Last night we went to a Futureshorts film festival, where they screen lots of arty-type short films, showing the same films in cities all over the world. It was wicked. It was on the top floor of a former hotel/brothel, which from the street looked pretty abandoned, but we went up about 8 flights of stairs and there's an artists' space, and they had two rooms with the films projected onto the wall. There was also a balcony with a beautiful view over the city and the lake, but everywhere had that cool scummy abandoned vibe. So we sat on plastic stools and drank beer and ate free bananas, and watched these awesome films.

The first one we saw was some trippy animation with elephants merging into Superman merging into genitals merging into I don't know what. There was one about anarchists in Stockholm/a love story/a lady going insane in prison. Another good one was about the life of a plastic bag, narrated by the plastic bag. It was much better than it sounds. He thinks the woman who uses him is his true love, but she throws him away and he ends up on the rubbish heap, and he goes on a quest to find her, carried along by the wind. I think the time scale was supposed to be very long, because it would take a plastic bag a long time to travel around the world, and there are no people left. At the end he goes to the 'Vortex' which is that place somewhere in the Pacific Ocean where there is a huge area covered in rubbish, just floating on the sea, that is going to be there for millions of years because it's not going to rot. The film was funny because of the plastic bag's commentary ("But I am strong, resourceful, and intelligent, and I will persevere"), and it was really beautifully shot, with the plastic bag being buffeted around by the wind, and in fields with horses, and when he goes out to sea and there are jellyfish all around. It also made me quite sad because it's about the longevity of our rubbish: it's going to be floating around the world for millions of years, even after all the people are gone, skanky plastic bags in beautiful green trees and in the ocean.

After the interval they showed three Vietnamese films, which I really wanted to like so I could be all local and cultural rah rah, but they were just shit, really really bad. Although there was a puppet sex scene to rival Team America's.

After the film festival finished we motorbiked around for a bit, and then went to the wedding party of someone Luke plays football with or something. It was next to a pool and there was an open bar, immense. I met lots of interesting new people and got very overexcited practising my Vietnamese. I also liked the bridal moped, replete with bouquets.

Today I had to work on a Sunday, boo. Because it's a new class in a new place, my company pays for a taxi to take me there - oh how thoughtful, how helpful - but in their characteristically totally shambolic style, it was completely unhelpful. The taxi driver didn't know where to go, and when we got to the street he pointed me at a building and said that was the place. I went in and the security guard asked where I was going, and I told him I didn't know, but that my friend would be here soon and she would know. So the security guard and I sat in front of the school for about 20 minutes, drinking green tea and having a 'conversation' which mainly consisted of me saying something in Vietnamese, and him not understanding, and then him saying something in Vietnamese, and me not understanding. I did ascertain that his name was Sen, and he was 40 years old. He was nice. But when it got to 2 o'clock and there was still no sign of any students or anyone I knew, I rang my coordinator and she was like, "Yeah I can see you, you're in the wrong building". I hope Sen didn't mind having to unnecessarily look after a lost and incoherent foreigner for 20 minutes. I enjoyed the company and the tea and practising my Vietnamese.

The adventure continues.