2:30 Wake up scratching that random mosquito bite on thigh.
Try to go back to sleep after applying one layer of Cortizone.
2:37 Lie restless, wanting to scratch, and realizing I need
a second layer. Might as well put on a layer for seemingly latent bites.
6:00 First alarm – snoozed
6:10 Second alarm – quit
6:25 Wake up with my phone in my hand, instinctively waiting
to turn off the third alarm before it rings.
6:40 Skipped the shower to get ready. Clip in two thick
bobby pins to tuck in the two inches of hair that grow from my once shaven head
to blend in with the rest of the Vietnamese. Eyeliner applied to look five
years older than I really look (which, to students, makes me look 23). Sit in
front of my computer for a few seconds, deciding what I have time to eat:
Special K with milk, Special K with yogurt, or banh mi trung (egg sandwich)
from the ladies outside. I decide to go with Special K with yogurt, because I
have to finish my milk and I will get banh mi after class anyway
6:55 Stroll to my American Culture class. I usually like
being early, but the room with the projector keys and sound systems are usually
10 minutes late (which would make me 15 minutes late), but luckily, they are open
early.
7:00-8:40 Teach American Culture. Today’s lecture is about
(dominant) American values and beliefs. Bite my tongue often to not yet insert
my own values and beliefs in contrast – decide to save it for part two of the
lecture next week (where I keep it real). Instead, focus on what the students
can teach me about Vietnamese values and beliefs in comparison and contrast to
the American ones. Bribe with banana candy (keo xop chuoi) for participation.
Wait, did you say Vietnamese government was a menace to society? Oh. She said,
“Vietnamese government manages society.” I need to calm down with my radical
thoughts.
8:40 Stroll to administration office to ask for my Speaking
class roster. After four weeks, they still don’t have it. Right. Leave the office,
wondering if I’m hungry enough to get a banh mi, or go straight to the gym.
After seeing my banh mi sisters being forced to move their stall by the local
authorities, I decide I’m not that hungry and will go straight to the gym.
9:00-10:00 Somehow get caught up between cleaning my room,
checking e-mail, eating my second bowl of cereal. Yogurt this time.
10:00-11:30 Bike to Indochine (baller-est hotel in Hue) to
participate in my MWF workout. Run on the treadmill. Add incline. Add speed.
Add time. Cooldown. Arms. Abs. Stretch. Done.
11:30 Jump off a curb on my bike, chain falls off gear.
Luckily, I saw a Vietnamese person fix this before. Memory moves fingers nimbly
through the gear to retrieve the chain. Done.
12:00 Run into Steven, another teacher at Trung Dai Hoc
Ngoai Ngu, and fellow food adventurer, at Loving Hut, our favorite vegan
restaurant (thank you Jenelle for putting us onto vegan food). Clean my hands
of chain oil and com dia (rish dish with plenty fixings) is out by the time I
am. Scarf. Go.
12:18 Bike chain comes off again right before I reach my
usual photocopy place. Really? Fix it outside the shop as I multitask, asking
about my copies. Man at shop offers to fix the bike while I hold his baby. No.
I got this. Pay Chi Mai. Go.
12:40 Showered. Packed. Am I still hungry? Or do I want
coffee? No time for coffee. Pop in some coffee candy. Go.
13:00 Arrive to projector room with one of my students,
Heng, who’s Chinese and learning Vietnamese AND English. Guy comes and opens it
at 1:08PM. Great.
13:10-14:40 Teach Speaking 1 to first year students. As the
first speaking class of the week, it’s a bit of trial and error before I master
the fourth lesson by Friday. However, the students liked the lesson on “Bad
Situations, Happy Endings,” especially since they got to make up their own
endings at the end of class.
14:40-15:00 Get coffee. Stat. “Café den da (iced black
coffee). Mang ve (take home).” “Khong co duong,” I add as she reaches for the
sugar. Yup. That kind of day. Return to class and ask the students to form a U
around me with their chairs. They know the routine. Unfortunately, the first
class doesn’t because I usually don’t come to class in time to ask them.
15:00-16:40 Second speaking class. Same lesson, more
confidence. Students move around and participate willingly. Keo xop chuoi is
also involved.
16:40 Relax. Check e-mails. Respond. Clean the room. Pack
for Ha Noi to take care of visa extension documents and for Fulbright 20th
Anniversary in Vietnam Gala.
18:40 Call Mailinh Taxi to pick me up to meet with Nhuanh,
who’s visiting from Sai Gon for a wedding, for dinner. Anticipate they’ll be 10
minutes late because they’ll go to the front gate of the dorms instead of the
back – even though I instructed them to meet me at the back gate.
18:50 Receive a call from Mailinh as I’m waiting outside. Of
course you’re at the front gate. I asked for back gate. In front of the school.
Thanks.
19.05 Meet Nhuanh for banh Hue, and even up getting hella
dishes: nem lui (ground pork spring rolls), banh khoai (fried pancake with
veggies, shrimp and pork), banh beo (rice flour cakes with dried shrimp), banh
loc (glutinous clear flour cakes with shrimp and pork inside), and banh ram it
(rice flour pancakes with ground shrimp). Receive my gift from Vay and Armael
from Nhuanh: a Vietnamese banana with a loving message, along with an amazing
drawing depicting my version of the cookie joke. Hella love.
20:05 Take a xe om (motorbike taxi) to 20 Ha Noi Street for
my bus to the airport. (ironically to Ha Noi).
21:59 Board the plane. Vietnamese womyn behind my seat puts
her foot on my arm rest. Conflicted with pushing arm rest back, allowing her
foot to fall back in her area, or think to myself, “When in Viet Nam, [allow
Vietnamese people to] do as Vietnamese people do.” Jeez, her toenails are long.
22:05 Plane takes off five minutes early. Womyn to my left
gestures impatiently with her hands and face, telling me to put my computer
away, as if me putting away this laptop is a matter of life or death. Long
toe-nail lady puts her foot down, and I victoriously (and cautiously) reclaim
my arm rest by putting my elbow down. Then I feel her toe sneak up against my
arm.
22:11 Womyn to my left tries to snitch on me about having my
computer open on the plane. Seat belt sign off, computer can be out. “Khong sao
(it’s okay),” the flight attendant says to her. Ta-dow – how do you like me
now?! (Probably not at all. And yet, she’s trying to see what I’m typing). Get
back to reading “World War Z,” my favorite bedtime story thus far.
23:05 Land in Ha Noi. Run around asking if Vietnam Airlines
bus is still running. Multiple people say no, but say I should walk around
outside to look. No one’s in the VN Airlines bus. A driver from another bus
calls me over. “40,000” he says in Vietnamese-accented English, as he points to
a mini-bus that I thought was already full. He ends up packing 16 people and
multiple boxes/luggage into a 12-passenger bus. I ask about how to get to 24
Hang Ga, where I am to meet Huong to stay with her. Bus driver says he doesn’t
go there. Man next to me asks me more about it. Then bus driver decides to take
me there. Says a taxi will cheat me for my money if I don’t know my way
00:10 Arrive at 24 Hang Ga. Old friends from Rising Dragon
Grand Hotel greet me, and Hong takes me over to Huong’s place. Cross the old
bridge over the river. Call Huong when we’re there. Huong sleep talks on the
phone. Call again 5 minutes later. She
gets me. Sleep on the most comfortable bed I’ve been in since Ha Noi. Good night.
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