On July 8th, I'll leave for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I'll have about a week to explore the city before I have to work hard for my teaching certification course. That CELTA certificate will pretty much be necessary to get a reputable job in Vietnam from what I hear. One might wonder, "Why not go to a country like South Korea? You just need a bachelor's degree to get any job!" That's true, but I'm not interested in going to South Korea. I want to go somewhere off the beaten path somewhat, and there are many things I find fascinating about Vietnam, such as the culture, the food, the weather, and the architecture.
I ordered my plane tickets weeks ago. It cost about $800 one-way through ANA. I'm supposed to have my tourist visa prepared about a week before I leave. I'll get it processed and finalized when I'm in Ho Chi Minh City. I almost have my hotel accommodations set up. Let's just say the US dollar goes quite a bit further in Vietnam than it does here in Seattle...
At some point I will need a work visa. For that, I need to get a criminal background check and university diploma certified by the Secretary of State in Olympia and then by the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco. The college diploma part has been easy so far. I just made a copy of my diploma with my scanner, got that notarized by the UW, then certified by Olympia. The background check is a little trickier. It will need to be less than 2 months old by the time I get a job in Vietnam, so I've been holding off on getting that done as long as I can. I might have to get my parents to send me some important documents by the time I'm already overseas.
Finally, there are minor things that are quite important like strong sunscreen and bug repellant:
Here's the climate for HCMC.
I think you can see why I've got the weather on my mind for the area.
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