After an uneventful week, I decided to write something a little different. I've discovered a very timely and persistent bird that lives (what sounds like) just outside the classroom window. Every day around 9 AM, I hear the steady chirping of this bird; it starts and chirps until it runs out of air, pauses, then starts again. I can't even think of how long it chirps for since I tune it out after a certain point but it made me think of the animal sounds I don't miss hearing in the Seattle.

Pigeons are the main bird on my mind; there are thankfully (almost) no pigeons in Vietnam. The only one I've seen here was dead and in the hands of a kid at my school. I don't know where it came from or how he ended up with it but I didn't really want to know - I just saw that he had a dead bird, turned around, and walked away quickly. At home in Seattle we have some very persistent pigeons that like to nest in the eaves of our roof. Even after throwing (and hitting them) with rocks, and attaching bird spikes to the rafters underneath the eaves, they still come back! I don't know the situation now since it's been a while since I've been home, but I certainly don't miss their annoying coo-ing 24/7 that can only be shut up if I go downstairs, outside, and throw a rock up at them. They've become less scared too so even if you hit them, they don't always leave! Anyway, I'm certainly glad we don't have pigeons in Vietnam.

Instead, there are small birds like the one outside my classroom, an inconsistent rooster that lives on Truc Street, and crickets. I love the sounds of crickets in the night. It's hard to hear them from the 17th floor but if my window's open, everyone's asleep (i.e. the TV is off), and the air con is off, I can hear them 17 stories down and their chirping is very peaceful.

There are tons of other bugs too and oh-so-many flies, but I can't say I enjoy the flies buzzing around my ears and landing on me while I'm trying to write. The windows are always open at school since it's too warm to keep them shut so there are many flies, some wasps, and the occasional dragonfly that will get in, then promptly fly up and sit inside the lights on the ceiling. It's always fun to watch the dragonflies that get in but anytime there's a wasp, everyone (including me) freaks out and tries to avoid it's flight course until it leaves - Duc Anh usually runs out of the room. I've noticed an increase in the number of bugs in the fall and I hypothesized that there are more bugs in Vietnam now because it's finally cool enough for the bugs. In Seattle they wait until Summer for the temperature to get up to 75 or 80 but in Vietnam, they wait until Fall for the temperature to get down to 75 or 80. Consequently, there are many fruit flies and these nasty stinger ants in the apartment right now. Fruit flies are hard to smack in the air, and the ants are virtually indestructible; I smashed one in a tissue the other day (or so I thought) and when I opened up the tissue to make sure it was dead, it was unscathed and trying to escape! I eventually had to resort to putting the balled up tissue under the chair leg and sitting on the chair to kill it! I'm sure they're nothing compared to the bugs you can find in places like Australia but they're certainly not anything I'm used to.

I hope you enjoyed this different sort of post, like I said, the week has been uneventful so there wasn't much to write about. I hope everyone had a great Veterans Day (and day off)! I'll probably be headed to the city this weekend for climbing and to pay for the Vietnam tour Lily and I are taking - it's officially been booked! Anyway, thanks for reading and have a great day!