-Sarah has been back in the US, leaving me the only American at my work. It's a different sort of place when you don't have someone you can speak to in English whenever you want to...
-Alice went back to England. She was the "mother hen" of the house, because she'd been there the longest (5 months!) so it was very sad to see her go.
-I went to Sapa with Polly, Tessa, Lydia, and Mike. We trekked through the mountainous area and had a genuine homestay at the house (hut/shack/room) of a minority woman and her family (Black H'mong). The "toilet" was the bamboo forest just past the house. I also bought lots of souvenirs because they're such damn pushy salespeople. Also the stuff is really cool.
-Polly and Lydia are taking off to travel the rest of Vietnam. I'm also sad to see them go. I need to get out of here before more of my favorite people leave me.
-Lunch time is always an adventure here. One day I ate while the cook and one other girl watched/napped/chatted in Vietnamese because everyone else was out in the field or had gone out to lunch without me. Another lunch involved everyone in the office sitting around captivated while a ghost story was told that caused at least three of the women in the office to scream at was was presumably the key line of the story. Today I was supposed to be learning how to cook, because again lots of people are out, but it was a very simple meal of just boiling tofu, pork, and vegetables. Not so difficult. Not much to really learn. And then eating the meal with the other 4 women who were here while they chatted in Vietnamese. Also there was another lunch where we went out for one of the directors' birthday.
-I'm picking up Vietnamese faster now, beginning to understand sentence structure and building on vocabulary. But I still can't listen to a conversation and understand any of it.
-I might cut my placement short by about a week and travel down to the south of Vietnam with Ric from the house. I have to figure out if I can afford it, though, and if it's okay to leave, etc. It would be an amazing journey, though.
Hopefully I can get around to posting pictures (to Facebook, most likely) and a full blog entry before the end of the week. Stay posted.
Tạm biệt!
Jen
Good to have another post from you. Bamboo forest toilet? There's an obvious question to be asked, but I'll pass. Some details are probably better kept to yourself.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Dad