Getting comfortable

Tet has finally come to an end, and I feel so relieved that stores have opened and I can outfit my apartment with comfortable things (i.e. a carpet, a blanket, and FOOD). It was a little unsettling to open my cabinets only to find a bag of salt and some noodle packets. Now that the markets are back in action as well as the grocery stores, I've been able to start cooking, which is very rewarding after having to ignore my stove for almost 2 weeks.
Now that my apartment looks a little more lived in, I decided to have the Connecticut College SATA group over (along with some other Vietnamese friends) for some cocktails. It was wonderful having actual people in my apartment, made the city seem a lot smaller.
I spent a majority of the afternoon polishing up my resumes; I now need one for teaching and one for architecture because a Vietnamese friend of mine convinced me to apply to some Architecture firms. Granted, I would make a lot more money teaching English, but the experience of working in Architecture in Vietnam would be great when applying to graduate school (which is inevitable), so yes, I am doing my best not to forget my future academic goals. I have met a lot of people who started teaching English in Vietnam with the intention of returning to school, but the lifestyle sucks you in quite quickly, and months turn into years which turn into, well, never going back to school. It's very fortunate that I met some people who went down that path, as it has motivated me to not lose focus on my overall Architectural goals.
On a very non-academic tangent, I've been having a great time going out at night and dancing to some very outdated music. I feel I have been effectively getting my fill of the nightlife, since my free time will be seriously depleted once I start teaching, which should be later this week. I believe I am starting work for an Adult English Club in a couple days, meaning I get paid to sit around and speak English with some very eager learners, not too bad eh?
Before I sat down to think seriously about life and work on resumes, I had a little less serious of a morning trying (rather unsuccessfully) to buy myself a hammer and some nails. This effort consisted of a lot of pantomiming and sound effects, and I ended up with a extremely large hammer that could be used in self-defense if necessary. As for the nails, that was even more difficult, because the locals seemed to understand the concept of a hammer a lot better than that of a nail. Some very old lady finally figured it out after my tenth try, and I wound up with 30 nails for something like 25 cents, so I went quickly to work with decorating my walls.
Now I am going to prepare some very Western pasta with garlic and olive marinara sauce (nothing better than fresh garlic from the market around the corner), always feels great to eat some comfort food... and since I'm pretty sick today (the pollution here has given me a very chronic cough) the comforts of home are exactly what I need.