Chao cac ban

I apologize to anyone who may be checking our site regularly because we haven't been doing many postings lately. But we've found a couple of internet cafes very close to where we're living so we should be able to write more. Things are going well. I haven't always been thrilled with living in the heart of Saigon, but I think it's growing on me. We're a five minute walk away from the big park -- I can never remember the name, it's Cong Vien something or another, but Cong Vien just means park so that doesn't really help -- that includes the Reunification palace at one end, the sport center, the music center, etc. It's really very beautiful, and I love to just sit in there and drink coffee and watch people. There are always people exercising there -- walking, doing aerobics or martial arts. We've seen some pretty strange workouts in the park -- Vietnamese people are not very self-conscious about these things. A few days ago, we saw a guy whose workout had even the locals staring and talking. He was doing some kind of vocal workout that involved repetitive barking and yelling. Although I'm becoming less self-conscious after having been here only about six weeks, I still couldn't bring myself to join him. Hoa and I both have done some more public singing. Last week, Hoa and one of the other students from our class were walking around the campus of the School of Education and Hoa heard singing coming from a classroom. With her usual boldness, she walked into the classroom. About 40-50 students had gotten a hold of a microphone and amplifiers and were taking turns singing acapella solos. They were excited to have Hoa and Maggie join them, and insisted that Hoa and Maggie sing. They sang a children's song that we learned in class (Con Meo) about a cat climbing a tree looking for a mouse who in fact had gone to a far market to buy salt and fish sauce for the anniversary of the death of the cat's father. I don't really get it either. But the students were very enthusiastic about Hoa and Maggie's performance and gave them a standing ovation and began to sing the "ABC" song. Hoa came and got me in the cafe and told me I had to hurry to see something, without telling me what. I walked in, and Hoa told me the rule was that you had to sing a song before leaving. The MC approached and told me he wanted me to sing. I figured "when in Vietnam . . .", took the microphone and attempted to say in Vietnamese that the Vietnamese people sing very well, but I don't, and then sang "Proud Mary." When I finshed, one of the students came up and was saying something to me in Vietnamese that I didn't understand, but apparently he wanted me to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." So we did. Last night we went to a party for Teacher's Day put on by the Vietnamese Language for Foreigners/Cultural Exchange program. It was fun. Our class of 4 students sang the previously described cat-and-mouse song. We played a couple of games. The party was at a Vietnamese buffet restaurant that was excellent. I'm not even close to being sick of Vietnamese food -- in the six weeks we've been here, I've eaten pizza twice and Korean once, but otherwise every meal has been Vietnamese. There really is nothing I'd rather have for breakfast than pho. But back to the party: we also met someone from the U.S. consulate at the party. He was very nice, and I think he was only the second American we've talked to since we've been in Vietnam. We're spending very little time in the tourist areas of the city, and of the two other studnets in our class, one is Australian and the other, Maggie, is Chinese-Canadian. Yesterday, we went to see Maggie at her place in Phu My Hung, a very new and very expensive area in South Saigon. It was completely different from anything we've seen in Vietnam. It reminded me a little of an American suburb. It was quiet and green and had very little traffic. But, like an American suburb, it seemed that it might get a little boring, and I was glad to return to the craziness of District One. Time to study.