So, when I first arrived in Vietnam in 2012, I was rejected as a traditional classroom professor. But I began teaching as a tutor, an editor, for people like Anna Le Hoang Dieu, AKA An Khanh, and others. I started tutoring at times while in Vietnam from 2012-2017. I would teach larger groups at other times, but I tend to do better as a tutor, generally speaking. That's not to say I'm not a great actor, inspirational speaker, comedian, musician, etc. But during my time in Vietnam, the tutoring parts were basically pretty good. That was the pattern, apparently, allegedly. My group classes improved with time, by the way. But one on one time with students is and has been sacred, it gets to the heart of the matter. That's gold. In the words of Will Smith from the most hated, with over 10 million dislikes, the 2018 YouTube Rewind video, "That's hot." Interesting how he was there to replace Pew Die Pie whom you can't replace like me and like you. You can't replace us. Get your Metal Gear Nano Bots out of our bodies.
2012 (November) (December) - 2013 (Kathy) - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017
Dieu Le, the yoga master, helped me look for work in Hanoi in January, 2013. But she first emailed me the previous month in December, 2012, possibly for the first time. I don't remember how she found me, specifically. But she did. She connected me with many people in Hanoi. I was able to visit Hoa Binh & Thanh Hoa because of her. I'm more thankful for her and for her friends than she may know. I was possibly too mean to her in 2013. I was always trying to teach her and everybody life lessons. But was that my job? Some people may say, "Hell, no!" Yeah, I had good intentions in trying to aggressively help people, but maybe I was crossing too many lines, boundaries. To an extent, and too often, I was trying too hard to do too many things. I was too aggressive too often. Dieu was funny, smart, caring, to everybody around her, and she still is. She is really good at helping people find things. She would spend so many hours trying to find work for me. She has beautiful friends. She risked a lot to help me, like maybe her reputation, her money, her time, and I was generally coming across as a monster. Yeah, I'm not a monster but I've appeared as a monster too often in my life. Yeah, I could always tell you why I did what I did for like each year in my life, generally, why I did what I did, why I did not do other things, why I said certain things, why I didn't say, write, or do other things. I can talk all day about why and how I would do things. I have tried for too long to rationalize, excuse, justify, my behavior, my way of doing things. But I would not take care of my public persona, my reputation, how people saw me. I would shrug it off because I believed in my integrity, that I was doing things for the right reasons based from and through eternal principles, things that I may believe in, according to religion, philosophy, principles, ideas, opinions, and mostly through my own version of Original Oatmeal. But I was abusing people too much. Yeah, I was not trying to abuse people. I was not trying to use and hurt people. I was not trying to take advantage of people. I was trying to help people. I was trying to do so many things at the same time. But I would try to take too many shortcuts. I was always trying to save money, time, resources, etc. But some of what I did was probably too counterproductive. I learned a lot while in Vietnam for five years. I am very thankful for people like Dieu, the Yoga Master, for example, and others. I am sorry for being a monster. According to Facebook, Dieu was the founder of the Universal Healing Tao-Chi Nei Tsang internal organs detox massage.
1920's - 1930's - 1940's - 1950's - 1960's - 1980's - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 - 1990's - 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 1993 - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000's - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018
Join the Infowars Army
2012-12-16 - Sunday -10:04 AM PST - 01:04 PM ICT Monday - Dieu emailed me her introduction, "Hi, nice to see you here. My name is Dieu, 21 years old, a Vietnamese young, energetic and open-mined girl who is very intellectually curious and naughty. I love to sing, to dance, to laugh and to talk to other people. That is my personality. I am personally interested in education and social sciences. I have studied Human resource management for 3 years and always find it very interesting. I want to become a good teacher and trainer who can help young students learn about senses of self. I do want to work with UNESCO on the field of education and culture in the future. I am now in Ho Chi Minh city working for a short-time as an teaching assistant. I love to think and live positively and I have the idea of life-long learning. I enjoy learning, reading, thinking and listening and exchanging ideas with other people. I believe in the universal love, that is why I am a very open-minded person. Anyhow, it is lovely to know YOU. Enjoy yourself all the time, Cheers, DIEU."
2013-01-02 - Wednesday - 08:09 PM PST: I emailed Oanh Bui Bui about TESOL, TEFL, TOEIC, teaching certificates, about taking online courses, in order to get certified for teaching English in Vietnam as I was already living in Vietnam. I was contacting people all over, via email, Facebook, Couch Surfing, Tagged, etc, asking questions, trying to figure out options. Oanh emailed me with this advice, "Many volunteers are students like me. and i think u should focus on ur job first cos if not, u have to come back to USA."
2012-01-05 - Sunday - 11:11 PM PST - Dieu Le emailed me, "I am flying back to Hanoi on 10th January... would you like to visit my village (hometown) in Hoang Hoa, in the Thanh Hoa Province? I am working on bamboo cottages on Phu Quoc island... why did you decide to work in BAC Ninh?" Oh, by the way, I went on to buy some bamboo toothpaste at a Japanese store in Saigon some years later.
2013-01-09 - Wednesday - 10:07 AM PST - Facebook emailed me, "We noticed that the phone number on your account, (541) 550-6415, was removed on Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 1:07 AM ICT." Notice the time difference between time zones, PST and ICT. This may have been an old phone number of mine or a temporary number that Andy let me borrowed.
2013-01-10 - Thursday - 06:58 AM PST - Dieu Le emailed me, "I also want to help you with finding a job because I know some people who run English schools here." By the way, Dieu is like my older sister, Katie Jean Arnold, who began teaching me about yoga back in like 2008.
2013-01-11 - Friday - 07:54 AM PST - Dieu Le emailed me, "You look so funny. Are you now a dishwasher? ... Vietnamese restaurant? Why you have to sleep on the floor? Why they are not paying you? It is not good?" I responded, ".....I went to Vietnam but the school did not want me and then I was going to be homeless..." Dieu replied, "Why didn;t you stay in Hanoi to find another job? ...... Oh, it is funny, they don't want you any more???" I responded, "New Star like said that all the students hate me and that i am just a silly white tutor who dont know how to teach." Dieu laughed, "Really? It is funny..." I do agree that it was funny. Painful at the time, but looking back at it, yeah, funny, shocking, perfect for a cool movie someday.
2013-01-11 - Friday - 10:21 PM PST - Dieu Le emailed me, "Can you help me revise my paper now? .... It is about politics...... I will send it to you now...... No, I'm not in school, I am just helping a teacher.... I will tell you more about me later... You will send me an email really soon? .... I just sent it.... Did you get it???????? Read and comment please.... And tell me what you think. You can also correct my mistake."
Cold Winter Nights
2013-01-12 - Saturday - 03:40 AM PST - Dieu Le emailed me, "I feel so sick because of the cold here." I returned, "I wish I could find you a blanket." She continued, "I am on my way going home in the countryside. The bus just stopped; a poor shop is on the left side; and I want to continue editing the article with you..... are you still editing the paper?" I responded, "I am still editing. I am sending you a bunch of emails." She replied, "I will really appreciate your help." She also asked, "where are your parents?" I answered, "My parents divorced in 2008 and my mom got remarried and my dad has a girl friend... by the way, what is ASEAN? Maybe, it is suppose to be the Asian Way." She went on to tell me. At that time, I didn't know what it was until she told me about it. 08:15 AM PST, I emailed her back her essay with my edits.
2013-01-12 - Saturday - 09:13 PM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "What are you doing today?" I responded, "Learning the Vietnamese alphabet." All 29 of them. She returned, "Did Hai Ly (Felise Dora Nguyen) call you????????" At that time, maybe not yet.
2013-01-14 - Monday - 02:03 PM PST - Facebook emailed me, "Hi Original, You joined Facebook on Jan 06, 2013, but you still haven't confirmed the email address ([email protected]) associated with your account. You won't be able to to use Facebook until you let us know this email belongs to you."
2013-01-14 - Monday - 09:27 PM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "I am in Hanoi now. How are you? What are you doing now?" I responded, "Ok. Working on website. MeaOmnia.com (My Everything Website). Not for school... we are trying to make an everything website.... like better than Facebook, YouTube, etc.... we been working on Mea Omnia since March of last year (2012)." She returned, "Do you want to go back to the US or stay here?" I replied, "yes better here i think." She returned, "Hope we can meet and talk soon. I have a friend in Bac Ninh. She just came back here from Germany. I often went to Bac Ninh 2 years ago..... I will soon schedule for it. I am not sure where she is now, In Hanoi or Bac Ninh. I am sending her some msgs. Hopefully we will meet soon... is it cold there?" I replied, "Hanoi, maybe colder."
2013-01-15 - Tuesday - 04:23 AM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "He is very nice. So you can come stay with my friend. He is excellent at English. I think you can come stay here soon. Let me talk to him. What is your phone number?" I responded, "0-163-425-1695." Dieu replied, "Thanks. Hope we can arrange to come here soon. Hey, I may visit Bac Ninh tomorrow. Can you please resend your letter to the school who have fired you? Please. I need to tell my friend. She may help you... send me the link of the letter. My friend who is a tourism lecturer wants to learn more about your situation. We can meet tomorrow. I am meeting her around 5PM at her university. Then we plan to go back to Bac Ninh. I will visit her family as well." I gave her the link to my letter to New Star which is at http://originaloatmeal.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-star-details.html. I also wrote, "Can i meet her?" Dieu replied, "Yeah. We can meet together.... 3pm is better please." I asked, "Which bus goes from bac ninh to vietnam?" Oh, bus number 54. Dieu added, "Please come here as soon as possible.... at her university. I will meet you first..... then we can get there together... Bus is ok. You can search for a bus. First you get to Hanoi. We meet and talk first. Then we can go meet my friend. You can go with me." I replied, "i may get there b4 4pm." Dieu responded, "It is located at 387 Hoang Quoc Viet... The National College For Education." I replied, "What is link to school website? Is it this one? http://www.cdsphanoi.edu.vn/en/?"
2013-01-15 - Tuesday - 07:14 PM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "Good morning... I can't make it going to Bac Ninh today because I do need to finishing translating 200 pages.... a book about the World Ballet. I want to finish it as soon as possible. I need to stay home... I will finish it soon. Then I can do whatever I want. I am interested in arts education.... it is very interesting.... and I want to challenge myself... I will meet you soon..... thanks and take care! Talk to you later. I need to do my work now... you are a nice person. You will have more good luck later on." I replied, "Sweet." I think I went to Hanoi on Thursday, 2013, January 17th, and stayed there for 2 weeks, until the 31st, minus one day, like on the 30th or near the end to return to Bac Ninh to get some of my clothes, some of my things. I didn't take all of things back to Hanoi from Bac Ninh but eventually got them sent to me like in May 2013 when I was living in Saigon or something like that. I'm foggy of all the details of this month of January, 2013. I may have visited Hanoi for a day around the 17th but then returned to Bac Ninh until like the last week of January. So, I either stayed in Hanoi for one or two weeks, approximately. I am thankful for everybody that helped, that met me, during my time in Vietnam, especially the first few months.
2013-01-17 - Thursday - 09:15 PM PST - Dieu Le shared a classified ad, possibly from Craigslist, "TNH Jobs - Caucasian Hosts/ Hostesses at Jolie Siam."
2013-01-17 - Thursday - 10:59 PM PST - Felise Hai Ly of Bamboo Cottages & Restaurant responded to my email from January 11, my job resume, "...I did once hire a foreign person (from the US) and he paid his own visa fees. I am not sure what kind of visa he had. He had a Vietnamese wife though. Anyway, sorry we aren't looking for anyone new right now. We don't have very many rooms occupied at the moment, and like I said I just hired two new people. If anything changes I will let you know. Please send warm well wishes to Dieu for me! Tell her we miss her and think of her often!" This was her second email to me, the first came on the 14th of January, 2013, at 10:03 PM PST, and it included, "I will give you a call when things settle down here a bit. I have just hired two new people though so not sure what my needs will be in the coming months. But any friend of Dieu's is a friend of mine, so let's talk soon."
2013-01-18 - Friday - 08:39 AM PST - Oanh Bui Bui wrote, "i think your resume brings too much information without highlight." She has been giving me advice on work and on Vietnam since like December of 2012. She helped me a lot as did a lot of people, come to think of it.
2013-01-22 - Tuesday - 06:28 AM PST - I emailed Len Guyet, "I live in Bac Ninh right now. I am looking for a room in Hanoi." But I think I was couch surfing in Hanoi at that time since Thursday, the 17th of January, 2013, until Thursday, the 31st, when I went to Hoa Binh for 4 days, then Thanh Hoa for 5 days, Hanoi for a day, and then Saigon after that on Sunday, the 10th of February, 2013, until 2017 when I returned to America.
2013-01-22 - Tuesday - 07:44 AM PST - Facebook emailed me, "Le Nguyet, Coach at Học tiếng Anh giao tiếp (LenGuyet.vn) and the Hanoi Vietnam National University Graduate, wants to be friends with you on Facebook."
2013-01-22 - Tuesday - 05:43 PM PST - I wrote to Oanh Bui, "No. But I got a 1pm Thursday interview with Edu Track. So I may go to this kindergarten in Hanoi maybe."
2013-01-23 - Wednesday - 04:20 AM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "I am going home tomorrow in the countryside." I replied, "When will you be back to Hanoi?" She replied, "4pm. Not sure. I want to stay home..... Yen is my long term friend. Did she call you? she wants to offer a job to you she called me and told me that she can help you as much as she can. You can get a bus 54 to get to Long Bien. Then take bus 23 or 18 from there to get to Bac Ninh. Sorry. Take bus 18 or 23 from Long Bien bridge to get to Bach Khoa. My place. I will see you around Bach Khoa. So please keep a map of Hanoi and you can easily get here by bus. Really cheap."
2013-01-24 - Thursday - 09:04 PM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "What are you doing today? Any interview?" I replied, "No interviews. I thought about walking to the school and i did not go." She replied, "Just do it. Help yourself. That's very important." I returned, "I know. I did not have the best sleep last night."
2013-01-29 - Tuesday - 07:29 PM PST - Dieu Le wrote, "you have to know what you want. help your self. if you would like to visit my hometown, it is fine to join us." I replied, "i know what i want. i have known what i want since i was little." She returned, "thats not enough. doing is better than saying. I am going to hometown this afternoon. so if you would like to join me and my friends, be prepared." I returned, "i am not saying...." She then added right then, "you want so many things. and you are now depending on other ideas of other people. my trip is at 3pm." I snapped, "not true." She then wrote, "bye." I wrote, in the chat, "what you are telling me are other people's ideas. you depend on people more than i do."
2013-01-31 - Thursday - 11:00 PM ICT apx - we drove about two hours by car from Hanoi to the Muong Village at No12 - Thai Binh - Hoa Binh city, Vietnam, where I stayed until Monday morning, the 4th of February 2013, where I then hopped on a bus to Thanh Hoa, the hometown of Dieu Le. That village museum, named the Muong Village, can also be found on their Facebook page, "Bảo Tàng Không Gian Văn Hóa Mường."
Published in December of 2018 - By Oatmeal Joey Arnold - @JoeyArnoldVN
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