English Club, fruit picking and preparations

After three months of a 12-hour time difference and frustrating Skype calls over a poor internet connection, Sam will be here tomorrow! It hardly seems real. The thought of having him, from my "old life", here, in my "new life" is almost incalculable. My favorite romantic comedy is this quirky story about a guy who says he's from the future, and when his girlfriend asks for proof, he says something like "I dont have any, because you can't bring any non-organic, carbon-based material from the future when you back travel!" I feel like having Sam here will be almost like that, almost anachronistic, to have such an important part of my Western life suddenly dropped down into my Vietnamese life. In some ways my two lifes seem as unrelated as the distant past and distant future, but in reality they exist simultaneously: They are parallel universes, and they are about to collide. :)

I've been running around getting stuff ready--buying some treats, cleaning, organizing, making sure the bike we're borrowing is in good shape (I still need to get air in the tires). The biggest hassle has continued to be getting to and from the airport. Luckily my friend Lien has made it her personable responsibility to make it as easy for me as possible. (She also took me to book the hotel, and today she even went to the hotel herself to make sure everything was in order!) She looked into the bus option for me, she tried to find a friend with car (unfortunately the car was in the shop), and ultimately she figured out how I could rent a car from the university to drive me there and back for a much cheaper rate than a taxi. And she has done all of this without my even asking! Right now it's looking like I'll be renting a car for 240,000 dong ($14.50), but we'll see.

The past few days, before Sam's arrival, have been moving a little slowly, despite my having a lot to do. (The aforementioned movie also makes the argument that time is an emotional phenomenon.) Sunday morning was English club, a much less stressful one that last month's, which was surprising given the circumstances: None of the teachers could be present (due to a meeting about politics or something), and all the third year English majors were running the show. I though these two conditions would make a lot more work for me. Instead, I had so little responsibility in this English club that I felt guilty. I offered to help more, and did everything I could, but other than editing scrips, writing a little skit, and getting the supplies for apple bobbing, I basically just showed up. The students took care of EVERYTHING. And what's more is that this English club, in my opinion, was better than the last English club, which was run by teachers. Even when the projector (which was a huge part of the production) wouldn't work, the students just adapted and pulled of the whole thing smashingly. In America, students would have cried and quit. But not here! They just rolled on.

Other than the serious problem with the projector, there was only one other minor glitch. The themes of the event were Halloween and Vietnamese women's day, and the club was organized like a game show. One of the questions was presented through a skit. We had done a run-though of all the skits two days before, but apparently the full theatrics had been omitted during rehearsal: One of the skits was about a woman who was executed, and during practice the performace seemed tame and even stylized. But the real deal was not. Two students in fatigues, carrying scarily real-looking fake machine guns, marched into the room behind a traditionally-dressed female student with her hands tied and her eyes blindfolded. They pushed her to the floor, even. Then they stood her up against the blackboard, and after she yelled out her infamous last words ("Long live Vietnam, Long live Uncle Ho"), the uniformed soldiers began to "shoot" her as the speakers blasted strikingly realistic machine gun sound effects. Her body writhed with gunshots and she slithered to the floor--it looked like something out of Platoon or something. The camo, the clothing, the sound of the guns (which were not in rehearsal), the way her body shook and fell. I was not prepared for it, and it caught me so off-guard, especially the sound of the guns, that I nearly panicked and started crying. I was a reflex reaction, like pulling your hand off a hot stove top. I have enough of a history with guns to elicit strong, uncontrolled reactions to them--especially if I'm not expecting an encounter, and even if the guns are fake and I'm in the middle of English club. The reactions are really just out of my control. I could hardly keep myself together, but I had to go read the question immediately after the skit was finished. I managed to collect myself but it was a close call, and I dont think my heart rate went back to normal for another hour!

I was thrilled that, otherwise, the English Club was a hit. But I was exhausted. Katherine had been invited out to visit the home of one of her student's in the countryside, and she had asked me along, too, but I was just so tired and had planned to stay home. Luckily, I changed my mind at the last minute. I just need to do everything I can here. Katherine and I stopped for lunch at a veg restaurant at Long Son Pagoda (we needed to change buses nearby, anyway), and despite a near disaster involving about 30 fried spring rolls, we had a pleasant lunch. Then we hopped on the bus for the 15 km drive out of the city. The bus attendant helped show us where to get off, and Katherine's student came on her motorbike to meet us. We all three climbed on the moto (which is actually illegal, and a bit scary anyway) and headed down a dirt path, into the brush...It was amazing. I love riding on motorbikes, and this was one of the better trips I've had despite the fact that I clinging for dear life, sitting side-saddle on the back tip of the seat with two other people on the bike. The day was beautiful, not too hot, the fields were green, the flowers were fragrant, the moutains surrounded us, and there I was, driving down a dirt road, dodging chickens, in the countryside of Vietnam. How, exactly, is this my life?

After a few moments we arrived at the student's home, an adorable little house nestled among a lush garden of fruit trees. Mango, chom chom, guava, jackfruit, durian, banana--fruit trees everywhere! The student showed us around the gardens and taught us how to harvest the chom chom fruit using a long bamboo pole with a slit at the end. As it turns out I'm not very dextrous with said fruit-harvesting tool, but I managed to pull down a fair bit of chom chom. (Pictures soon!) We sat out in the garden with the student and her mother, eating self-picked chom chom and guava, as well as some green mango and banana the student had picked earlier. This is what it's all about, I thought to myself. This is why I'm here, this is why I love Vietnam, this is why I am so happy.

And then women sent us home with probably 20 lbs of the aforementioned fruit. A perfect experience (even with the fire-ant bites, which thankfully weren't as plentiful as the time fire ants got into my and sam's bed in cinque terre).

The day only continued to improve. While we were on the bus to the countryside, Ms Khanh, who I co-teach with, called me and invited me and Katherine for dinner at her house. A student would join us. I agreed, despite being so exhausted that I felt too tired to even breathe. We went over to her house at 6pm, and she had prepared a vegetarian feast for us! Tofu, greens, cucumber, a tasty russian salad and an amazing egg dish with onions and tomatoes, all followed by yogurt and fruit. So delicious! On top of the wonderful meal was wonderful conversation. Probably the best conversation I've had with Vietnamese friends since I arrived. We talked about expectation of women, family dynamics, the difficult decision of how many children to have and when. The conversation proved to me, even more than I already knew, that any research into reproductive rights in Vietnam would require a lot of talking. I guess I better work harder at learning Vietnamese!

My studying will most likely be delayed until after Sam's gone, though. I definitely won't have time to study tomorrow: early morning trip to the market, handling all the paperwork to rent the car (with the help of Lien), doing laundry, cleaning the floors, maybe going shopping for a new dress for the wedding on Wednesday (I dont have anything suitable for a wedding, really), and finally leaving at 4:15 pm to pick up Sam. That is, assuming he gets here ok. From a habit of always using e-tickets--he flies 2-6 times a month and never has paper tickets---he forgot the paper ticket that Expedia sent him for his flights. And I'll take some responsibility as well, as I forgot to remind him about the ticket. Who uses paper tickets these days?! After a bit of panicking, and help of a woman named "Angel" who works at LAX, everything seems to be worked out now and he should arrive as scheduled. Let's hope, at least. The biggest glitch was re-issuing his ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang, and even that seems ok now. But, if it's not, the worst case scenario is that he's without a flight to Nha Trang from HCMC. And that's not a terrible crisis, as I can think of about 5 ways to get him here easily from there. No big deal. That's the beauty of traveling. If you miss your train, another one will come later.

Sam's arrival also means that I've been here for three months. El tiempo pasa volando. I'll be 60 soon.


Currently listening: "The Metamorphosis", from Glass: Solo Piano, by Philip Glass