As Promised

From Sunday night:




L'haim, everyone!

The Holidays in 'Nam, continued...

Just sharing a few more photos to show how insane the Vietnamese get with Christmas decorations. This is Le Loi Street, which is one of the main streets in Ho Chi Minh City. All lit up, I would call it Vietnam's answer to the Champs-Élysée. Except that the Champs-Élysée is classy, and Le Loi looks like the Christmas spirit vomited all over it. I know this picture is blurry, but it shows both the lights and the traffic:


And this is Saigon Centre, which is a big mall on Le Loi. The square in front of it was filled with people taking pictures in front of the lights, as well as many Vietnamese Santas selling things like light-up tiaras, Santa hats, and other miscellaneous goodies.


It was pretty blinding, that's for sure. Also, I took a picture of my menorah yesterday, the last day of Hannukah (and yes, I realize that I'm spelling it different every time. Sue me.), but I can't be bothered to upload it yet. When I do, I'll post it.

Cheers!

Shots from my holidays

Here is my homemade menorah, from a few nights ago. I put it in the foyer of our house, since everything is tiled and there's nothing that could catch on fire out there. Plus, it means people passing by can see it through our front gate.

For Christmas day "dinner," a few friends and I went to a big fancy hotel on the river for a Christmas brunch buffet. This was an absolute feast, complete with a million kinds of main dish (lobster, duck, goose, ham, steak, turkey, sushi, salmon, etc.), and unlimited wine. Needless to say, we started drinking champagne at about 11:30 a.m. and didn't stop until 6. However, we were eating a lot and frequently chasing down a tiny child, so we didn't really have the opportunity to eat or drink ourselves into oblivion. I think that this is a good thing.

Here is a shot of part of the buffet:


In dessertland, there was a little village made entirely of chocolate cake.


And the lobby had a gorgeous tree, which Wallace adored. That's her, in her new Christmas dress (you can't see the chocolate all over the front).


All in all, a great day. We stayed at the hotel for about 5 hours, eating and drinking and talking, then went to a restaurant nearby for happy hour, and continued our sparkling wine revelry. Around 7, I went with Julia and the Walrus back to their place to put the little one to bed, and Julia and I watched Hot Fuzz on HBO and finished a bottle of red wine that she had. It was great.

Unfortunately, today (Friday the 26th) I have work. I will do my best (or...almost my best) to be productive.

Hope all of you had wonderful holidays, spent with friends or family or both, surrounded by love. I'm sending you some from over here; hope it makes it all that distance.

Hugs and Kisses,

A

One of my very best friends in Vietnam

This is Bwoon. She's the puppy that lives across the alley from me. Her family keeps their front gate open frequently, and when she hears my keys she runs out to say hi and jump up on me. Then she zooms around in figure eights in the street before coming back to me to play. I must say, it's really nice to have someone who is always happy to see me.

In other news, I'm really exhausted and at a loss of things to write. So, hopefully I will be inspired later.

Eight Crazy Nights

I'm thinking of celebrating Hannukah this year. Is that weird? It probably is. All my life I've considered myself an atheist, and wrestled with the concept of faith, settling to call myself agnostic and not devote too much energy to the subject altogether.

In my family, we always did both Christmas and Hannukah in the most secular of ways--lighting the candles, having a tree, exchanging presents. This year, when I won't be seeing my family or most of my friends, or having a tree, I have this strong desire to light the menorah (if I can find one). I read an article recently that was written by a Jew working in Saigon about his experience being Jewish here. And he mentioned that for Hannukah, one of the main principles is that the menorah lights the night, and shows other wandering Jews that they are not alone. I really, really like this idea; I like the idea of putting candles in windows in general, but I like the idea that I would be doing something that Jews all over the world would be doing at (almost) the same time (time zones permitting, etc.). As much as I can say that I don't believe in God, I do like the idea of feeling like part of something bigger than me, of participating in something big. Especially since, while I've been making friends here, I still feel alone sometimes, and if lighting these candles can help alleviate that for me and possibly for others (granted, there aren't many windows in our house; I'll probably put it on the roof somewhere.), then I think it's worth doing.

There is a Chabad center in Saigon, and I've got their information. I'm going to see if they loan out menorahs, or sell them and Hannukah candles, or something. I'll see what they say.

[Update: I went to the Chabad after work, and--after a somewhat awkward conversation about my status or non-status as a Jew, and my desire to light the candles--was told that the Rabbi would email me when he gets back in town about picking up a menorah and some candles. So, success! They seemed really eager to have found a possible new Jew in town, so I felt kind of interroggated: Are you Jewish? Were you raised Jewish? Would you like to come to Shabbat services on Friday? So I kind of shuffled around the hard questions. I might go to the Hannukah party on Monday evening, for the lighting of the candles and a good Kosher meal. Because who doesn't like a good Kosher meal, eh? So we'll see how this little adventure goes.]

A photo from Mui Ne

Mui Ne, Rematch

Weekends in a row spent in Mui Ne: 2

Amount of mosquito repellent used: 0

Mosquito bites: 23ish. I keep discovering new ones.

Amount of sunburn from laying out by the pool/beach for a whole day: unsure

Seeing an 18-month-old's first time at the beach: priceless...She decided that the sand was horrible but the ocean was terrific. This called for some heavy lifting (of the baby) on Julia (the mom)'s part, since Wally wanted to feel the ocean but not the sand. Hilarious!

Haven't gotten photos yet from the girls (my camera was dead), but once I have them I'll put 'em up.

Adventures in Mui Ne

Last weekend I had to get out of the city, so I decided to brave the rain and go to the beach. It's about a 4 to 5 hour bus ride, which costs about $6 each way, and the hotel cost $15 a night, which is a bargain. I took the night bus on Friday and got there at 2 a.m. Friday night. Saturday I walked around the town, and then got a coffee and lounged at a beach cafe. Here is the main drag of Mui Ne, which is basically a series of hotels, resorts, restaurants, massage places, and souvenir stores. So, everything one could possible need, right?

Saturday afternoon I took a xe om to the major sights near the city. First, the fishing village:

Then the white sand dunes, which were incredible. They were so QUIET--even with the tourists, all you could hear was the wind. All the sound was absorbed by the sand. And I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in the middle of the countryside in Vietnam, and not in, like, the Arabian desert.

Then we went to the red sand dunes, and even though there had been no sun all day I was given a glimpse of a sunset:

Beautiful. All in all, a relaxing weekend, spent wandering, lounging, and reading. For more photos, you can check out the Facebook album that I made.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was enjoyable--I spent mine at a potluck with a small group of people, and it was nice. I am thankful for this adventure and opportunity, and for all of you. You are missed.

Saturday stroll

Yesterday, I decided that I needed to do something to get exercise, so after getting back from work at noon, napping for another hour or two, and watching some tv online, I headed out. Here, I made a map of my route:

I realize it's small, but maybe you can zoom in. So i just took one street that I think looks interesting and followed it until it ended, then kept going a bit. Passed a lot of cute boutiques, including this one, which is self-explanatory:


Kept walking until I got tired and hungry, turned around, and then stopped in Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker district, where I found this:

Doner. Kebab. YES. Not quite like those in St.-Michel in Paris, and certainly not stuffed with french fries, but still highly satisfying.

And now it's Sunday, and I just got a luxurious 90-minute massage, and then went to a nice market and got fruits, veggies, eggs, and a black purse. All in all, a successful weekend.

I got a haircut...

...ok, so I got a couple of hairs cut (this joke's for you, Dad).

Ignoring the face that this picture was taken at 11:30 last night when I had just gotten back from seeing Bond and was exhausted. So it's not my prettiest.

I thought it would be a little expensive (relative to Vietnam, so like...5 dollars, maybe), especially because they did it twice--I asked for bangs and one guy cut them weird, and then another lady came over and was like, "I know what she wants" and redid it. And then they asked for--GASP--$1.50. This country is insane.

Anyway, hope you like it. It'll take some getting used to, for me, but I needed a change.

My day, thus far

Hello all, and happy Saturday. I've been feeling guilty about not blogging lately, but I also feel like I have very little interesting things to say. Maybe I'm just bored with myself. I'm not sure.

Here's what I did yesterday: went to work, where I was finding articles that Frederic Remington wrote in the 1800's and then transcribing them into word documents. Then I went home, chilled out a bit, then went to dinner and karaoke (yes, karaoke) with a bunch of Thi's coworkers. I was the only American there, and thus I was the only one who sang songs in English. Also, their song list had nothing more recent than Nirvana. My choices? "Bizarre Love Triangle," "S.O.S.," and "We Built This City." Yes. And no one else knew these songs.

On the way home someone tried to rob us again. Thi was driving, and I had stupidly forgotten to put my purse in the seat compartment of the bike, so I had it held tight on my shoulder. Some guys on a bike drove up, and the one on the back grabbed at my shoulder strap, but I was holding too tight for him to take it. There was this horrible moment where he's looking in my eyes, and I'm staring at him with as much hostility as I can muster, and then they drove off. I know I should have been more careful, that I was totally asking to be robbed, but it still sucks. It's hard to like people when there are some who just make me hate everyone; I really want to carry pepper spray or something, so that if someone tries something again I can spray them in the face. It just makes me so ANGRY, and it makes me feel helpless, since we weren't about to chase them (learned that one the hard way, when Thi got robbed and we crashed the bike), and it's not like the police do anything in this country except take bribes...What do you do, you know?

So that brought down the night. This morning I went over to Julia's and watched Wallace while she went to a dance class that she missed because the xe om driver didn't really read the address she showed him, so he ended up taking her to the completely wrong place. So we ranted about the incompetency of some of the people here--like, if you're going to drive people around for a living, shouldn't you know how to read or understand where they're going? He had no idea where he was going, but wasn't about to lose her business.

So, I played with the Walrus, and then came home and napped. Now I'm lazing about in my room.

Oh, and the picture is the view from Julia's floor, pre-rainstorm. Looks gloom-and-doomy, don't it?

Update on Bibliophilesque

I will be updating here soon, I promise. I've just updated my book blog, Bibliophilesque. Check it out.

Gobama, gobama, GO!

Went out last night to celebrate victory. And Irish pub called O'brien's (of course) was hosting a shindig for anyone looking to party. From there the housemates and I went to Pacharan, a tapas bar, to hang out a bit more and listen to their live music, which unfortunately consisted of covers of angsty songs, such as "What's Goin' On?" and "My Happy Ending." But was fun nonetheless.

Maraj and I got signs at the victory party:


And even Jan, who is usually very serious and cynical (especially about America), got excited about it:


I must say that I'm glad this whole election thing is over. I know that the campaign game never really stops, but now that a decision has been made I'm just looking forward to seeing what happens next.

The Club Scene, and other ramblings

It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, so I'm emptying some of my thoughts here. Hope they're interesting.

I've never been much of a "clubber," for many reasons. First, my stamina for staying up late in smoky rooms has never been very strong. Second, being 21 in Chicago is generally expensive, if you want to go out, since drinks are pricey, as are cabs home when you can't or don't want to take public transportation. Here, however, things are usually pretty cheap, and there are lots of choices on where to go, so I've been trying to go out more often.

When I first got here and was talking about the social scene in Ho Chi Minh City, I was told that there was a curfew, which was usually around midnight. I immediately interpreted this as some sort of morality issue--the government doesn't want large groups of drunken people up late partying all over town, so they shut it down early. (In my head, I was leaving the rampant prostitution out of the equation, simply because I hadn't thought about it much.) However, there are a few clubs and bars that stay open much later, and the way I understood this was that it's easier for the police to keep an eye on people if they're only in a few places than if they're all over. This, to me, made some sense.

Well, I was wrong. It turns out (surprise surprise!) to be all about money. The club owners/managers who pay off the police get to stay open longer. Those that don't get shut down at midnight and have cops staked out outside the doors giving random drug tests to exiting patrons. So it's a bit frustrating when you get to a club at 11:30 (normal party-starting time in the States), and promptly at midnight the music stops and all the lights come up.

Ah, corruption.

More fascinating to observe are the gender roles here. They are still fairly strict, albeit in a more passive-aggressive way than some other societies. It becomes apparent, for example, when seeing people smoke. In Vietnam, women don't smoke. Well, some do, but those that do are usually either foreigners or hookers--essentially, women who don't really care what the rest of society thinks of them. Smoking is seen as a male thing, and almost all the men here do it, and seeing a woman smoke makes the Vietnamese uncomfortable. I was talking to a girl that I met who is here teaching English, and she told me that her boss asked her not to smoke in front of the building because he did not want the students to see her smoking. Now, I could see forbidding anyone to smoke near a school because of health reasons, but here it is obviously not like this. The men could smoke in front, but the students might lose their respect for their female teacher if they saw her smoking, because only "loose women" do it. One of my coworkers smokes, and she always tries to do it somewhere secluded, because she always gets stared at and it makes her slightly uncomfortable.

I'm not making any judgments on these observances--I don't think it makes this society "good" or "bad" that the police take pay-offs (which I'm sure happens everywhere, in varying degrees) or that women aren't supposed to smoke. I am simply interested in seeing this new culture, and how it works differently from those that I am used to. It's opening my eyes.

To close, a photo of Chilli:
She kind of looks like she's doing the Thriller dance, doesn't she? That or "Backstreet's Back" (Alright!). Not sure.

Vote vote vote like a baby stoat!

Yes, I'm a weirdo, and the post title was totally ripped from a Cute Overload concept. Don't judge.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning I finally decided to give up on ever receiving my official California ballot, the one that I ordered 3 weeks ago, and go in to the US Consulate and get an emergency one. They open at 8 a.m., so I notified my boss that I would be late and headed over there. Well, as all bureaucratic (it took me 3 tries to spell that correctly) offices go, I was there at 8 and they let me in, but the actually offices don't open until 8:30. Got my ballot, went over to work.

According to the consulate, I can go to the Fedex International office and they'll mail my ballot for free before October 29th...which is today. I told myself that after work yesterday I would go straight to Fedex to mail it, but then I left the emergency ballot on my desk at work, and cursed myself all the way home for being flakey.

Then I get home and find this on the coffee table.

The universe is telling me to vote. And, I could maybe vote twice now that I have two ballots. But I won't, and have given the emergency one (which is a write-in absentee ballot, allowing you only to vote for President, Senate, and House Rep) to Julia, so she can do her civic duty.

And today, for SURE, I am going after work to Fedex to mail this sucker in. If they won't let me do it for free, I'll make a stink. That, or I'll just pay. It's for a good cause.

a localized drought...

...in our house. The pump that brings the water up from the pipes to the tank on the roof, which then powers our toilets, showers and faucets is now broken. So we all wake up, a little bit hung over after our barbecue last night (which was incredibly enjoyable), desperately in need of a shower and a good toothbrushing and--no water. It's gonna be a great Sunday.

A Spring Roll Adventure

Last week, Thi and Jan and I endeavored (and succeeded!) to make fried spring rolls. First Thi made a mixture of ground pork, thin noodles cut up with scissors, mushrooms, garlic, onions, and black pepper. Then we peeled apart these super thin sheets of what I'm assuming is rice paper and rolled them up.

Here's Thi, demonstrating.

Then I gave it a try. Apparently, I'm a natural. Jan, however...

His turned out a little sloppy. We made fun of it for it, which I'm sure he enjoyed.

The end result: yummy fried spring rolls, eaten with rice and greens and cheap Da Lat red wine. Dee-lish.

Sorry for the delay

...But I had a helluva weekend and am super tired. I will try to post later today or tonight. I've got tons to say, but making my brain work is a daunting task at the moment.

More to come.

Shots from my weekend

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in while, but the internet at my house is sporadic. But I'm here, and still blogging.

This is the stir-fry that I've told many of you about. This woman has a cart across the street from where I live, and she just has a big skillet where she fries potatoes, noodles, pork, eggs, greens, and onions in soy sauce. Then she put a huge amount of it (see below) in a to-go container and sells it for 12,000 dong. 16,000 dong is a dollar, so that's about $0.75 for dinner. It is sooooo good, and allows me to be lazy without feeling too guilty. There is also a cart selling spring rolls (the cold kind, not the fried kind) for 1,000 dong each, if I want to feel healthier.

That was my Saturday night dinner, that I had before going out with Thi to a few clubs (it was kind of a bust; we kept having weird guys dancing with us, so we had to stragetically position ourselves on the dance floor for maximum space with minimum sketch factor). Sunday morning Thi took me, still in my pajamas, to an alley nearby that is a market in the mornings. She bought stuff and helped my buy stuff, and the Vietnamese women kept telling her (she translated for me) that they loved my skin. (Also, someone this morning whizzed by on a motorbike on my way to work and like, rubbed my arm for good luck. It was super weird. All my life I've felt like being pale was a bad thing, but now people are rubbing me for luck! It's a crazy world.)

So the market had meat, vegetables, rice, noodles, household items, clothes, everything (More photos on Facebook).

I had no idea this many kinds of rice existed, or what the difference is, beyond the price.


Once we got back home and cooked brunch (fried eggs and bread and fruit for me, fried noodles with pork and greens for Thi), I went to the Hash (http://www.saigonh3.com/) to get some exercise and be outdoors. Here are the runners taking off:


This is a strangler fig tree, also known as a banyan, also known as a Bodhi tree, because according to legend the Buddha found enlightenment under one of these (I know SO much about Buddha now!). I think they are the coolest things ever, since their roots grow down from branches to reach the ground for water. They grow over statues, temples, other trees, anything that stands in their way.


This is J.P. Met him on the first Hash that I did a few weeks ago, and this week he was the Hare, which means he set the course. They made him drink a lot of beer as a reward/punishment.


Beer time. "Drink it down down down down, down down down down..." (This is called the "Down Down" song, to chug along to.)


That was my weekend. Got home from the Hash around 7:30, just in time for the power to go out again. This time, it was a circuit or something, because all we had to do was flip a few switches to get it back. Unfortunately, I did not know this until Maraj got home, so I ate dinner by candlelight.

Happy Monday, everybody. (Groan)

On being a foreigner

As I was on the back of my xe om on my way home, I was struck with the realization of how to verbalize the odd feeling that has been plaguing me a lot lately. When I first got here, I felt it almost immediately, and it manifested itself in the thought, "My parents won't like it here." Every time I've moved somewhere (i.e., Chicago, Paris, and now here), my parents plan to visit me, and when I thought of that I felt uncomfortable. And I didn't know how to explain that discomfort, or why exactly I felt it.

(Note: Mom and Dad, I know you're reading this, which is cool. It just felt like an idea that I'd share with everyone.)

When I moved to Paris, I was (obviously) a foreigner. And I felt like one in some big or small way the whole time; I cannot fully escape my American perspective--that is to say, my unique perspective on life that is colored by the fact that I have grown up in somewhere that is not France, and I did not expect to. But in Paris I felt more and more at home; Speaking the language and, let's face it, looking like everyone else helped me feel like I could blend in and belong.

Here, I am constantly reminded that I am different. And I know that I've only been here a month, and that I should not be making hasty judgments, but this is more like an observation, and it is one that has been confirmed by every foreigner that I've met here who has been here much longer than I have. In this city, I get the distinct feeling that I will always be a foreigner. I don't look like everyone else, I don't speak the language, and I come from a culture that is a fixation for many of the people here. The result is that I get yelled at (not negatively, just "Hello! Where you from?" or "Motorbike?") and stared at and spoken to by random people, and that anyone selling anything will automatically hike up the price for me. The people I see from day to day recognize me and remember me because I am a foreigner, because I am that blond girl who buys coffee every day or who bought noodles just once.

Now, I'm not saying this is a tremendously bad thing, and it's something that I'm sure I will get used to (or not, and I'll deal). This experience will mold me like all others have into a different person than I am now, which is something I welcome. But it is not for everyone.

I've run out of steam on this for right now. It may be a subject that I'll return to.

Stuff from all over

For a while I've been very much annoyed with the florescent lights in my room; being assaulted by blinding white light when i get home from work is not conducive to relaxation. So during one of the power outages last week, I ventured out into Pham Ngu Lao for dinner and to stroll around. And found a woman selling really cool lamps. I bought one (the below picture is up against my mirror), and it came disassembled, so it was a bitch to put together. However, I finally succeeded:


This is my street. The gate directly on the left is my house. I took this on Saturday when I went out to walk to Cholon, the Chinatown area of Ho Chi Minh City.


And, of course, there are these all over. It's the only American chain here (well, ok, there is one Pizza Hut in the most "Westernized" neighborhood of the city)--which surprises me, because I expected that Macdonald's would have achieved world domination by this point. KFC here does have really good iced coffee, though. (It started raining, so I went inside for one to wait until the rain passed.)


I walked to a street in Cholon that is filled with traditional herb markets--basically, every store had huge burlap sacks of herbs. The smell was potent, in a pleasant way. Every once in a while I came across an apothecary selling, amoung other things, snake wine (wikipedia it, I don't want to explain it right now) and dried seahorses in jars. I kind of wanted to take a picture, but I thought they might not appreciate it if I wasn't buying anything.

That's about all I've got right now.

Typhoons are fun

Last night we had another giant storm, and the power went out again (It had gone out on Wednesday night, too). I was the only one home, so I used my cell phone for light and went to find candles and Ruth's lighter, and then I camped out on the couch with a book and read by candlelight. Was not all that unpleasant, actually. But hopefully tonight that doesn't happen again. I'm getting sick of it.

Unrelated side note: this morning on my way to work I saw a monk in a bright orange, um, monk suit (what are their robes called??) and waiting for the bus. I smiled.

And now, a story about kittens

Kitty 1: I believe this helmet will be a perfect place to take a nap. And it's Ruth's, and she doesn't like us kittens. Even better. (Promptly curls up and falls asleep)


Kitten 2: I can has warm cozy helmet?!


Kitten 2: Ah, yes. Very comfortabuhls.


They are cute little monsters, aren't they?

A differing of values

On a gorgeous, sunny Saturday such as this one, my first impulse is to don a tank top, shorts, flip flops, and shades, slather on some sunscreen, and head outside. I come from a city where being bronzed and blond is the thing to do, and while I have never emulated those orange-skinned peroxide blond starlets on the covers of the tabloids, I do believe that a little glow looks healthy. Not that I've ever really been able to achieve that, but no matter. I don't stop trying.

However, here it is just the opposite. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and beauty salons sell "whitening cream"--in fact, pretty much every skin product you get, whether it's a cleanser or a lotion or something, will probably advertise that it will whiten your skin as well. People don't want to be tan, they want to be pale and pink-skinned. So today, all the women on motorbikes (besides me) are in long-sleeved shirts or t-shirts with long gloves on, socks on under their sandals. Those walking around have umbrellas and big floppy hats. In short, no skin exposed.

It certainly is interesting to be a pale-skinned, pseudo-blond girl in this city. I don't care how admired my paleness is here; I'm heading outside.

Sunday Excursion

Jan and I went to Giac Lam Pagoda, which is apparently one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the city. This pagoda, which I think is a stupa to house relics (It's amazing how much I know about Buddhism now, what with the book I'm working on), is one of the tallest buildings in the city, at 7 stories. That gives you an idea of the shortness of the places--no skyscrapers here. And it's pretty flat, like Chicago.

Anyway, the temple itself was a little disappointing; there were a lot of statues of Buddha and a TON of incense burning, but I think we felt like we were imposing. The best part: an older monk walking around smiled at Jan and gestured to his own face, and then made the thumbs-up sign. I think he was saying Jan has a handsome face, which of course I interpreted as "Omg, Jan! I think that monk just hit on you!" To which Jan was like, "Hey cool, whatever." He's a
pretty laid-back dude.

We walked in, hoping to be able to climb to the top, but the stairs were gated. Then an older woman gestured for us to go on up, starting the typical exchange of us gesturing to say "Are you sure? It's ok?" And she kept gesturing "Go, go." So we went. And this is the view of the city. This is not the direction of where I live, but it's the nicest shot I got that gives a good impression of the city. We just barely missed seeing the sunset, but I got a good picture of the post-sunset sky.

Then we descended and felt hungry, so we went
to--wait for it--KFC. Yep. Got some fried chicken and ice cream, and enjoyed it. I don't think I've had KFC in the states since middle school, when we had it for hot lunches. Jo and I did get it once in Paris, in a moment of weakness. And we both felt terribly guilty about it for a second or two, and then we tore into our drumsticks and felt better.

In any event, that was my Sunday. Pretty cool, I think. And tonight I'm going to a pub called Le Pub (very original) where they have a Trivia Night! And it's on Tuesdays, just like the one at the U of C Pub. Weird, huh? Although, Tuesday night here is Tuesday morning there, so it's not exactly at the same time, but still. I think it's cool. So I'm going to go to that and hopefully drag Jan and Ruth along with me.

Gotta bone up on my useless knowledge.

Dragonfruit, coffee, and commercial zoning

I am loving the fruit here. The tropical climate produces all sorts of funky fruits, and my current favorite is dragonfruit. And it's pretty!

I am also a fan of what the Vietnamese call "chom chom" (I have no idea how that's spelled); they're kind of like lychees (lichees?) but they're more colorful and spikier on the outside. Mmmm...

And this is what gets me through the day--well, about four of these:

Vietnamese coffee, for those who haven't had it, is strong and sweet. (For the Chicago folks, if you go to Noodles on 57th, they make a good cup of it.) You can get it iced or hot from street vendors, and I get an iced one every morning and then make a bunch more at work.

I'm not really going to write about commercial zoning, but I have observed something that seems like zoning in this city, except that I can't imagine why the government would want to do so in this way. To preface this, what I noticed (and got spoiled by) in Paris was the proximity of everything. Within a few-block radius of anywhere you were bound to find at least one pharmacy, lock & key, small grocery, hair salon, bakery, etc. While Ho Chi Minh City is not huge, it is not so easy to just walk out the door and find what you need. You will never find just one store selling something, but rather 5 or 6 in a row; in my neighborhood, for example, you will find almost nothing but motorbike mechanics. I have seen whole blocks selling nothing but furniture, guitars, car parts, baby food, bike helmets, and--weirdly enough--model ships. It's like the only way to compete with a business is to open one next door. Moreover, with the lack of public transportation and the tricky-to-navigate sidewalks, it means that if I do need to go over to the furniture neighborhood I have to hail a xe om (that's the motorbike taxi) and pay to go there. I actually am going to try to walk over to get some furniture tomorrow, and we'll see what happens. First I have to find the right street.

Where I Live

I thought I'd give you a brief tour of the place. Sorry for the washed-out look; we do, in fact, have florescent lighting (which sucks, but is easily remedied with tricky light coverings) and I used the flash to take these.

This is my room, seen from the doorway. Not that big, but I've got plenty of space. Need to get some furniture--some drawers would be nice, or a cheap desk--but we'll see. I also need to deal with those big blank walls; I never feel quite at home until I've got things to look at. White walls make me uncomfortable.
Here's the kitchen area. Once again, I'm living somewhere without an oven, but I'll deal. Not many of us cook in this house...not even myself yet, beyond ramen. Which doesn't really count.
On the other side of the stairs from the kitchen is the living room area: couple of couches, a shelf for shoes, a TV, and moped parking. Lots of space. We want to have a party sometime in the near future.
And lastly, trouble 1 and trouble 2. Garlic and Ginger--I still can't tell them apart, no matter how many times Maraj tells me their differences. I couldn't get a good photo of the big cat, Chili. Obviously, this is going to lead somewhere dangerous:
Kitties are kind of exhausting because they always have to be watched; it's so easy for them to get into something they shouldn't, or pee somewhere they shouldn't. You can't just let them be...I can't, anyway. I worry too much. That, and I have the scratches to prove how difficult they can be to remove from trouble.

In any event, that's the rundown. To end, I wanted to stick in a quotation from one of my favorite books ever, which I am now in the process of rereading: Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

"We underestimate our fellow humans because we underestimate ourselves. They--we--are capable of being much more than we seem. Many of us are able to answer life's darkest questions. We just don't know if we can come up with the answers to the riddles until we're asked."