Mini update for Wednesday, June 22.

First, a few things I forgot in the previous update, which you should read as well:

-I saw an elephant on my way to work one day. It was riding around in the back of a truck, which was blasting some sort of message (presumably about the elephant) over a loud speaker. It was a bit odd, but I guess elephants just sometimes get rides in the back of trucks here.

-I went kayaking in Halong Bay also, and it was awesome. Lavinia and I shared a kayak and coordinated well (but I was the one in the back, so I take all the credit). We explored a small section of the bay and went in search of mini-caves that we could kayak into. We found a few, but I have no pictures from that part because I was afraid of getting my camera wet.

-I had a motorbike lesson! (Don't freak out.) It's actually not too hard, and I'm going to continue to practice this week and then I think next week I'm going to rent one for the remainder of my time so that I can more easily explore the areas around Hanoi.

Now, about today:

When I got to work, the internet was down and I didn't really know what I could do without internet access, so I decided I would go exploring on my bicycle, with the vague idea that I would try to find the old quarter and maybe do some shopping. I wasn't quite sure how to get there, though, as I had no chance to check out Google maps and I didn't have a map of the city with me. So I made a few random turns but thought I had an idea of what direction I was going and after about an hour and a half I concluded that I was fully lost. Half an hour after that I called Sarah at work and tried to explain where I was so that someone could give me directions or come find me, but the internet was still down, and my phone died in the middle of the call. So I started riding back in the direction I had come, thinking it looked like it was getting too rural in front of me, and continued to try to go toward larger buildings. I stopped once for water and then again at a cafe that said it had free wifi thinking that perhaps it would have a computer that I could use as well. Alas, they did not. So I asked the servers if anyone spoke English. Again, a disappointing no. So I drew a crude map and managed to indicate that I wanted to know where I was, and that I wanted to know how to get to Big C (because I can get to work from there). It turned out I had ended up fairly close to work when I was at the Cafe and it only took a few minutes for me to get back after I got my basic directions figured out, and finally, after 3 hours of wandering the city on my bicycle, I arrived back at work, dehydrated and sunburned, but not too exhausted.

And now the internet is back AND I have work I can do! Basic statistics and learning SPSS, whee!

I really need to learn more Vietnamese.