View from our window in Vinh Long

Hoa and I just found an Internet cafe that has computers with USB and a recent version of Windows that allows us to use our camera memory card reader. We just opened an account with flickr.com and posted a bunch of photos. I was hoping I could post on this site a link to our photo site, but I don't think you can do that with Flickr. If you want to take a look, go to flickr.com, open an account, and then take a look at the links at the bottom of the page. Look for People Search under People. You can search by our e-mail, and I think by our first names as well. I may try a different photo site, I'll let you know.

Things are going very well. We started studying Vietnamese with a tutor last Friday. We've been studying pretty hard, but I feel like I need to organize my studies better. We're also working with Hoa's cousins Le and Bich Thuy on their English. We just went to a book store and bought Bich Thuy a beginning level English study book. We also got a couple of Vietnamese language children's books for Hoa and me to use to study. All three books cost us 20,700 Dong, the equivalent of about $1.25. The books probably would have been about $15 in the U.S. We went to a party last night at the home of Hoa's Aunt Phuong and Uncle Han. I had a great time, despite unable to communicate anything other than the toast "mot, hai, ba . . . dzo [yo]. But that, and "ngon qua" -- "delicious" when dish after dish was brought to the table, was all that was really necessary. Everyone was very friendly, and I'm looking forward to learning Vietnamese so I can actually talk to them.

I've gotten together a couple times with our guide from last week's river tour. He stopped by yesterday to see if I wanted to go fishing with him and a couple of his friends. We fished on the river at a place where there's a restaurant that will cook the fish you catch. I caught one small fish, and Nam and one of his friends each caught a bigger fish. There was more than enough fish for all three of us. I also had banh xeo for the first time, which is like a crepe made from eggs and rice that you wrap up with lettuce and mint like a spring roll and dip in fish sauce. It was excellent, as everything we've had here has been. I like the food even from street vendors better than just about anything I eat in America.

Hoa and I are trying to figure out how to get Bich Thuy and her husband Toan to accept any money for staying at their guesthouse. We've been eating a meal or two at their place every day, so we're hoping we can at least start paying for some food. Bich Thuy, like just about everyone here I suppose, goes shopping everyday for groceries. We are right in the middle of the market district, so you can find all kinds of fruits and vegetables within 30 feet of the guesthouse.

We're finding that there are very, very few English speakers here in Vinh Long, which is a great incentive to study Vietnamese. Our tutor is just about the only person we've met who comes even close to fluency. Most people here seem to know nothing more than "Hello," which a few people will call out with they see the white guy riding by on his borrowed bicycle.

The people here are great -- I was a little paranoid about getting ripped off in one way or another, but we haven't had a single bad experience with anyone.

We're going to be studying every weekday with our tutor for the next several weeks, so we don't have any immediate plans for a big trip. There's still more to see right around here anyway. We tried to visit a pagoda yesterday, but it was closed on Sundays. We'll have to try again, it's only about a mile away.

Hoa's visiting a class at an English school this evening. We stopped by the school a few days ago to see if she could volunteer a few hours a week to get some more experience teaching English. Instead they wanted to hire her on the spot. They have a hard time finding foreigners, the preferred English teachers, willing to come to Vinh Long. It's a small city, and we've met only one foreigner who's living here -- one of the teachers at this school. Hoa has told the people at the school that she only wants to work a few hours a week and that we're planning to leave Vinh Long in 4-6 weeks to travel and decide where we want to settle down. There so desperate for teachers that this is OK with them.

Better get going, it's about time to eat again even though I'm "no roi," full already.