Day 33: September 22, 2014

Vietnamese was at 8am this morning, and our usual routine is that we all meet outside the front gates around 7:15 to take the bus together. I arrived at 7:15 to be greeted by Cate and Cate only. We waited a few minutes for the others before calling them. Since they were just getting ready, they were going to take a taxi. Cate and I headed for the bus stop and happened to reach it just as the #6 bus was pulling away. We barely missed it! At least the transportation is reliable here, so we just had to wait 10 more minutes for another bus to show up.

After Vietnamese I decided to come back to the dorm before class at 5:30. I went to the bus stop, saw the bus was coming, and put my hand out so it knew I wanted to get on. Instead of stopping, though, it just went right past me! I guess it's not my luck for busses toady. I did get back to the dormitory eventually and got some homework done, such as writing a paper and working on my scholarship video. I also tried a cold coconut today, and it was so much better than when they are warm! They sell them in the canteen, and when you go to the checkout counter they take a machete and cut off the top so you can put your straw in. I also went to a bread lady and bought a French roll for 5,000d. Very cheap, but it would have been better if it had come with butter.

I headed back to Open University for environmental science class at 5:30. After class, we came back to the dormitory by bus. That ride, though, was the most stressful bus ride I have been on yet. I'm pretty sure the driver never let off the horn and I was certain that we were going to hit a motorbike or another bus at least three times. No worries, though, because we were able to safely arrive to our destination. I decided to grab corn and a strawberry smoothie for supper. I tried a new smoothie place than the one I usually go to. It's a little cheaper but not as good as the other one.

I realized while I was ordering food that although I've been here for a month I really don't know anything. As in, I can't tell the lady that makes corn that I want corn because I don't know the word. I can't tell the smoothie lady what kind of smoothie I want because I get the words for the different fruits mixed up. Not only that, but the only words I recognize on street vendor carts are the words for smoothie, rice, chicken, ban xeo, and banh mi. Other than that, I rely on what I see. I have no idea where to get anything other than a rice or noodle dish around the dormitory an am still likely to get lost if I wander to far on my own. Most of the time pointing at food and nodding is sufficient, but it would be great to be able to speak Vietnamese to these people instead of a type of sign language. For example, the corn lady asked me if I wanted chili sauce by holding up the bottle, and I responded by making the sign for a little bit. The smoothie lady held up a container of sugar, which I assumed meant do I want sugar, so I nodded my head. It's enough to get by, but not enough to feel like I actually know what I'm doing.

I met up with Yen later tonight because she had some questions about what exactly my research project is. I feel like I should be paying her for all of the help she is giving me--translating questions, coming with me to interview, and having to translate the answers. After we got what exactly I was doing straightened out (but let's face it, I actually have no idea what I'm dong), I told her how I wandered around one night looking for the sweet soup place. She ended up drawing me a map of not only the sweet soup place, but also a place that had really good rice and pork, AND showed me where I can bot chien, which is an egg dish that I had earlier in my arrival. So nice of her, and now I can't wait to go back to these places!