It appears my 1998 Saturn sedan that drives upwards of 40 MPG on the interstate is soon to be a relic.  The link below tells the story. 

How GM Crushed Saturn | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com

Even though I've been making posts at different times up till now, a part of me feels inclined to say "hello again." 

The reason for that is, beyond the random posts here (I have one that's pretty stream-of-consciousness that I'm thinking about posting soon), I realize I've been M.I.A. in other forms of communication as of late.  I haven't sent a lot of you who know me a lot of individual e-mails.  While I've had some hiccups and fits of laziness that affected that, I want to sort of officially say "I'm back" as a result of larger factors being resolved.   

As for what I'm back from, a fair bit of it has been things beyond my immediate area of control.  The main thing was technology.  I've mentioned at different times about having Internet problems.  For the most part, those are over, but there are some that are beyond problems that seem to be simply changes.  Part of that is large-group e-mails might be slackened a fair bit.  The e-mail program on my computer no longer works with the Internet connection here, but my web browser email does. 

Problem is I haven't set up my web mail e-mail groups yet, and the web mail I use now (predominantly Gmail, which sends and receives e-mail from BOTH of my e-mail accounts now) has nearly 1000 e-mail addresses in the address book.  Yep.  Not nearly a number the size of the government stimulus plans or the budget (oh dear), but it's a lot for a guy like me who likes simple things.  A lot of those are duplicate addresses, but the thought of sorting out 1000 e-mail addresses . . . intimidates me. 

Despite that, I have e-mail, which is great!  I realize I haven't been able to send a lot of individual e-mails all that much because my Internet has been so unstable up till now.  Since it's gotten more stable, I hope to return to the random habit of shooting an e-mail out y'alls way.  I need to hear how you're doing, especially with how uncertain our times are and how drastic the decisions might be to solve them, publicly and privately. 

I hope to send something in hard copy form to those of you back home to give other details of life here, but I wanted to post this now.  If you know of someone who only receives my e-mails but doesn't visit here, please suggest them to start visiting here in the meantime since my group e-mailings have become a fair bit more intimidating to take on with 1000 addresses to sort through.  The upside is, in a few months from now, communication with people (at least in North America) will be a fair bit easier and more regular for a couple of years.  Until then, I hope you're flexible.  Seems like the times we're in now, the world over, demands such an attitude whether we pursue it or not. 

Be well, folks.

Jesse

This may get me in bad with some Starbucks fans, but, after doing the taste test between Starbucks and Vietnamese coffee, I can now say Vietnamese coffee is better. 

I was given a back of whole bean Starbucks coffee by a caring supporter, ground the beans up, and but them in the freezer.  First thing I did when I got back from Thailand was make a cup of coffee with the grounds.  I must say . . . it was pretty lackluster.  I prepared it all the same way I normally would with Vietnamese coffee, and the grounds were fine like Vietnamese coffee grounds, so no difference there.  However, after I made a second cup to make sure I didn't just prepare a bad cup and got the same thing, I made a cup with Vietnamese coffee.  And it was better.  MUCH better.  So much better I'm sure I must have done something wrong, but I quietly know I didn't. 

In light of that, I'd like to offer you an opportunity to do a taste test of your own.  Here is a website where you can get yourself some of the same coffee I used, called Trung Nguyen.  I suggest the Gourmet Blend, and, if you feel so bold to try the others, go right ahead. 

Beyond coffee, you may not have been able to send me e-mails lately.  That's not surprising since the organization e-mail address has now CHANGED.  Instead of my first initial and my last name before the @, it's now my whole first and last name separated by a period before the @.  Just so you know.  Everything after the @ is the same.  Also, my Internet connection is a little slower and more selective than usual, so I may not be as "savvy" as I once was.  However, I can say with confidence I now really like Gmail's online web browser interface.  Very slick. 

I was asked to do a blog post on the university blog, so I thought I'd send you a link to it, and that little window into life. 

Link to English I: Who is a "normal" teacher?

At least I can say I thought about a week of rest.  After supervising the mid-terms for first-year students yesterday, and now grading those mid-terms, my intended Sabbath came to a close.  Still, I realize the need to stop for once, and wonder how often that'll happen for me if I don't try to do it in the future.  All the more I'm seeing how if I don't try, it won't occur.  Not that everything rests in my hands, but I need to be intentional. 

As it continues to rain outside, I'm getting towards the conclusion of my day in a week with something resembling a routine.  This definitely hasn't been a normal go-about for routines, but it's been somewhat nice.  I think the challenge for me came from not controlling what it'd look like, which a week of being sick has a keen way of pulling that off. 

Even still, this is the type of thing I'd quietly waited and hoped would happen, and am glad to see some semblance of continuity in my days.  There's a part of me that still feels as though I'm scrambling more than I have things together, but . . . a step at a time. 

Now, the pursuit of personal diligence in my life. 

requires doubling your workload?  At least, that's what it's feeling like at the moment.  Over the past few days (as early as 10 minutes ago), I've been asked by different individuals to become involved in the following things: 

• work at a for-profit English language center near campus. 
• be on hold to teach an English class of first-year students for one of the teachers who will eventually give birth, study abroad, or get married. 
• teach the fast-track second-year English students. 
• outside of my normal schedule of 15-6 periods (beyond my present pay), teach a morning class of Pre-Intermediate level Chinese international students studying both Vietnamese and English at the university. 

Now, the second option sounds the most reasonable given it's already in the core group that I'm intending to work with anyway.  The third option is said to "have dibs," so to speak, on who teaches what.  But, with the first and fourth, they're outside of my contract.  The one is more of a business, and am not drawn to very much, but the fourth one is something which should be lumped within my present schedule . . . yet isn't. 

Ugh, and I'm trying to sketch out my Writing lesson for the next week.  Time to make some coffee . . .

While being at my wonderland of temporary housing, the latest boost to my being initiated into this community is greeting my neighbors:  monkeys.  I'm sure it has it's perks.  Let's just hope it doesn't include having complimentary fertilizer flung at me. 

Until then, more waiting for an actual residence and teaching location in Viet Nam . . .

Even though this particular entry may not be sent out till I don't know when, I figure it's still worth typing it up.  First, things related to traveling to LA.  I'm writing this as of the evening of Thursday, July 12th. 

All in all, it wasn't altogether bad traveling by a Greyhound bus.  Granted, it took two-and-a-half days, they overbooked the bus out of Dallas that bumped me from it, couldn't find my luggage for 24 hours once I arrived in LA, and couldn't identify where the last stop where my luggage was supposed to go to . . . but, yes, beyond those things, it was fine. 

With my time in the Los Angeles area, Azusa specifically, I'd have to say it has been pretty nice.  The weather is as they describe it, the public transportation system ain't bad (compared to what I've experienced overseas), and there's a lot of cultural diversity.  I can understand the potential for a cultural explosion between people as the movie Crash had depicted so well.  As I was trying desperately to find my luggage during the afternoon in downtown Los Angeles Saturday, walking to and from Union Station and 7th and Alameda (where the Greyhound bus station is), I definitely saw a lot of diversity shuffling among the tall buildings there. 

For my Master's classes, the one I've had this week has been pretty good.  Specifically called "Language and Culture Learning," it's definitely a lot to take in, going from 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday of this week, with an hour lunch from 12 to 1.  It's been deeply relevant content, and I feel a lot of affirmation of this being the right direction for me to have gone in.  I'm actually looking forward to the assignments I'll be doing throughout the next semester, as they'll all fit in nicely with where I'd like to go with my language studies. 

Even though I don't know when this'll actually get sent out, I did want to write this out to you. 

I've been trying to get started two weeks of review (decided to end studies after two weeks instead of three), and it just isn't working.  There's just so much accumulated notes and other stuff that I can make sense of where it all should go.  Part of the problem is it all looks familiar, so I can't really tell what to choose, hence the subject.  It's a little frustrating because I'd really like to make a landmark over what I'm finished with and prepare for adjustments come next year, but . . . I don't know how! 

On top of that, and in other news, I just learned handwritten letters of mine to different folks in the US haven't been going through.  That's a lot of focused time gone in a puff of smoke, especially since I want to communicate with folks in that way.  Why?  Honestly, I believe it's because the people at the post office here were insistent I didn't need a return address. 

Grrrr . . .