In my frantic search for post-college jobs, I went on www.bookjobs.com and found this internship for a publishing house in...Saigon. Or Ho Chi Minh City, depending on how PC you want to be. They called it Saigon in the job post.
In any event, I applied on a whim, because it sounded cool, and hey look they skyped me at 11pm on a Los Angeles night when I was home. That was a fun moment when I had to be like, "Mom SH I'm getting a phone call from SAIGON!"--cut to, me talking in French at my computer--Interviewed me in French (not sure why, since the job will be in English....a test, perhaps?), and now I'm heading to Saigon in a week and a half. A week and a half!
I will be an editorial assistant for Sirrocco Publishing, which is part of Parkstone Press, and makes art books. I'll be doing research on art, proofreading, general....other stuff (obviously, I really have very little idea what I'm getting into)...
...and I will be living in the above-mapped country. Vietnam. Vietnam! I have spent the last week or so running around getting visa forms, mailing them, getting typhoid pills, prescriptions, packing, throwing out stuff, going to work downtown, collapsing on my living room floor with the West Wing Season 2 dvd...as you can guess, I'm going nuts.
So, I have started this blog as a way to update people on this adventure. I am packing up my life and going to Vietnam for at least a year, to live and work and see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. And I hope you guys will join me, via the internet, which is magic.
More to come.
Holy crap less than a week! And I'm working every day until Saturday, which will give me Sunday and Monday to freak out and shove things in suitcases/boxes. And I am TERRIBLE at packing. I mean, it always gets done, but when it comes to consolidating all my stuff (which is a lot of stuff) into a few small spaces, I suck.
