New house

I'm moving house again! Almost two weeks ago I left my expensive apartment ($240 a month, a sky-high rate for a simple flat) and have been sponging off a friend since. However, today another friend (and fellow American Viet Kieu) Patrick and I will sign a contract for a gi-normous 4-bedroom house for $316 a month. The only dark spot is the $158 realtor's finding fee, but the total still worked out to cheaper than my last place. The house has five stories - including a lovely balcony and deck space - and is in the heart of Hanoi.

Right now the plan is to find another Westerner to take one of the bedrooms and bring each person's rent to about $100 each. Then we want to rent one of the bedrooms to one or two Vietnamese girls at a fraction of the price (hopefully about $20 each because there's no way they could afford our rent). I've been wanting to live with a Vietnamese person, but not an old person who'll comment on late hours and whatnot. Hopefully doing it this way will be better.

And my Vietnamese is improving. Just about everyone I meet comments that it's soi (fluent). Totally not true, but flattering, nonetheless.