Greetings From the South East

So I thought I’d run through a bit of what life is like here in Vietnam. Beginning with the traffic.

Traffic

Ok so imagine your on the bumper car ride at the carnival and add about 50 more and then turn those bumper cars into motorbikes. Throw a few cars, bicycles and vegetable trucks in there and then some how not actually bump into each other. That would probably be the closest you’d get to Vietnam’s traffic. I just so happen to have a love for traffic patterns in other countries. They’re not boring and maddening like traffic jams in the U.S. For instance Mexico or Peru. They always have a bus with someone hanging outside of it yelling for you to hop on and until this point I always felt like if you could drive in Mexico, you could drive anywhere.. Uuum..i was wrong. Most people ride motorbikes here, which I’ve become obsessed with and looking into purchasing as soon as I get back. For every car there are about 50 motorbikes, which I’ve seen up to 5 people somehow balance on. Others carry various items such as steal beams, pounds of fish and baskets. I’ve seen it all. There is constant movement. There aren’t any traffic jams because if there’s a red light the motorbikes will just spill onto the sidewalks to get around. They have a lot of European style round-a-bouts in which its a virtual free for all. Motorbikes come at you from every and all directions and somehow they all intricately weave in and out of each other. Its been my favorite traffic experience yet. Its so nerve racking and exciting; I feel so alive when I’m out on a motorbike in traffic.

Living in Vietnam

My grandfather’s house is tucked neatly into a narrow alley way among hundreds of squished up homes lining both sides of the street. On the outside, facing the street the neighborhoods are lined with food venders, bodegas and motorbike repair shops.

I dare say if most of you saw where I’m staying, you would perhaps gasp or cringe with disgust, but now I call it home. They don’t have showers, they have shower heads next to the toilet with a bucket underneath. My house is lucky b/c we actually have toilets, one on the 1st floor and one on the 2nd. Yesterday I went to one of my cousins’ houses and they had a porcelain hole out in a hut where when you’re finished you grab a bucket of water and throw it into the hole to wash down the tinkle..i don’t even want to know where the other stuff goes. Our washing machine is made of a series of round plastic tubs which we put soap in one and fresh water in the other and pour them in and out and scrub scrub scrub. We sleep 2 sometimes 3 to a bed under mosquito nets because the humidity is so thick here that the mosquitoes come in droves to attack us. Really, so far only me. For whatever reason they LOVE me. The first night when I was in Ho Chi Minh I had a damn near heart/panic attack b/c I woke up with all these mosquito bites all over my body and I had convinced myself that I had dengue fever. So far so good..I’m just waiting for the muscle spasms, cold sweats and crippling dysentery to set in.

When you leave the house you walk down the alley way to find other homes and businesses. Actually where I am staying, my uncle teaches class in the room next to mine. He’s a math and physics teacher. He’s got the some of the top ranking students in his class. I’m so proud But yeah, so when you walk out you’ll find a place where you can get your hair and nails did or go to a snack shop to get prawn crackers or like at the end of our alley way, go to the market. The market has everything you need..fish head, dangling beef strips, lemongrass, shampoo, all a girl could ever want in a market.

Technology

I think my family here is about 10 years behind the rest of the world. I mean they know what’s up, don’t get me wrong, but everything is so expensive here for them. Dong, the currency is about 12,000 to 1 U.S. dollar. So basically the other day when I changed a hundred I received little over a million dong in return. Rich! Anywho, I am currently typing on a computer that resembles one I took my first typing lesson on in 1st grade. Its by a brand name I’ve never heard of and they’re running a pirated version of windows xp, 2003 edition! When you turn it on, it sounds more like a motor struggling to gain momentum. When I get back I’m gonna look into upgrading them.

It was cool b/c the other night I sat with my cousins Ro and Ri and listened to my iPod. They loved it, and I loved it! Ri really liked crystal castles and Chromeo and Ro liked Death Cab and Dashboard. Can you guess? Ro’s the hopeless, aching for love, 18 yr. old romantic and Ri is the destined to be a fabulous star! He’s only three but I can see the writing on the wall..ladies and gentlemen, we have a gay in the family! He’s been my favorite so far; we get each other.

So there’s a bit about this and that here. I’m sure I’ll think of or come across a million more things. Can’t wait to see what adventures lay ahead!!

Much Love