1 Month, 2 Classes, 99 degrees

To start off, today marked the official first month of my exchange in Vietnam! I arrived 31 days ago on a hot, humid evening after 16 long hours of travel split by 2 different flights. Since then I've tried virtually every edible animal that lives in the ocean (that's been deemed acceptable to eat), experienced Vietnamese school as an American student, gotten lost in the city, swam in the ocean, ridden a motorcycle, bargained for an item, eaten street food, and despised the heat.

On Saturday morning I woke bright and early for my second Vietnamese language lesson in downtown Hanoi. To be honest, I was kind of dreading the lesson since I wasn't sure about my teacher and I wasn't sure if this class was worth the hefty price and confusing scheduling. Anyway, I left the Ecopark with Dung's parents and Anna after having a breakfast of sticky rice. Dung's parents always stay in the city on the weekend and on Saturday were also going for the funeral of Anh's great aunt. I didn't go to the funeral for obvious reasons and instead trekked up the four flights of stairs to my language lesson. In the morning I learned about personal pronouns which are very important in Vietnamese. There are more than 12 different ways to describe yourself in conversation with another person and each depends on age and gender. Thus in Vietnam, it is completely normal and not inappropriate, to ask someone's age upon meeting them. We also covered directional words and how to ask for directions, a lesson that was prompted by my unsuccessful rock climbing excursion a few days prior.

The class is scheduled with lessons in the morning, then lunch and exploring time in the afternoon. For lunch, Viet (my teacher) and I went to an Australian-founded restaurant called "Koto" which trains underprivileged youth in cooking, serving, and other hospitality related skills before sending them out to work in those types of jobs at various Koto-affiliated locations. I tried "stir-fried pho" which featured fried noodles as the garnish over a huge pile of stir-fried carrots, bean sprouts, celery, morning glory, tofu, beef, and cilantro. It was really more of a vegetable dish than a noodle dish but it tasted great anyway, so I was satisfied. The restaurant was definitely a tourist destination; we saw French, Australian, German, American, Irish, and Japanese tourists come in for lunch while we were eating. I thinks it's popular among tourists since it's across the street from the 1st University of Hanoi (a large tourist attraction), and all the servers speak English. We didn't do much sightseeing on Saturday since we didn't have the chance to plan out the day prior to the class but we did see some celebrations for the 70th anniversary of Vietnam's independence.

After the language lesson the driver picked me up and drove me back to the Ecopark for the evening. Because Anh and Dung were at the funeral and Dung's parents were in the city, I was alone for the rest of the night. I made myself noodles for dinner before getting ready for

the next day. At 11PM I Skyped my parents in Seattle and stayed up until 1:15 talking to them! It was good to say hello and have a real conversation since in Vietnam, my Vietnamese conversations are limited by my abilities and my English conversations are limited by others abilities. I got to hear about their dinner on Thursday; it was my dad's birthday and for dinner he chose to eat at Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Seattle. Apparently it was very good and someplace to visit when I return from Vietnam. Once we realized how late it was, they said "goodnight", and I said "have a good day," since it was 1AM in Vietnam but 11AM in Seattle.

I woke up early again on Sunday and had a quick breakfast before heading to the city for another language lesson. I was even a little early since the driver had no one else to drop off or wait for so Viet and I got started right away with dialogue on making purchases. We covered numbers, phrases - including "dat qua the!" (too expensive!), "bao nhieu tien?" (how much does it cost), and "tat ca" (total cost) - and more conversations using personal pronouns.

For lunch we went to Koto again; today I had rice vermicelli noodles with tofu, eggplant, peanuts, bean sprouts, lime, and lots of basil. It was delicious but with less vegetables than Saturday's dish. We were sort of pushed away from our table by a boisterous German couple who sat down next to me while I was still paying and before

the busser had finished clearing the table.. It was a little odd but we were finished eating so we headed out for the afternoon. I had checked the weather report in the morning which listed the high as 92 for the day but walking on the hot, paved, and sunny streets, the temperature felt much higher. We stopped at a cafe to rest and the temperature was 99 degrees! Combine that with 89% humidity, a full afternoon sun, hundreds of thousands of vehicles driving, and dark pavement, it felt more like 110 degrees! It was truly awful for the part of the walk that led us to the bookstore where I had to purchase my school books. Though I had lathered my legs in sunscreen and worn a UV long-sleeve shirt, it felt like my legs were physically burning from the heat and sunlight. On the walk from the bookstore back to the Old Quarter, we went on a smaller, alley-like street which was shaded and much more pleasant.

Our walk from the bookstore to the Old Quarter was about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) so when we got closer to the heart of the city we hopped on a bus to the Old Quarter. It was 7,000 Vietnamese dong to ride which I calculated was 32 cents! The bus was much smaller than any public bus in Seattle but it was air conditioned, cheap, and had seats so it was a fine ride. We explored the Old Quarter in a quest to find a new backpack for me. I brought my big, teal school bag to Vietnam but it is too big to bring to school and my drawstring bag is starting to fall apart.. I had also heard that Vietnam

is famous for cheap reproductions of high-quality American brand items, so I thought that with the many backpack stores in Hanoi, we would find a nice bag. We stopped at a couple stores before I found a very nice backpack from The North Face. It's orange with blue accents and teal-green water bottle pocket pouches. I still can't tell if its legitimate or fake, but I decided that it doesn't really matter since it's still good quality and I got it for a steal! The woman first told me the price was 500,000 VN dong but with the help of Viet, we got her down to 400,000 VN dong ($18.20), which for a real (or very high-quality reproduction) North Face bag is a great deal. I won't be throwing out my old backpack yet (don't worry Mom), but it will be nice to have a slightly smaller one for school.

After we bought the bag we headed back to the language school since it was almost time for the driver to pick me up. We went and got the rest of the family from the city apartment, then headed back to the Ecopark. Since it was still in the mid-90's when we got back we went swimming at the fancy pool in the Private Villas. It was a nice evening swim although I the water was a little too warm to be very refreshing. The thing is, the pool isn't heated, so it was very clear of how hot it had been in the day for the pool to still be as warm as it was. We stayed until the sun had almost set, then headed home for dinner.

I'm getting ready for the day now and am starting to fall asleep from my long and tiring day today.. Whether you've followed these posts since my first one on July 18th or this is your first time seeing it, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy my posts, sometimes it's hard to come up with things to write, but I know that when I return from my trip and in years to come, reading these posts will be a good way to remember my exchange. So, it's goodnight for me and happy Sunday for you, have a great week!