Massages are a new life requirement...

I've been in Saigon for four weeks now and I've had a massage for three out of those four weekends. It's pretty much a life requirement. I now get antsy if I go too long without one. It's more expensive in District 1 because I'm a foreigner. My first massage was 80,000VND and not that good. My second one was 60,000VND out in District 4 and it's totally worth the cost of the xeom ride out there. I found one girl that's pretty amazing and I now only want to see her. I'm getting quite spoiled. The first week I went to see her my knees and ankles were paining me (because I walk everywhere) and the second week I went to see her my neck and shoulders were hurting (because of my heavy book bag) and she just knew. I'm not sure how she knew but both times she focused on the right spots and worked away all the pain. I swear she's magic. So that's my new hobby. 

Tonight I went out to dinner with Lauren and because Bui Vien (the main street where all the weirdo foreigners hang out) is so small you'll inevitably run into someone you know. So our little group of two became a group of seven before we left for dinner. I pretty much slept all day today and was too lazy to venture out so I didn't eat anything all day. I did make 2 cups of tea. That's the West Indian in me. Or the Inderjit side of the family. Anyways, Laur encouraged me to eat something to tide me over until we left for dinner so she ran off to get something and came back with dried squid. I'll have to take a picture of what it looks like before they put it through the grinder to flatten it and then shred it up. It looks so weird! It also has a very distinct aroma which can be off-putting but my Guyanese brethren will understand when I say that it tastes and smells like saltfish. Practically the same texture except they flatten it so much it's like a dried piece of a cardboard until you dip it in hot sauce. Plus it sort of re-hydrates when it mixes with your saliva so its not that bad. TMI I'm sure.

On an even better note, CELTA is almost done! I have to turn in assignment 4 tomorrow afternoon (I finished it in an hour) and then my last teaching practice is Tuesday morning and then.I'm.done! Technically it ends Friday afternoon and I still have input sessions in the afternoon that I really need to focus on but there's no more stress or teaching practices hanging over my head so I'm pretty much checked out. There is a course assessor from the British Council coming on Wednesday to do the final assessment. He's basically there to make sure that we were taught the correct things. He's there to assess the ILA tutors, not us so that's also a relief. The even bigger relief is that he is going to sit in on two teaching practices on Wednesday to look at how the tutors assess us during our TPs and because I teach on Tuesday I don't have to worry about him randomly picking my group to sit on in.