Saturday, June 23, 2012

One

Well, Ben's back in Canada. He left on Thursday morning in a pile of tears at Changi Airport and so ended the six months of awesome times we had living here in Singapore again and begins Chapter 1,000 of Long Distance Relationship: Bea and Ben Edition.

I knew it was coming from the day he got here, but man did it suck. I've tried doing the grateful for him being here, positivity, sunshine and flowers thing, but sometimes you have to be authentic and say, this sucks some ass.

Since my first boyfriend when I was 16, I've shown myself to be one of those all or nothing types. Even when I try to be all independent and aloof, it only works for a little while. When I love someone, I really, really love them and it's true with Ben. It's really really hard for me to be away from him and also just to face being alone again. Without Iain here, I feel like I'm just about on my own here in Singapore.

Of course, that's the maudlin, teenaged kind of response and when I look at the reality, I have some really lovely people here in Singapore who care about me. Kyla and Matt have been awesome about keeping me busy and my roomates have invited me for Dim Sum breakfast today. I always feel all emo and alone right before people come along that I wouldn't expect and offer me some support and kindness.

So I'm going to try my best to just pick myself up and try not to be too upset about it. I'll be home in 6 months and the reality is that this long distance thing is probably going to be our reality for a while. The job market for teachers in Ontario isn't looking any brighter from what I've been hearing and I'm going to continue to look for job in England and at International Schools, so the reality is that this might continue for a while.

I just have to know that I'm a really lucky person because I have someone awesome that loves me, who was willing to come to Asia for 6 months to be with me and who is a rockstar at speaking Mandarin (and will get into fights with jerks in Mandarin on my behalf) and who is going to be a University student in the Fall, and that I am just really damn proud of. Oh, he also goes on upsidedown roller coasters, so he's kind of a big deal. Just so you know.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City

We just got back from Vietnam last night, and it was a great trip. I'm really glad we did it.

It was a nightmare getting started, from the deal.com fandango to the visa fiasco, it felt like the universe was standing in the way of us getting onto that plane. But, once we were in Ho Chi Minh city I started having a lot of fun.

An American friend of mine recommended that I read Vietnam: An Oral Biography before we went because honestly, I didn't know shit about Vietnam or the war. That books was a great thing to read, it gave me an idea about the conflict from so many perspectives and I understood so much more when we did things like go to the War Remnants Museum and go to the Reunification Palace and the Cu Chi tunnels.

I loved the moto culture, there were constant motorcycles buzzing around everywhere you went, crossing the street you look out for motos and you just go, they move around you and you do your best to move around them. The cars are like guests on the streets because they are mainly owned by the motos. No one seems to go too fast on them, Ben rented one and we went about 30 km/h most of the time, but you still can get around really easily on them. We saw people carrying massive loads of things on their bikes that you would think would be physically impossible.

It also wouldn't be Vietnam without lots and lots of prostitutes, it made me feel sort of ashamed of our Western men. There are so many "Beauty Salons" with hordes of scantily clad women in high heels waiting for a man to come along. It makes me sad that they are forced usually by economic circumstances into a life of servicing depraved, desperate men from the West. I think it's a huge industry and something that is rather gross about our culture that spills over into theirs.

It was also strange to be in this communist country that blocks Facebook and doesn't have McDonald's or Starbucks, but there is still Coke everywhere and the people are calling out to you in English to come into their restaurants where they have Italian, Mexican. American, French, Vietnamese and Chinese food all on the menu.

I guess that's the product of globalization and a people who will do anything to survive, including live in the tiniest, most claustrphobic underground tunnels you can imagine for weeks at a time to make it.

I think this trip has been my favorite Asian trip, I loved just walking down the streets in Vietnam and riding on the moto with Ben through the night is a memory I will have for the rest of my life. I guess it just goes to show you that it's not always the trips that you think will be good that turn out like that, sometimes it's a surprise but it's just what you needed.

My photos are here: http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h343/Bea_Jolley/Facebook/Vietnam%202012%20Ho%20Chi%20Minh%20City/

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Vietnam

Wow, I am not enjoying the new Blogger, but change is the only constant so what are ya gonna do?

I again haven't written in a while and I'm sorry, I think the shiny newness of living in Asia wore off a long time ago so the need to write about my experiences has dwindled as the new ones ceased happening.

Ben is still here, he is leaving to return home at the end of the month and that is all kinds of crappy. I know that he needs to go back to keep his life going but I will miss him a lot and going back to long distance relationship hell is not my idea of a good time.

Before he goes back we are planning to go to Vietnam for a few days on what was supposed to be a cheap and easy vacation booked through deal.com, but has ended up being somewhat costly and hassle-y but that's what you get sometimes when you think you're getting a deal and I'm choosing to look forward to the experience and not bitch about it too much.

We have done a bunch of things here in Singapore in the last few months that I had yet to do, such as going to Universal Studios at Sentosa which was fun. The last thing I've always wanted to do and haven't got around to doing yet is going to the Botanic Gardens, which I hope we manage to do before he goes back.

Generally, I've been working lots and looking into teaching prospects for the new year. There is supposed to be an International Teaching Fair in Bangkok in November so I'm going to research that, I am also working with an agency in the UK that hires Canadian teachers to work over there but so far I've been rather underwhelmed with their ability to communicate with me/get me jobs as promised so we'll see what happens there. England is still something I would really love to do for a while, but if I could get a good position at an International school I think that would be fantastic right now. International schools in general seem to be a really good match for my teaching style and teaching philosophy and the chance to work in a context with so much diversity would be really interesting and challenging to me which interests me. But, we'll see. Only time will tell where I end up next.

I am still dead-set on travelling to Japan, Ben and I couldn't manage to make it work while he was here but I am shooting for going in September now I think when I get a term holiday. Either way, I really want to make that happen before I go back to Canada.

Aside from a trip to Batam, Indonesia which you can get to by ferry from Singapore and another day trip into Malaysia with my school for a staff bowling day, there has not been much to write home about. Which I suppose is a good thing.

I'll keep y'all posted and write about my trip to Ho Chi Minh.