Rambling on the foreign and familiar

Well, it's Tuesday here, and we just finished our Vietnamese lesson. I was going to blog yesterday, but we had a series of power outages that lasted quite a while. Imagine 93 degrees, high humidity, and no fans; sounds like fun, right? ;) I guess it wasn't too bad, but it made us all pretty lazy. We didn't want to go out or explore much.

Yesterday we celebrated Thanh's nephew's birthday. We had entirely too much food. It's amazing how a table full of food can totally ruin your appetite; I was completely overwhelmed. We invited the hotel staff and Ms. Yen and Mr. Quy, so there were about eight of us. We ate rice noodles, shrimp, beef stir fry, some kind of broth, a salad (which I helped prepare), rambutan (like lychee, but spiky), and cake. And I'm sure there was more food on the table somewhere... It was all really good. I feel like I never stop eating here.... Amazingly enough, however, all of my clothes are too big on me.

We played soccer with some kids outside the school yesterday morning, which was a lot of fun. Andrea is in agreement about soccer being the universal language. We walked from school to the hotel with the ball, and had about three conversations across a block and a half. Everyone wants to be your friend when you have a soccer ball. It's such a great conversation starter.

Last night, after class, we had some nuoc mia. This is becoming a habit for us, and not a particularly healthy one, but the nuoc mia is so sweet and cold and refreshing, that we are craving it by the end of the night when we've exhausted our cold water supply. It's nice to sit at the little plastic table, balancing on little plastic chairs on the edge of the sidewalk and sipping cold sugar cane juice. It's a well deserved treat, I think. Plus, the opportunities for conversation over nuoc mia abound. There is no such thing as personal space in Vietnam, so the tables are pushed close to one another and everyone wants to practice their English or see how well we speak Vietnamese (the answer is not very), so we always talk to people. Yesterday, we talked to a couple of older men who laughed at our Vietnamese notebooks with our careful notes on pronunciation.

After that, Eleisa, Andrea, and I split a plate of chicken fried rice (co'm is rice, ga is chicken - that's what we want) and some pickled green papaya (I love that stuff) for 20,000 dong, just a little over a dollar for three people. We decided we should not let Thanh order anymore because we are infinitely more frugal. ;). Andrea and I walked around the city after that, in search of Kem and sua chua (ice cream and yogurt) and some cold bottled nuoc (water). We were unable to find the latter, but managed to find a little shop where we bought some frozen yogurt in little glass cups. One pink, one white, and like good Vietnamese, we ate from eachothers cups.

At dinner we were making a list: "You know you've been in Vietnam too long when..." Among my favorites, "someone gives you a fork and you look at them funny", "you share one water bottle among four people", "you think nothing of double dipping"....

This is a different world here. I can feel the difference, see it, smell it, taste it. Most of my food reminds me of my seventh grade bio class where we did a lot of dissections (shrimp, crab, even chickens with their heads on - I have managed to avoid the latter). But there's something so universal in this heat, the poverty. Something universal in dusty streets and bright smiles and sad eyes. It's amazing to draw these parallels in a place that is so deeply foreign to me. I have my moments. My days of wishing for a nice, fat sandwich; some music in Spanish, maybe a car with AC... But I guess no place is really home. I'm an army brat, I should know that much at least.

Somedays I feel like I'm at the ends of the earth. I felt that yesterday, as I washed veggies while squatting on a pair of bricks on the patio. Yeah, there's no sink in the kitchen.... But at the same time, there's that common thread of food and water, the sky above, and the dust in my sandals... I am amazed at every turn. Sometimes amazed and resentful, sometimes amazed and gracious... You could all pray for my attitude; it wouldn't hurt. ;)

I guess I'm babbling. And maybe I'm repeating myself a lot, but I can't view my blog, only write in it, so I don't know what's old news.

I think we've decided to go to Ha Long Bay for the weekend so we can meet up with the Ha Noi team before they come down to Vinh. I think I need it; need some beach, some natural wonders to shock me into appreciation. The classes can tire me out. It's hard when you aren't always understood, when you get a lot of blank stares and nervouse gazes.... But it gets better, yes? It always gets better...

I'm optimistic, really I am. Just tired, a little sick, and definitely sweaty. Ha, ha... Guess it's time for lunch and a nap. Now THAT I could get used to.