The Penh Viet Diary Week 11

The Meltdown

My 11^th week has been the worst so far, all the blah about tough times don’t last tough people do well I have no comments about that. Cause I didn’t feel I would last this ordeal.

I landed in Hanoi feeling really sick and was to join my second working holiday the same night, the fact that I didn’t approve of joining work while sick didn’t matter, as I didn’t have a choice. 11:45 pm my huge suitcase and me arrived at the apartment. I was let in, shown my room, given a manual and that was that. I woke up running a high temperature and the only person who spoke English in that house was away for the day. Perfect simply perfect.

I tried reading the manual and it freaked me out, breakfast at 6:30 am, lunch at 11 and dinner at 5:30 pm, if you head out make sure you are back by 10:30 pm, this was just getting better and better. I managed to join the family for lunch and barely ate a morsel as I couldn’t understand what I was eating and nobody bothered explaining! We pretended to eat, I did all the pretending actually, went back to my room and passed out. The cutest little brat I have ever encountered Sam the youngest of the two kids I was supposed to tutor woke me up at 4:30 pm. He spoke hilarious English and the mood lifted. When the woman of the house arrived at dinner time I explained to her that I was not feeling too well, she promptly gave me some herbal tea and vitamins and suggested I sleep it off, which is exactly what I did for the next six days.

Being disconnected from my family and friends just made the whole ordeal so much more fun! I needed to get a Vietnam number but simply didn’t have the energy to step out. So I lay in my room feeling awfully homesick questioning every single move I had made so far. I was barely eating as I was anyways  never up for breakfast but still had to endure two meals. As the food didn’t agree with me I dreaded meal times when the conversation was supremely awkward as no one really made an effort to have a conversation in the first place!

Am not a quitter and sincerely wanted to live this through I had a week and a half more, I did my two hours of work and collapsed in bed, then the questions returned to haunt me. And here I thought I would be finding answers on this trip why were the questions mounting up?

I got use to the zoo treatment where family members would poke their head in to check on me, I would smile and tell them I was doing great and the ordeal continued. As I gained strength I stepped out of the house and the first thing I see is Balika Vadhu a popular Indian soap opera being watched by the locals, then head to an Indira Gandhi park for a walk. I felt I was being mocked at every step as people passed me by wearing Avika Gor’s tshirts. Considering I was so homesick these signs should have helped but they only made me feel worse. When I finally managed to get a number and connect with my family and friends I felt a little better, I didn’t tell them how miserable I was as I saw no point in it.

I felt I was in jail or at least under house arrest, jokingly told a friend who was ignoring my messages that I got arrested and that promptly got his attention all my messages were instantly answered followed by a series on calls. Note to self: need to work on reputation!

The week passed by and I survived with a mantra I often use to soothe my frazzled nerves ‘When I get older, I will be stronger. For now just let me be a little bit longer’