Ho Chi Minh City, Part 2

There is a woman who is holding a baby spread-eagled on her lap bottomless, compelling him to pee aboput one meter from my right.

The day before yesterday Alex arrived safe and sound.

Said baby just took a dump. I guess diapers are expensive.

We went clubbing that night. I don't understand what the deal is with lounges that play music so loud you cant speak to each other. But yes, it was a lounge because no one was dancing. But it wasn't a lounge because people were not speaking with each other.

Let's just call it shit for now.

So Alex, Eri and I decided to do something about it. We danced. And we encouraged others to do so. We even dragged the unwitting. The experience became better. In fact, it was quite the experience, to completely upstage a club. But we shall never return.

The next day we met this guy who gave flirty advice to Alex as he tried on shirts. We ended up spending the day with him as he took us out to all kinds of interesting places, but simply spending time with him is what I will remember the most. We met up with him later that night at a club and things became a little more than friendly but still nice. I look forward to seeing him today.

Finding the bar was a different story. We had bikers following us trying to charge us obscene amounts of money for a distance that ended up being 500 meters. But the troupe is down - Brent and Stef are with us now -, so more on that later.

Ho Chi Minh City

Yesterday, I left Japan. I hope I go back. I know I will. But when will that be, I do not know. Japan will always be a home for me.

I'm on the airplane. We're taxiing about waiting for clearance. I knew it was coming, but it didn't hit until after the pilot gunned the engines and we blasted into the sky. It was quite a powerful take-off - more so than usual, we were late- and so I guess that was fitting for my departure. Tears trickled as the engines started, streamed at rotation, gushed in the air. And then it was done.

Eri had been waiting for around three hours for me at HCMC airport, in the hot and constantly harassed by cabbies. Getting a cab was a sharp introduction to the culture, being heckled from all sides and even at once point being physically pulled. After many a hostile negotiation we finally got a cab to take us to where we wanted to go for $8: three more than it's supposed to be but what the hell.

The next day, after a nice long sleep in the hotel we checked into, we slowly made our initial foray into HCMC. The food is great. The drinks are cheap. Crossing the street for the first time: our hearts were still reeling five minutes after the fact. The cars and bikes just keep on coming. And what the hell is a traffic light? So you wait for when there are less cars, and then slowly but steadily, you cross. And the traffic yields and goes around you. Or you get hit. The latter has not happened yet. Sugoi.

Alex will be arriving Saturday and Brent and Stefanie on Sunday. Guys, we can't wait for you to join us!

Transiting Past Tokyo

New life situation, new blog title. In less than four hours my plane will be leaving for Vietnam. I said goodbye to Eri a few hours ago, but we will be meeting up soon enough in Vietnam. I am oddly ambivalent about leaving Japan: I am really happy to finally start the vacation that I have been looking so forward to doing, but I am not happy with saying goodbye to everyone that I have met here. Perhaps those two feelings have mathematically cancelled out. Or maybe I am too tired to feel anything right now.

After three hours in the process, almost all my belongings are being shipped to Montreal. All I have with me is what fits in a rather large bacpack. For the next few months, I will be a wandering soul with no obligations and infinitely much to see.

Here comes the next step in my life.

Modesty Aside

It's been two days since my last day of work for AEON, Hamamatsucho School.  I did it. And then some. I helped two students with their English job applications. I met students who were initially hell to work with but through patience and perseverance they became extremely motivated and could not stop smiling in class. I motivated a few of my private students who before did not really care about their studies to actually  realize their full potential, and they improved. I showed them that learning English can be tons of fun and yet still be educational. But perhaps most of all, I confused them with the fact that a teacher in a suit working in downtown Tokyo could be downright insane. And at the end of it all, a few of them came to my going-away with gifts I shall always cherish and keep dear, a card I shall keep with me on my travels to Southeast Asia, and with the sense of accomplishment for having been able to influence some of my students.

Blogged with Flock

Too Much

Friday a bunch of us got together to get Thai food that was ten times the price that I would have paid for in Thailand for twice the amount and was half as good, thus causing me to be ripped off by a factor of forty. And then we said goodbye to Nicky. It was really sad, but I'm reassured knowing that I will see her in a few months - we've come way too far to let everything drop. For now, I am happy that she's home, where it's cheap, she's surrounded by her loved ones, and there is cheap hummus.

The next day was my going-away party at work, where my students and coworkers absolutely spoiled me. It was pretty emotional, receiving a speech that made me seem like a competent and good teacher and such sweet gifts. Apparently I will leave the school with the legend of a trouble/travel-maker who was strict but cared for his students. I accept.

After that, we went to karaoke, where we all sang a few Japanese songs. They were just really into it! It was absolutely crazy! And of course, they paid for me. Spoiled, I was.

Following that, two of my students and I met up with some friends I recently made to go for some old-fashioned gay-clubbing. It was nice to just be completely myself with my students, for at that point they were not my students - fortunately yet unfortunately. They were just so understanding and didn't give a damn. We danced the night away.

As if the night was not long enough, after the club there was a curry... "breakfast"?, followed by me going home to prepare to move out of my apartment. It was just so weird to see my apartment reduced to a bare space, all my belongings crammed into two suitcases. Exactly how much belongings much you have somewhere to be considered as living somewhere? Two suitcases somehow seems more like "extended traveller". In any case, me and my two bags made our way to Alex's, where I will be staying for a little over a week. The school got me a hotel for a week where I will most likely not stay, but it was really odd checking in. Can it still be said that I live in Japan, or am I now simply "in transit"?

That "night", with still no sleep since Saturday morning, we went to Chi's house for a wonderful dinner. Her mother was totally sweet, her father equally sweet yet equally drunk. Chi has such a nice place: it's an actual house.

And then I went to sleep.

It's now Monday. I have two more days of work before I become unemployed. I'll save an entry about the consequences of that for another entry.