"thunder. the thunder is rumbling!"
i have been in ha noi for exactly one week. out of those seven days it has rained 3 of them. oh glorious rain, you wash away the dirt, you trample the heat, you bring growth! i can't help but offer up praise. i am at peace...at least for now.
my days are becoming more and more strange as well as more and more normal. you may ask yourself, "is that even possible?" the answer is "YES" ...if you are a foreigner living in vietnam. today my hungry overcame my shyness. i hesitantly walked downstairs and into the cafe located next to my hostel. the owners, a husband and wife, came to greet me. we have become familiar with the help of my good friend huy. i attempted to order some rice and rau muong (a vegetable). after about 5 minutes of broken english and vietnamese i followed them into the back room (where i ate lunch and dinner everyday last summer) where i was invited to consume lunch with them. this back room isn't exactly a part of the cafe. it's actually their living room. this family had offered up their living room last summer so that the american teachers could eat in comfort. i don't know how i feel about that. i'm still trying to process it. they basically sacrificed their own living/eating space for us twice a day. weird. i feel somewhat ashamed. it was an unnecessary luxury.
this afternoon i saw dinh, my good friend who lived under the stairs last summer. he was the gentle and somewhat quiet one. i would say that out of all of them, dinh was the one i became closest with. he is a very good man. i was spending the afternoon with huy and his little cousin, bao, when i heard my name. i turned around and there stood dinh dressed in fancy pants and a nice shirt carrying a briefcase. he was "hunting for a job." as i turned around i was met with a giant smile. i'm sure there was one plastered on my face as well. what a joyous reunion!!!!!!!! we talked for hours about life, last summer, and the future while drinking sting dau. what a surprisingly beautiful afternoon!
my days aren't always that beautiful. i realized the other day that i haven't been taking very many photographs. in fact, i've only taken pictures of my students with their name tags, a tactic i use to learn names quickly. i am conflicted. i feel that when i tote around my camera, i become that annoying tourist...trying to document the weirdness i am unaccustomed to. i just want to live a normal life for 2 months. ha! i can't believe i just said that. i will never be able to live a normal life, not as long as i have red hair, white skin, green eyes, and more than 3% body fat.
before i end this update, i must comment on 2 things, electricians and the communication network here in vietnam.
i sat on a bench in the courtyard this afternoon with dinh and nhan watching an electrician balance on a piece of metal (or maybe wood) 1 foot by 3 inches wide. he must have been at least 30 feet in the air. i watched him for about 45 minutes as he crouched there fixing random wires. being an acrobat must be a job requirement. i was in awe!
and now i want to discuss the communication network in vietnam. i used to be annoyed by how quickly information, complaints, and gossip traveled. it's taken me 2 summers and about 4 days to realize that i can use this to my advantage. if i need something taken care of, i mention it in passing to a friend or a student. within a day i can expect results. for example: i don't currently don't have internet access in my room. however, i know that the possibility is there. so this afternoon i mentioned something about it to huy. his response was something like, "don't worry about it. i will take care of it." huy doesn't even live on this campus. haha. tomorrow i will mention how i can't cook at night because it is too dark in my back room. the light bulbs are burned out.
oh geez. it is past my bedtime. goodnight!
