Big International School

Hello again!  This week has officially signalled the end of Settling In, and has heralded the start of Being Ready for School.  Encouragingly, for my new Big International School, the best way to do this was with alcohol and free food and over-excited networking and friend-making.  Putting on a brave face, and reminding myself to at least make an attempt at normality, I pranced around the room of a small French restaurant with a glass of white wine, introducing myself to, and doing the interested smile and nod when responses to my eager questions were given by potential New Friends.  Imagine if you will, a slightly more humid, but no less sweaty, posher Fresher's Week, and a hyperactive character from the muppets with an enormous afro of frizzy hair, and you may be picturing the scene appropriately.  I did let the Kermit the Frog smile slip out, but I think managed to avoid talking about poo for the entire evening. 

After 10pm, everything did become a little hazy, though, and involved outdoor bars, a multitude of pretty, tiny Vietnamese women in skimpy red dresses, old, fat Australian men and a rising feminist anger towards the repeated phrase, "But come on, Emma: who is really manipulating who in this situation?"  The women in tiny dresses are being manipulated by the men to whom they are serving large quantities of alcohol, and who are leering at them in a gross, pervy way!  Suffrage, people!

Clearly I will have to find my peace with this cultural phenomenon, because it's not going anywhere fast.  If you haven't read it yet, read 'The Quiet American', and please tell me who you think is manipulating who, and whether Passivity is Power.

I then did organised tourism to places I had already been, which really meant getting to know people even better on the buses, at the temples, and at the post office and in the market.  A group of girls and I sacked off the particular market they took us to as it is touristy and a bit intimidating (people want to touch you and sell you things you don't need for lots of money), and went for phở bò instead, which is the Vietnamese beef noodle soup.  It was delicious, but it did come up the following morning.  Oops.  After it had, though, I felt miles better, and had seconds at lunch time.

Today was my First Day at Big International School, which consisted of a lot of passive, awestruck activities, like wandering around the secondary and primary school on guided tours, inspecting photos to see how many bassoonists there are in the school (one, and a girl, yessssss!), listening to various presentations including one from our entirely hilarious primary school nurse, arguing with an AED machine, and informing us in a deadpan tone that if airways are blocked and we don't act fast, people will die.  If there is extreme blood loss and we don't act fast, people will die.  If there are serious burns or breakages, however, and we don't act fast, it's not too bad.  Unless it's a chemical or electrical burn, in which case, we should act fast or... you get the point.  I was also disgusted/amazed/immaturely amused to learn that there is such a thing called rectal diazepan that is used to treat epileptic seizures and as staff members we are a) permitted and b) expected to administer this should the situation require it.  Omg.  That would absolutely not be legal in the UK, and I'm not sure I'd like to risk it in case the Child Protection people jump out from behind a pillar and say, "Really?  Did you really think that would ever be acceptable?"

The school is very impressive, and I am very excited about finding out which classroom is mine, and buying Tupperware to bring my lunch in to heat up in the microwave, and getting involved with extra curricular activities, and figuring out whether, when private schools say 'the workload is heavy', it really means 'the workload is heavier than the madness you experienced over the last two years', or if it means 'the workload is heavier than you may have experienced at a good to outstanding school in the UK'.  I have a maximum class size of 24 as a pose to 35 and (I quote) 'behaviour is not an issue'.  Apparently students spend their lunch times doing their homework, and not because it's due in the next lesson... so... watch this space for comparisons in around six months time.

Off to figure out whether I can rent a scooter from just down the road, or whether I have to go all the way into town to do so.  Obviously, parents, I won't be riding this scooter on any real roads.  I will have it installed in my apartment as a piece of impressive cultural modern art, and I shall look at it and occasionally rest a cup of tea on it.