Dear People of the World,

Dear People of the World,

"Try it, it's interesting" doesn't entice me to put things in my mouth. I will admit, however, tamarind candy isn't the worst thing I've eaten.

Love,
Lauren

Happy almost weekend! Half day tomorrow in light of tax evasion; stay classy, Sirrocco.

Checking in

I. am. exhausted. I went out of town this weekend to Da Lat, which I will post photos and details of tomorrow or Thursday.

Things are going well on the motorbike, only one serious bruise and I only have myself to blame for that one. I can't believe how fast time is going, it never ceases to amaze me.

My roommate Tracey is moving to Brno in the middle of August, so Lizzie and I are in search of a new roommate... that will be interesting.

Hope you're all well and surviving the heatwave! <3

Motorbike!

So, it took 10 days to find the time and courage, but I finally rented a bike yesterday. It is nerve-wrecking and exhausting. To tell you I ended up in District 5 from District 3 while aiming for District 1 will mean absolutely nothing to you, but basically, I was terrified to turn left and drove for an extra 15 minutes. Give me a break, remember the first time you drove a car? It's the same, without the metal/aluminum/plastic casing around you -- hence much more terrifying. The boys say I'll feel better about it in a few days, I hope they're right. I did drive myself to work this morning, and gave myself a huge pat on the back when the bike and I arrived unscathed. Granted, I left at 7:30 and only arrived at 8 haha... it took me forever. But, slow and steady wins the race.

I'm already excited to take a trip out of the city on it. For all of you bike enthusiasts, it's a brand new, (yellow!), semi-automatic honda wave.

I just got in and I'm sweating to death from nerves. Enjoy the rest of your week!

xo, L

Rainy season

Street food is my favorite lunch, but now it rains everyday at 12:30 without fail, on and off for the rest of the evening, and it's actually a bit chilly sometimes. Having a raincoat AND umbrella makes no difference: you're soaked through for the rest of the day; my fingers and toes are wrinkled like I've been in the bath too long. It doesn't help that the aircon is cranked in the office. Needless to say, I'm kinda missing my Jersey summer (not the shore :P).


Dear Vietnam,

That's enough with the monsoon-like downpours.

Thanks,
Lauren

Motorbike lesson!

Robin just taught me to drive a motorbike! I'm still buzzing from the nerves and excitement, but I think it went pretty well. There weren't any other drivers around, so it wasn't real driving, but it was pretty exciting. I haven't driven in over five months, and while similar to a car, it's not much like a car at all. I'm still struggling with the concept of the gas being on the handle, the foot break, and switching gears; I almost toppled over once - into garbage - but all went well and no crashes. I'll be out on the streets in no time.

I now understand why the Vietnamese have such great leg and arm muscles, that thing was really heavy, I'll have to get a lighter one than his. I might also just wimp out and get an automatic. But I'm really excited about the whole thing. My tutoring starts this week, so it'll be nice to go downtown and rent a bike after that because there will be less traffic... I'm not quite ready for the idea of rush hour, especially when you throw in the "Saigon Kiss" which is a burn from the exhaust pipe somewhere on the lower half of your leg or foot. But, those can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere... even walking down the street. Sidewalks are fair game for pedestrians and motorbike drivers here. I know a lot of xe om drivers that will be disappointed to lose my business... but life goes on.

Have a nice week! <3 L

Realization

Twice in one week... crazy I know.

A lot of little things get under your skin here, in a mental way, not gross creepy-crawlies. So, the one that took the cake is the fact that six days after the end of June, I was still unpaid, though it seemed everyone else was. I only know they were all paid because I asked and they all knew I was unpaid because I was asking (who asks otherwise?). Two of them said they hadn't checked, but one of those two was completely smug and uninterested in the situation.... UNTIL they realized it happened to them. So, of course I'm griping that my company can't get it together to pay people on time; but more so, I'm noticing the complete lack of sympathy people have for each other here, let alone empathy. I think it's a European thing because Lizzie (my American roommate) and I are always saying "I know ... and it's like [this] ... I completely understand ... etc."

In that vain, Lizzie and I talked about how meaningless the word "friend" is here. In the US, I'm afraid the word "love" is entirely over-used and simplified. And, also in the US, I have friends (meaning I know the definition of friend) that meet people and twenty minutes later say "Oh, my friend, so-and-so" and I'm like, "You're not 'friends', you just met." But apparently, that's just me. It's all very interesting and I'm really interested to see how things pan out after my time here is done. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all of the people in my life here, but I'm wary of the bonds we are (or rather, aren't) building.

Anyway, in light of not getting paid, I decided it was time to stop talking about it and finally get a student. My friend Vito is going to Laos for a month and his kid's parents are going to let me come and take his place. It's five days a week, an hour and a half (from 5:30-7p) but only until August 8. I have to give up yoga for that time, as well as Vietnamese (which my classmates will surpass me, so I won't go back)... but it's completely worth it as I will make almost half as much of the monthly salary of my real job. Unreal.

Hope you're all well. I'm off to my last Viet class.

I'm baaaccckkkk

It's been ages and I'm so sorry! My laptop has been in the shop for almost three weeks now. They fixed it and gave it back to me. Geniusly, I turned it on before I took it home: they erased EVERYTHING when I explicitly asked them not to and said I would find an alternative if it came to that. So, at the thought of all the photos that were lost I started to tear up and they decided to take the laptop back and "see what they could do". Patience is not really one of my virtues, but I'm dealing.

Additionally, my camera has been wicked blurry for quite some time now. However, since I gave up the laptop, I'm not letting anything else out of my possession until I have it back.

It's five here on July 4th.. Happy Independence Day! I have no particular American plans. Vietnamese Independence Day will be interesting (in September). Also, it's 5 and just started raining... gotta love rainy season!

I haven't been up to much, just working and enjoying the expatriate lifestyle. Yesterday a couple of the Euros and I went for a ride outside the city to this cute little pagoda. You're in luck that I have an amazing roommate that let me borrow her camera (once I get the proper name of it, it's going on my wish list ;)) So, I took some pretty nice photos, which of course, I don't have at work to upload.

Saturday night we ALL went out (that's so rare). Here are a few photos of that (yay for the internet), proof that I am alive and well.

Rachel

Most of my western coworkers.

Another group photo.

Romy

My roommate, Tracey.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll try and upload the pagoda photos soon, too, as party pictures are probably less interesting to some of you ;). Miss and love you all!

xo, L

Only in Vietnam

So, there have been a lot of things that have happened or I've seen that have made me do a double take and wonder "wtf?" but this one simply took the cake.

A few examples of this behaviour include, before I get to the real meat of the entry: men urinating any where, any time, any day in public; many of them at least stand in shadows or corners, but a lot of them are not ashamed at all. I saw a little boy intentionally aim at this other guy's cyclo, laughing and thrusting his 5-year-old hips.

Which brings me to the concept of "it takes a village". The previously mentioned little boy was punished by the owner of the cyclo. Communal punishment is pretty frequent, who ever saw a child misbehave is absolutely allowed to spank, yell, or scold him. I'm not sure if the parents are told and then the child is punished again? Either way, their punishments don't look THAT severe, though, I imagine the embarrassment of being spanked in public is enough.

All of the unbelievable things I've seen carried on the back of motorbikes, of course: various live animals, many not in cages, large panes of glass, large pieces of furniture, entire electrical system playing music. Every one sees different things and I'm not out in the middle of the day, so you'd have to see for yourself.

The Vietnamese are very open with shooting "snot rockets", picking their noses and toes; however, picking your teeth with a toothpick in the open is out of the question.

A favorite was the day my friend Chris and I got on the elevator in my building to go out, leaving is a key concept here, and a woman got on the elevator with a dead, fully plucked chicken. I thought for sure it was rubber but Chris assured me it was real. She took it outside somewhere, I didn't follow her even though the journalist in me was extremely curious. You can't bring your dead, plucked, chicken on the elevator! Can you?!

So to get to the real point, I came home from work this evening around six o'clock. One of the two elevators on my side of the lobby is down and probably will be until at least Monday, which means you could wait a solid 15 minutes for the unbroken one to get to you, or take nine flights of stairs, but that's, still, not the point. I walk into the lobby and there's a woman standing holding her toddler, another woman standing behind her child who is on a big wheels, a woman crouching (in a way I've also only seen in Vietnam) with a little boy around 4-years-old on her lap, and they are all awkwardly circled around two, for lack of a better word, turds. Human feces.

Shock? Awe? I had no idea what to do or say and the elevator wasn't anywhere near the ground floor. I don't think the adults were discussing it but the little girl on the bike was looking at it and the boy sitting in his mother's lap the way I wanted to look at them.

Finally, the elevator arrives and I take a step toward it only to realize that the little boy is still pooping on the floor, using his mother's lap as a toilet seat and the floor of the lobby as a toilet bowl. No wonder the little girl was looking at him so strangely. I am well acquainted with the inner-workings of the intestinal track; however, NOTHING makes this okay! Agreed? I mean, it was six o'clock in the middle of a crowded lobby of a well-populated building.

Only in Vietnam, for sure.

You can take the girl out of Philly, but...

You don't even want to know what I would do for a disgustingly greasy Philly chicken cheesesteak with fried onions and mushrooms right now.

...you can't take the Philly out of the girl.

Let's play a game

Guy from Long Island: What are you doing here?
Me: Oh, I'm an english editor for an art publishing company.
GfLI: That's pretty cool.

Three minutes later...
GfLI: So, what do you do here?
Me: I'm an english editor. For an... art publishing company?
GfLI: Oh that's so great. You usually only meet teachers coming from the west. Do you like it?
Me: Uhh... yeah, we talked about this three minutes ago.

Let's play a game, it's called LISTENING. I know it's hard, but give it a try; not only might you enjoy it and get more out of life, but people will like you better. Just a thought!