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Prolly thee worst time of year to be stuck in the situation that I'm stuck in now!
Getting a regular gig in The States and moving back there? Not wonderful at all right now! EXCEPT for seasonal retail, hiring (which has been extremely weak to begin with for the past five years) really begins to slow down after Thanksgiving and comes to a dead halt around Christmas, and eventually will pick up after Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday (mid-January).
Continuing to teach in Hai Phong? Not that great either, as there are no clients at all during a time span that starts around the beginning of December and doesn't end until the first week in March! This annual period of extreme austerity occurs because EVERYBODY in Vietnam tries to save EVERY SINGLE LAST PENNY for the Tet Holiday (this year January 31st)! This basically means almost any and all expenses (including English Language lessons for your kids or for yourself) pretty much get yanked and generally don't resume until the beginning of March!
Ahhhhhhhh...................so much dead time on my hands. I would say that I can hear the crickets chirping, except that it's so Goddamm cold here that the crickets have prolly died of frostbite.
COLD? Uhhh, Dude? You're in Vietnam....
True, and, if ya know ANYTHING about meteorology, you know that humidity amplifies physical air temperatures! So you get the "RealFeel" temperature after factoring that in. So, for example, 30°F in, say, Buffalo is going to be a hella lot more painful than 10°F in Denver!
So, no, it's not ARCTIC here, but it's also been thee coldest in the five-plus years that I've been marooned here in Hai Phong. Right now, it's averaging a physical air temperature daily high of 55°F and an overnight low of 44°F......
....and THIS is in mid-December! Can't wait to see what sorta suckage JANUARY'S temperatures are gonna bring to us as Tet gifts!!
OH!! OH!! OH!! Forgot!! Did I mention that houses here have ABSOLUTELY NO HEATING IN THEM WHATSOEVER!! NO electric baseboard heating, no space heaters, no radiators, no central heat from a furnace.....NOTHING - NADA - ZIP - ZILTCH!!!
Believe me, after the initial charm and quaintness of wearing winter clothes around the house wears off, it really begins to suck after a while....
Sooooo........with the dead time, time to catch up on some reading and meebee try to piece some writings together after Christmas and see what I come up with.....
Tam and I are off to Chengdu on The Solstice tomorrow forra few days....this was a trip we had planned in July (well BEFORE everything went to hell) and it appears that the timing couldn't have been better! Rather psyched for it - if there is ANY sort of luck bringing me back to The States, this will prolly be the last I'll see of Asia forra long-ass time and I'd like to see as much of it as I can!
Who knows???? There is a hyper demand for English instructors in China and, IF the market for freelance English Language instruction continues to absolutely suck in Hai Phong like it has for the past six months......well.....we shall see........
COMING UP NEXT WEEK - Wacky zany madcap cultural misunderstandings abound as Ernie and Tam visit The Middle Kingdom!
(I SAY - "Coming up next week" simply because the last time I was in China [2008], they blocked every single Goddamm thing under the sun [The Facebook, YouTube, etc. etc.], so I doubt I'll be able to post direct from there)
Stay tuned.....
A wonderful Winter Solstice to you and yours......
-E-
Prolly thee worst time of year to be stuck in the situation that I'm stuck in now!
Getting a regular gig in The States and moving back there? Not wonderful at all right now! EXCEPT for seasonal retail, hiring (which has been extremely weak to begin with for the past five years) really begins to slow down after Thanksgiving and comes to a dead halt around Christmas, and eventually will pick up after Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday (mid-January).
Continuing to teach in Hai Phong? Not that great either, as there are no clients at all during a time span that starts around the beginning of December and doesn't end until the first week in March! This annual period of extreme austerity occurs because EVERYBODY in Vietnam tries to save EVERY SINGLE LAST PENNY for the Tet Holiday (this year January 31st)! This basically means almost any and all expenses (including English Language lessons for your kids or for yourself) pretty much get yanked and generally don't resume until the beginning of March!
Ahhhhhhhh...................so much dead time on my hands. I would say that I can hear the crickets chirping, except that it's so Goddamm cold here that the crickets have prolly died of frostbite.
COLD? Uhhh, Dude? You're in Vietnam....
True, and, if ya know ANYTHING about meteorology, you know that humidity amplifies physical air temperatures! So you get the "RealFeel" temperature after factoring that in. So, for example, 30°F in, say, Buffalo is going to be a hella lot more painful than 10°F in Denver!
So, no, it's not ARCTIC here, but it's also been thee coldest in the five-plus years that I've been marooned here in Hai Phong. Right now, it's averaging a physical air temperature daily high of 55°F and an overnight low of 44°F......
....and THIS is in mid-December! Can't wait to see what sorta suckage JANUARY'S temperatures are gonna bring to us as Tet gifts!!
OH!! OH!! OH!! Forgot!! Did I mention that houses here have ABSOLUTELY NO HEATING IN THEM WHATSOEVER!! NO electric baseboard heating, no space heaters, no radiators, no central heat from a furnace.....NOTHING - NADA - ZIP - ZILTCH!!!
Believe me, after the initial charm and quaintness of wearing winter clothes around the house wears off, it really begins to suck after a while....
Sooooo........with the dead time, time to catch up on some reading and meebee try to piece some writings together after Christmas and see what I come up with.....
Tam and I are off to Chengdu on The Solstice tomorrow forra few days....this was a trip we had planned in July (well BEFORE everything went to hell) and it appears that the timing couldn't have been better! Rather psyched for it - if there is ANY sort of luck bringing me back to The States, this will prolly be the last I'll see of Asia forra long-ass time and I'd like to see as much of it as I can!
Who knows???? There is a hyper demand for English instructors in China and, IF the market for freelance English Language instruction continues to absolutely suck in Hai Phong like it has for the past six months......well.....we shall see........
COMING UP NEXT WEEK - Wacky zany madcap cultural misunderstandings abound as Ernie and Tam visit The Middle Kingdom!
(I SAY - "Coming up next week" simply because the last time I was in China [2008], they blocked every single Goddamm thing under the sun [The Facebook, YouTube, etc. etc.], so I doubt I'll be able to post direct from there)
Stay tuned.....
A wonderful Winter Solstice to you and yours......
-E-
3 comments:
I believe it was the ancient philosopher Skooterfucious who once said, "Global warming. Will it hurry the fuck up?"
- V -
Actually, skooterfucious ripped that off from a headline in The Buffalo Beast!
....and NOW you see WHY AND HOW the Vietnamese winter blankets are so Goddamm warm!!
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