Ba stands for 3 - my 3rd Post

Blinking sleepily this morning at 5:30am (darn that accurate prediction of Rylan's), I was ecstatic to find fresh fruit on the desk in my room. I know one of them was an apple, but the other kind...I'll dub them Jurassic strawberries?

I explored a bit, walking around a beautiful cathedral by the guesthouse. The cathedral is apparently one of the oldest in the city, and it's certainly a helpful landmark. Pictures to come when I explore it further.

One of the CET assistants, DiDi (pronounced ZeeZee--you tell me) drove me via motorbike to the Vietnamese language institute. It was AWESOME. We drove on sidewalks, around pedestrians, on the other side of the street, between buses--maybe I was too groggy to be scared, but it was definitely a thrilling way to catch a breeze! (Note: Please abstain from informing my insurance company about these little rides.) As you can see to the left, lots of women cyclists wear these face-coverings, because beauty standards are such that whiteness is preferred. I thought it was dust- or SARS-protection at first, but DiDi set me straight. Whiteness, huh? I've got it made!

My language teacher, Van, and I are now pals--in 3 hours we tackled the six tones in Vietnamese (called thanh sac, huyen, ngang, hoi, nga, and nang), as well as numbers, some country names, days of the week, and basic conversational phrases. It was tremendous fun, if very difficult--some sounds I've never made before--and honestly, I'm really learning the ABCs, only there are way more than 26. There were some words pronounced in very similar ways to some naughty English words, and when I shared this with Van, she thought it was just grand. The hardest word for me to say, ironically, is the word for America.

I've just returned from lunch at a bright-pink, streetside vegetarian place with DiDi and former CET student Anne, and while we ate there a pounding afternoon rain settled in. We ate a greenish plant thing, lots of rice, an eggplant-and-artichoke sandwich, lots of spicy sauces and fried tofu all family-style. We opted for shakes as well, with Anne and DiDi wisely choosing banana and me choosing a frightening brew called a dragonfruit shake. Per DiDi's request, the guy in the back brought out a pinkish-purple dragonfruit for me to see--it was flaky like a head of lettuce but honestly tasted like grass. Having second thoughts on the shake, as it was probably made with local water, which is, euphemistically put, NOT SAFE. Oh well.

After lunch and 6 salespeople (peddling lottery tickets, bananas, travel books, Folexes, etc.), the motorbike ride with DiDi felt great as raindrops and fellow riders whipped by.

I'm taking the rest of the afternoon off to work on language homework, watch the Vietnamese version of Smallville (with captions, this is educational of course), wander the streets, and update this blog here. Hope yall enjoy it.

• P.S. Did I forget to mention I'm now a MILLIONAIRE? This is approximately 45 USD plus 2 random Chinese coins I picked up in Hong Kong.