The halfway point of my time in Vietnam is fast approaching. It’s unbelievable just how quickly the days have gone by as I look back on these past two months. For starters, I have been a horrible blogger. I’ve hardly written anything, only posting when I felt I had an interesting story to tell, but recently I’ve come to the realization that when I leave Vietnam I don’t want to just remember the exciting trips or funny stories, but to be able to look back on all the moments of my every day life. To (partially) solve this dilemma, I going to try my absolute hardest to post every Sunday/Monday, just a little something briefly going over my week. They might not be the most interesting thing to read, but they’ll hold the stories and events that make up what my life is actually like in Vietnam, and at the end of the day the little things can often be the most special. So without further ado, this was my week :
1. It was a pretty rough start getting back into the rhythm of school after being away for so long. That being said, my Algebra 2 class has taken a turn for the worst as we take on the challenge of learning rational equations. For some reason I don’t understand anything we’re doing and my dyslexia only makes things worse. So take a very confused Lara and add the fact that I have absolutely no interest in being in school and you got one happy student…
2. I rode a motorbike, and although this may not seem like the most exciting thing to do, it was by far one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are extremely crowded and dangerous, so driving around by motorbike can be a little terrifying but so incredible. I loved the feeling of the warm wind rushing past my body as we weaved in between cars and bikes at a speed that felt like lightning (we were probably only going like 30 mph but who cares). I wish I could ride a motorbike everyday!
3. This week we celebrated Isabel’s 16th birthday and decided to keep things pretty low key. Right after school we headed to District 1 to hit up Dairy Queen for some Blizzards then walked around until we found a mall called the Diamond Plaza. Oooh, so fancy. We roamed through the stores before making our way to the bathroom where we would discover one of the coolest things on the planet : a bidet. If you don’t know what a bidet is, it’s basically a little machine that is hooked up to a toilet and sprays water on your whoo-ha and bum hole, and it’s soooo amazing. If you’ve never tried one before I definitely recommend it. After our little adventure in the bathroom we went to a bistro/restaurant (honestly what’s the difference?) called The Elbow Room that only serves American food. It’s so delicious and makes me feel like I’m back home eating something my mom made for me. With full bellies we made our way back to Dairy Queen to pick up an ice cream cake, had a mini dance party with our taxi driver on the way back to District 11, and ended the night by eating cake and hanging out in our dorm room with a couple of our closest friends. All in all I would say it was a pretty good day, and Isabel if you’re reading this I just want to say HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAYYY!!
4. On Friday APU hosted a Sports Tournament. This was an all morning event consisting of me being forced to sit in a very humid gym watching my classmates play basketball and soccer, and I even got to see some of my teachers play against a couple students in a basketball match. The tournament was really fun, people were cheering, jumping around and the energy from all the students and staff members was radiating through out the gym. Also, it was pretty great not to go to school that day 😉
5. While in Vietnam I have discovered that the rats and cockroaches in this country are significantly bigger than any I have ever scene in the US. I have also learned the cockroaches really love my dorm room, our shower to be exact. For two nights in a row, Isabel has been visited by our little friends mid shower, and let me mention that she is absolutely terrified of them. While she stood outside the dorm room in her towel dripping wet, I was in the shower screaming and throwing whatever I could find at the damn thing to try and kill it. Wow, gotta love ‘Nam.
6. As a continuation of Isabel’s birthday, we went shopping at a mall on Saturday! It was a really fun “girls day-out” and I found a couple cute things too. It was a nice experience because we don’t have a lot of malls where we’re from and it was also cool to see what kind of clothes a Vietnamese mall sells.
7. To end the weekend, we made another trip to The Elbow Room on Sunday, but this time we took some friends. Because they had never had pancakes before, we decided to bring the twins to h
ave their first taste of such an iconic American breakfast food. It was adorable watching them take their first bite and seeing the smiles on their faces as they tasted the fluffy pancakes and sweet syrup. Before even leaving the restaurant they told us they wanted to come back and try the blueberry pancakes, so I guess you could say they enjoyed them.
So, that was my ninth week in Vietnam.
I’m excited to make this a weekly thing (that is if I remember to post haha).
Lara
March 9, 2015
lil hippie blog 