The Longest Storm and the First Cool Day

I've had a typical week so far with school which started with the morning assembly. This week it was so hot that we had the assembly inside the gym where we sat on the floor and in the bleachers above the court to watch the announcements and a few student performances.

For the performances, one boy danced to Uptown Funk, a boy from my class did some breakdancing, and this really cute girl who was probably 7 years old sang along to a Vietnamese song. The last performance was some beat boxing by (my friend) The Anh! He did a routine that started with some bass and evolved to end with a short rendition of "Billie Jean." It was a great performance he was really fun to watch. Our whole class cheered loudly at the end.

After dinner on Monday where we had some new dishes like stir-fried pork and peppers, and beef with veggies, Anna and I went on our typical walk to the playground. She had fun sliding down the

slide; the first time we went, I tried to play with her on the playground but I was actually too big for it! Instead, I sat nearby until she had gone down the slide as many times as she wanted. Then we walked back to our block (A1), went up to the apartment, and drew pictures.

On Tuesday I had a bit of a discouraging day at school. There were pop quizzes in both Geography and Chemistry and since they were both in Vietnamese, I struggled with answering the questions. The geography teacher let me take home the test to translate it instead of making me answer the questions but the Chemistry teacher was less understanding. I managed to translate it and answer the questions correctly with some help from Ha but it took me a lot longer to complete the questions than it did everyone else in the class. I think the Chemistry teacher was very surprised that I was able to do the test so I felt encouraged that I was able to grasp some of the concepts, even if they were taught in Vietnamese. At dinner in the evening, we had more new food like an omelet-egg dish, and tofu with ground beef and tomatoes. Afterwards, Anna and I went on another walk in the evening and she played on the slide for a while.

Wednesday was the hottest day yet, I think it was 95 degrees during the day and it was also very humid. We had the air conditioning on all day in class and each time I left the classroom, it felt like I was stepping

into a sauna! In the afternoon we got to go to the computer lab again and I excelled at Excel. The Anh also showed me how to type each Vietnamese accent; I would need to download a Vietnamese keyboard software on my computer to do the same thing at home but now I at least know how to type on a computer that's set to Vietnamese.

About an hour after I got home on Wednesday, the sky started to get very dark and stormy. The clouds weren't as distinctly grey as the are in Seattle when it rains because the air is already so grey and smoggy, but the sky did get dark and stormy. Once the rain started, it persisted for about 4 hours through the time that we ate dinner but it let up around 9PM. The thunder and lightning kept going though and the sky didn't stop flashing until after I went to bed at 11:15! I'm not sure when the storm finally let up but it certainly cleared up the air because this morning, I could actually see the city and all of its buildings. Usually downtown Hanoi is obscured by the thick, grey, smoggy air but there was none of that today and it turned out to be a very nice day. When I left the apartment for school, it even felt cold! There was a slight wind, much less humidity, and a lower temperature - I think around 80 degrees. We didn't have to turn on the air conditioner at all during the school day and the short walk home was cool and pleasant. It's when I checked the weather app that I realized how accustomed I've gotten to the weather in Vietnam; it felt like a cool day for me even though the temperature was 88 and the humidity was 60%. I think I'll be very cold when I get back to Seattle in December.

This weekend I have more language lessons planned with Viet. Hopefully, it wont be as hot and sunny as it was last weekend because that heat was truly unpleasant. Anyway, I'll be back with an update on Sunday. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week!