Thanks for checking in! Our flight departs in about 24 hours for our 2010 trip to Vietnam. If you're catching up with us for the first time, here are the basics.
Ilene will be working on two projects in Saigon. First is teaching at the University of Pedagogy in their foreign languages department, a.k.a. the Fulbright project. Second is establishing an exchange program between that university and hers, a.k.a. the State Department grant project. She expects to have several work-related side trips to conferences both within Vietnam and in the region.
I'm working less hard. I'll be starting another novel and working on that, but I won't be passing up any opportunities for adventure that will take my eye off that. I'm also going to be teaching an informal English class at a community center, and I plan to do some extensive solo trekking in other Southeast Asian countries. Roughly, I plan to stay close to Saigon until the end of March, and then embarking on side trips. (Goal: 50k words drafted by then and another 20k drafted before my return.)
We hope just living and working in Saigon will be an adventure, and we hope our friends there will invite us off the beaten path a lot. Expect to see a lot of news here about country homes and family celebrations and, as usual, clothing mishaps. We'll probably have a few words to say about the food and coffee.
We're staying roughly 6 months, give or take, probably longer for Ilene and shorter for me. See you sometime next summer!
-Robert
