Amazing Race: Hanoi

Last night a group of us went to Bia Hoi Junction, which is just a few street corners that brew and sell 12 cent beer. I had half of one before deciding I didn't like it with the shot of whiskey an odd German man added to it. We then walked across the street for more beer but I got a Coke instead. Ten minutes later, we were on our way to one of our favorite clubs, Lighthouse. There we saw some of our friends from Dragonfly, including the men from Sierra Leone. I played hard to get and danced with my group of friends instead. I've been dancing a lot lately, which as Andy would say, I am "in rare form." We left the club at 2:30 am and came back to the dorm where I hung out in the hallway and talked with people for another hour or so.

I woke up at 9:00 am to DiDi bursting into our room and I got up and went to get breakfast. I grabbed my egg sandwich and went to sit with my iced coffee ladies. They told me that my necklace was pretty and I told them that it was from Andy, my boyfriend. I then extracted my small photo album from my backpack and showed them everybody's picture and told them your names, ages, jobs, etc. It was actually a lot of fun and they really enjoyed getting to know me a bit more. After about an hour of conversing and eating breakfast (along with the chewy candy they usually reward me with), I headed off to the internet cafe. Andy was online and we got to actually speak over instant messenger. It was the highlight of my week, as it's pretty hard to not talk to him every night or even every other night. After an hour, Andy went out and I went back to the dorm and wrote a journal entry about yesterday's adventures for one of my classes here. I then napped from 11:30-12:45.

At 1 pm, I went over to our photography classroom and met some of our Vietnamese buddies and we began the Amazing Race: Hanoi. Jill and I paired up with a girl named Thuy. Our first task was to take five minutes and be taught a Vietnamese card game. It was a lot like the game "Asshole" and it was pretty fun. Jill and I lost the game we played against one of the other teams and therefore had to get our second clue a bit later than the winners.

The second mission was a difficult one. We were told to map the route to Hoan Kiem Lake and add in two stores with addresses on every street as well as five landmarks. Jill and I got together with Meggie and Jackie and mapped out the route. Then I got on a xe-om with Thuy and we drove around and wrote down the stores and landmarks on the way to the lake. We finished and rushed to DiDi's room for our next mission.

The third mission consisted of our buddy teaching us how to crack open pumpkin seeds with our teeth without destroying the seed inside. We successfully opened ten seeds without wrecking the inside and received our fourth mission.

We were told to go to another district of the city and spend some time asking a person about their family in order to make a family tree. We had to write down ten of their family members along with their name, gender, age, and occupation. We took a half an hour bus ride with Will, Oliver, and their buddy. The bus was very full and I stood amidst the mass of sweaty bodies and spoke some Vietnamese. They could understand me so I was pretty happy. We got off the bus and found a small eyeglass store. The owners, a middle-aged man and his two young sons, were happy to help us and seemed to like the fact that we spoke a bit of Vietnamese. They asked us in all seriousness if we wanted to stay in Vietnam and marry their sons. I told them that I already have a boyfriend and they seemed disappointed. After grabbing the business card to prove to DiDi that we had indeed gone to the appointed far away district, we got rides of xe-om's back to the dorm. My driver got a bit lost and was more than surprised when I started telling him the directions in his language. We returned to DiDi's room and were told to help build a children's puzzle before receiving our sixth and final mission. I was extremely tired and sweaty by then, so I was glad to see that the sixth mission was to go get dinner and relax.

I waited about 20 minutes for everyone else to finish (we came in about fourth place or so) and then DiDi, Jackie, Leah, Meggie and I went to our favorite place for dinner. I then headed off to the usual internet cafe and I have been sitting here ever since.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures today so these are from yesterday's trip around the city. Hold up your end and leave some comments! :)

The Green Goblin

Last night, after leaving the internet cafe, I showered and put on bright blue mesh shorts and my Krusty Krab employee of the month electric yellow t-shirt (thanks, Amanda!). The kids from the other program who live on the fourth floor had invited us to their party and I headed up there for an hour or so. Then we all went to the new club named "Toilet" for about ten minutes. It was way too expensive and loud so we walked down the street to our favorite club/bar "Dragonfly." I saw my favorite man from Sierra-Leone and smiled and introduced him to my friend Kathy. Enough of him. I danced with DiDi, Jackie, Leah, and the other usual suspects. At about 11:45 pm, a large paddy-wagon full of armed Vietnamese police drove by our club and they turned off the lights and we were very quiet. Here in Hanoi, there is a legitimate law that clubs (and all other establishments, for that matter) must close by 12 am. They passed us by without coming inside and ushering us all outside. As DiDi and I sat at the bar and chatted with some men from America, the fuse box mounted on the wall directly in front of us exploded. As smoke began to pour from the gray box, a bartender opened its small door and the fireworks continued until a small amount of the wall decorations were also ablaze. DiDi and I fled the bar and waited for about 15 minutes for the rest of our group to exit the bar as well. I caught a taxi home and spent from about 12:45-1:15 am trying to put an intoxicated Vietnamese friend to bed.

Waking this morning at 8:00 am, I got ready for the day and headed out to find my usual breakfast. Jill, DiDi, and I got egg sandwiches and iced coffee and we sat in the shop of the coffee ladies. They asked me what we're doing today and I told them we were taking a bus to go see Ho Chi Minh. They looked a bit confused, since I couldn't convey the fact that we were not going all the way to Ho Chi Minh CITY, but to see his dead body. After I mimed looking at his dead body without being too disrespectful, the ladies laughed and said they finally understood. They even gave Jill and me candies today!

At 9:00, we met the rest of the group in front of the dorm and boarded a coach bus. It took us about 20 minutes away to a large consortium of Ho Chi Minh buildings and memorials. We first left our bags with our tour guide, Long, as we walked around the giant mausoleum that holds Uncle Ho's actual body. We had to be absolutely silent as we entered the chilled building and walked around the body two by two, like the old cartoon Madeline. I was a bit creeped out, since he looked extremely waxy because of the lights aimed directly at him and his neatly folded hands. After being totally silent for a grand total of one and a half minutes, which is fairly tough when viewing a dead and waxy-looking famous figure, we exited and got our cameras back. We viewed the old something building which is now where the president does all his work. Today is Saturday, though, so the big guy was watching the morning cartoons and eating Lucky Charms instead of governing his commie country. We moved on to see Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts and it didn't have a bathroom or kitchen. He's too practical for that I guess.

We then stopped and took pictures and hydrated ourselves profusely. I took pictures of this really small pagoda that's dedicated to helping people give birth to male babies. I stayed far away from it and took pictures instead. :)

After walking for a couple hours in the blinding heat, we headed for the Ho Chi Minh museum for a few minutes. It had a bunch of awesome sayings about communism and pictures of Uncle Ho in many Vietnamese villages. We then boarded the bus and drove through the new quarters of Hanoi for about an hour. I crawled into the fetal position and slept the entire way there. We stopped for lunch and had great pho, which is beef and noodle soup. After another half an hour bus ride, we ended up at the first college of Vietnam. It was very pretty and historical and also doubled as a temple for Confucianism. We met at 2:30 and boarded the bus to go back to the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We walked around as a group for another hour before stopping at a small roadside stand for weird fruit smoothies. I took many pictures but felt all sweaty and disgusting the entire time.

We got back onto the bus at 3:45 pm and passed the bike shop where we can sell back our bikes at the end of our semester. I got off our coach bus with Oliver, Dale, and Bryan in order to purchase a bike. I picked a bright teal bike and we talked them down to 550,000 dong (about $30) and they threw in a basket and a lock. My bike is appropriately named the Green Goblin and it's amazing. It took the bike people an hour to attach the pedals and pump up the tires, etc on the four bikes. We drove the bikes back to the dorm at 5:00 and I got my stuff together and have eaten dinner at the internet cafe and been here ever since. Jackie and I worked on some lesson plans for our teaching internship for next week as well. I'm about to go back to the dorm and see where everybody is going tonight.

Comment time! :)

Shopping: Caitlin Style

After leaving the internet cafe last night, I went back to my room and showered. A bunch of us went to Kem My (American ice cream) and I got mint chocolate chip in a cone. It was glorious. I went to bed at about 10:30 pm.

I woke up this morning at 7:00 and went to go get my egg sandwich and enjoy it with my iced coffee ladies. I explained to them that I didn't have to go study today and they were confused. I then spent from about 7:30-9 am in the internet cafe and talked to Bridget and James online as well as writing my weekly journal for my Peace Studies internship. I went back to the room at 9 and Bryan, Jill and I watched the movie "Superbad" on my bed. I promptly fell asleep in the fetal position and woke up to Bryan poking my nose at 1:30. I got up and found the rest of the group about to go shopping. Meggie, Leah, Jackie, Jill, and I (since I was bored out of my mind) set out at 2:00 for the ATM and for walking around clothing shops. Of course, I brought my camera and sat outside each store as the rest of the girls shopped. I befriended the people sitting outside the stores and took pictures of the social landscape, as that is our next photography assignment. They usually offered me a small stool when they saw me start to squat by the side of the road.

By 5:00, our group stopped at this amazing Italian restaurant for a short dinner. I had this amazing pizza and missed my Italian family back in the states. At 5:30, Jill, Jackie and I left and continued to walk. They stopped into yet another clothes shop and I decided to go right across the road and take pictures of the lake and the people loitering about the lake. I took a few pictures before a 50-something Vietnamese man looked at me, walked by, and doubled back. He sat down next to me and started naming prices for me. Only 200,000 dong? Really? Geez. I told him that I'm a student and that he should go away. He finally did and was replaced by a guy my age who wanted to practice speaking English with me. After about 20 minutes, I set out to the nearby mall with Jackie and Jill. We walked around for a while and they bought girly clothes as usual. We left and caught a taxi back to the dorm at 7:00. Back at the dorm, I saw DiDi and we made plans to go out tonight and then cuddle.

Time to go back to the room and shower and get ready. I'd better not wear my "sexy football jersey" out tonight, as it seems to attract attention when coupled with my mesh shorts. Go figure...

Back to Saigon, Please!

After leaving the internet cafe last night, I went back to the dorm and showered. Then DiDi and I cuddled and talked for about three hours. We jokingly planned on flying back to Saigon today, since it's not as fun here in Hanoi. The language classes are not half as good either. When we finally looked at the clock, it was 2 am. I went straight to bed and woke up at 8:15 after my alarm had been going off for 15 minutes already.

I got my iced coffee after not finding any egg sandwiches on my way to my usual coffee place. The women that I have befriended there were very concerned that I had not had my breakfast sandwich and directed me to another stand down the road. I couldn't find it and returned to my coffee without any food, much to their dismay.
Jill met me at the coffee place and we walked the five minutes to school. Our Vietnamese teacher speaks almost no English and I can't understand much of her Vietnamese since she speaks so quickly, even after I told her in Vietnamese, "Please speak slowly forever." She laughed and continued on with her incredibly fast talking. If this continues, I don't think I'll be learning much more of this language at all. It's intensely frustrating and I always come out of class with a giant headache. It definitely makes me realize how good my teachers were in Saigon. Needless to say, I miss them a whole lot.

Jackie and I left at 11 and went to find lunch at out usual spot. We ate and left to find some more iced coffee. The ladies there were very talkative as usual and we discussed how Americans are so much taller than the Vietnamese people. As we were talking, a couple of motorbikes collided just outside the store. The people all got up quickly and drive away, and the nearby traffic officer was pretty angry. Jackie and I watched in awe and the women in the store talked amongst themselves very rapidly. After everything calmed down, they gave Jackie and me some pieces of the awesome grapefruit they were eating. I was surprised, since this really means we're making headway with our friendship. I ate mine quickly and as Jackie took her first bite, it dropped down her shirt. We all had a good laugh over that and then said our goodbyes and went back to the dorm.

I napped from 12:15-1:15 and then went to our Thursday lecture for our "Vietnamese Life and Culture" class. Today's presenter was Mark Ashwill, who wrote the book "Vietnam Today" which we were supposed to read over the summer. :)
Despite his mumbling throughout the presentation, I enjoyed it. He turned it into a dialogue and this left room for a lot of introspection on my part. We discussed how the Vietnamese look at us Westerners. For example, sometimes they might see us as people to be exploited for our comparative wealth. It was very interesting to continue to think about, since I have been considering some of these ideas for some time now. I find that I enjoy breaking the stereotypes of Americans quite frequently. I love eating on the street while sitting on small stools with motorbikes whizzing past. I love speaking with people in their language, not mine, and I am very open to learning and participating in their culture, traditions.

After a couple of hours, we were set free from the lecture and I went back to my dorm to listen to music and play Text Twist. At 5 pm, I walked down to the second floor and found DiDi. We went and ate dinner at our usual spot and she asked for about five servings of rau (stringy green vegetables).

I am so predictable that I then walked another couple hundred feet and have been sipping a watermelon shake and surfing the internet in my usual cafe since 5:30. I have been able to talk to Bridget, email people, and post my blog for today. Time to go shower and watch a movie with DiDi...

Caitlin in the Classroom

After I left the internet cafe last night, I went back to my room, got my hair rebraided by my roomie, and went out for the mid-autumn festival. DiDi, me, and a bunch of other people took taxis across the city to this bar called Dragonfly. There were a bunch of things to do there as well. People were all dressed up as fairies or the devil for the festival and there was foosball, billiards, a hookah bar, and boys. In the middle of the night, a large dragon danced through the bar as well (see first picture).

I ordered my usual Coke and went over to the pool table, where I played as the partner of some 42 year-old Vietnamese guy. He was extremely drunk and I was glad when we lost after about three games. While playing pool, a large man from the Sierra Leone soccer team pulled me aside and told me that I looked hot in my Vietnam soccer jersey. I smiled and chose to ignore him. Later on, one of his really tall and attractive friends started to dance with me and I focused on not letting him buy me drinks, get my phone number or email, or touch me. After a couple of songs, I went to find all my friends at the bar and then had my first ever experience in a hookah bar. I sat there and watched everyone else smoke since that's not my bag, baby. I left with DiDi and Brittany at midnight, scaled the fence to get into my dorm complex, showered, and went to bed.

After waking up at 8 am, I went and got my egg sandwich and iced coffee. I spoke with the ladies who own the coffee place and they told me I was beautiful. I'm definitely going there every morning. :) Jill met me at the coffee shop and we walked to our Vietnamese class. We worked on pronunciation today for two hours and then walked back towards the dorm and stopped to eat lunch at Jackie, Leah and my favorite eatery. I walked around the corner and back to the dorm at 11:30 am. I listened to music, played games, and then constructed my lesson plan for today. At 1:30 I met the other five people in my internship and we walked for half an hour before reaching the school. We met all of the kids at once, as we entered the meeting hall and over 200 children were sitting there. They applauded as we entered and then we were given a mic and told to talk about ourselves. For the next hour, the six of us asked and answered questions while standing pretty awkwardly in the front of the room. They wanted to know what sports we play, what states we are from, and if we sing. At 3:00, the two teachers divided the room into four groups and Jackie and I chose a group and stayed in the room while all the other groups left. We soon discovered that our group is the most shy and the least proficient in English. They know a lot of English since they've been studying it since first grade, but some of their pronunciation and spelling needs help. Jackie and I played spelling games and taught them about what sounds are made by the letters of the alphabet. We asked them if they had any questions about us or America, and a small boy in the front row raised his hand. He asked us, "What is your secret?" Jackie and I just stared at each other as we mentally searched for any answer to that question. The girl next to him piped up and asked if we had boyfriends. I told them I did and they covered their mouths as they opened them in complete and utter awe. I also tried to teach them "your mom" jokes, but they seemed to respect their moms too much. :)

The students started to get bored towards the end of the three hour class, which is to be expected since I was bored too. We met with the two supervising teachers, co Thuy and co Huong, after the kids all left at 4:45. They gave our group two cell phones to be able to reach them if we had problems or questions. I was so incredibly tired by the time we walked down the street and saw a couple other people from our group. We got on the bus with them and were told to be quiet by the guy collecting money and handing out tickets on the bus. I was glad to exit, even though we had only gone a few blocks. We had to walk the few other blocks to the dorm and I was so incredibly tired, hungry, and hot. Then I spent some time in the room before venturing out to eat dinner and get on the internet with Jackie and Leah. I've been sitting here eating dinner and blogging with my party people since about 6:00 pm.

Now it's your turn to write to me!

Cockroach Shenanigans

After leaving the internet cafe last night, I immediately went to hang out with DiDi in her room. It's apparently pronounced "ZeeZee" but spelled DiDi. Silly Vietnamese sounds and spellings. Anyways, DiDi usually hang out on her bed and cuddle and talk. I realized how much I like that the other night and it's because I don't get any human contact here in Vietnam. I don't know anyone in our group well enough to hug them or touch them all the time. DiDi also gives amazing scalp massages that usually put me to sleep.

So we were having this three-hour long heart to heart when my roomie Jill busts into the room. It scared us a bit, since it was close to 1:30 am. She started screaming about a cockroach in our room so DiDi and I went up to my room to fix this problem. We entered the scene to find the large insect facing us in the middle of the room. As we looked at it, it scurried under the nearest piece of furniture, our large wooden desk. I grabbed my 98% DEET spray and started spraying it like there was no tomorrow. As I do this, it sprints to the safety and darkness that the underside of Jill's bed provides. We move the bed and Jill falls apart and runs away to find a male from our group to serve as backup for this crazy roach chase. This leaves DiDi and I, a sneaker, and a bottle of DEET. We chase it across the room and behind the fridge, throwing the shoe at it multiple times. As we move the fridge, it moves to the foyer and begins scaling the backside of our door. DiDi and I are hugging each other in the doorway and are continuing the spraying of very dangerous bug-killing chemicals. In response to this full-out assault, the roach looks at us and flies straight into the huddling mass that is two brave women. We perform the predictable screaming/rapidly brushing off our clothes dance while backing up from the scene of the retort and fall right on our butts as we hit the bed we previously pulled out. I jump up and inspect my clothing for the infamous cockroach while trying to simultaneously console DiDi, who injures her ankle almost every day. Just then, I spot him as he cuts and runs out the door and crush him under my sneaker just as he hits the safety of our balcony wall. I then got DiDi a bag of ice from our freezer and walked her back to her room. Having dealt with the intruder in the traditional American style, find and massacre, I turned off the lights and went to bed.

Waking to my alarm this morning at 7:45, I get ready, go out and find breakfast, and meet the rest of the group in front of the dorm at 8:30. We then walk about ten minutes in a light rain to our classroom for our new Vietnamese language classes. From now on, I will take only two hours of Vietnamese on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We were immediately split up into two groups and asked a few questions in Vietnamese in order to assess our knowledge of the language as well as our pronunciation. I did fairly well and an hour passed before they assigned us to teachers and classrooms. We spent the rest of a frustrating hour repeating vowel and consonant sounds. My voice still is not fully healed, so it was very hard to say all the tones and vowels correctly.

At 11:00 I walked back to the area of the dorm and found lunch at our favorite spot. They have two girls our age and they talk to us in Vietnamese. We feel a certain loyalty to them and never go to the food stands next to theirs. I went back to the dorm and hung out in DiDi's room, where she gave me one of her famous scalp massages. At 12:45, I headed back to my room and prepared for my photography class. Our class meets right behind our dorm and I got there and set up my laptop. Today in class we simply looked at three other people's photography projects which were due today. Then we had a small break before the professor came around and viewed our favorites. He really liked a lot of my pictures so I was pretty happy. I have posted my entire photo project here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019203&l=61625&id=32001827

At 4 pm, I went back to the dorm and had an odd run-in with some guys from our dorm. I locked my door and played music and computer games until Leah came and got me to go to dinner. DiDi , Leah and I again visited our favorite neighborhood eatery and Jackie and Brittany joined us. We discussed the different sounds that farm animals make. Apparently, cows in Vietnam say "mmmmm bah," instead of "moo." Odd, I know. We then made our way to "Kem My," which serves its namesake, American ice cream. I had coconut again and we joked and laughed for a long time. I have been at the internet cafe writing this blog and posting my pictures on facebook since 6:30. It's time to go back to the dorm and get ready to go out and see the mid-autumn festival! You know what to do...leave comments! :)

Awesomeness

Today was very amazing. I woke up at 8 am and walked down the street to the closest internet cafe. If you order a drink, the wireless internet is free. I sat down, ordered watermelon juice, and got to work. I posted two blog entries and a bunch of my favorite pictures. I was feeling badly because the internet situation is very bad here and I was a day behind on my blog. Then Andy got online and we got to actually speak to each other over the talk feature on instant messenger. It was very exciting and it almost felt like we were hanging out again. This is except for the fact that, as he put it, "I'm in tomorrowland." Yeah, it's like the freakin' Jetsons over here in 'Nam.

Thankfully, Jill brought me an egg sandwich brunch as I sat there. After three and a half hours in the internet cafe talking to people, posting on the blog, and organizing my photo files for tomorrow's assignment, I went back to the room. I continued to attempt to make my photo files match what the professor wants and then took a quick shower. After changing into nicer clothes for my interview at the school I'll at which I'll be teaching, I burned my 25 pictures for the photo assignment onto a cd. It took two tries, of course.

At 2:00, I walked downstairs and met the other four people also working at the school. We took a taxi with once of our Vietnamse friends who is helping to set up the internships. We arrived at the school a bit early and waited outside for the women who will monitor our teaching. They finally showed up and they are incredibly nice! They took us a block away for iced coffee and moon cakes. Apparently the school has over 4,000 kids- 2,000 in the mornings and another 2,000 in the afternoons. It's one of the biggest schools in Hanoi and we're going to work Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. I'll be in charge of 50 kids on Mondays and 28 kids on Wednesdays. We discussed the goals for the students' English skills like pronunciation, short songs and poems, and a lot about American culture. We have to teach them an American song and dance for them to perform on National Teacher Appreciation Day and we also have to plan and execute a giant Halloween party for 200 children. I am so incredibly excited for all of this teaching and partying. I will tell about my family and then they can tell about theirs! Then we can play games from camp! We asked what we should wear to teach and if we should wear the traditional ao dai (women's pants and a very long silk top that they have tailored to fit you). The teachers were very excited that we wanted to wear them and said that the school will pay for us to be fitted and purchase a blue and white ao dai, since those are the school's uniform colors. They are also buying us a couple of cell phones so we can stay in touch with them. I have to start making lesson plans and thinking up games to play with them!

We then spent about half an hour walking through the school and solidifying some more plans for the parties and English skills. We left at about 4 pm and spotted our professor and his wife across the street. They came over and took some pictures of us in front of the school sign. We all piled into another taxi and got back to the dorm by 4:30. I went to one of the dorm rooms on the second floor where most of our group was hanging out and putting together their photography projects for tomorrow. I was able to give my opinion when asked and tell the rest of our group about my rockin' internship. Then Jackie, Jill, Leah and I went around the corner and found our favorite eatery. I ate pork, greens, and some tofu on rice. The two girls who run the family business are our age and always sit around us and speak to us in Vietnamese.

Currently, I have been sitting in the same internet cafe I spent lots of time in this morning. Since 7:00 pm I've been playing computer games, making a loose syllabus for the next five or six weeks of teaching, and posting this blog.

Feel free to comment on how excited you are about my awesome internship! :)

Enough of the Writing Already!

Yesterday, I took a bunch of pictures that I like. I wanted to post them all, but this blog only lets me post five per day. Today's double-entry is hopefully a visual treat!

Sickly Sunday

Since our internet is so bad here in Hanoi, I'm a day behind in my blog. That's frustrating. I woke up on Sunday morning at 6:30 am after close to six hours of sleep. ZeeZee, Jill, and a couple other people went to the food market a couple of blocks away from the dorm. It was a bit difficult, since my voice was pretty much shot. I ordered eggs on a baguette and they were impressed with my Vietnamese. They wanted me to take their pictures and show them on my digital camera and I relented. We then walked around the market and saw all the raw meat and semi-dead animals being prepared to be sold. I even saw a bucket of frogs and they were all tied together. Some of them were dead and being dragged around by the live ones. Others were trying to hard to be untied and free from the mass that their internal organs were no longer internal. There aren't any animal rights people here.

We stayed there for an hour or so and then I came back to one of the small street stands and got an iced coffee. I also befriended the lady that owns the stand and she talked to us in Vietnamese. I then went back to the room and went to bed from about 9-11:30. I woke up in time for lunch and we had a buffet-style where we point to the item and they add it to the rice. I headed back to the dorm and hung out with Leah and Jackie in their room. Leah had accidentally busted a lock off their closet and I tried to put it back together. Then I went back to my room and Jill was reading so I slept for an hour and a half more.

I still wasn't feeling that well when I woke up from my nap, so I drank an entire nalgene bottle full of clean water. Then our whole group gathered in front of the dorm and we met our long-term tour guide, Long. He explained a few things and then led us out into the big city of Hanoi. We walked for two and a half hours before we climbed five flights of stairs to sit on the roof of this restaurant. I took a lot of pictures of children and dogs and people in the city and I was very tired. We ordered drinks on the roof and took pictures of the sunset before going back down to the street and walking another half an hour to a restaurant. They food was amazing and we had rice, duck, pork, and fruit. I had a lot of fun at my table with Bryan, Kathy, Leah, and Brittany. In the middle of dessert, another table called me over and told me to speak in German with the owner of the establishment. We finished our dinner and talked for a long time before we left the restaurant at 8:45 pm to catch taxis. We all piled into the cars and took a ten minute ride through traffic, since it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, to the water puppets show. The group quickly got tickets and headed to our seats. It felt weird to be in such a large tourist trap, despite the puppets actually being a Vietnamese art. It was formed in the rice paddies during the rainy season. AKA they had so many puddles that they started to make an art of it. The speakers said everything in three languages-English, French, and of course Vietnamese. I wasn't sure what to expect but the band on the side of the stage was pretty amazing and then the semi-scary looking puppets appeared and danced/spoke/lived on the surface of the watery stage. I've posted the video so you have some idea of what I'm talking about.

The show included dragons swimming around and breathing real fire and sparks at each other as well as small children puppets swimming around. It lasted for about 45 minutes and I can't say I stayed awake for every minute of it. After it was over at 10:00, a bunch of s caught taxis and came back to the dorm. I immediately set out to find internet in our dorm, since a bunch of people on the floor below us said they had it in their rooms. The internet was shoddy and I couldn't even get my browser to open any web pages. It was insanely frustrating and by then I had no voice left again. I walked down the hall to ZeeZee's room because she usually has internet. She was washing her clothes in the sink and hanging them up to dry. I sat on her bed and got pretty upset because I was so homesick and I couldn't talk to anybody or post anything on the internet. After talking to ZeeZee for about an hour, I went back to my room and cleaned up and went to bed at about 12:30 am.

Travel Stress

I woke up today at 8 am and went out to find breakfast. We visited our usual street vendors and told them the bad news- we're going to Hanoi for the rest of the semester. I took lots of pictures and I'll have to post them tomorrow, since I'm on ZeeZee's computer. Here in Hanoi, we don't get wireless in our rooms yet.

I came back to my room to pack, listen to music, talk to people on the internet, and play computer games. I then dragged my bags down the stairs and helped my roomie with hers as well. We went out and got lunch, but I didn't want to eat a lot before the flight. I invested in some Coke and some baguettes instead.

Our bus arrived at 12:30 and we were then told by the leader of our program that our flight was at 2:00 and not 3:00. We then rushed onto the bus, where I looked out the window and ate my lunch. It took about an hour to get to the airport and it was nothing less than hectic. I grabbed my bags and stood in line, at which point ZeeZee asked me to bring one of her bags on the plane with me. I jokingly asked her if there was anything I can't bring on the plane and she assured me there was not. After all of the Vietnamese Airlines people rushing to get us on the flight, we arrived at security. My pillow and backpack went through without a hitch. They pulled ZeeZee's bag aside and asked me to step aside. Apparently, they found two pairs of scissors in her carry-on bag. I said I was sorry and then threw them out. They let me go and as soon as I sat down on the plane, it started to take off.

The plane ride was a full two hour trip and it was extremely painful. My head cold contributed to an immense amount of pressure in the center of my face. Needless to say, I was happy when we landed at 4. I was also very happy that they did not lose either of my bags. I had spread out my two stuffed animals and packed my blankie in my carry-on to ensure I wouldn't be forced to sleep unequipped.

After loading our stuff onto a bus and getting onto a different bus, we traveled for another hour. I got to take lots more pictures of the different city. We arrived at the University of Vietnam at Hanoi's international dorm at about 5:30 pm. We're across from a huge soccer field and the view from our window looks down to the courtyard below. I dropped my stuff in the room, which is equipped with desks, a bathroom, shelves for clothes, and beds with mosquito nets! It's nice except for the lack of internet access in our rooms at the moment.

After exploring our rooms and setting out my pictures and stuffed animals, there was quiet knock at the door. Six other kids my age stood in the doorway and they were so happy to see us! They are from another program which takes students from all different colleges. They were excited to expand their social circle and immediately insisted they show us their favorite restaurant in the area. By that time, my voice was disappearing, due to my insane head cold's icy grip. A bunch of us went with them and it was definitely difficult and frustrating to attempt to meet new people as my voice dwindled to nothingness. They all seem really cool, though. Some are Vietnamese-Americans so they can already speak the language.

We finished dinner and walked the short distance back to the university. I unpacked the rest of my stuff and then met some of the group at 8:00. We took taxis to this place called the Lighthouse. It's about 20 minutes away and I got a Coke and played billiards again. After about two hours, I left with three other girls. I've been attempting to find some internet ever since I got back to the university at 10:30.I finally went to find ZeeZee and I have been typing on her computer ever since....

Vietnamese 1: Check!

I woke up this morning and felt even worse than I did yesterday. My head felt so heavy I could hardly stand up, and my throat was extremely scratchy. I didn't move far from my bed for about an hour. I talked to Katrina and Andy online and watched recommended Youtube videos while my roommate stressed over our upcoming final test in Vietnamese language class. I hesitantly got dressed, grabbed my backpack, and set out to get breakfast. Once I was up and walking around in order to talk with the locals and order my coffee and egg sandwich, I started to feel a bit better. We got to the classroom building at 8:00 and talked with the rest of the group in the lobby for about ten minutes. Our class reviewed some sentence structures, nouns and adjectives before we were given the written portion of the final exam. It included listening to our teacher and writing down the correct tones for the words, filling in antonyms for some adjectives, and making both questions and answers. Overall, I was extremely pleased with how it went.

After taking a 15 minute break around 10:00, our teachers taped some Chinese lanterns to places around our classroom building (the stairs, bathroom, other classrooms, etc.). Since it was raining this morning, our fieldtrip was moved inside. We had to partner up, blindfold one partner, and have the remaining person tell them the directions to the lantern in Vietnamese (aka go left, stop, turn around, it's on the left, etc.). It turned out to be extremely fun and we even got to keep the lanterns afterwards! Mine is a very colorful elephant that folds up to be really small. This is convenient, since our group flies to Hanoi tomorrow.

After the blindfold ordeal, we were ushered back to our classroom to finish our test. I spoke about my family (names, ages, jobs, places of work, etc.) for three whole minutes! I was surprised I knew so much after three weeks of class! Those three weeks were packed with 56 hours of class, though. Then the teacher, co Trinh, asked me a few questions about my family. I answered them all and felt really good as I went to sit down in the lobby so others in my class could take their oral exam.

A bunch of us said goodbye to our beloved teachers, but instead co Trinh said that it's her boyfriend's birthday today and invited us to his party. We gladly accepted and got directions from her.

Five of us then went down the street to the same place we had lunch yesterday. We sat down to eat this time, and we all ordered in Vietnamese. I ordered the same meal I did yesterday: pork and rice. It was good yet again. Why change something that works quite well? :)

At about 1:30, I came back to my room at the guest house. I brought my laptop over to Jackie and Leah's room and they helped me make some decisions and narrow down my options for my photography assignment due on Tuesday. I have so many pictures that I like and it's really hard to choose just three for each category! Then Leah and I watched a show on the Discovery Channel about buildings that have collapsed and killed hundreds of people. It was definitely not an upper. I went back to my room at about 5:00 and listened to Eric Whiteacre and played some computer games. It was raining really hard, so none of us wanted to go out and get food yet.

Brian, Jackie, and I went down the road to a brewery and ate dinner there from 7:00-8:00. I don't even like beer, but I tried Jackie's and it was so good that it didn't even taste like urine! I had fried rice with pineapple. It was also served in a pineapple, which was sweet. I finished eating and walked back to the guest house to find Jill lounging in the room. We talked for a while and then I got a couple people out of their rooms to go out.

ZeeZee and a few others and I walked for about ten minutes before reaching the birthday party, which was at a pool hall/bar called "Arena." Besides the big screen tv that was showing the international rugby tournament, there were plenty of new people to meet and I got to see co Trinh all dressed up and meet her boyfriend. (See picture posted above). He's from Canada and they met on Myspace! Her boyfriend, Steve, was organizing some type of pool tournament and I stepped up because I'm so competitive. I ended up coming in second place and I was happy about that.

We finished the tournament and ZeeZee and I walked back with a few others from our group. Back at the guest house, I showered and sorted through my pictures from today. Tomorrow afternoon, my whole group of 19 people flies to Hanoi for most of the remainder of the semester. I'll miss Saigon a lot, but there'll be lots of new pictures to be taken in Hanoi! Are you juiced or what?! :)