Day Off

Last night I finished writing my blog at about 9:00 and then found DiDi in her room. We took a xe om to Bia Hoi Junction, where we met Bryan and Brittany. I sat for a bit, drank a Coke, and then ventured down the street to find the gigantic Disney movie compilation sets. I finally found them! There are 12 cds of some of the most classic (and therefore music-filled and greatest) Disney movies ever. I then returned to the junction, where Bryan took Brittany and I on his xe may to Finnegan's. However, he got a flat back tire on the way there. He ran away into the shadows with his flat tire and bike and Brittany and I shrugged and went to find the bar on foot. After half an hour of searching for the street, stopping to ask people, and walking in a giant circle, we reached the bar at about 11:30. I hung out near the pool table and tried to be a good wingman for Brittany, who was eyeing some worldly man across the room. I got tired at about 1:00 and DiDi and I xe omed it back to the dorm while Bryan followed us with Brittany riding on his bike. We couldn't wake up the guard and when DiDi finally did, he yelled a lot in Vietnamese. Therefore we all had to climb the fence and then coax Brittany to do so as well. She's fallen off of it before and smashed up her face, so she was understandably not excited about climbing again. Everyone got down safely and I went to DiDi's room, where I promptly fell asleep until she woke me up at 2:30 am and I went back to my own room to crash.

I woke up this morning at 9:10 and decided to skip one Vietnamese class. As I got up, however, Jackie came by our room to inform us that our Vietnamese teachers didn't show up for class anyways. Nobody remembered to tell the teachers that our Sapa trip was moved and we were supposed to have class today. Needless to say, it worked out nicely. I was going to check my email but our dorm's power was out all morning so instead I wrote some notes and packed boxes to mail. Someone called our professor to tell him that we didn't have power in the dorms and he cancelled this afternoon's photography class. Then we got power and nobody bothered to tell him it went back on.

At 11:00 I went down to our dorm's gate and met our supervisor, Thuy, with the rest of our teaching group. We sat in the second floor hallway and spoke about some last minute details concerning tomorrow's Halloween party. At noon she was finally satisfied and left. Leah, Jackie, and I then hit up our favorite rice buffet for lunch and we got take-out because there were no seats in the restaurant. I ate lunch in Jackie and Leah's room and then went back to my room. I worked a bit more on the packages and decided to nap for an hour. I set the alarm on my watch and fell fast asleep.

I miraculously awoke at 4:00 pm and found that my watch alarm was set for 3:00 in the morning, not the afternoon. I checked my email and then remembered that some of our student and their mothers were coming to our dorm's courtyard to carve pumpkins at 4:30. I got dressed and went to wait downstairs with the other teachers. Everyone was late because of a rush hour traffic jam and we started the carving at about 5:15. The mothers as well as their kids were totally into it. After we cut off the tops of the pumpkins they scooped out the insides and I realized that the pumpkin made a great dinner appetizer. We had a lot of fun and as the sun went down we finished carving and put the votive candles into the pumpkins and lined them up on the side of our dorm's fountain. They were so proud and we had a really good time. One yellow leaf fell from a tree above us and it smelled like Halloween once we got all the pumpkin guts all over us. It was almost like being home. Almost.

At 6:00 most of the moms and their kids said goodbye and I waited around with Jackie and Leah for two of the mothers to bring back some paint for the lanterns. After ten minutes we had the paint and put the stuff in their room before heading back to the rice buffet. We ate quickly and then grabbed a quick Kem My (American ice cream) before coming back to the dorm. I'm off to shower, work on some Halloween decorations, and then hang out with DiDi.

I miss you all! Leave some comments because it's kind of like mail. Trust me, I get online every day and read them. In fact, if you don't have anything to say then you should just make it up. Just kidding. Kind of. :)