Closure

This morning I talked to my mom on Skype at 1:00 am (so it was her afternoon) and that was great. I had to go after a bit and then went to bed at about 1:30. I read for a while and then fell asleep.

I woke up to my alarm at 6:30, grabbed my two packed bags, and took them downstairs to DiDi’s room. I also went and got the big scale from the dorm’s office/shed at the front gate. She weighed my huge bags and then I took them upstairs and went back to bed until 9:00 am. I got up and got on my computer for a bit before Jackie came and visited me. We went to our rice buffet with Bryan and got lunch as usual. I took pictures (with Jill's spare camera) with the girls there because that was my main focus today- taking pictures of all the places I’ve frequented for the last two months here in Ha Noi. I then went to the internet café and Kem My (ice cream place down the road), where Jackie and Bryan were chilling.

I came back to the dorm, got some stuff, and headed to my Vietnamese class building to get a picture. I then took the 31 bus from the closest stop and got a photo once I was on the bus. Getting off the bus at the school at which I taught English and then walking to the lake and the big mall, I took more photos. I walked up the east side of the lake and into the Old Quarter, which allowed me to get photos of the post office (we’re best friends) as well as the flag store, Finnegan’s, and Sago Café. I then walked back down the west side of the lake and met Jill, who was in the big mall’s Highland Coffee. I got a really big frozen coffee deal and read my book for a bit until about 2:00, when Jill and I ventured down the street to get a picture of Le Pub (see last picture, Katrina) and grab some CDs.

We met Jackie at the post office at 3:00 pm and decided to take a quick cyclo ride (guy pedaling a bike-like contraption with a carriage on the front that you sit in) around the lake. I negotiated a price for all of us and then went in one by myself while Jackie and Jill went together. I had a great conversation in Vietnamese with my cyclo driver. He was 18 years old, wasn’t studying any more, and even pointed out his dad, who is also a cyclo driver, as we went around the lake. It’s such a touristy thing, riding in cyclos, so I only wanted to go once around the lake. They dropped us back off at the post office after about only 20 minutes of riding and we paid and then saw Bryan mailing a package home. We joined up with him (and his bike) and headed back to the Old Quarter.

We stopped into a couple more CD/DVD stores and then decided to rest and get something to drink at this balcony café. I had a decent iced coffee with condensed milk and then continued on to this restaurant called Pepperoni’s. As it became rush hour on the way over to the restaurant, Bryan rode ahead on his bike and said he’d meet us there. When we got there, however, we realized that Bryan had gone to the other Pepperoni’s restaurant a couple blocks away. Jackie and Jill stayed and I went to go get him, since I knew my way around already. I found him sitting at a table outside the other restaurant and waited while he finished his Coke float. He then paid and I got on the back of his bike to go to the other place. We got there and then Will and Leah joined us on the second floor. We paid about $4 US dollars and got free reign of a buffet that included pizza, salad, and some fried rice. It was awesome and we had some funny conversations as well. At 6:30 Jill and I paid, left, and caught a quick xe om to Bookworm, where I picked up a cool Vietnamese food recipe book. We then caught the 31 bus back to the dorm and I arrived at my room by 7:15 pm. I’ve been sitting down here in the hallway writing this blog entry, talking to people, and uploading the new CDs to my computer.

Tomorrow morning I leave on a plane to Da Lat with the rest of my study abroad group. We'll land and spend a couple days there in the central region before taking a bus to Nha Trang and then Mui Ne (a beach) before spending the first week in December in Sai Gon. I feel almost sad to leave Ha Noi and everything familiar but I am so excited to finally be on my way home!