What's new

Not much. We're continuing to study a lot. Hoa is understanding more and more spoken Vietnamese all the time. I'm not understanding nearly as much. As Hoa said in her last entry, we need to remember that we've been here only about a week and a half. But I'm concerned that although I'm studying hard, I may not be studying very effectively.

Last night, we met a young Australian who recently obtained his Ph.D. in Vietnamese history. He speaks Vietnamese fluently. I went out for dinner (pho) with him last night and went to the cafe with him this morning. He recommended the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in HCMC for Vietnamese language study, which is where he learned Vietnamese, and now Hoa and I are considering heading to HCMC sooner than we'd planned.

Last week we went to Hoa's second cousin, Van's seventh birthday party. We went to dinner, and I had my first frog legs and my first field rat -- both were good, although there's not much meat on a rat. Then we all rode to karaoke -- 10 of us on 3 scooters through the flooded (several inches) streets of Vinh Long. I thought it was hilarious. Karaoke was fun. We had a private room, and I sang "Hotel California." I don't sing nearly as well as the more experienced Vietnamese people.

The next night we went to another birthday party -- this time for Hoa's cousin Le, who turned 24. She also had her party at Karaoke, and we met a bunch of her friends, none of whom speak English. We played a game that required me to sing a song and Hoa to laugh in 5 different ways -- she was very silly and everyone laughed. Karaoke was followed by pho, and I had my first nuoc mia, fresh sugar cane juice, at the restaurant. There are street vendors all over selling the stuff, and I'm now addicted. I was feeling a little down earlier this afternoon, and didn't want to post anything today, but after two bags of nuoc mia, I'm feeling fine.

Yesterday, we took our bikes on the ferry and went across the river a few hundred yards to An Binh island. The island is beautiful -- covered with fruit trees. We had a good ride, despite rain off and on most of the morning.

Saturday, we went to Can Tho (more like "Gung tuh"). It was our first bus trip in Vietnam. We caught the bus here in Vinh Long. Hoa was suspicious that we were being charged more than the locals -- you pay on the bus, you don't buy tickets ahead of time -- and it turned out she was right. But we're not too concerned -- we paid two bucks for both of us instead of one buck for a 40 minute bus ride. The last leg of the trip to Can Tho was by ferry -- there's no bridge. It was a good experience, although we really didn't do anything very exciting in Can Tho. I was able to get pizza for lunch, which is not available in Vinh Long.

We met an Israeli couple this morning who've been in Vietnam for about a month. They speak no Vietnamese, but are travelling on their own. They were frustrated with what they thought were frequent miscommunications and rip-offs. Hearing this confirmed our belief that we're better off getting a little more Vietnamese under our belts before we begin travelling around the country.

Things are still going well, and we're glad we're here.

Tom