Hanoi in the Rain and Birthday Cake

As I mentioned in the last post, Friday was Dung's mother's birthday. She turned 65 and we celebrated on Saturday night in the apartment with Anh's parents who came over from the city. During the day on Saturday, I had my last language class. I had the typical morning lesson then we went out for the afternoon for lunch and walking in Hanoi. I wanted to get banh my one last time so Viet and I walked there first; it's a pretty long walk from the language school and we made it just as the rain started coming down. It was raining so hard that we ended up sitting it out and ordering another sandwich while we waited. I think we spent almost an hour there and it hadn't even stopped raining when we left but it had slowed enough that with an umbrella, it was okay to walk.

Luckily, many people were selling rain ponchos on the street because a few minutes later it started dumping again. I got a green one for 10,000 dong (about 45 cents) and was able to slip it on right as the rain started coming down really hard. We made our way through the old

Quarter in the rain and stopped at a few places to buy some gifts. I can't go into detail about what I bought because many of the things are for people who read this blog, but I did get many good deals and did some bargaining as well. Our last stop on our slow way back to the bus was at the St. Josephs Cathedral in the old Quarter. It wasn't a planned visit but we stumbled upon it while walking back to Hoan Kiem and decided to take a look inside. It was built in 1886 by the French and was a big point of conflict after the Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam in 1954. We met an old volunteer/service member who was sitting in the pews making sure visitors weren't being disrespectful or breaking the rules. After I found a set of keys in one of the pews and gave them to him he began talking to Viet. He was a super kind and interesting guy and talked a lot about the history of the church like the conflict in the 1950's (which he was a part of). At one point when tensions were especially high, supporters

of the church were asked to go to the US to raise awareness about the issue and gain some backing; he refused to go because many supporters in Hanoi were being prosecuted and arrested for supporting the church. I figured if he had been a part of this history he must be at least 75 but he told us that he was actually 90 years old! It was very interesting listening to him talk and he certainly had a lot to say about a number of topics. He also told us how the church holds services throughout the weekend in many languages including Vietnamese, English, French, and even Korean. Anyway, after we said goodbye to him we headed off to the bus stop near the Opera House. I thanked Viet for his lessons and we agreed to meet up sometime before I go back to the US - probably when Lily comes since he wanted to show her around the city as he has with me.

I made it back to the Ecopark around 5 and found the apartment full of noise. For my grandmother's dinner we had hot pot so there was a lot of prep going on in the kitchen. That - and in the sink sat three, very angry looking crabs. Dung was on the floor making a cake so I sat down to help her but after looking over her recipe, we both thought I should make one using my own recipe. We only had ingredients for vanilla cake so I ended up making a round vanilla cake with buttercream. Usually when I make cakes I like to put fruits like blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries in the middle but we don't have any of those in Vietnam so I ended

up just putting coffee into the buttercream and calling it good. It actually ended up being my grandmother's favorite part of the cake so it wasn't a bad idea on my part. The cake cooked as the eight of us ate a very large hot-pot meal with crab, clams, and shrimp. The men had beer and the women (minus Anna) had Japanese plum wine; it was a great meal and I think a good celebration for Dung's mother.

Unfortunately Anh's parents left before the cake was done but the remaining six of us sang "Happy Birthday" and had cake. Anna refused to eat any but she enthusiastically sang happy birthday so it was okay. By the end of the night we were all very tired and I went to bed after cleaning the cake pans and dishes. I wanted to sleep in on Sunday morning but still somehow woke up at 8 AM. I begrudgingly got up and ate breakfast but had a lazy morning because I was still so tired. Dung got up later at 10 and Anh wasn't up until lunchtime around noon... We had noodles with beef, greens and broth - not technically pho but it actually tasted a lot like the pho you get in the U.S. After lunch I went walking outside with Anna, then back in to do homework. Everyone else likes to nap in the afternoon but I don't like napping very much so I usually continue with whatever I'm doing while everyone else sleeps. Anh didn't nap either since he had just woken up so we both moved quietly about the apartment.

We had dinner a couple of hours ago now and I'm about ready to go to bed.. In other news, I received my first college acceptance from Colorado State University! I still have to wait for 8 other replies but it was exciting to receive that first one so soon. Anyway, thanks for reading and have a great Sunday!