Safe in Saigon

After a 15 hour flight from Toronto to Hong Kong, a three hour lay-over, a three hour flight to Ho Chi Minh City, and an hour bus ride to the hotel, I am finally settled in for the evening at the "Romantic Hotel" of Saigon, which has questionable photography in the bathroom, but is otherwise quite lovely. The staff members have already been testing their English out on me, with such compliments as "You are beautiful as a flower."

The Principal, Wilf (a teacher who has been living in Saigon for five years, has been instrumental in getting CIS off the ground, and will be leading our orientation), and others from the administration team came to meet us at the airport. They picked us up in the school's air-conditioned bus and greeted us with welcome packages (CIS hats, backpacks, snacks, etc). The bus ride to the hotel was a wonderful adventure. I saw millions of motorbikes surging through the night streets--packed with whole families (saw one motorbike with five riders). We even saw one motorbike carrying a full sized wood coffin.

Interesting tid-bits. One of my co-workers and I discovered that we had both travelled to Kenya with the same organization. After chatting for a bit longer, I discovered that her brother and I volunteered in Kenya together. He is from Halifax--I did some travelling with him during my stint there. I am constantly dumbfounded by these never-ending human connections.

I have in hand 26, 010, 000 Vietnamese Dong , which is a portion of our salary and our settling bonus.

Tomorrow, we have lunch at 1:00, a tour of the city, then dinner. Monday we start our orientation and training in full force.

More stories to tell, but my weariness prohibits their sharing. For another time.

Much much love!