Day Off

Last night I finished writing my blog at about 9:00 and then found DiDi in her room. We took a xe om to Bia Hoi Junction, where we met Bryan and Brittany. I sat for a bit, drank a Coke, and then ventured down the street to find the gigantic Disney movie compilation sets. I finally found them! There are 12 cds of some of the most classic (and therefore music-filled and greatest) Disney movies ever. I then returned to the junction, where Bryan took Brittany and I on his xe may to Finnegan's. However, he got a flat back tire on the way there. He ran away into the shadows with his flat tire and bike and Brittany and I shrugged and went to find the bar on foot. After half an hour of searching for the street, stopping to ask people, and walking in a giant circle, we reached the bar at about 11:30. I hung out near the pool table and tried to be a good wingman for Brittany, who was eyeing some worldly man across the room. I got tired at about 1:00 and DiDi and I xe omed it back to the dorm while Bryan followed us with Brittany riding on his bike. We couldn't wake up the guard and when DiDi finally did, he yelled a lot in Vietnamese. Therefore we all had to climb the fence and then coax Brittany to do so as well. She's fallen off of it before and smashed up her face, so she was understandably not excited about climbing again. Everyone got down safely and I went to DiDi's room, where I promptly fell asleep until she woke me up at 2:30 am and I went back to my own room to crash.

I woke up this morning at 9:10 and decided to skip one Vietnamese class. As I got up, however, Jackie came by our room to inform us that our Vietnamese teachers didn't show up for class anyways. Nobody remembered to tell the teachers that our Sapa trip was moved and we were supposed to have class today. Needless to say, it worked out nicely. I was going to check my email but our dorm's power was out all morning so instead I wrote some notes and packed boxes to mail. Someone called our professor to tell him that we didn't have power in the dorms and he cancelled this afternoon's photography class. Then we got power and nobody bothered to tell him it went back on.

At 11:00 I went down to our dorm's gate and met our supervisor, Thuy, with the rest of our teaching group. We sat in the second floor hallway and spoke about some last minute details concerning tomorrow's Halloween party. At noon she was finally satisfied and left. Leah, Jackie, and I then hit up our favorite rice buffet for lunch and we got take-out because there were no seats in the restaurant. I ate lunch in Jackie and Leah's room and then went back to my room. I worked a bit more on the packages and decided to nap for an hour. I set the alarm on my watch and fell fast asleep.

I miraculously awoke at 4:00 pm and found that my watch alarm was set for 3:00 in the morning, not the afternoon. I checked my email and then remembered that some of our student and their mothers were coming to our dorm's courtyard to carve pumpkins at 4:30. I got dressed and went to wait downstairs with the other teachers. Everyone was late because of a rush hour traffic jam and we started the carving at about 5:15. The mothers as well as their kids were totally into it. After we cut off the tops of the pumpkins they scooped out the insides and I realized that the pumpkin made a great dinner appetizer. We had a lot of fun and as the sun went down we finished carving and put the votive candles into the pumpkins and lined them up on the side of our dorm's fountain. They were so proud and we had a really good time. One yellow leaf fell from a tree above us and it smelled like Halloween once we got all the pumpkin guts all over us. It was almost like being home. Almost.

At 6:00 most of the moms and their kids said goodbye and I waited around with Jackie and Leah for two of the mothers to bring back some paint for the lanterns. After ten minutes we had the paint and put the stuff in their room before heading back to the rice buffet. We ate quickly and then grabbed a quick Kem My (American ice cream) before coming back to the dorm. I'm off to shower, work on some Halloween decorations, and then hang out with DiDi.

I miss you all! Leave some comments because it's kind of like mail. Trust me, I get online every day and read them. In fact, if you don't have anything to say then you should just make it up. Just kidding. Kind of. :)

Back to the Grind

This morning I returned to my dorm at 4:30 am after my night on the train. Instead of going back to sleep like the rest of the group, I unpacked, uploaded about 600 photos, and began checking my email. By the grace of God, there has been some steady internet access in my room lately. Early morning (my time) is apparently a really good time to talk with people online because I got to talk to Andy, James, Mom, Katrina, Becca, and Amanda this morning. I took a long shower and began blogging and choosing my classes for next semester, as I have to register for classes next week. I also applied to take this really different class called "Making Connections" that I need for my minor in Peace Studies. At 11:15 I ran down to my favorite rice buffet and had the usual plate of rice with potatoes, peanuts, some sort of meat, and a soda.

By 11:45 I was back in my dorm room and found that I had received a package from the very best Katrina Lewonczyk. It made me so happy and I made my roomie Jill take a picture of me in my intense happiness. Then I met with Jackie and Leah in their room. We made a list of what still needs to be done for this huge Halloween party we're throwing in two days and quickly came to the conclusion that it all needs to be set up on Wednesday. Seeing as there was nothing more for us to do today, we disbanded and I went back to my room. I continued blogging and got through two of the days and lots of pictures before Jill and I decided to take our party elsewhere for the remainder of the afternoon.

At 2:30 pm we caught the 31 bus and went downtown to the huge mall next to Huan Kiem Lake. We sat at the Highlands Coffee on the third floor and ordered coffees before we realized that their wireless internet was down. It was ok because we both had Word documents to finish and it was nice because I was able to focus and finish my application for the "Making Connections" class. We then went to look for a small black shirt that I can wear with my new skirts and struck out at a couple of stores in the mall.

We walked to the other side of the lake and went up to the sixth floor restaurant for dinner. I had a Coke and a tasty chicken sandwich and we talked a lot. Then we walked down the street and found another store but their shirts were too small. We took the 8 bus to Vincom Towers and I found a cheap, small black shirt in a store there. I then took the 31 bus back to the dorm and got back at about 8:00 pm. I immediately went to Jackie and Leah's room and found DiDi there as well. We talked for a while before I realized that I needed the steady internet connection in my room to post two more blogs and pictures on facebook and send some emails. I have been doing that ever since and I'm now on my way to Bia Hoi Junction with DiDi for a bit before going to sleep. If you want to see most of my pictures from this weekend, you can see my facebook albums at http://hws.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020217&l=ff4da&id=32001827 and
http://hws.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020219&l=a3ceb&id=32001827

Enjoy and comment on your enjoyment! :)

Sapa Day 4: Sunday

On Sunday morning I woke up at the ungodly hour known as 5:30 am. I dragged myself out of bed in order to pack the remainder of my stuff and grab a 6:00 breakfast. As usual, I ate at the hotel and had the hot Lipton tea with milk, bread, an omelette, and a banana. My group met in the hotel lobby at 6:30 and we all boarded the bus to get to Bac Ha, which is home to a giant market on Sunday mornings. We left at 7:00 and on the bus I listened to Pat Metheny, wrote in my journal for class, and took in the scenery. By 10:00 we were at the market and were set free until noon. I went shopping with Jill and Brittany for most of the time. It was a great market because it had a lot of choices and because people spoke more Vietnamese, but the stuff there was more expensive. I think this was because it was more of a touristy market. I walked around, bought some gifts, took pictures of all of the Flower H’Mong and Red Dao people, and ate half of one of those large grapefruits I love. Around 11:00, we stumbled upon a different part of the market—it was where all of the Dao and H’Mong go to buy the materials they need to make the things we buy! It made for much better pictures and was a lot more interesting than seeing a bunch of white people bicker about prices. At noon we had lunch with some of our group. I had, predictably, fried rice and a Coke.

By 12:30 pm Jill and I made one final sweep of the main street of the market before getting on the bus at 1:00. I again wrote in my journal, listened to Pat Metheny, and slept for an hour. By 2:30 I was awake and resumed listening to my music and talking to the people around me. At 4:00 we arrived at the border between Viet Nam and China. It was a river under a bridge and on the other side was a huge archway that had Chinese characters on it. I took one look at it, didn’t find it all that exciting, and walked towards the temple. I squatted inside for about five minutes before gave up trying to figure what the heck was going on.

Leah, Jill, Natalie, and I ventured down the street in order to find a decent bathroom. We found an empty shopping mall and used their bathroom before going to this nearby café to get Cokes. We were all back on the bus by 4:30 pm and it drove us down the road to a restaurant where we dropped off our bags. We were told that we were in Lao Cai and had three hours before we had to board our night train. Tica and I walked to the other side of the roundabout and she found the two women who had helped her when she came to Sapa by herself a couple of weeks ago. Tica had to take a van from Sapa to Lao Cai and some men wanted to take her somewhere else. She jumped out of the van and was very distraught until she found these two middle-aged women selling coffee. They helped her and fed her and even found an English-speaking Vietnamese student to ask her what happened. Tica and I sat with these women and we spoke a bit in Vietnamese while we drank our iced coffees with milk. After about half an hour, Jill joined us and then they served us some of the hot and bitter tea. We said our goodbyes and left at about 5:00, when we walked back to the restaurant that was guarding all of our bags. I sat and wrote some stuff down and then ordered dinner. I had Coke with some my xao rau trung (crunchy yellow noodles with greens and egg). I then paid, peed, got my bags, and was pulled aside by our guide, Long. He looked pretty upset and I got worried before he asked me if I would mind sleeping in a compartment with the professor, his wife, and DiDi on the night train. He had to sell an extra ticket for a bed in our car to one of his friends who was coming back to Hanoi with us and so he had to switch somebody around. I didn’t care because it’s just where I was going to sleep. We all walked about 50 feet over to the front of the train station at 7:00 pm and waited in a long line of people for about 15 minutes before they started to board our train. We finally got onto the platform, found car 15, and got settled into the very small sleeper rooms. Then I took my tiny MP3 player speaker and went to find Brittany, Cathy, Monica, Jackie, and DiDi so that we could have our planned sing-along. We sang everything from Rent to Lion King and it was so much fun. Around 9:30 pm I started to get really tired and so DiDi and I retreated to our quiet compartment to sleep. Right before we entered our room, though, a teenaged Vietnamese boy opened Jill’s room door and tried to steal something. We chased him off but I was on guard from then on. Every time my professor got up to go outside the room and check on my crazy fellow students (partying a bit too hardy, as usual) I woke up and made sure it wasn’t somebody stealing our stuff. Other than that, my night’s sleep was excellent.

I was woken up on Monday morning by one of the women working on the train pounding on our door and telling us it was time to get up. I glanced at my watch and it was indeed 4:00 am. I rolled off of the top bunk, grabbed my bags, stood in the hallway in a daze for about five minutes, and then we finally arrived at our station in Hanoi. I got off the train, found a taxi with Leah, Jill, and Jackie, and got back to the dorm at about 4:30 am.

Couldn't Resist...

More pictures of Saturday's adventures were necessary. :)

Sapa Day 3: Saturday

On Saturday morning I woke up at 6:00 am, even before my alarm went off. I lay in bed and couldn't go back to sleep because I was so excited for the oncoming activities. My roomies got up with me at 6:30 and I got dressed and packed my bag for the day. Of course the weather was as perfect as the past two days- about 75 degrees Fahrenheit with almost no humidity at all. We all got breakfast in the hotel's restaurant at 7:00 and I had my usual Lipton hot tea with condensed milk with an omelette, bread, and a banana. I met everyone in the lobby at 7:30 and we then had to wait for the latecomers for 20 minutes. People have to learn to get their act together and not make 15 other people wait for them. Anyways, we left to walk down to the center of town and made it there by 8:00. We were told we had thirty minutes to shop at the market and I did just that. I also helped my roomie, Jill, haggle for better prices for her purchases. It's a fun game I like to play, even though I've just recently mastered the art of haggling.

At 8:30 I met our group right outside the market and we saw five army jeeps drive by. I was instantly nervous and even more so when I realized that our day trip was going to start and end with these army jeeps. I refused to think about the murderers and their weapons that had most likely been in the very seat I had to occupy. I was in a jeep with Tica, Jackie, Brittany, and Cathy. We talked a lot as we drove out of the town on the same twisty mountain roads astride steep cliffs and valleys filled with rice paddies and villages. We also changed seats a few times so that we could all get a chance to sit in the open back of the jeep. There were only a few motorbikes and villagers going by the back of the jeep and it was beautiful and peaceful.

After 45 minutes of riding as a part of the jeep caravan, we stopped at a seemingly random spot beside one of the valleys we were just riding alongside. Our guide, Long, led us all on this sun-hardened dirt path to the bottom of the valley. He led for the first part but then I led for the last half of the hike. I was hopping down into the rocky and dirty ravines and led the group for about half an hour. After a 45-minute scenic jaunt down to the village, we stopped at a hut on the outskirts of the village and rested, found a squat toilet, and rehydrated ourselves. After a 15-minute break there, we continued on down the road and after only five minutes found our intended lunch spot. I went in and sat with some of the H'Mong men as they cooked their own lunch. After ten minutes I joined the rest of our group as they ate our packed lunch of hard-boiled eggs, bread, chicken sausage, and Coke. It was basic and exactly what I needed. I rested, ate, talked, and then changed into my bathing suit.

All of the students left the lunch place at 11:30 and were led by our guide, Long, through the Flower H'Mong village. They wear the extremely bright (almost neon) head scarves and longer skirts. It was only a ten minute walk through the tiny village and over a hill before we saw our final destination- a small waterfall that emptied out into a crystal-clear lake. This lake was also surrounded by cliffs on almost all of its sides, so of course I jumped into the icy spring water and hoisted myself out of the water in order to climb the rock face on one of the sides. Cliff jumping is always a must when standing on top of a 25 foot rock face, so in I went. I then spent the rest of the time swimming around or encouraging people to jump instead of climb down while sunning myself on a nice flat rock adjacent to the jump site. At one point, Bryan decided to take DiDi out to our sunning rock, but she can't swim. I watched as she swallowed a lot of water and it was pretty scary. It was quite the real-life trust exercise to get her to be passed from me to Bryan in order to get her out of the deep water.

At about 2:30 we were told we had to leave fairly soon so I changed out of my wet bathing suit behind some bushes. We walked back to the lunch site and on the way two older men motioned for me to come and sit with them and have some tea. At first I declined but then I reconsidered and backed up to sit with them. I spoke to them in Vietnamese and choked down the burning hot and extremely strong tea. I then continued on to the lunch plane and had a Coke while we waited for a broken-down vehicle to be moved out of the middle of the road. At about 2:45 pm we got back into the same army jeeps and headed back up to the main road. This time, though, we were told we could sit on the back tire with our legs in the back of the jeep and Tica and I did that for a good 20 minutes before we retreated to the back of the jeep when we hit the main road. It was another 45 minutes back to the center of the town of Sapa, where the jeeps dropped us off at 4:30 pm.

Jackie and I decided to walk down the street and took our time before turning around and walking back up the street to Baguettes and Chocolate. I got an apple pastry of some sort and then sat and talked for a long while before DiDi happened to walk by and see us. We paid, left, and walked the short distance back to the hotel, arriving at 5:00. I showered, packed up my things, and went to meet the group in the lobby while dressed in full Black H'Mong traditional garb. Instead of going to a restaurant in town, however, our professor surprised us with a catered dinner on his giant terrace outside his VIP hotel room. It must be good to be a professor. The food was amazing, especially because he somehow managed to order all of my favorite foods- Coke, fried rice, peanuts, my xao bo, and cucumbers and tomatoes.

After thanking our professor profusely for the amazing food and time to be together, our group walked into the center of town to see the "love market at 8:30." There used to be a large group of villagers who would save up their money and come into town on Saturday nights in order to meet and woo the opposite sex. The tourists, however, have driven this "love market" a bit more underground. They meet later and not in the center of town. Instead, our group was allowed to disband and I went shopping with DiDi, Brittany, and Jill yet again. After a while we got very cold and decided to find a nice cafe in which to sit, talk, and warm up. We found one and I got a nice big hot chocolate. We had a full-blown heated discussion about everything from abortion to gay rights to evolution from 9-10:00.

Afterwards, Jill went back to the room and DiDi, Brittany, and I walked up the street to the bar from the previous night. We found Sarah, Dale, Oliver, and Will playing pool with some of the Black H'Mong friends we had made. I was pretty tired and only stayed for about 15 minutes before walking back to the hotel with Oliver. We had our own debate concerning abortion, but he agreed with me more than the girls had. By 11:00 I was cleaned up, in bed, and fast asleep.

Lao Cai Pictures

I've fallen in love with the beautiful people and breathtaking vistas of Sapa. Can you blame me?

Sapa Day 2: Friday

Friday morning I woke up to my alarm at 7:00 am and immediately went to marvel at the beautiful view outside our front door. I took some pictures, got dressed, got my hair braided by Jill, and had breakfast on the second floor of the hotel. I had an omelette with bread and some coffee and then walked to Baguette and Chocolate (yes, that's the actual name of the restaurant) to grab pastries with Brittany. On the way, we met some of the Black H'Mong people (their traditional clothes always have a black base with colorful adornments) and I befriended a woman named Cuu. We reached the cafe and I grabbed two pastries for Jackie and Leah and an apple one for myself before walking back to our hotel to wait in the lobby. Eventually our group walked with Long through the center of town and up this gigantic hill, where we left the town and entered some sort of park. From 9-11:30 am we walked up steep stairs and gardens to reach the top of these peaks. We stopped and talked, rested, and took group pictures before moving on to another peak. I sat around while some of our group members shot a crossbow at a target. We then ventured downhill and into an orchid garden, but it was out of season so we took another group picture instead.

At 11:30 am our group walked down the mountain and back into the center of town, where we got a group lunch in the same restaurant we had dinner the previous night. I sat at a table with Monica, Jill, Jackie, and Brittany and ate a banana pancake and some bread with jam. After eating, I walked around the small town with DiDi, Jackie, and Brittany and did some shopping. I also ran into my friend Cuu again and bought some stuff from her like I had promised.

By 2:00 our group was back on our bus and van and we were heading out of town to see an ethnic minority village. After a short 20 minute bus ride, we stopped along the road and met some more Black H'Mong people. Their village, in a town called Lao Cai, was still a decent walk down into the valley, so they escorted us down the hill. They tried to sell us things left and right, and that was very overwhelming at times. The sun was almost blinding and they were crowding around us in order to sell us pillowcases, hats, wall hangings, bags, etc. Some of them were handmade and some were made in China. I began to see the differences after a while, but I'm not the kind of woman who really cares about that anyways. So we walked down into the valley and stopped at a house where an old woman and man were whittling away and selling things. I bought some stuff from them and when my friends saw that I wasn't pulling out my best bargaining skills, they asked why. I just didn't see the need to talk them down 20,000 Vietnamese dong when it's so many meals for them and really only less than $1.50 for me. I then went outside and saw three beautiful children sitting together on these barrels. I got a bit closer and realized that they were singing a Vietnamese children's song I learned while studying the language in Saigon! I sang with them for a bit and managed to take a short video of the event:



We then kept walking and meeting new people in the village. The people there look Chinese, not Vietnamese, as they originated in China. They also speak H'Mong instead of Vietnamese so relied on their excellent mastery of English to be able to speak to them. Most of these people had been dealing with tourists for so long that they knew almost perfect English. I carried on conversations with them like I would carry on a conversation with my best friend. That made me wonder how we were affecting their lives, however. They were all dressed in their traditional garb and were accompanying us on a long walk through their village, but yet they usually share apartments in the town. This is because the young women (with their babies strapped to their backs) either have a two-hour walk into town from the village or just stay there overnight. This triggered some heavy thinking on my part, since their family and village roles have changes so much as a result of heavy tourism.

Anyways, our group spent from 2:30-5:00 pm walking from village to village taking pictures, making friends, and shopping. Along the way we saw children, old people, water buffalo, cows, huge black pigs, and chickens galore. In fact, towards the end of the afternoon a little boy walked by us holding a long stick with a rag tied onto the end of it. He was using it to gather a bunch of ducklings and guide them back to his house. I saw him walk away without noticing one of the ducklings so I chased it up the road for a bit before walking back behind this huge mound of dirt. Behind the dirt mound was the boy's house and as soon as I rounded the corner and they saw me, they were very confused. Until they saw the duck, that is. We smiled at each other in an amazing silent understanding and then I walked back to the main path and found the rest of my group.

After the duck rescue experience, we stopped at a hut for drinks and I had a Coke and ate a banana I had squirreled away from breakfast. We then walked a bit more and finally reached our van and bus, which had come down into the valley to meet us. From 5-5:20 I traveled back to my hotel on the van and then chilled out in Oliver and Dale's room with them, DiDi, and Jill until 6:15. We weren't meeting for the group dinner until 6:30 so Jackie, Jill, Brittany, and I went to the hotel's second floor restaurant and I had a hot Lipton tea with milk. We talked for 15 minutes and warmed up before venturing back to the lobby to meet the group.

Long took us down the street to this market covered by tin roofs. We stood in the middle of the restaurant portion of the market until me and a couple of other people made a decision to find a food stand and eat there. I sat and ate my xao bo with DiDi, Jackie, Jill, and Brittany while shopping a bit after ordering the food. After eating, paying, and leaving, we walked around and shopped for quite a while before again hitting the main road. I got hugs from toothless old women as we attempted to communicate and shop. At 9:00 pm the four of us stopped into another cafe and I had hot Lipton tea with milk and sugar. We were done warming up by 9:30 and ventured out on the main street yet again. We were all set to go back to the hotel until we saw Donna, our professor's wife. She informed us that some of our friends were just down the road at some bar and so of course DiDi, Brittany, and I went to go check it out. We found our friends from earlier in the day, about ten teenaged Black H'Mong playing pool and eating fruit with Dale, Cathy, Tica. As we sat out on the second floor balcony, the red lighting and the interactions between our American friends and our H'Mong friends was almost too much to handle. In fact, it seemed so surreal that it must have been something out of "The Twilight Zone." I considered how we affect these young girls’ lives as I watched them spit out some fruit seeds over the balcony and into the street. It had taken me all day to finally figure out their intentions. They are truly joyful people who would like us to buy from them but they are even happier to be with us and share our experience of their home, Sapa. After a while I was very tired of trying to explain why I was not yet married at my old age of 20 years old and left with DiDi and Brittany to walk back to the hotel at 10:15. I was washed up and in bed with my entire day already recorded by 11:00 pm.

Sapa Day 1: Thursday

Wednesday night I took a xe om to Finnigan's with Leah. I met up with Cathy, Dale, Tica, and Tony and drank a Coke before getting really tired and xe oming back to the dorm with Cathy at 10:30 pm. I ate a huge grapefuit-like fruit with DiDi and Cathy and then I cuddled with DiDi until midnight, when she kicked me out.

On Thursday morning I woke up at 5:00 am in order to pack and get ready for our big trip to Sapa. It's in the mountains of northern Viet Nam and is the home to many of the 52 ethnic minorities of this country. Two of the prevalent tribes moved there from China hundreds of years ago-the H'Mong and the Dao peoples. Anyways, I packed and moved my stuff out in front of the dorm while I ate my first ever peanut butter and banana sandwich (made by DiDi for all of us) and some french bread I ran down to road to buy. By 6:45, I was on the van (as opposed to the bigger bus) with the professor and his wife Donna, Jackie, Oliver, Graham, and Natalie. I listened to music, talked, and slept from 7:00-9:00. From 9-9:30 our group stopped for a gas and bathroom break in the middle of nowhere.

We then continued on until 11:00, where we stopped for an hour to get lunch in a small town. I was offered and accepted a small shot of rice wine from some local boys before my lunch of egg, rice, and greens. Back on the bus at noon, I slept until 1:45 pm. It was such slow going on the horrible roads because they weren't only windy and carved out of the sides of the mountains, but they were also eroding away. I chilled in the van while it jostled along these crazy bumpy roads alongside steep cliffs and valleys filled with tiered rice paddies until 3:00. At that point the other bus stopped to take a bathroom break but we stayed in the van and my fellow travelers didn't let me get out and touch a close water buffalo. At 3:30, however, our van stopped by the side of the road and I got out, popped a squat in a thicket, and then got really close to a water buffalo before it started to move towards me instead. That was the end of that.

I listened to some Pat Metheny on my MP3 player while our van chased a bright pink sun as we sent it off to rise in America. I then slept until 6:00, when our van stopped to wait for our bus. Jackie gave me a great head massage and after ten minutes we continued on and traveled right next to China's mountains. They were just a shadow against a gray sky and a full moon by then, though. Our journey continued until 7:30 pm, when we finally arrived at the Darling Hotel. We were slated to arrive there at 4 pm, but the bad roads led to less speed and delays.

When we got out of the vans we could barely see the beautiful mountains that lay outside of our room's balcony, but we could sense them. It was also gloriously chilly and it almost seemed like we had traveled so far that we had hit autumn! I immediately moved into room 309 with Jill and DiDi where we left our bags and met the rest of the group in the lobby for dinner. We all walked a couple of blocks downtown to the one main street in Sapa and followed our usual guide, Long, into a good restaurant. I had fried rice while the waiter professed his love to me. After eating dinner and talking with friends from 8-9:30, I paid, left, and walked back to the hotel. I conditioned and shampooed because my hair was wild and the hot shower felt great. I fell asleep early at 10:30 because tomorrow was going to be so exciting.

Farts 'N Crafts

Last night I went straight to bed after I wrote my blog and showered. I awoke this morning at 7:00 to talk to Andy, but found that Jill was using her headphone/microphone headset. I immediately walked down the block, bought a headset, and returned to the dorm to speak to Andy over the internet. It was amazing, as usual. After an hour I had to go to class and he had to start studying some science things. I also talked to James which was really nice. :)

I quickly grabbed an egg sandwich and walked to class. Class went well, was rathe runeventful, and I walked around the corner to the closest bus stop right after class. I rode the bus with Jill and we then parted after we were dropped off at the lake. I went over the red bridge on the lake and did some other shopping for people back in the states. I finished in about half an hour and then grabbed a quick xe om back to the dorm. I was back at my room by noon, dropped off my purchases, and walked straight to the rice buffet. I had my usual lunch and then planned our lesson for today's class with Jackie. At 1:00 pm I went back up to my room to change for class and packed my backpack as well.

We met to take the bus at 1:30 and got to school a bit before 2:00, when Jackie and I couldn't find our ever-changing classroom location for about 15 minutes. The students were as lost and confused as we were, so it was ok. We finally found our space in the school "library," which is simply a few long tables and bookshelves next to an actual classroom space. This room turned out to be perfect for our lesson today, however. We brought scissors, colored paper, and glue sticks so that the kids could make Halloween decorations. At first they were a bit hesistant but their creative drive really got going and we soon had really funny and original ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, and spiders. The farts and crafts took from 2:15-3:30 pm and then we cleaned up and got them a bit more settled down. Halloween songs, tongue twisters, text twists, and some hangman games soon ensued. We had lots of fun today and the last five minutues of the period entailed Jackie and I having them all pose with their creations for a group picture.

After class Jackie and I walked to the other side of the lake, taking pictures the whole way, and ate an early dinner of banana pancakes and iced coffee at Sago. At 6:00 pm we paid, left, and headed back to the southern tip of the lake and the huge shopping mall there. Jackie wanted to get some breakfast food for tomorrow morning, as our group is leaving very early for our trip to SaPa, Viet Nam. She went food shopping and I looked at soccer jerseys and some pearls for Mom. We walked across the street, caught the 31 bus, and were back at the dorm before 7:00 pm. I then talked to some people about going out tonight and have been sitting in Sarah and Monica's room for the past hour writing this blog and sorting through today's pictures. Hope you enjoy them! I won't post again until Monday (you're Sunday), and then I'll post for all of the days of the trip to SaPa. Don't miss me too much...

All I Need Now is a Conical Hat...

Last night I went out with Mike, Leah, and Meggie. After riding the 31 bus to the lake, we walked to Bia Hoi Junction and met Will and Becca there. I stopped at a few DVD/CD stores on the way in order to look for this bangin' collection of Disney classics. I didn't find it and walked to the junction. After ordering my Coke and also receiving the number of some guy from Czech (his idea, certainly not mine), I sat down and talked with my party people. After a while we decided to walk to Finnigan's pub and arrived there at about 10:30. We sat at one of the high tables in front of the bar and some British guys came over to speak to us. This one awkward one named Tom talked to Leah and I for quite a while. He's from Leeds and is here in Hanoi for a month or so. He was buying Leah drinks and all of that but I don't drink and I had already bought my own Coke so I declined his offers. At about midnight Leah and I wanted to go back to the dorm but we had to wait for Meggie because we didn't want her going home alone. After another 45 minutes of talking to Tom and chilling out, we finally left the bar and caught xe oms back to the dorm. We got back at 1:00 am, climbed the fence, and I fell asleep right away.

I woke up this morning right before my alarm went off at 8:00. I got dressed quickly and packed my backpack for today just as DiDi came into my room and asked to talk to me downstairs. I hurried up and grabbed my egg sandwich before going to talk to her for a few minutes. I walked to class and got there just before 9:00, even though only Brittany and Sarah ended up attending class with me today and they both came at 9:15. Our class was a bit rough because our teacher keeps telling us we're lazy and stupid and we keep trying to explain to her that we've only been speaking this language for seven weeks. We know an awful lot of things in Vietnamese for six weeks anyways. The three of us left the class frustrated and even a bit angry.

Jill met me outside and we walked around the corner to the closest bus stop. We waited for a while for the 31 bus to show up and then rode it all the way to the lake. I hurriedly sent two packages and one postcard in a mere 25 minutes! Then Jill and I walked a few streets over to "Le Pub," where I went the other night to buy my crazy propaganda t-shirts. I sat and waited while she tried on shirts and made decisions. At noon, we left the pub and walked to the corner in order to get xe oms back to the dorm. We needed to get there quickly in order to have lunch and get to photography class on time. We finally got the price we wanted and got our ride home after our driver got a bit lost and I had to give him the directions in Vietnamese.

After getting dropped off at the dorm I headed straight to my usual rice buffet and ate in ten minutes flat. I then went to my room, repacked my backpack, and headed to the next building over to our photo class. In the classroom, our professor had written our schedule on the board. I was scheduled to listen to an amazing NPR clip from 1:20-2:15. Five or so of us sat in a large room and listened intently to the professor's IPod as it played a long clip of this radio show called "Fresh Air." The interviewee was Paul Watson, a war photographer that was based in Somalia for some time. He described some of his harrowing tales of mob attacks and his haunting experience of photographing the body of an American soldier being dragged around the streets of Somalia. He even claims that the voice of the American soldier told him just before he took the famous picture that "If you take this picture, I will own you forever." Needless to say, he felt like taking that picture was contributing to the desecration of the soldier's body and he has needed psychiatric help. The stories were disturbing and I was interested only in that kind of way that people stop to look at accidents along the side of the road. At 2:15 I went back to my room and peeled and ate two apples that I had sitting around and sang really loud to the musical "Avenue Q." I went back to the classroom an hour later for my group photo critique. Tica, Dale, Sarah, and I sat in a room next to our classroom for 20 minutes as our professor finished another group's critique. At 3:50 our group went in for our critique and mine went pretty well. He liked most of my pictures and described my work as overall "very strong." For this class period he had printed his favorite student pictures thus far and laid them out on two tables. I had five while pictures in the collection of his favorites and that made me feel good.

At 4:25 pm our critique was over and I raced back to my room to grab my high heels in order to meet our supervisor at the tailor's. The female English teachers in our group- Jackie, Leah, Natalie, and I- grabbed a taxi and got to the silk and tailor's shop in about five minutes. We met our supervisor there and she took us to the back room, where there were the same five women at sewing machines. They handed us our ao dai's and we tried them on behind this hospital-like curtain off to one side of the room. I really like mine, actually, and it makes me look really nice. I then took pictures of this really cute little girl who was the daughter of one of the tailors. We spent an hour and a half in the back room of that tailor shop because the other girls' ao dai's had small alterations to be made. They did them on the spot and our supervisor paid for the ao dai's and we left. After thanking her profusely, we walked up past the lake and straight into the heart of the Old Quarter.

We walked for about half an hour before reaching the craft street and I then had to tell the woman selling paper that we were teachers and we should get a discount. It worked and we walked out of the store after 20 minutes with lots of pairs of scissors and many sheets of orange and black paper for our Halloween crafts at school tomorrow. We then walked all the way back a few blocks, waited for Jackie to buy some stuff for her costume, and continued on our way. We went up the other side of the lake and waited for a good 15 minutes for the 31 bus.

We got back to our dorm at 7:30 but I walked straight past the gate and immediately got dinner at my usual rice buffet again. Jackie and Leah ate with me and we talked until an older Vietnamese man sat down next to me. We began to talk and after only about five minutes he asked me where I lived and if I had a cell phone. I told the truth, which is that I didn't have a cell phone in Viet Nam. He asked how we were going to meet again and I told him we could meet right there at the restaurant. We can't meet every day like he requested, though. He then suggested we have a "cultural exchange" in my room and demanded that I take his number. I gave him the oldest line in the book, "I'll call you," and left in a hurry.

I then went back to the dorm and we modeled our ao dai's for our group in the hallway of our dorm. I had to model it some more for the others on my floor and then I sat down and ate half of an extremely tasty grapefruit while watching Scrubs, which reminded me of Andy since he loves that show. I then went next door to Sarah and Monica's room with my laptop in tow and I've been chillin here with Bryan, Sarah, Monica, and Brittany for the past hour or so. It's time to take a shower and go to bed early since I'm already starting to fade...

Looooong Day

After taking a shower, reading for a bit, and falling asleep early, I awoke to my alarm at 6:30 am. I got dressed and packed my bag very quickly in order to begin the process of finalizing the photography project that's due tomorrow. At 7:00 I met our group of teachers in front of our dorm and we caught the 31 bus to school. Arriving on time at 7:30, I was told that I had to teach Will's class again. We talked about America and played Text Twist and hangman. They're much better at English than my class so it's refreshing to only have to explain things once. After teaching from 7:30 until 8:45, the drum sounded and our kids ran away. Our teaching group met again in the teacher's room and we waited for our supervisor to go across the street to go to lunch. She had initially wanted us to eat where the kids eat but they were just cleaning up in order to close. We headed to our usual breakfast spot and I had banh bao (see picture) and an iced coffee. We joked around a lot while trying to finalize some things for next week's Halloween party. At 11:00 the two boys went to go get fitted for shirts and pants (since they're not getting ao dai's like the women) and Jackie, Leah, Natalie, and I walked to the Old Quarter. We found this one street that has Halloween decorations and costumes (weird, right?) and Natalie bought some fairie wings for her costume. By 11:45 we were sitting in my favorite cafe next to the lake, Sago. We ordered drinks and talked a lot until the boys called and said they were walking over to meet us at the cafe. We waited for them and then figured we'd better order lunch there. I got another Coke and some fried rice with chicken and vegetables. It was decent, but I think I'll stick with the banana and chocolate syrup next time. We talked about politics and ate our lunch until about 1:00, when it was time to pay, leave, stop at an ATM, and walk back to the school. Unfortunately, I had to go searching for a bathroom at the school that was unlocked. Gotta love those filthy squat toilets all lined up with no dividers. :)

Our group met in front of the school at 1:30 along with our supervisor and four lovely mothers of some of our students. They were pretty, skinny, and had Land Rovers with drivers in tow. They were the Desperate Housewife types of Vietnam. We all loaded into their two vehicles and drove for twenty minutes before we reached another students' fathers' restaurant. On the drive, however, we inched through a clogged intersection where there was a gray van with a crack in one of the windows and a huge dent in the side along with a downed motorbike in the middle of the road. I had started praying even before I spotted the white bucket hat filled with blood and marred by tire treads. This is not a usual site, but it has been known to happen from time to time in any country. We finally reached the restaurant and spent the next hour trying to figure out which ladles, hot plates, and large pots we needed to borrow for the Halloween party. We need huge pots for the bobbing for apples station and other cooking supplies for the caramelizing apples station.

At 2:30, we finally left and drove for another half an hour to a gigantic supermarket called "Big C" that reminded me of a nicer Wal-Mart. I had attempted to go in a different van than Will, a fellow teacher, because he wouldn't stop swearing and saying inappropriate things. That made me feel very uncomfortable because these mothers of our students and our supervisor can understand English and it was very disrespectful. Of course, Will ended up changing vans when I did and we ended up in the same van again. I ended up spacing out for the entire ride and ignoring him. We finally arrived at supermarket, grabbed carts, and split up to search for the different supplies. We needed everything from 15 bags of caramel candies to face paint to over 200 choco-pies. We had two huge carts filled with sweets and fellow shoppers were beginning to stare more than they usually do. I was beginning to droop a bit towards the end because I can't stand shopping to begin with and we had so much to do for this Halloween party of epic proportions. We shopped from 3:00-4:00 pm and then sat down and the mothers treated us to some banana shakes and fresh bread. It was delicious and I then felt I had a bit more energy to stand around while they paid for all of the Halloween food and decorations. After packing the two cars and then moving some people around after a mix-up about drop-off sites, the six English teachers were finally ready to go back to our dorm in our designated van at 5:00 pm. I immediately fell asleep as our van made its way through deadly rush-hour traffic and I was woken up when we had arrived back at our dorm at 5:30. I spoke to DiDi for a few minutes before going to my room and talking to Jill. I then put my photo project on a cd for tomorrow (go to http://hws.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019941&l=ca19c&id=32001827 to see the latest project) and packed up my laptop and some books to go to the internet cafe. I have been here at the cafe since about 6:30 and have already eaten one of my favorite dinners, my xao bo (the last picture for today), written emails, and wrote yet another postcard. I'm off to write a journal entry for class and then do some Vietnamese homework for tomorrow.