Day 40: September 29, 2014

As with every Monday morning, I was greeted to the sound of music blaring from the courtyard below as students lined up to sing the National Anthem. Thankfully I have to be up anyway for class, and if anything it makes me more awake than tired. Today I discovered reason #157 why learning Vietnamese is difficult. There are 6 different ways to pronounce each word, depending on the tone that is associated with it. So the letters d-u-a have six different meanings, three of which are fruit. Dưa is melon, dừa is coconut, and dứa is pineapple. Just proves how easy it is to say the wrong thing here!

After Vietnamese class, Alex and I went to a key copy place because we each needed a new key. This was just a stand on the side of the road that had all of the equipment necessary to make us each a new key for 20,000d. They hooked their machines up to a motorbike engine so they would have electricity and set out making us our keys. It was very interesting to actually watch someone make the key rather than a machine and it took no time at all.

Our next stop was the post office because we each had some things we wanted to send out. Along the way, this man selling coconuts started to follow us and motioned that he wanted us to try carrying his coconuts. We refused, and he continued to follow us until Summer bought a coconut. After our adventures (all of this happened before 11!) we found the bus stop and made our way back to the dormitory.

This afternoon wasn't very productive and I actually ended up taking a nap because of how tired I have been lately. Between the fact that there is so much going on here and that Loyola keeps us plenty busy, I decided a nap would be beneficial. At 4:30 I got back on the bus to head to environmental science class. On the bus, a Vietnamese student began to talk to me. Her English wasn't impressive and I don't think we understood everything we were saying to each other, but I enjoy talking to the Vietnamese and letting them practice their English. Not only that, but I could tell that she wanted to talk to me because she kept glancing backwards at me. Once we were off the bus and walking towards Open, I also had a little girl (elementary school aged) run towards me. I stopped, and she said that she was supposed to speak to people in English. I simply had to write down my name and give my signature to help her with her homework. On the way back from class, I had another incident, except this one wasn't in English. I stood up to get off the bus and I could tell that the man I had been sitting next to began to talk about my height with the bus attendant. It's slowly starting to bother me less and I'm beginning to pick out when people I pass on the street use the word for "tall" (cao).

After returning to the dormitory, I grabbed some corn, which is easily becoming a nightly ritual for me.