People are still talking about the elephants. We still want to know if our future CEO was an elephant killer.
Well this is the Sunday of my third weekend off since starting at this school (my weekend is Monday and Tuesday). And for the first time since I started working, I've actually used some of my time off for something other than working. That's a revolutionary idea.
I mean, it still wasn't fun. It still wasn't relaxing. I used some of my free time this weekend to clean my condo from top to bottom. But it shows progress when it's just the vast majority of my free-time that I'm using for work, not every second of it.
I also used the public hoilday this week to go into work on my extra day-off and do some work. But this is just part of the fun of this job isn't it? I knew this when I signed-up.
It's going to be a fuck of a lot of work at the beginning. But with everyday that passes, it's going to get easier. And the olive branch for me today was that I actually had enough time free that I could do some cleaning.
Oh what a life I've made for myself.
There were still a couple of cleaning products in the world that I was yet to own. So I had to get to the supermarket to complete my collection with a mop, a feather duster, some oven cleaner, and some floor cleaner. But I've got there now.
Also on this trip though, I took the first steps to working on my second aim for this year after being a good teacher:
Getting in shape.
I invested in some swimming goggles, before stumbling upon a rather obvious flaw in my plan.
Asian people have flat-faces and small eyes. I have large googley ones and a big nose. Who do you think that the swimming goggles here are designed to fit? They're fucking uncomfortable.
I'll end up with Asian eyes too if I wear them for too long.
But this morning, in the first hint of me doing anything to progress towards my goals after being good at my job, I went swimming. Yep, I went swimming. In my pool.
My diet is honestly the best that it's ever been right now.
Fresh fruits and vegetables make-up the vast majority of what I eat. Nuts and other whole foods make-up the rest.
I would honestly struggle to find a way to improve my diet on what I eat now. That side of me is perfect.
I've just got to add in the exercise, and I really will be leading a healthy lifestyle. And for the first time this morning, I actually found twenty minutes to go downstairs and do twenty lengths in the pool.
Hopefully soon I'll have the time to do that every morning (that's the good thing about having a pool in my building). And when I get more time, I can add in the gym as well, and I'm well on the way to what I want to achieve this year.
I'll just have to start learning Thai then.
But today, I went back to my old CELTA school to pick-up my certificate (it almost looks like a degree certificate. Says Cambridge University on it and everything). And it did make me realise and appreciate how lucky I am to be working at the school that I currently am.
Walking in there felt like I was walking into a library. I mean, you have to take your shoes off just to be allowed in. Which is a great atmosphere to create when I'm working on a CELTA I suppose. But fuck me I wouldn't want to be there everyday.
The end of course party for the CELTA, was kind of a few plates of crisps on a table in a class room, and they handed around some Coca-cola. Alcohol wasn't even allowed.
When my current school had a party last week, there was a free bar, a live band, they had special lighting and flooring installed, not to mention some rather expensive looking catering (none of which was vegan-friendly unfortunately). There was even a staff/student performance of Lady Marmalade with a tranny.
When you go somewhere everyday, it's easy to forget the positives of that place. But this school that I'm working at now, really is a good place to work. It's really got a good vibe.
Worth the work-load shall we say.
And I don't mean any disrespect to my CELTA school by saying this. It was a perfect place for a CELTA, and had they offered me a job during that time, I'd have bitten their hand off.
Seeing as where I ended-up though, I'm kind of glad they didn't. That traditional-type school really doesn't give you that same energy.
Today I have to work my balls off. It's hard. And I do way more than the 40-hours that I'm (still verbally) contracted to do. But it is a fucking good place to work. I really did luck-into this place. It does tick all the boxes for what I want in a job beyond money.
Which isn't to say that the money isn't good as well.
Still not having the work-permit required to get a bank account, this was the result of my first pay-cheque after a visit to the bank.
I shower everyday, and cook myself two or three meals per day. Do you know how much my water bill was for July?
It was eighteen baht.
No, not eighteen hundred baht. Not eighteen thousand baht.
It was eighteen baht (37p).
So when I collect my earnings and it looks like this...
You can probably appreciate that I'll be able to live pretty comfortably. And this wasn't even a full month. I didn't even start my training until the second week of July.
You could say that life is good right now.
I have a job that I'm really enjoying, I'm living in a great place, I'm earning more than I need.
Very coincidentally both beginning back in Hue in Vietnam, I started myself off on two different paths.
One was a vow not to eat animal produce again. The other by not going to Australia, was a vow to invest into the lifestyle of a job that rewarded me in ways exceeding money.
As I've said before, me doing the CELTA was not about money. If money was important to me, I'd have gone to Korea and currently be earning two or three times my current salary, without a CELTA.
It was nothing to do with being able to find a well-paid job.
To me the CELTA was about conscience. About being able to work as a teacher, knowing that I'm doing well by the people that I'm teaching.
It's the same reason that I'm working twelve-hours per day right now, even on my days off.
I don't get paid any extra for doing that. Essentially, it's about peace of mind. I go to sleep every night with a smile on my face, because I don't have any worry in my mind that I'm cheating or screwing-over anybody.
Veganism also give me that peace of mind.
Although health was the primary reason that I cut animal produce from my diet, I quickly realised that it gave me a peace of mind in that there was zero guilt in the food that I ate.
No living thing that feels fear or has emotion, goes through any kind of suffering for the food that appears in front of me. And that was a big weight to leave behind.
It wasn't the reason that I stopped eating meat. But it is perhaps the reason that I stick to that pledge so diligently.
In Hue what I essentially did, was set myself on two paths of conscience. Essentially that rid me of any guilt and regret in the way that I live my life. Or at least it greatly reduced it.
And I think that what I'm starting to feel now, is that four months later I'm reaping the benefits of those choices.
I'm happy to put these extra hours in, because I enjoy my job. I genuinely find it rewarding to go into work everyday.
I know it's a clichéd thing to say, but you are what you eat. I've been saying for years that your diet is absolutely vital to well-being. More important than exercise to ensuring good health.
I don't think that it's any coincidence that I can focus and work for twelve-plus hours per day right now, seven days per week, and I'm on a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole foods.
I'm fuelling my body with the exact foods that nature has determined will make it run the best. And that applies both physically and mentally. My brain is in a good place because of my diet.
You are what you eat and I'm made of the best stuff out there.
And these past four months, they haven't always been easy.
You think I don't still get cravings for every food that I've spent my entire life eating? You think that I've forgotten what a cheese pizza tastes like?
You think that it's easy to work at something that needs twelve hours per day of focus and thinking, seven days per week. And I'm talking about my CELTA here, as well as my current job.
It's been hard, it's been stressful at times. I started this job when I was living in a hostel dorm. I only had time to look at two condos before accepting one.
But in sleeping well everynight, and now just starting to find the time to create the life that I want outside of work as well, it feels like it's all just starting to pay-off.
Ignoring the food cravings and sticking to my principles is paying-off. Ignoring the people who say that I'm working too hard and sticking to doing things my way is paying-off. Keeping rigidly to the two paths that I set-out on back in Hue is paying-off.
And what I have, really for the first time in a while, is a sustainable life that I am genuinely happy with. And comfortable in.
Did I sound happy when I wrote blogs in Utah? Did I sound happy when I wrote blogs on Nantucket? I guess that I was happy when I was backpacking, but do I want that to be my life forever?
Right now I've made a life that I'm genuinely enjoying. Where I genuinely look forward to starting each day. Where I'm eating the best food out there, and I'm as healthy as I've ever been. Where I enjoy going into work. Where I sleep well every night because I suffer no guilt.
I'm happy to be ignorant to any blemishes in my ways.
I didn't realise it at the time, but I inadvertantly set myself on this path back in Hue. Or two paths rather, that both lead me to this same place.
And they were never about money. They were never about money. They were two paths of conscience. And now I am getting the benefits of living for conscience.
I've said it before a hundred times. You've got to take money off this pedestal of something that you need. As something you must protect.
Billionaires don't walk around with a smile on their face. It's not a key to happiness.
They live a life where they need to be physically protected when they leave their home, and where everyone in the world is trying to take what they have.
Does that sound a happy life?
Ask the smiling vendor who sells fruit everyday at the end of my street.
There's no correlation. Absolutely none between money and happiness.
Talk to the smiling folk in Bolivia who apparently live in poverty.
We're very arrogant in the West, in assuming that the world must want all the things that we have. And maybe they think that they do. But you show me a person whose life became more fulfilled with an iPhone, and I'll show you a happy Frenchman.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't make money. But you shouldn't hold it on this pedestal.
Ridding my brain of that mentality has done the world of good to my mood.
And you can probably tell if I'm talking like this, then it's because I haven't actually got anything to say today. Which is great fucking news as far as I'm concerned.
Ask and you shall receive, in my last blog I wanted a quiet week this week. And there really is nothing worthy of being written about.
One problem that I'm finding with the working world, is that you're always going to encounter varying degrees of dedication in a job. And that means that you're never going to be surrounded by people that are doing justice to your mood.
Either people are too dedicated about a job that you don't care about, and they just piss you off. Or you're really dedicated, and you find it frustrating, almost infuriating that other people really don't care as much as you do.
I'll give you one guess as to which one I'm referring to here.
I'm in too happy of a place right now to let other peoples attitudes bother me. I took a lot of solace in watching my former manager walk-away from this job, never once letting the smile drop from his face.
I said last time, you can learn a lot from watching someone like that. And so I'm trying to smile through everything right now as well.
I mean, my life isn't too shit. I have no right to complain about anything. But you know what I mean? It can be a little frustrating to be giving everything that you have into something, such as a job, but you have to work with one or two people that really don't seem to care.
That's ok though, each to their own. I'm only going to let myself worry about the things that I can control. And if I deal with them well, then I can go to sleep every night.
I'm really trying to take a more positive outlook on everything.
I find myself in a great situation right now. And the second that I stop appreciating that, is the second it stops being so great.
Three things I wanted from this year. And I'm seeing that I'm starting to achieve them. Have I got any reason not to smile?
And to make it even better, I've figured out how to bypass the torrent block on my Internet connection.
No one can keep me from my free movies and UFC pay-per-views.
See, life is good.
I spent about two hours cleaning my entire apartment today, from the windows to the cooker to the toilet.
I actually found it rewarding.
It's... I don't know how to say it. I guess I found myself being thankful that I have an apartment to clean. Somewhere that I belong and call my own. Where I'll actually benefit from putting in the work.
You don't get that when you're in hostels, and the last place that I lived before this, the US, I was sharing with the kinds people who would put a lock on the communal bathroom to keep it for their own personal use.
I would resent cleaning anything just because they would benefit.
Now that I'm here, on my own, living in a nice place after ten more months in hostels, I'm actually just appreciative that I have a place to clean at all.
Life's good right now, you could say. Now back to the grindstone.