I welcomed 2020 at Blush Beach Club. A chic hot spot on the beach road between Hoi An and Da Nang. It was unforgettable! There was live music, fire dancers, mirror dancers, bottle service — the works! It felt more like Vegas than Vietnam. It had been quite some time since I got all dressed up and toasted the coming year with champagne and good friends. I even wore eye make-up! It is just an extra that doesn’t seem necessary here with the laid back beach vibe and the sometimes intense heat. I drank too much and danced too much and had a ball! I even managed to be the heroine of the night by putting two of my overserved friends into cabs and ensuring they returned home safely. It was quite a night.

The next morning Kimi woke me as she was attempting to stealthily leave my apartment the morning after our NYE shenanigans around 8am. She had been unable to communicate the location of her apartment when we left the club earlier that morning, so she spent the night at my apartment. After she left, I laid in bed for a few minutes deciding whether or not to go back to sleep or to embrace the first day of 2020. I determined it was best to greet the day and the new year with enthusiasm. I got up and went for a run on the beach. I was hoping the sun and sea air would help to reverse the effects of the Tito’s I had drunk the night before. It didn’t, but I did feel better once I finished.

I spent that run, that day, and most of the last two weeks deciding where to go from here. I came here initially planning to find work teaching at an International School or University. I encountered nothing but positivity regarding my education and experience allowing for the possibility to secure a full-time position and negotiate a great salary. This prospect seemed fantastic due to the fact that this type of position would bring in more money on a monthly basis than I was making teaching in Austin and that the cost of living here is significantly lower. It would allow for the living of a comfortable life and provide opportunities for advancement. Teaching is something I enjoy and a position in which I excel. So, I submitted my cover letter and resume to some of my top school choices and hoped for the best. I quickly heard back from two of the three schools I reached out to. I have already completed a tour on one campus and have scheduled meetings toward the end of February with both to discuss options once a better idea of employment availabilities is known. I am excited for the possibilities and for an opportunity to return to the classroom.

However, despite the great success I would be almost guaranteed in this type of position, it is the safe bet, and I don’t feel like one uproots her life and moves across the world to play it safe. I want to be brave. Ultimately, I want to do something different. Of all the things I have done in life I have always enjoyed my entrepreneurial pursuits the most. Working for myself has always found me working harder than anything else. When working for yourself, if you don’t put forth your most enthusiastic effort, you are ultimately the one who suffers, and who wants that? It has also proven to be the times in my life where I have been the most creative, challenging myself to think outside the box and find solutions to problems in a new and different way. Entrepreneurship also finds me in my most definitive head space — willing to define my boundaries and make bold decisions because ultimately the buck stops with me.

I want to open an English language bookstore in the An Thuong neighborhood here in Da Nang. It is where the majority of the English speaking expats live and where the majority of travelers stay. Access to English language books is definitely something members of both the expat and traveling community crave. Currently, the availability of English language titles here is quite small. There are a few community cafes and hostels that offer book swaps or lending libraries in the neighborhood, but the pickings are slim. There is a bookstore called FAHASA. It’s massive 4 story flagship in the city center houses roughly 50 English titles for both children and adults and its other two locations in the city center offer about the same. Phuong Nam Bookstore, also located in the city center, offers about 30 English titles. There is a very small independent bookstore called The Books that has maybe 20 used English titles available for both purchase and lending. The English speaking community definitely wants more. I want to be the person who brings it to them.

Desire and determination are key factors in opening and sustaining a business, however, they do not generally pay the bills. So, at the moment I am focusing on possibilities that manifest more as a bookmobile or repurposed shipping container rather than a full-time brick and mortar location. I am hoping to create something that can grow rather than explode on impact. I envision something that will allow me to sustain myself with a full-time job and offer book lending, book shopping, and book related activities on the weekends. Working 7 days a week seems like a lot to ask of myself, but the community is so excited about it that I have already had local friends offer to work for free watching the shop when needed!

This is definitely a roots and wings plan. I plan to keep my roots in the classroom doing something I love that I know will pay the bills and beyond while trying to spread my wings into a business here in Da Nang. And like anything else in life and living/working abroad, nothing is certain. What I do know for certain is that the economy here in Vietnam is booming! According to vietnam-breifing.com, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing of the world’s economies and has a potential annual GDP growth rate that is on track to make its economy the 20th largest in the world by 2050. In 2018 visitors to Vietnam from Europe increased by 8.1%, visitors from the US increased by 10.6%, visitors from Australia increased by 4% and visitors from Africa increased by a whopping 19.2% — the vast majority of these visitors all speak English at least as a second language! These numbers correlate very closely to the percentages of the foreign population I have met living and traveling here in Da Nang. By 2025, the Vietnamese government aims to generate $45 billion in revenue from the tourism industry and increase the tourism and service sector’s contribution to the GDP to over 10%. Just days ago, Google named Da Nang as the number one trending tourist destination in 2020. It seems this city and this country are well on their way! I consider myself lucky to be a part of it all.

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