Day 37: September 26, 2014

After getting a restless sleep, I woke up at 7:30 with plans to meet Thao at 8:30. She picked me up on her motorbike, and the first thing I asked her to do was take me to get a new phone. She drove us to a very large electronics store where I bought the cheapest phone I could find. It's cheaper than the previous one I bought, but it is so much better. The screen is in color and it has a camera on it. I bought the phone at the store and then we headed across the street to get a SIM card.

When we were finished, we headed out to meet her sister at a park in District 1. The whole time on her motorbike, I was very paranoid about the bag I had on my back. I kept it as close to me as possible but was still worried that someone might try to take it. It's just so weird to finally be feeling comfortable and safe in a city only to all of a sudden feel like everything you have with you could be gone at any moment. We made it to the park fine, and I really just need to remind myself that I am more likely to be robbed in the backpacker area than anywhere else.

Her sister, whom I had met at English club last week, greeted us each with a banh mi she bought. We sat on a bench in the park, had coffee (which I am oh so slowly developing a taste for over here), and talked about Vietnam, the US, and our lives. It was a great time and very fun to get to know her sister better. The three of us hung out for about 2.5 hours before Thao had to leave, so her sister gave me a ride to Open University so I could get on the bus. We followed the bus the whole way there, and when we finally arrived I had to jump off of her motorbike and hop onto a moving bus in order to make it.

The rest of the day was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. Very little homework was accomplished and I watched a documentary online. At one point, the power went out so we all just sat around for 10 minutes before it came back. An uneventful day, but it was nice to have a day where there wasn't anything planned.

I went with Alex, Summer, and Dan while they grabbed supper. They went to a noodle place, so I sat with them and waited for the corn lady to make her nightly appearance. While we were sitting there, I found myself flinch when a Vietnamese accidentally touched me. Later, in Co-Op, I also found myself aware of people in the crowds. Hopefully this passes soon! Anyway, once the corn lady came out I grabbed some corn and ate it while they ate their noodles. Ending the night with corn is always great!