Day 55: October 14, 2014

With no class scheduled for today, I originally planned to sleep in but found myself awake at 8:30am. After doing some reading and trying to go back to sleep, I decided that I should start my day. Basically, this amounted to me choosing to stay awake, do some reading, and do absolutely nothing productive.

I ended up going to Backpacker Street with Tori, Cate, Alex, and Kaley. We hopped on the bus 45 and for some reason they wouldn't take our student IDs, so we had to pay full price. I know I shouldn't be complaining, though, because full fare is the equivalent of 25 cents. This bus was different from the bus we take to classes because there was no bus attendant. Instead, you entered through the front doors of the bus and paid the bus driver. So not only was this man in charge of driving the bus, but also in charge of collecting your money, giving you change, and giving you a ticket.

We ended up eating at this café where I had chicken curry with a baguette for 85,000d. The café was very cool and it serves as a training place for people with disabilities. I liked it even more because of the fact that the second floor was closed off and air-conditioned. It is getting warmer everyday, and I dread looking at my weather app in the morning to see that at 9am it is already 85 degrees.

After we finished lunch, Tori and I stayed in the café to do some homework. For some reason we couldn't connect to the internet, so we both just read instead. When Cate, Alex, and Kaley came back, we headed to another café to get drinks and use the Wi-Fi. This café had some very cool artwork on the walls for sale, and it was tempting to buy when I realized that they were each only 15USD. I resisted, though, and just ordered a water instead. We tried to find the bus stop to come back to the dormitory but were unlucky in our search, so Cate, Alex, Tori, and I ended up taking a taxi back.

I came back to the dormitory and picked up my laundry before heading to DRD. Tonight we played a game where we had to make comparative sentences about two things, such as living in the country and living in the city or reading a book and watching TV. Time flew by tonight and when our hour and a half was up our group still hadn't gotten through all of the cards, let alone start the other activity. DRD is slowly becoming something I look forward to twice a week simply because I enjoy talking to the people we work with.

Once back from DRD, we went to get something to eat. Everybody else got noodles while I had my (almost) nightly ritual of corn. I'm pretty sure the lady is surprised to see me after disappearing for a week while I was in Cambodia! I came back to my room to get some stuff done when all of a sudden the power went out. It was out for probably close to an hour, and while everybody else was upset I was thoroughly enjoying it. With nothing else to do, Alex, Summer, and I joined Cate in her room and waited together.

Since my goal was to finish as much homework as possible before going to Cambodia, I haven't had much to do yesterday or today. It's kind of nice being able to do whatever I want and not having to worry about homework that has yet to be finished, especially when the power went out. However, it's not like I have a lot of homework to be doing on a regular basis anyway. After our trip to Cambodia, it's nice to be able to come back to some sort of routine and actually be able to understand some of the sings I see on the side of the road. Who would have thought that returning to Vietnam and this crazy city would be somewhat comforting!