Okay, so this is the first entry in my revamped travelogue after many times trying to post regularly and then not. So now is the Tet holiday here in Vietnam. Tet holiday's basically the new year.

Plus we're starting a whole new chapter in the covid mess.

This does not mean that the thing is over, though I think we may have passed the big hurdle. Remaining for the ensuing year are all these new variants that may or may not be prevented by the vaccine. we don't know how much those are going to spread here in Vietnam.

Anyway, on to what's going on in my life. I am currently awaiting a response from a job in China which was offered to me several weeks before the new year started and it's a good salary. enough to make me think that it would be the right answer to go back to China. I lived there a few years back: Yueyang, China. Hunan province.  I left on decent terms.

So I decided to go back and start this job back up again it is a substantial pay increase. you know I hate to say anything is good about the coronavirus and I actually get tired of hearing about silver linings, but I have to say: one of the things in China that's happened is that there are no foreign teachers to compete for jobs and there is the same number of jobs teaching positions as there were before so salaries have gone up substantially. if I'm being completely honest, if I were there I feel like I could probably get a good bit more than what she's currently offering, but she's offering enough to draw me back for now anyway because this pay increase is substantial the most exciting thing about going back is that Yuri and I  (a friend of mine from China) have always wanted to start a business recruiting people to come to China from the United States to teach. After all, there are always schools wanting people. given the high unemployment that's going to be in the United States, this could be a very lucrative business as long as relations don't get any worse than they are right now between the United States and China. the problem is I have to go over there and see how bad it actually is. I don't think China has become a bad place for Americans to live and it would actually still be a really good experience for Americans looking for work to spend some time getting to know China. of course, if world war 3 breaks out I'll have to eat those words but as long as it's just you know a high-level political disagreement between the two countries I don't see any problem with Americans coming to China to work.

what's going on in my life right now

Here is something annoying: we've got two more days of Tet holiday remaining and now there's a new outbreak of the virus. So Everyone who's been out of work for the past two weeks now gets two more weeks of unplanned, unpaid vacation time.

I live on an island in Truc Bach Lake and there are quite a few people out on the lake today in the swan boats it's quite warm here for the new year although it is overcast so it may look colder than it is in the picture. I'm in a t-shirt and shorts. 

This entire winter hasn't been warm, but I would say most of it has. The temperature dropped last month but February has been filled with warm days >20 degrees.

This post has been a 'stream of consciousness' entry. I'm still experimenting with exactly what sort of format I want to post in.