I felt like Dorothy with eyes closed, clicking ruby slippers together and repeating "there's no place like home." When I opened my eyes and saw Phuong and Joanna at the airport, what an incredible, wonderful and happy moment. The wicked witch of the west was nowhere to be seen. I would normally say it's been like a second honeymoon seeing my wife again, but since we never really had a first honeymoon because of a motorbike accident, this reunion has been especially sweet. Joanna is adapting to having her dad back in her life. She's hot and cold, to be honest. When she's hot, it's all love and laughter. When she's cold, well, she's cold.
I've arrived in Vietnam at the end of the Tet holiday / Lunar New Year, so there are a lot of drunks on the road. Even my friend Joy got in a minor accident. Joy (great to see her again) was fine, but her bike got knocked around and dented. Two girls cut their turn too short and hit Joy while she was in the right lane. People do this crap all the time, but somehow it's always the foreigner's fault. I guess we don't understand. Actually, I do understand. Smart travelers know this before they travel, but the White Monkey had to learn this after he started traveling: People tend to back up the people who think like they do or in some cases, look like they do. That's why Donald Trump still has some support. That's why Vietnamese people told me to apologize to a woman who illegally crossed a four-lane road, came out from behind a truck and dropped her bicycle in front of my motorbike. The woman's maneuver caused me to flip head over heels and crack three ribs and damage my kidney. I'm sorry, madam, for nearly hurting your bicycle. Some people rise above race and culture and know the difference between right and wrong. These are the folks I recommend bonding with and becoming friends with (for example, Marc, Gemma, Mollirose, Lacimae, who I consider my friends even though they're British and Irish -- ha ha -- like my dad). Race and culture can be wonderful things, but not when they blind us to the truth. Enough of this ...
I begin teaching privately tomorrow -- my favorite student Sam returns. We'll review some material and then begin IELTS preparation. It will be great to do some real teaching again instead of spouting meaningless questions and getting meaningless answers. (Is a supermarket high? No, a supermarket isn't high, but it's low.)
I want to thank the many people who read my blog about the difficult experiences I had at the Polish language center in Kety. I don't want any other TEFL teachers to go through what I had to endure at this "pathetic" center -- "pathetic" was the word the CEO used to describe the White Monkey when she tried (and failed) to withhold some of my pay for bills and documents I never saw or would see. Farce2Farce didn't work out for the White Monkey. I've been told two other foreign teachers are going to quit. What a shock! This will be the last time I mention Farce2Farce in my blog (unless I'm attacked or threatened again by the CEO). Time to move on.
I returned to tennis on Saturday and defeated my lovely and competitive wife, 6-3. I rallied from a 1-3 deficit. Ah, there's no place like home.
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