SNAKE VILLAGE!

Last night I left the internet cafe and spent about half an hour seeing who wanted to go out and do something. It turned out that everybody was either already busy with their coworkers from their internship or they had work to do. I showered and then set out with Jackie, Jill, and our cameras. We caught the 31 bus to the lake and walked around for a while before deciding to try and find a bar called "Mau's Red Room Lounge." It sounds really communist and fun. We then walked around near Bia Hoi Junction and couldn't find it. After walking around some more, we got back to the lake and I had some rice ice cream. It was amazing as usual and then we walked to the other end of the lake to catch the bus back to the dorm. While we were waiting, a guy started talking to me and told us the 31 bus was already done. We took the 8 bus instead and two more men struck up conversations with me. I really need to look less friendly or something. I can't wait to come back to the United States and be ignored on the street. Anyways, we got back to the dorm at about 10:30 pm and I uploaded my pictures and then read my book for a bit before going to bed.

I woke up this morning at 7:45 and read in bed while listening to some Pat Metheny Group for almost an hour. It is the best way to wake up, for sure. I then got dressed, got my egg sandwich, and walked to class. Class was going alright until our crazy teacher went off on a tangent and I filmed a bit of it. I guess I'll post it tomorrow. I then ate a small bug off the table because we were joking that it was for lunch. Class finally ended at 11:00 and I left to walk to Vincom Towers with Tica and Sarah. We got food from the really good rice buffet right in front of the mall and then went to the fifth floor to eat it and talk. Then they went to the grocery store on the fourth floor and I found a pair of earrings, since I seem to have lost one of my hoops. I found silver Christian fish earrings and then sat down in front of the grocery store to read. Just as Sarah joined me to wait for Tica, two large Hispanic women came out of the store and immediately saw that we were American. They began to talk to us and said they're in Hanoi for about a month because one of them was adopting a baby girl. They had the little girl in a stroller and she was pretty cute. It must have been because she was sleeping and not crying, however. The women spoke to us for about five minutes and then left just as Tica emerged from the store. We then walked back to the dorm and got back around 12:30. I uploaded some more pictures to my computer and then packed a small bag in order to meet the rest of the group in front of the dorm at 1:00.

We all met at 1:00 pm and Professor Benjamin took our group's picture in front of our dorm before we boarded our bus. We were first taken to a Vietnamese manufacturing company in order to show us something about small businesses in Vietnam. We rode for about 45 minutes on the bus and then spent about half an hour listening to how Vietnamese businesses have modeled themselves after Japanese ones in that they start small and then grow in the same manner. This particular company manufactures the huge steel frames and fiberglass walls for industrial-sized ovens. We took lots of pictures and then boarded the bus again at 2:30. We drove in "traffic," which is the police, cows, mopeds, etc., until 4:00. DiDi and I shared my headphones and listened to John Mayer, Seal, U2, and Sarah McLachlan for the entire ride. I was so excited to finally be in the snake village. We got off of the bus and walked down a dirt road to this restaurant. There was a small yet brave (or stupid?) man who took us back to his courtyard behind his house. He was missing most of one of his pointer finger and I asked him in Vietnamese if a snake had eaten it. He smiled and posed with the deformed hand while explaining that a cobra had indeed bitten off part of his finger ten years ago. In the courtyard, he had a huge cage of snakes and he walked right in, taunted a few with a sharp pole, and then put seven snakes in a bag. We then walked up three floors before reaching the top floor of his house where there was a long table and many place settings for our dinner. Off to the side, the men got right to work. I was a bit disturbed by the sound made when their little skulls were smacked into the tile floor. It was rough because they stunned them, drained them of all their blood in order to make our wine, and then cut out their still-beating hearts. It was wild, really. I'll post this video but you all have to promise not to watch it if the previous explanation started to make you queasy.



After they had quickly killed and drained seven snakes and I was basically in the fetal position as well as covering my ears, we sat down to take shots of the snake blood wine. I took one and then had enough. It didn't taste bad, but I don't drink. It actually tasted more like the rice wine they added to the blood. Then the after-taste of the iron-rich blood hit you after the strong alcohol taste. It was wild but it was just beginning because we ate every single freakin' part of the snakes. I had the skin (my favorite, actually) as well as soup, fried snake, baked snake, snake in spring rolls, snake in prridge, snake in seaweed, etc. All in all, there were nine courses of the snakes we had just seen killed. I have posted pictures of my shot of the blood wine and the snake skin which actually tasted great! The skin kind of tasted like and had the same consistency as burnt popcorn, but at least it was semi-familiar to me! I ended the dinner with a nice tasty orange before walking down the three flights of stairs to get a chocolate popsicle. We got back on the bus and I tried to console DiDi, who is afraid of snakes to begin with and was extremely shaken up by the grisly display before dinner. She didn't even stay and eat with us because she was so freaked out. I brought her one of the oranges we had for dessert and then our bus ride consisted of listening to my MP3 player and singing with Jackie. We got back to the dorm at about 6:30 pm and I went straight to my room, packed up my laptop, and headed to the internet cafe. I'm about to go out with some people so I have to go shower, though.

Hope all of these pictures and the video don't make any of you sick! (Jonathan, the dog meat one at the end is for you!) The afternoon really was just as wild as these pictures portray. It was awesome! Don't worry, I have the restaurant's business card...

Do I even need to ask people to leave comments after a day like that? :)