First impressions on elegant Hanoi,
when i was home, my father told me that if i wanted to work as a car factory worker, just giving 1000 US$ for the factory's recruitment Divison and everything would go smoothly with a salary level round 100 - 130US$ and my father promised to buy me one motorbike to go to work everyday but finally my father advised me that you had better study at university then looking for a better job with opportunities to get a promotion in your future career.

I decided to go to Hanoi - A political, cultural and educational centre where i could learn something new for my future life. on first days i spent much time on revising my lessons just prepared for an entrance exam at National University of Foreign Language and i did well, during my schooldays i worked as a waiter at restaurants, at a bar, a coffee shop, karaoke shop even a receptionist at private owned mini or state run hotels.

I could speak some English so it's not so difficult for me to get a job like that especially i learnt that i worked to get practical experiences and pocket money for daily expenses and buying reference English books.
I rented a room with 150,000 vnd per month on those days in 1996 and i went to school regularly by bicycle and i took 45 minutes to get to school everyday and i was always on time
sometimes i learnt at school all day and whenever my lesson finished i went directly to work and until 23:00 or some days at 03:00 AM coming home from work and i saw countrymen sleeping on the roadside pavement without a blanket and asking myself how did i survive if i were in their positions and that's the reasons why i studied and worked at the same time and i learnt it's hard to do in that way.
I have many friends coming from other parts of the country and we had a happy student time under the same school even we had different starting points.

My hometown was not so far from school just 60 km south-east of Hanoi and it took 2 hour ride on a motorbike and i used to come home to visit my parents by local trains from Long Bien railway station to Hai Duong city then taking a motorbike to get home for 20,000vnd

And the exit exam was coming soon and my schooldays would be finished in coming times wa had a farewell party with classmates and teachers then we looked for jobs from different walks of life, some came home to be a village teacher of English and others would like to struggle themselves with a luxury life in Hanoi and me is the case.

Please see the next page 4 a real life!