Shoe Shopping?

Last night I left the internet cafe at 9:00 pm because my pictures would not post to the blog entry. I was frustrated but also didn’t want to sacrifice my night to post five pictures that I could certainly post later. I came back to the dorm and found almost all of the girls (plus Will and Mike) in Meggie and Brittany’s room. We played charades for a while before finally heading out around 10:00. Bryan and I went on his xe-may to a new place called Mao’s Red Lounge. I gave him directions as we went, but it is less than a block from our usual hangout, Bia Hoi Junction. Bryan and I ordered drinks (Coke as usual for me) and sat down just as some of our group walked in. I then ordered a couple of awesome t-shirts that they make right on site at the bar. I chose three, actually. One says “Hanoi rocks,” while the other two say “Increase the Peace” and (in Vietnamese) “Get the Americans out of our country.” The last one is really an amazing shirt and has three hands pointing at a US bomber plane going down in flames with the Vietnamese sentence at the bottom. As you all can imagine, I am all about that shirt.

Mao’s Red Lounge is more of a chill hangout spot and we got kind of bored sitting around. We didn’t have the address of this one newer bar that Bryan was ranting about, so I suggested that we borrow Jill’s cell phone, drive there, and then call them with the address. It was a 15-minute drive there (it was after 11:00 by then) and then we called them as planned. Bryan and I then entered the bar, which was a smoky but nicely redone basement, and I ordered yet another Coke. When our group finally arrived at about 11:45, we danced with some crazy Vietnamese people for about half an hour before the DJ unwisely chose some James Blunt song to end the night. At 12:15 am, some of our group went home and some of the more adventurous ones caught a taxi to Lighthouse. Tica, Cathy, DiDi, and I got a taxi and he promptly got a bit lost (or we didn’t have the right number for the address-the world may never know). By 12:30 we were finally at the bar after cruising around in the taxi for a bit. We got there and were the only women besides the Vietnamese prostitutes who were softly discussing their wares with some older foreign men. We danced right in the middle of the dance floor for a while before I jumped up on the lit table thing with DiDi and Cathy. I felt like I could do that because there was almost no one there at all. I then went and peed in some bushes before we decided to go home at about 1:00. We haggled with a taxi driver for a low set price and the driver finally relented. We got back to the dorm about 15 minutes later and I washed up, read in bed for a bit, and crashed hardcore.

I woke up this morning at 6:00 am in order to go down to the second floor of our dorm and speak to Andy over the internet. Despite the ungodly hour of awakening, I was really excited for our weekly chat. It’s hard to not be able to talk every night as we have for the past three years and change, but I’m trying to get used to it. We were only able to talk for about 45 minutes because the most important game of this year’s Red Sox season was starting at 8:00 pm (USA time). Since the internet café is not open this early, I had to sit in the dorm’s hallway and get choppy internet access. My computer or the wireless here (or maybe they’re in cahoots…) kicked me off of the internet about every eight minutes. It was nice to hear his voice and finally talk, though.

I then played computer games and watched the ever-changing scoreboard for the Red Sox game. At 8:30, I went upstairs to my room in order to write my weekly journal entry for my English teaching as my peace studies internship. I got all the way into my room before remembering that the questions my professor had asked me in his last email were not available offline. I went back downstairs for a split second in order to get the questions and check the Red Sox score again. Back in my room, I sat on my bed and wrote the journal entry for almost an hour and a half. It turned out to be about six pages long and included most of my experiences, thoughts, and curiosities concerning my teaching at the middle school. When I finished typing it I went down to the second floor again and sent it right to my professor. By then, the Red Sox had won their game as well (thank God). Jackie and Leah were awake by then and I went upstairs to get out of my pajamas and into the usual pair of mesh shorts and a t-shirt. We went to lunch at 11:15 and obviously ate at the little rice buffet right outside of our dorm. I then sat and talked with DiDi in the courtyard in front of our dorm while writing some more postcards. At 1:15 pm, I went upstairs and got Jackie. We walked down the street, caught the 31 bus to the lake, and started walking. We backtracked a bit so I could get a bunch of stamps to mail my postcards. We then walked up to the northern tip of the lake and I was able to purchase more postcards (aren’t you guys lucky) before we entered the Old Quarter. We searched for the street that was lined with shoe stores for almost an hour and a half before finally finding it at 3:30. On the way there, however, we found this awesome store with old propaganda posters and I had a field day. I also got some shopping done for some friends and family, which was good to get out of the way.

Jackie and I began this shopping trip with the intention of finding and purchasing shoes with heels to go with our ao dai’s, the traditional Vietnamese dress for women. It was funny because most of the stores just carried extremely tiny shoes, and my feet are a lot bigger than any shoe they had. It was funny at first but soon got old. After striking out on the shoe street, Jackie and I walked to the huge shopping center right next to the post office. We went to the second floor and I miraculously found a pair of shoes. They’re black so it goes with everything, right? Who knows.

After finding me some shoes, we left the mall and went around the corner to grab some young rice popsicles. They are lime green and extremely tasty. We walked a couple of blocks to the south-west corner of the lake before getting on the 8 bus. We got off at the stop closest to the dorm at about 4:30 pm and decided to walk up that street a bit in order to continue looking for shoes for Jackie. After another half an hour of searching for and trying on shoes, she found an affordable pair that will match her orange and peach ao dai. We walked back to our dorm and on the way I found a lady selling the huge sweet grapefruits that Jill and I love. I bought one and they were astonished that I could speak Vietnamese. That’s always a fun surprise. In fact, I should learn how to say “surprise” in Vietnamese because that would be funny to say after people realize I can speak some of their language.

Jackie and I got back to the dorm at 5:15 pm and I dropped my bags in my room before meeting her for dinner at our usual place. About half an hour later, we walked to the internet café together. I ordered my usual iced coffee and she got a fruit shake. After she left a few minutes ago, I started writing my blog entry. By the way, the last picture I have posted in today's entry is of my usual lunch (and sometimes even dinner too). It's from the rice buffet and I just choose what I want on my plain rice. I usually choose roasted peanuts (my favorite), along with an egg or a piece of omlette with meat in it, these sprout things, and some potatoes. It tastes a lot better than it looks, trust me.

It’s about time for the night market to open, however. I had better get a move on in order to go find a pet turtle there…