Apartment hunting

It's been a hectic and exhausting first two full days, and today is mostly devoted to sorting through the storm damage and trimming our sails for the next few days.

Many uncertainties remain, but it appears we have an apartment that we will be able to move into Tuesday morning. Our friend Chung was a fantastic help acting as unpaid renter's agent, local guide and translator in a twelve-hour marathon yesterday. She set up appointments to look at several apartments with three owner's agents, and we crisscrossed District 1 in a total of 8 taxi rides. There were numerous misunderstandings, incorrect addresses, and surrealist rabbit holes. We made our selection and began serious negotiations, which resembled something like the game of telephone using actual telephones and a language barrier for spice -- Ilene and me to Chung to the agent to the landlord's sister to the landlord, who was supposed to be on holiday but I'm beginning to think is somebody's alter ego.

Once we came to terms, we piled on motorbikes (we also accomplished buying our own new helmets) and took a long trip out into District 2 to the landlord's sister's place, which was on the 14th floor of an apartment tower with a gorgeous view of the sunset and a serious AV set up. Cans of Ba Ba Ba and Pepsi were passed around and we sat down to write up a promissory note to sign a contract later when the landlord returns. During this process all of the misunderstandings that were seeded during the game of telephone bore fruit and the deal nearly fell apart. (Most worryingly, they insist on being paid in U.S. currency, which I didn't bring nearly enough of and which I thought was impossible to acquire here. I'm now told otherwise, so tomorrow's errand is to navigate of the international banks downtown. If I don't succeed, we're back at square one.)

As for the apartment itself, I'll tell more after we move in and get pictures. Suffice it to say that we avoided the lure of a foreigner's enclave and that the word "charming" will be often used -- whether sincerely or ironically remains to be seen.

As usual, jet lag has us dropping like stones at about 9 p.m. and waking up at 3 a.m. We lay in bed quietly out of courtesy to the rooster who lives across the street from our hotel, and when he starts his day we get up and start ours.

We acclimate quickly, though. We heard via Skype this morning that it's snowing in Connecticut, and it felt a little like news that aliens had landed. I couldn't quite imagine it. 28 Celsius and cloudy here, all day, every day, with humidity to beat the band.

-Robert

Innocents Abroad

On every hand were bright colors, flashing constellations of gas burners, gaily dressed men and women thronging the sidewalks -- hurry, life, activity, cheerfulness, conversation, and laughter everywhere! We found the Grand Hotel du Louvre et de la Paix, and wrote down who we were, where we were born, what our occupations were, the place we came from last, whether we were married or single, how we liked it, how old we were, where we were bound for and when we expected to get there, and a great deal of information of similar importance -- all for the benefit of the landlord and the secret police. We hired a guide and began the business of sightseeing immediately. That first night on French soil was a stirring one. I cannot think of half the places we went to or what we particularly saw; we had no disposition to examine carefully into anything at all -- we only wanted to glance and go -- to move, keep moving! The spirit of the country was upon us. We sat down, finally, at a late hour, in the great Casino, and called for unstinted champagne. It is easy to be bloated aristocrats where it costs nothing of consequence!

--The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain

Ready, set, go

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