Amazing Race: Hanoi

Last night a group of us went to Bia Hoi Junction, which is just a few street corners that brew and sell 12 cent beer. I had half of one before deciding I didn't like it with the shot of whiskey an odd German man added to it. We then walked across the street for more beer but I got a Coke instead. Ten minutes later, we were on our way to one of our favorite clubs, Lighthouse. There we saw some of our friends from Dragonfly, including the men from Sierra Leone. I played hard to get and danced with my group of friends instead. I've been dancing a lot lately, which as Andy would say, I am "in rare form." We left the club at 2:30 am and came back to the dorm where I hung out in the hallway and talked with people for another hour or so.

I woke up at 9:00 am to DiDi bursting into our room and I got up and went to get breakfast. I grabbed my egg sandwich and went to sit with my iced coffee ladies. They told me that my necklace was pretty and I told them that it was from Andy, my boyfriend. I then extracted my small photo album from my backpack and showed them everybody's picture and told them your names, ages, jobs, etc. It was actually a lot of fun and they really enjoyed getting to know me a bit more. After about an hour of conversing and eating breakfast (along with the chewy candy they usually reward me with), I headed off to the internet cafe. Andy was online and we got to actually speak over instant messenger. It was the highlight of my week, as it's pretty hard to not talk to him every night or even every other night. After an hour, Andy went out and I went back to the dorm and wrote a journal entry about yesterday's adventures for one of my classes here. I then napped from 11:30-12:45.

At 1 pm, I went over to our photography classroom and met some of our Vietnamese buddies and we began the Amazing Race: Hanoi. Jill and I paired up with a girl named Thuy. Our first task was to take five minutes and be taught a Vietnamese card game. It was a lot like the game "Asshole" and it was pretty fun. Jill and I lost the game we played against one of the other teams and therefore had to get our second clue a bit later than the winners.

The second mission was a difficult one. We were told to map the route to Hoan Kiem Lake and add in two stores with addresses on every street as well as five landmarks. Jill and I got together with Meggie and Jackie and mapped out the route. Then I got on a xe-om with Thuy and we drove around and wrote down the stores and landmarks on the way to the lake. We finished and rushed to DiDi's room for our next mission.

The third mission consisted of our buddy teaching us how to crack open pumpkin seeds with our teeth without destroying the seed inside. We successfully opened ten seeds without wrecking the inside and received our fourth mission.

We were told to go to another district of the city and spend some time asking a person about their family in order to make a family tree. We had to write down ten of their family members along with their name, gender, age, and occupation. We took a half an hour bus ride with Will, Oliver, and their buddy. The bus was very full and I stood amidst the mass of sweaty bodies and spoke some Vietnamese. They could understand me so I was pretty happy. We got off the bus and found a small eyeglass store. The owners, a middle-aged man and his two young sons, were happy to help us and seemed to like the fact that we spoke a bit of Vietnamese. They asked us in all seriousness if we wanted to stay in Vietnam and marry their sons. I told them that I already have a boyfriend and they seemed disappointed. After grabbing the business card to prove to DiDi that we had indeed gone to the appointed far away district, we got rides of xe-om's back to the dorm. My driver got a bit lost and was more than surprised when I started telling him the directions in his language. We returned to DiDi's room and were told to help build a children's puzzle before receiving our sixth and final mission. I was extremely tired and sweaty by then, so I was glad to see that the sixth mission was to go get dinner and relax.

I waited about 20 minutes for everyone else to finish (we came in about fourth place or so) and then DiDi, Jackie, Leah, Meggie and I went to our favorite place for dinner. I then headed off to the usual internet cafe and I have been sitting here ever since.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures today so these are from yesterday's trip around the city. Hold up your end and leave some comments! :)