A Different Path

I would really appreciate any suggestions or advice on this piece. Please let me know if there is too much detail or not enough detail. I wanted to keep this first installment short, but if there is enough interest, I would expand this into a larger work on Vietnam in general and this would be just one chapter. Thank you!


Ten years were enough.

That's how long I worked in the public school system in my home state of Florida before I decided I needed a change in my life, one that would take me down a different path than the one I had been walking on for so many years.

It wasn't a bad job, really. I always enjoyed working with my students, teaching them English literature, journalism, art, photography, and other things about the world. It was rewarding to attempt to instill an appreciation for reading into my students, and then later see them in the library, their eyes fixed on the pages of a book, hoping that my efforts maybe played a small role in making that student want to read that book.

After 10 years, though, I had gotten my fill of the same blue walls of the large suburban high school where I was working, and knew it was time to do something that I had been wanting to do for many years: live and work in a land where life was very different from the one in which I had lived my entire life.

Coming to Vietnam

Then came a trip to Vietnam. It started as a fantasy. It seemed like a place that was so exotic and far away that I would only come to know this land from the books, magazines, and articles on the Internet that I had read. Then, in the early spring of 2006, a friend originally from Saigon told me of his plans of going to visit his family that summer and suggested that I come along. At first it seemed like such a far-fetched idea, but the more I thought about it, the more attractive it seemed. In June, we took off for Saigon.

My interest in Vietnam actually began when I read a book about the Vietnam War just after I graduated from high school. Years earlier, I remember being very young and hearing a lot about the war. My father was a world news fanatic, and I can recall Walter Cronkite’s CBS Nightly News blaring from the TV set. The Vietnam War was invariably the top story every night. The enormous popularity of movies such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, to name just a few, attests to the impact the war has had on the psyche of many Westerners.

But I always felt that the war was just a small part of the story, that there was a lot more to Vietnam than just a war. I was very excited about the opportunity to see for myself, rather than just reading about it in a book or a Web site.

I’ll never forget the feeling of walking out into Vietnam for the first time. The thick, steamy air on that June morning seemed to slap me in the face as I left the relative comfort of the Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon and ventured forth to the Taxi that would take us to our hotel. After 20 years of anticipation, I was riding in a cab through the streets of Saigon.

I loved it right from the start. It was so very different from any country I had visited before. The architecture is very distinct. Though many buildings in Vietnam were built by the French during the colonial period, and even new buildings today are constructed on the same model, there is an Asian flare that's added to the structures that make them uniquely Vietnamese. The means of transportation intrigued me as well. Never had I seen do many motorbikes on the streets of any city. They seemed to overwhelm the pavement everywhere in the city.

On this first visit, I stayed for about four weeks, mostly in the southern parts of Vietnam, but also into China and Thailand as well. Too soon, I returned home and life went on as before. The excitement I felt for Vietnam, however, never left me. I thought of the people, the food, and the interesting places almost every day and would look longingly at the many photos I took during my time in the country. I enjoyed my visit to Vietnam so much that when the time came to plan for that summer's vacation, I decided to return to Vietnam. This time I stayed a little longer and travelled from as far south as the Mekong Delta to as far north as Sapa, which is about as far as you can travel north and still be in Vietnam.

Again, I returned home and after the end of the summer returned to my school as an art teacher. I wanted to try something different, lately having become a little burned out being an English teacher for nine years. I thought switching to art would be enough of a change to keep me going for a few more years.

It wasn't.

By December of that year, I knew I had to make a more dramatic change in my life. I was desperately in need of a new adventure. The decision was pretty obvious. I would return to Vietnam, this time to stay for awhile.

Back Again

Being in Saigon for the third time in as many years was like visiting an old friend again. The city is chaotic and noisy, dirty and disorganized, but somehow attractive and exciting, full of an energy that can't be explained. There's a beauty that not everyone can see in Saigon. Somehow, the trash covering the streets, the thousands of buildings with peeling paint, and the millions of motorbikes congesting the streets in every neighborhood in town don't diminish my appreciation for what this city has to offer. Even the midnight hours bring action and excitement and traffic careening throughout the city.

I settled in rather quickly and now work as an English teacher at an international school in Saigon. An international school is a private school that hires teachers from other countries, has students from other countries, and delivers instruction in English. It's quite on the expensive side. Tuition is $8,000 a year! For people in a country where the average worker lives on under $100 a month, that's a fortune. Of course, the parents of most of my students have good jobs that pay a lot more, but I know of several parents who work two or even three jobs to be able to afford to send their child to our school.

The school is in a nice, fairly modern building, only one year old, very clean, with comfortable classrooms, a huge student cafeteria, and a modern library with computers. Salaries are very generous, almost $3,000 a month, plus full medical insurance, and all American holidays off (two weeks off for Christmas!). I have my own classroom, too, which is very nice.

The students are great to work with. Most of them really want to learn, are thrilled to have foreign teachers, and are happy to be attending school there. They are a lot more respectful than the typical student in the US. (I know that comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever been a teacher in the US.) Many students work very hard, both during school hours as well as at home after school, to make top grades. The majority of them speak English fairly well, in fact, it's a requirement, but we're also supposed to help them improve. Most of them want to attend college in the US, Canada, or the UK, so they are generally very good students.

Home and the City

I rent a room in a house for about $270 a month, everything included. A family lives here and rents out rooms to about five or six foreigners. My room is large and airy, has a bathroom, a balcony, Internet, and cable TV. I live in a neighborhood that is pretty conveniently located in the central part of the city. In Saigon you are never far from places to get good food. Food here is so cheap it's hard to believe anyone could make a living serving a good hot meal for so low a price.

Typical Day

My work day begins at about 7:00, when I walk out of the house and hop on the back of the motorbike of the driver I have hired to take me to and from work everyday. His name is Anh Cuong and he's as reliable as Old Faithful, always there just outside the gate of the house every morning and waits just across the street from the entrance to my school to bring me home in the afternoon, rain, shine, heat, heavy traffic, or flooded streets. He's a great guy. I wish I could talk to him, but he doesn't speak a word of English and I can say about five things in Vietnamese.

I teach three classes of 8th graders and two classes of 9th graders. The curriculum is not that different from what I taught to my students in Florida. In fact, the textbook we use is the exact same one as in Florida. Students often exceed my expectations, usually challenging themselves to do more than what I assigned them to do.

After work, I come home exhausted from working with 100 energetic teenagers all day, but usually manage to drag myself to a gym about two blocks from my house and work out for about 1-1/2 hours. It's old, cramped, and hot, but it has everthing I need and then some. And for US$7.00 a month, who could complain?

The Election of 2008

One of the highlights of my entire year was the US presidential election in November 2008. As did the rest of the world, I really followed this election pretty closely. But the coolest part for me came on election day. I was amazed at how excited my Vietnamese students were. They were so wound up that I couldn't get them to do a thing in class that day. They didn't want to study English. They all wanted to watch the results of the election. So, I gave up and put CNN on the LCD projector and the students all sat on the floor in the front of the room and were GLUED to the screen watching Obama win the most important election in recent American history! It was such a rush. I was so proud of my students for being so interested, and so proud to be an American...again.

Also, not 15 minutes after Obama was declared the winner, I ran out for a quick lunch at a little restaurant I go to about every other day. As I was waiting for my food, there were several locals around all talking excitedly. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, except one: "Obama, Obama, Obama." Then they would look at me and smile, as if to say, "About time you jackasses got it right!" It was such a good feeling. Now, I don't have to lie and tell everyone I'm Canadian.

An Interesting Question

Vietnam is indeed a land of mystery and intrigue, at least for people who are not from here. Even just walking down the streets near my house can be an adventure in itself. Even walking down the same street as the night before can be a totally different experience on the second night. You never know what you might see, or hear, or smell, or eat, next. It seems that in Vietnam, and in Saigon especially, you never know what waits just around the next corner.

The Vietnamese don't fully understand the foreigner's fascination with their country. A student of mine approached my desk during a break in classes on a recent afternoon, and, totally mystified as to why someone from United States would want to live in Vietnam, asked me out of the blue why I live here. “ Vietnam is poor, dirty, polluted, and has a lot of traffic problems," she said. "I don’t know why foreigners want to come and live here.” I don't think my feeble attempt at explaining really convinced her. How can you explain such a complicated feeling? Hell, sometimes I don't know why I'm so attracted to this place myself.

I only know that I am.