Schedules….
I think schedules are so important to Americans. My life is one big schedule. Even my vacations are scheduled…my husband calls me ‘The General.’ (I personally feel that I am much more flexible with vacation time than regular life time, but that is another discussion.) Anyway, our schedules back home are run by various things, primarily time. The boys’ school schedule is run by bus transit, but it still works within the parameter of time.
Here, though, it’s HEAT that runs the schedule. It took me about 9 days to figure this out, but I got it. The rooster down the street wakes up around (I say “around” because I refuse to even look at my clock to check. The little %^$^&& needs eyeshades, in my opinion.) at 4:00 am, with the first barely visible glow of sunrise. Within the hour, the park is filling up with the aerobics group, the tai chi groups, the badmitton players (they string their nets across one of the side street, about 4 games going one every morning) and the walkers. I even saw a couple of runners this morning! The street vendors start setting up about 5:00 am as well. I took a walk around the neighborhood and down the main street and saw them putting out their food and filling small bags with sauces—a kind of ‘take out’ system.
The traffic starts to pick up some time between 6 and 6:30. A few badmitton players are still out, but most everyone else is either in the house or eating/drinking coffee or riding to work.
When we get out of school at noon (we stay and get on the internet for a couple of hours after class) the traffic is teeming, but there isn’t much other activity. People are quiet. We see them laying on hammocks or sprawled on the floor inside their living rooms with the French doors wide open.
It stays this way pretty much until the sun goes down. Then, it’s just like 5:00 am all over again, only louder because all the kids are out. They’re screaming, running around, laughing and playing from about 6:30 or 7:00 until about 10:00. At about 10:00, someone flips a switch, and everyone goes to bed.
Our schedule is fitting into this pretty well. I don’t need an alarm clock, for actually, the music wakes me up pretty gently. Yesterday, I did a little stretching on my balcony while they did Tai chi below; today, I went for a walk.
We’ve gotten in the habit of having fruit for breakfast in our room. We’ve been to the Big C supermarket three times since we got here, which pretty much makes it every 3 days. I think I’ve spent $100 so far on food and essentials, but that includes a $5 pillow that is to die for. We’ve bought 2 cases of bottled water, a couple packs of NesCafe (gotta get some more of that—drank the last one this morning) some Coke, Fanta, and Sprite, and snacks for Anthony, particularly potato chips and these funky coconut coated peanuts. I also bought my own toilet paper because the hotel’s TP is like gauze, and neither of us liked it. Oh, and of course, we bought fruit.
We have no problem getting to the school at 7:00 am, bright eyed and bushy tailed. For Week 1, they had us teach 3 days, which was understandable because we were getting acclimated on Monday. Anthony and I have decided that on teaching days, we’ll stay at the school for a few hours every day to use the internet. This means that we’re online from about 11 am to 1 or 2 pm every day VN time, if you want to get ahold of us. I recommend that you upload Skype (for free) and then search for anthonypasinato1 to find Anthony. You can add him, and he will accept you as a contact. You don’t need the video to communicate with us. He generally chats with his girlfriend via skype text message, and Tony and I talked for an hour yesterday just using the Call function, not the videocall. I generally try to do my typing in the evening, on a word document, so that I can just upload it quickly and send it out as an email attachment. I hope no one minds the ‘form letter’ style.
Yesterday, we ate lunch at the school, which is what we would like to do every day that we teach. The food is great, and I don’t have to guess at a menu, and I know where the food came from and (basically) who cooked it. Plus, it gives Anthony another half hour on the internet, for he can stay in the classroom while I eat with the admin, and then they make a plate for him to eat in the classroom. 
The school is great. I have some pictures of the courtyard and the cafeteria, but I only have the one of my classroom yet (where Anthony is on the computer). To mark the schedule, they use a huge drum. This is the signal for everything except my class schedule.  I just keep track of myself. We teach 45 minute hours. The students are between 16 and 17 years old, and all of the girls are in love with Anthony. He’s being a very good sport about it. The kids are kids. They’re probably more respectful to me because I have another VN teacher/interpreter in the classroom. His name is Mr. Vinh, and he’s a student at the teacher’s college. I’m going to ask him if we can come with him to visit the school some time. I’m curious. There is one girl who is amazingly clear in my first class. When I asked her, she said that she studies by listening and watching TV. Smart girl.
I think that’s about it. I’ll talk to you later!
Love
mishelle

Hung's House

Hung’s House
At 11:00 on Saturday, Hung picked us up and took us to his home for his grandmother’s anniversary of her death. It was one of the most interesting things I have witnessed, ever. I had heard, vaguely, about the whole Buddhist practice, (his mother lived in a pagoda until she was 16), but had never witnessed it firsthand.

His home is beautiful, as is his family. His mother greeted us with a huge hug when we arrived and made us feel loved and welcomed. We sat in the living room and chatted and tried some new fruits that we’d only seen in the market.


Hung’s father is in the background. This fruit was Anthony’s favorite of the bunch. It has a thick purple shell with white garlic clove looking fruit inside. It’s a bit sour, which is why he liked it.


While we were chatting, his mom, aunt, etc. brought out boxes of ramen and started bagging them to give to the poor. Hung had created 50 ‘tickets’ with his signature and given them out to a line of poor people earlier in the morning. Somewhere between 1:00 and ?? they would return to get a 5 or 10 kilo bag of rice and a bag of ramen noodle packages. I helped stuff bags! I should have taken a picture of the stack of bags of rice. It was pretty amazing.



I was really impressed with the very personal, relationship-like way of helping the poor. I think that Americans do a fabulous job of helping the poor as well, don’t get me wrong. We are an incredibly generous country. We have amazing food banks and so many (maybe too many) government programs to help the indigent. I was just impressed with how personal this system was compared to our more institutional way. By word of mouth, the jobless and starving in the neighborhood found out that today was the day for a hand-out at Hung’s house, and when the time came, Hung’s mother honored her dead mother by handing out the food with the help of her family. It was quite touching. I think Hung’s mother is quite an impressive woman.


In addition to the rice and noodles, those people who didn’t (or did, it didn’t matter) get a ticket could still get something. She prepared 3 huge trays of snacks and money to put out on the street beforehand, somewhere around noon. I donated and American dollar bill for good karma. I guess it was a big hit outside. I didn’t get to see the melee; there was a bush in the way. I kind of wanted to take a picture, but felt that it would be rude, imposing. The people who came for the food, however, were very, very, very poor, and many were handicapped mentally or physically. As I said, it made a lasting impression on me. I certainly won’t forget it. I have always appreciated what I have in my life, but this made me even more grateful.

We ate with Hung’s family. The food was amazing. I seem to be saying that a lot around here. This was particularly interesting, though, as it was all vegetarian, but looked like meat! re
I thought the little shrimp looking things were the most interesting, but even the ‘meat’ that accompanied the vegetables looked authentic.
All in all, this was an amazing day for so many reasons. Anthony says: it’s like they’re trying to give those poor people a good impression of the person who died. Like how since they are giving food to the poor in remembrance and honor to the person who died, they give an impression to the poor that she did the same thing when she was alive, and they are just carrying out her tradition.
Nicely said, I think. We also appreciate our lives just a little more, too.

Hahn Thong Tay, the Night Market

Holding up the tarp in the rain (above)

Trinh Trinh, our favorite restaurant,
after the rainy expedition:

The Coach bag


Hahn Thong Tay, the Night Market June 30, 2010 NIGHT
Nguyen Thi Minh Thu is Nguyen’s cousin’s complete name. The first two names together sound like Win Dee. I’ve started calling her Windy, and I sang her that song, “Everyone knows it’s Windy.” (Remember that one? 1950’s or early 60’s, I think?
Tonight, she came to get us at 6:30. I expected a knock on my door, so we were waiting patiently in the room. At 6:39, she called from the hotel desk; she had been waiting downstairs! Ha ha, another thing for me to learn!!  Anyway, we started walking to the market, stopping at a bakery that sells Bong Bau, a kind of Chinese stuffed meat bun. 50 cents each, and a whole meal. And it began to thunder. Lightening flashed across the sky, across the whole city. The thunder roared directly above us. And then it started to POUR.
And so, our adventure began.
It was about a 20 minute walk to the market, in the rain, in the dark, with the traffic swarming and screaming past us. Yes, we crossed streets. We crossed a street that I had sworn, just last week, that we would never, ever cross—in the daylight! Tonight, we crossed it in the dark. In the rain. It was very exciting.
I wouldn’t have traded the adventure for anything. The market was GREAT! Shoes everywhere. Jewelry at every turn. Bags, bags, bags. And more. Anthony bought some necklaces. I bought a pair of shoes for about $3.50. I bought a coach carry-on for around $10. What a score!!! And the rain came down in sheets around us, and the lightening flashed, and the thunder roared, and I wondered every once in a while how we would get home. Nguyen did all of our bargaining for us. It was great. I’m sure that the prices would have been higher without her there. She should be proud of her skills!!!

Anthony was finally ready for dinner after that, so we went back to Trinh Trinh for him to eat. Nguyen Thi and I had Heinekens. It was fair. Then, home and shower and bed!!! What a great adventure!!

June 30th

June 30th Figuring Things Out
Today was a teaching day, but only from 7am to 10am. We had one class for two hours, 7:00 to 7:45 and 8:00 to 8:45, then another class for just one hour, 9:00-9:45. Tomorrow will be the same schedule, then we are off for 3 days. Hopefully, next week we will have the ‘regular’ schedule that we planned on. It remains to be seen. However, it should be fine, as the students are coming back from break and starting classes full force next week. I guess they were on summer break these last couple of weeks. It turns out it was a nice way to ‘get our feet wet.’
The school graciously does our laundry for us. I don’t know what I’d do without them. I do wash several things by hand in my hotel room, particularly my delicate shirts and most of my underwear, but they do the bulk of it. Thank God! I’d be doing laundry all day and trying to find a place to hang it in here to dry! As it is, it often looks like a clothing store in here when we go to bed. It’s kinda cute. I seem to bring them a small bag of laundry every 3 days or so. We only brought one suitcase packed with both our clothes, so we need to wash often. I didn’t see any point in bringing two big suitcases to a country that sells luggage and mass amounts of clothes at the markets! I’m looking to buy a Coach suitcase before we go home. I saw one at Cholon market last week, so I’ll go back there and get it one of these days.
Today, Nguyen’s cousin met us at noon and showed us the closest internet café. It’s a lovely little place about 5 minutes from the hotel. We had coffee there and then walked back to the hotel so that we were sure we could find it.

Tonight she’s coming back at 6:30 to take us to Hahn Thong Tay, the Night Market. It is only open from 6:00 pm to ??? It’s a one of a kind.  We’re excited. Plus, it’s only about 10 minutes from our hotel—walking. We are doing a LOT of walking. It’s our preferred mode of transportation.
I also showed her a couple of things in my Lonely Planet book that I want to see: the Giac Lam pagoda, the oldest in HCMC, and the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre. We are going to both next Tuesday. She is also hunting down the ‘ca phe chon’ or, in Anthony’s and my translation, ‘weasel poop coffee.’ Actually, I think they feed it to ferrets, then wash it off and dry and roast it, but same family. You probably heard about it in the movie The Bucket List. Anyway, I noticed a few days ago that there were huge tarps of something drying in the park and on the sidewalks outside my hotel during the day. Today, I took a picture of that. Yup, coffee beans. I haven’t figured out if they are the weasel poop kind. I hope so!!

Traffic

Cholon

On Thursday, after teaching, Thu took us to Cholon district. Specifically, we went to Cholon Market, also called Binh Tay Market in the Lonely Planet book. It was an even huger maze of textiles, mostly wholesalers. That meant that if you liked something, you had to buy at least 10 of them. There weren't many things I needed 10 of, but I took some exceptional pictures of the food stalls, fabric stalls, and accessory stalls. The aisles were so crowded between stalls that if 2 people were going in opposite directions, one person had to crowd into any available open crevice to get through. A few times, there was no crevice available. We just turned around and went the other way in those instances....no need to see repeats of textiles and fight to get there.

We stopped at a coffee shop while we were there, and the woman spoke amazing English. She was also incredible sweet. Thu asked her about a pagoda, and they really wanted us to take a taxi (so hot! so far! such bad traffic to cross!--all true, but you can't browse and wander from a taxi!!!) We walked, and browsed, and looked, and I'm so glad we did. I found my silk lantern for my office, one goal of mine when I came here! OK, the traffic was a bit much, especially when the sidewalk AND the street closest to it were both taken up by scooters, carts, etc., but definitely worth the trouble.

The pagoda was great, too. Nice and peaceful, great incense smell throughout.

After that, Anthony was finally ready to eat for the first time that day, so we walked to the KFC that we had seen on the taxi ride into the district. Myson has his dad's sense of direction, thank god. (I can get lost in a paper bag!! Really. I once got so lost on I-5 that I was heading to Greenlake but ended up in Everett. Not entirely my fault, btw.) Anyway, he ate his day's worth of calories at that point, so I think he'll be OK.

Our stomachs are acclimating to the food and the weather. We are only drinking bottled water, as per instructed, but everything seems to be served with ice, and we may have to give that up. I don't know. We'll see what happens over the next week. I don't think I brought enough Pepto Bismol, though. We have some prescription meds if things get bad, but right now, it's just an adjustment period, I think.

OK, I have to figure out how to get these pictures onto this laptop before our next outing: Cu Chi tunnels!!

Earplugs

Earplugs saved my life. Really. I sleep with earplugs at home, and I never realized how much I relied on them. So far, I've been waking up at 2 am every morning. Most of the time, I can't get back to sleep. I'll be just to the point of drifting off, and there will be one dog that barks, or one car that honks in the distance, or at least the crickets singing at the tops of thier little lungs (or legs, I guess, as the case may be). At home, when this happened, I just threw in my earplugs and went blissfully back to sleep. Like a rock. No problems there. Here, I forgot to pack my earplugs!!! (What was I thinking?? I even looked at them on the dresser, all 6 pairs, there in a pile, but never quite made the connection to put them in my suitcase.) You would think that a girl who keeps 6 pairs of earplugs next to the bed would have thought at least that far in advance. What can I say?

Well, Nguyen's cousin, Thu, showed up on Tuesday, and I asked her to help me find earplugs. While Anthony and I took a taxi back home from the department store, she went on a hunt (unbeknownst to me) and showed up at my hotel room about 20 minutes after we arrived WITH EARPLUGS. She said she had to really search for them; they aren't popular in Vietnam. Well, people, if you decide to come here, I recommend bringing some if you are from the country/a small town like I am!

I put those babies in at 3pm and slept until 4 the next morning. 13 hours. Oh, God, it was heaven! I woke up a couple of times, once to close the balcony door at 6 pm and take a phone call, and again at midnight for the 'obvious reason.'

Hooray!!! I can sleep like a rock again!

What's the Deal About Towels??

OK, this is actually kind of amusing.
I'm a big towel user. I have to have at least 2 towels after every shower, and that doesn't include the 3rd towel that dries my toes. Oh, and then there is also often the 4th towel that goes on the counter, or that gets run across the floor, or whatever. I just can't use enough towels.

Well, the hotel people have a rule, and let me tell you, it's hard and fast. I even picked that up having it explained to me by the desk girl in Vietnamese: One Towel. One Person. One Day. Period. There is no other counting system available.

The school people got it changed for me for one day, so we'll see about it happening again. The good news is that it's hot enough that everything dries in an hour, and I seem to be using the fan to dry off anyway, so it probably won't even matter in a week!

Exploration #1

Tuesday, Day 3.
After teaching, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and snagged a taxi to District 1, the 'heart' of HCMC. We used the Lonely Planet's 'HCMC walking tour' as our guide and wandered around. Jesus, and I thought traffic was bad in GoVap district. Yikes!!!
Yes, we actually crossed the street through the mass of motorbikes all by our little lonesome selves, mom terrified all the way. It was worth it, though, because we saw some killer sites.

Probably the most amazing site was the Reunification Palace, once called Independence Palace until April 30, 1975. The decor is exactly how the president from 1963-1975, Nguyen Van Thieu, lived in it. The basement held all of the radio and communications equipment and war rooms, and even a 'war bedroom' for the president. I took lost of pictures that I will try to get posted soon.

We also walked past the Notre Dame Cathedral and over to Ben Thanh Market, which was a maze of textiles. We didn't stay too long there, but Anthony bought a couple of TShirts and I got us each a pair of sandals. I'm not sure how good my bartering skills are in the grand scheme of VN prices, but we managed to get the T-Shirts reduced by more than half, so I felt successful. I just hope I don't find the exact same pair of sandals in Go Vap for 3$$. You know??

Day 2 & 3

OK, I'm running on about 1/3 of my normal sleep. I am mean and cranky and it's way, way hot. For some reason, someone decided on our second day here that our room was inadequate. We really don't think so. In fact, we love the size: very large, with 2 queen sized beds, both memory foam. Plenty of space to not be over the top of each other getting ready in the morning. I guess they thought the bathroom was too small, but we'd already worked out a total turn-taking schedule and hung this fabulous thing that my mom found at Eddie Bauer for me on the outside of the bathroom door. We figued out that if I shower first, Anthony can use all the hot water he wants while I get ready in the room, and then I can just turn my back on him when he gets dressed, or I can go back in and brush my teeth. It works so well. And, did I tell you that we have a balcony? Oh! it's wonderful! We're on the 3rd floor and we can see the park, which comes ALIVE at 5:00. They're my alarm clock (and damn lucky, all of them, that I have to get up at that time anyway in order to get ready for work.) Anyway, so far I've beaten them all up by waking up some time between 2 and 3.
I kid you not, it is an absolutely hysterical cacophony of sound at precisely 5:00 am. The aerobics people are listening to Euro disco, the TaiChi people are listening to a Vietnamese version of Karen Carpenter, and then there's some other music thrown in for good measure with the exercisers in the middle. There are also people playing badmitton, walking, riding bikes, etc.
Then, at about 5:40, it's completely quiet again.
Anyway, on the 2nd day, they had us pack up and move to another hotel down the street, but we were so miserable in 20 minutes that I begged to be moved back. I was actually near tears, mostly because I'd only had about 2 hours sleep after a 20 hour plane ride. We didn't even unpack. The room was across from the hotel desk, next to the lobby, with construction going on on the other side of the wall. We were so happy to get back to our "real" room! Hooray!

They've tried to convince us to leave this hotel, but we're Americans, so it's all about location, location, location. We can walk to the school in 5 minutes without crossing any streets!! If you have ever seen video of VN traffic, you have a clear idea what that means to us. Plus, the people running the hotel are really nice to us (except for a towel issue that I will try to explain later--ha ha).

HERE!

Well, I don't recommend trying to fly all the way from Seattle to HCMC. Next time, I plan to spend a couple days in Seoul or be like my girlfriend and spend a couple of days in Tokyo. It was hell. However, now I'm here and safe and getting acclimated.
Well, I just got interrupted. I have to go already. Talk to you soon.