were saying and employed Grant to do it. Anna and I got caught in the rain and so on Saturday afternoon went to sit it out in this bar/restaurant. Anna attracted this guy with most disgusting brown teeth I have ever seen. In the end she couldn`t stand it any more and we cycled away into the rain. We cycled along Ba Ke, where all the seafood restaurants are and it was flooding. I started to get worried about what Le Loi would be like as we had already seen it flood once. Sure enough, the road was covered. As we were wet already we decided to walk through, it eventually came up to our thighs. I don`t want to think about what was in that water. Needless to say I had a nice hot shower when I did make it back to the Hoang Kim. On Monday 4th of October I out in my application to extend my visa. I had bugged Grant about what I should write on the form and what I should say to the woman. In the end it was really easy but I was still a little stressed about it. I was afraid I would have to make a dash for the border. However now I am good until January and hopefully by then I will have a work permit. We`ll see.