June 9th - 13th - Settling in

June 9th, 2024

This morning I was treated with some traditional Vietnamese breakfast. It wasn’t very good but I ate enough of it so as not to be rude. They then fed me some pho and that was much better. Then they served me two Vietnamese iced coffees that were really good. I’m really thankful for the Ngoc family. They have been really good to me and paid for everything this weekend. I can’t imagine how much it cost them but I bet it wasn’t cheap. We stayed in a very nice hotel and had some great meals. It’s raining pretty hard now so we won’t get to go to the beach as planned but sometime soon I’m going to put on my rain gear and go out and walk in the rain just for fun. Thankful that there is enough rain that there is no forest fires thankfully for the rain that it cools things down. When it rains really long here for a prolonged period of time the streets flood. I left my home stay and I was walking in 6 inches of water on the street. Most street shops are closed now as they battle the water issue so I decided to go to the Americanized mall. There are lots of American shops here. I will try and find a cheap store to buy a new shirt but I don’t think this mall is the right place for that. I have been looking for a smoothie place for a while and I finally found one however the blueberry smoothie I ordered is more like a blueberry milk shake. I then went shopping for a new polo shirt as I need an extra one in order to teach. The uniform they gave me doesn’t fit. Speaking of which, I tried on some clothes in this American mall and the only thing that fit me was a 3xl. What a way to make a guy feel fat. I think I may have lost a few pounds already since being here, but I don’t have a scale so I don’t actually know for sure. I wanted something to eat for later so I bought some Popeyes. Next I took a taxi home. We were driving through as much as 8 inches of water. It was nuts. When I got home I took a nap. I used the extra pillow from Lara’s old room and it’s made a difference in my sleep quality. I then worked on my website for a few hours. I added a bipolar life page that will document all my journal entries from the last time I was manic.

June 10th, 2024

Today I had a video call with my family. I was so tired because I had to take extra medication to fall asleep last night. We talked for a bit and I explained to them what I did this weekend. My nurse recommended I take a clonazepam before teaching to calm my nerves, so I did that today and it worked. I taught 2 classes. It was actually nice and sunny here today so I took the opportunity after class to go to the beach. It cost me 88 k dong to get to the beach. It was a 40 minute drive and it only cost me 5$. I rented a chair at the beach for 30k dong. I made some friends at the beach. They were Vietnamese and didn’t speak any English so we used good translate. They gave me a beer and let me try one of their oysters. It wasn’t too bad. I swam in the ocean but it was very dirty compared to last time for some reason. There were big pieces of plastics as well as visible microplastics too. The South African man I met a few days ago warned me of this brace and how dirty it was. Oh well. The water was a lot cooler this time and more refreshing so that was nice. Now I’m taking myself out for dinner. I’ve been here before and got a pork dish and it was good. Their actual menu is all seafood but I asked them to cook me a beef dish. We will see what they bring out. It turned out pretty good. It was like a very thin steak that was cooked nice served with some fries. 7.5/10. I couldn’t connect with a grab so I had to use a taxi. It cost me 350k. That’s only 19$ but still. When I got home I went to bed.

June 11th, 2024

Today was my first day with 5 hours of teaching. I took a clonazepam to start the day. There were several times I almost got anxiety but I powered through. I ate lunch with the students. We had chicken fried rice and some sort of vegetable that was pickled. We also had what I was told was guava but that didn’t seem right. Nothing too exciting just a day of teaching

June 12th, 2024

I I slept in today till 1pm. It was a really nice day out so I really shouldn’t have, but I had 5 hours of teaching the day before so I didn’t beat myself up about it. Teaching has been starting to go a lot better. I haven’t gotten any anxiety this week but I think that’s because se I take a clonazepam every day. After class I was invited by one of the parents of our students to go swimming. We ended up swimming on the 28th floor overlooking the city. After that a Trang took us for some pho. It was really good. Just the right amount of spice

June 13th, 2024

Today was a really good day of teaching, although I wish they broke up the teaching differently. I wish it were 2.5 hours of teaching 1 hour break and then 2.5 hours of teaching. The way they have the teaching broken up right now is I start teaching at 9:15 am and I’m not done till 7:30 pm with random breaks throughout the day. After school Harrison and I went to the Aeon mall for dinner. I had spaghetti carbonara. It was actually really good. It cost me 200k dong which is 10 dollars. Then we walked the mall for a bit and went to the well known traveler bar buzz pub, however I only saw one other white person there. It doesn’t seem like Hai Phong is much of the place for tourists. It’s a big city though? Perhaps more of a place for expats however we haven’t ran into many of those yet. At buzz pub I had 2 beers. A Kroenenburg Blanc and a knock off Budweiser from chechia. I figured stopping at 2 would be a good idea. I don’t really feel like getting drunk here. I don’t really see the appeal anymore. If I accidentally get a buzz oh well but at least I’ll still be in control. I must say though that a cold beer on a hot day really does the trick. Today it was 37 degrees. As much as it was a nice day I stayed out of the heat and stayed in the air conditioning, what a pity. We don’t get many nice days like this in Hai Phong considering it’s rainy season so I should have capitalized on the nice weather. There aren’t any nice parks around where I live. The best I can get is a walk by the river but it’s completely commercialized so it’s not that scenic. Still… I should check it out. This weekend it looks like the weather is going to be nice so Harrison and I are going to go to Cat Ba. I’m really excited