There's a bird nest on my moquito net!

Fortunately, the past week has been 95% sunny. Unfortunately, the pleasant weather (along with increased work responsibilities) has pushed blogging further down my list of priorities. At any moment, monsoon rains could start again, and I've been trying to take advantage of the freedom and mobility that sunny days allow.

A bit of an update, though. The Full Moon Celebration was a huge success. (All the photos are at picasaweb.google.com/malloryimlervn). I bought lots of food, Katherine helped me prepare everything, Tu and Duan took care of lanterns, kites, and sparklers. I invited the entire building, and nearly everyone came--even the family with three small children that lives down the hall! We therefore had people from America, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Ecuador. We ate some fruit and cakes in my room before heading to the beach, where we celebrated by singing, dancing, playing games, lighting sparklers and lanterns, and attempting (ie, failing) to release some large, flying lanterns into the sky. The beach was full of people gathered in circles around candles and bonfires. Luckily the night was clear, warm with a breeze. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and I can't remember the last time I went to the beach at night.... As I stood on the shore with my new friends, toes in the sand and watching flying lanterns being released to the full moon (by more successful beach-goers), I again found myself thinking, "How is this my life???"

Classes are going really well. My two English major classes have been canceled the past two weeks because the students are working with a visiting professor, so I've just been meeting with my three non-major English classes. Two of the classes are all boys (about 50 of them), and one class has nearly 50 boys and 5 or 6 girls. A skewed ratio, but I guess that's what I should have expected with naval architecture and IT students. After singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in the first class, I thought things couldn't get any more embarrassing. But then, in my third class, the students were asking me questions in English to get to know me (and practice their english!), and one boy stood up and asked me out in front of the entire class. The fact that I had a boyfriend (he'd already covered that question) didn't seem to matter. In fact, when I turned him down, he proceeded to ask a series of questions about Sam. There was no stopping the guy!

I've managed to avoid giving out my mobile number to many students, thankfully (and despite persistent requests from the boy who asked me out). Other Fulbrighters have been bombarded with texts and calls from students, many of whom they don't know or don't even have in class. Apparently their phone numbers have just been circulated through the student body. When asked for my number in class, I just smile and say "It's a secret!" ( a great tip I got from Katherine).

Katherine and I have been doing some more exploring, as well. We visited the Po Nagar Cham Towers (pics also on picasa), which were stunning. The site is actually about 4 minutes from where I live, and I walk by it several times a week, but only got around to visiting this weekend. I can't believe I live so close to such a place. We also made it to Long Son Pagoda (a bit by accident, and only after first stumbling into a different/wrong pagoda and interrupting some monks' lunch). At Long Son, we found a great vegetarian restaurant. I was wearing a sleeveless top, though, and felt uncomfortable going into the actual pagoda, so that activity was postponed.

We've also been doing some biking, which has been nice exercise for me. Katherine gets up everymorning and goes running and swimming at 5:30 am. Not surprisingly, I don't join her.

I've befriended a visiting professor from Ho Chi Minh City, who's here for the week. He joined our Moon Celebration, and the next day, invited me to go swimming at the "sea beach" with him. I accepted, insisting that Katherine tag along. At the designated hour, we met to go to the beach, but it had started raining a bit. Intending to get wet anyway, we ignored the rain and carried on with our plan. The rain made me hesitant, but had I backed out of the plan, I would have missed another "How is this my life?" moment: We got to the beach at dusk. It had stopped raining, but the clouds--always epic here--continued to swirl above us in shades of gray, a combination of rainclouds and the impending nightfall. Hardly anyone was at the beach. I swam out, a little aways from my friends, and I lied floating on my back, arms outstretched, staring up at the sky. The water around my face eliminated my peripheral vision, so that all I could see was a patch of sky above me, the gray clouds catching the last flashes of sunlight and shifting further into darkness. And all I could hear, with my ears submerged in the sea, was the muffled sounds of the tide coming ad going, lapping against my face. My senses detected nothing but sky and water as I floated at dusk in the Pacific Ocean, and I wondered how I could have possibly come to be there, in that perfect moment. When I finally pulled myself out of the water--it was dark--I sat on the beach and enjoyed some bubble tea that we'd brought to the "sea beach" with us. The sense of awe continued.

On a lighter note, I had less perfect, but more comical, "How is this my life?" moment this morning. Last week I realized that a bird was building a nest in the fan of my AC. The fan is in the wall above my bed, and opens to the outside without a screen or anything to keep out creatures. Not wanting a bird's nest in my AC fan (for lots of reasons, bird flu and noise being two), I checked to make sure there were no eggs or babies, and when the bird was gone, I turned the fan on to prevent it from coming back. I felt bad for evicting the poor bird from its otherwise well-selected home (it was shielded from the rain and elements, as it was half-way in my room), but I'm just not that hospitable. I thought the problem was solved. But the past few days, the fan has been hitting the twigs of the half-built nest and making lots of noise. In an effort to stop the noise, last night I climbed up on my bed and began to tap the face of the fan with Katherine's mosquito zapping racket. After a few taps, the face of the fan fell off. I managed to catch it right as it started to fall, but the nest started to fall out as well. There I was, alone, stranded, standing on the headboard of my bed, using both hands to hold up the face of the fan and prevent the nest from falling entirely into my room. Finally I got the face of the fan back into place somewhat, but I could tell it was a temporary fix that I'd have to deal with again in the morning.

Morning comes. I open my eyes and see that the top of my mosquito net is littered with twigs, leaves, and bird feathers. I roll over and see that the face of the fan has fallen and is virtually in my bed, right next to my head. (Luckily, the mosquito net kept it from falling entirely into my bed.) Then, I look up to find that the rest of the nest, of course, is dangling precariously from the fan, in my room. And this is what I think, while chuckling at my unique predicament and carefully climbing out from under by mosquito net: "There's a bird's next in my room (half on my mosquito net!) and fan on my pillow. How is this my life?"

I decided that I would wait to deal with the problem for 20 minutes until Tu and Duan came to meet me and 9am, and could talk to the house manager for me. When the boys arrived, though, and I pointed out my problem, they jumped into action themselves. Duan climed up on my headboard and pulled down the remains of the bird's nest himself, using a chopstick (not just for eating and repairing sinks!) to scrape out the littlest pieces. Tu swept up the mess on the floor. Then Duan, seeing how dirty (ie, almost furry) the fan was, picked it up from my bed, took it into the bathroom and washed it 'til it shined. Afterwards, he put it back up, and moved by bed back into its proper location. What friends. (Photos of all of this will be on picasa soon :)

The reason that the boys were coming at 9 was to help me book a bus ticket to Hue. After ridding my AC fan and room of bird's nest, they walked me to a little kiosk near campus and did all the necessary talking for me to reserve a seat on the bus. I really dont' know what I would do without them. But do know that I might still have a a bird's nest on my mosquito net, and I might not have a bus ticket! They're even walking me to the bus stop tomorrow night, since I dont' know where it is.

The bus ticket, furthermore, is for my first weekend trip!! I'm going to Hue after class on Thursday, on the bus to meet some Fulbright friends. The trip is 12 hours, but I'm going on an overnight bus and I reserved a sleeper. I'm hoping it will be just like sleeping on a tour bus again. :) I'm excited to do some traveling, and I'm sooo excited to see Becca and Jahmila again!! Fulbright reunion, part one!

In literary news, I just finished a book called THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE, by Denise Chong, about the famous photo of the little girl running after being burned by napalm. The book chronicles the life of the girl, Kim Phuc, including information about her family, the political/war events, and even the photographers and journalists who were responsible for the photo, its fame, and, ultimately, Kim's survival. Incredible book, and an incredible story. I strongly recommend! Now I'm reading A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN, by Virgina Woolf. It's about time I read this one!

Apart from reading, planning weekend trips, nightswimming and teaching, I've been thinking a lot about two things. First is how I can be most useful and helpful here, not only to the university for this academic year, but in more sustainable ways. Second is what the hell I'm going to do with myself when I come home next July, and for the rest of my life in general. I'm focusing much more on the former, clearly, but the latter is getting some time, as well. Can't I just stay a Fulbright ETA forever?