Deep Cleansing Breaths...

I’ve since had a chance to chill out a little about yesterday’s news that the house staff were talking smack about me, as they say. The thing that bothers me about it is that, whatever they chose to say, they likely said to colleagues that I respect and would like to work with again. Hopefully, however, those people will have had the chance to get to know me well enough to know what is and is not in my character. Probably best to let it go, I know.

I went downtown to scout out a place to stay the next time I’m here. I looked at another place earlier this week that was kind of…depressing. This place, however, was very much not depressing. In fact, it is gorgeous, a short walk from my office, and in the middle of lots of stuff to do. I hope that the price they end up quoting me is something I can afford. I think it will be, but I’ll soon get my official offer from the guy I met with this morning and find out. It’s hard, weighing the pros and cons of all of these things. Part of me feels like I should go with the depressing place, because it could be really good for me financially. But three months is a long time to live in a depressing place in a foreign country. So, perhaps not. If it weren’t for the distance from the office, I’d stay in the place where I am now, but it’s just a big, fat pain to be so far from everything. The fact that the mattress is lousy is another factor…

“Good Morning, Vietnam” has been on HBO lately, I’ve seen some snippets. It’s very strange to watch, because it takes place here, but when things were reeeeaaallly different. Although, I have to say that, after having spent time here, Robin Williams’ description of the weather was 100% accurate. There are t-shirt vendors on the streets who sell shirts that have “Good Morning, Vietnam!!” splashed across the front. It’s very “sunrise, sunset”, if you will… I went into this fancy-schmancy department store that recently opened across the park from our office. I have a feeling that Ho Chi Minh didn’t think of the people selling $1500 watches and $500 purses way back when. Things change, I suppose. (As the PM says “Meestah Ho Chi Minh, voht vere you fighting foh-ah?”)

The exciting news that I have is that my parents are planning on heading to Paris for Thanksgiving week, and I’m going to join them! It will be fantastic to be able to see family in the middle of my next stretch away, and it will be even better to be able to do it in Paris! I’m so excited about it, as I LOVED Paris the one time I was able to spend time there. But last time was only a day and a half – this time it’s a whole week!

For some reason, I woke up obscenely early, so I think that nap time might be coming up soon. Tomorrow is going to be another lazy day, I can feel it. I think it’s good to have a few of those every now and then. There are plenty of times when life moves so quickly that getting an hour to yourself seems like an impossible task, so I’m going to take advantage of this time while I have it. Hurrah for that!