Still Here

I've been remiss in my postings this week. I haven't begun my job, which starts on Tuesday of next week. Most of my time has been spent reading, searching for my favorite vietnamese foods, and becoming familiar with my neighborhood and neighbors.

For the past three days my schedule has been such: I wake at 8 AM and take a quick, cold shower. Our small water heating apparatus doesn't work. I discovered that on my first morning here, when I attempted to change the temperature of the water and received an electrical shock. Cold showers it is then. :)

Then comes breakfast, which is my favorite banh my trung (bread and eggs). It's just an egg sandwich--a hard roll with a sunny side up egg, some greens, and some spicy red sauce. I usually just have the bread and the egg, though, and the people down the alleyway like me for that. It's not only amusing to them, but they charge me for the usual sandwich and therefore save money when I want only the bread and egg.

Yesterday morning, I was walking back to the apartment with my breakfast and heard a woman call out "Hey, come over here." I looked around and only saw Vietnamese people, which was odd because the person who had spoken the English had almost no trace of an accent. An older woman selling cigarettes by the side of the road was gesturing to me and I addressed her by what I hoped was the correct Vietnamese pronoun. These pronouns are extremely important and are assigned according to the ages of your own siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. In this particular case, the woman is a bit older than my mother so I call her "co." When in doubt, I go with one pronoun older than I think the person might be. With age comes wisdom, and Vietnamese culture does not necessarily prize youthfulness.

Anyways, this woman introduced herself as Kim Phong and I was clearly surprised to discover her excellent English. Most of the younger generations focus on learning English, whereas the older ones weren't raised with the goal/priority of learning the language. She was equally surprised to find that I knew some Vietnamese. I was reminded of the time an older man told me that seeing me speak Vietnamese is like seeing a speaking dog. Kim spoke with me for a few minutes, alternating between Vietnamese and English, and at first I found it difficult to focus on looking her in the eye when she spoke. It's easier for me to look away when focusing on understanding Vietnamese and Kim Phong has only one working eye. While her right eye is functional, her left eye has a socket that is almost fully closed and the small part of the eyeball that is revealed is plain white--no retina, no pupil. Maybe she'll tell me about it at some point. I doubt it, though, because the Vietnamese tend to never focus on shortcomings. Kim finished our conversation with "We can talk every morning!" It's a date then. :)

So I'm making friends in the neighborhood, which is good. During the day I talk to people online and read. I try to stay busy so as to avoid the tidal waves of homesickness. This makes me feel like one of my campers at Camp Washington, as we have to keep them busy and distract them in the mornings and at night or they'll become homesick. I have also hunted down my favorite Vietnamese food and eat a lot of fresh fruit and drink lots of water, since it's hot here. Every day I meet my roommate DiDi outside her work and we get lunch and then coffee. I also nap and watch the activities of the alley from our second-story balcony. The neighbors are usually amused by this because I squat on the balcony, eat fruit, and observe it all. Today the Gollum character across the alley must be sick because I've seen him blow his nose into his hand and wipe it on the side of his house next to where he crouches.

I've begun to appreciate the different light cast on the alley during different times of the day as well as the coming and going of the different people. Early in the mornings, the light streams straight into our living room and I use it to read and relax. It's bright but not yet too hot. Around 11 AM, our alley is awash with light and both sides are bright. During the afternoon, the light shifts and our alley begins to look a bit gray. It is also nice and quiet because people nap. At about 5 PM, more motorbikes hit the streets and the kids get home from school. The alley is noisy--filled with kids running around and the motorbike horns alterting the kids of their presence.

When DiDi comes home from work, we go and get dinner and go out or find some interesting Vietnamese food to consume. Last night we drove to the backpacker's district, where the tourists backpacking through Asia live in small hotels and frequent the same bars. We ate fetal duck eggs while people watching. The tourists are always entertaining.

That's all for now. Off to dinner. I miss you all so keep those emails comin'!