Happy birthday Le Chinh

I promised one of the young VMG staffers (the beautiful Le Chinh) a cake, and when I bought it I asked the ABC Bakery "worker" to write her name on it. I gave the "worker" a piece of paper with Le Chinh's name on it. So the girl writes "Happy Birthday Le Chinh" on the little cake. That was so nice, except that it's not Chinh's birthday. I have no idea when Chinh's birthday is, but I don't have to get her anything now. And I have no idea how to say or write happy birthday in Vietnamese.
I have returned to teaching full-time and I'm very happy about that. The students are always cool here. Some are more serious than others, but there's not a stinker in the bunch. Of course they're serious ... they're paying. That's why I feel obligated to do my best to make sure they have a positive experience and learn English. Good times for all, especially me. I taught students from Laos the other day and it was thoroughly enjoyable. What a nice bunch. The locals are entertaining as well. And everyone in an IC7 class laughed and gave me curious looks when I when I tried to speak Vietnamese for a sentence or two. I gave that up after that one class. I have enough trouble with English. But I'm starting to recognize words when the Vietnamese are talking. They keep saying something about a white monkey. The tones are impossibly difficult and trying to emulate them is nothing short of futile for me. But I'm not giving up.
I am in the process of moving into a new apartment. It's nice and I love the location, location, location  (a realtor once said that to me and my ex-wife). The drive to work is a little longer but a lot more reasonable in terms of traffic. The neighbors seem to be awesome. They smile and wave while keeping the staring to minimum. The only downside is that I'm near a cut-through street, and sometimes I get the feeling I'm being sized up for a future assault and robbery by the passers-by. It could be paranoia, but I've learned to keep my eyes open very wide, even though I don't see well. Luckily, I don't have much money, but hooligans don't know that. The Khanh Dang Hotel has been acceptable and I'll miss the employees there. They won't miss me because I've broken every glass object in the room.
I had yet another motorcycle bump the other day. A bike cut in front of me and didn't get out of the way fast enough. I sure as hell didn't slow down and waved as I continued on my way. Riding the bike and crossing traffic has become exhilarating for me. I almost look forward to making turns so I can cut someone off and scare the daylights out of oncoming traffic. I kind of get it now. If only speaking Vietnamese was this exhilarating.