Around town.

With no obligations today (other than an English Club rehearsal that we found out about after the fact), Katherine and I spent a lovely day biking around the city. We've been so busy lately that we haven't really been into the city in over a week. And we've become quite accustomed to our normal "path" in the city: Dinner at one of our favorite veg places, followed by bubble tea or smoothies. Normally we're on a bit of at time crunch, as well, since normally one of us teaches until 5:15 pm, which means that we can't leave the uni until 5:30 or so, and we'd like to get home at a reasonable hour. But today, we biked around with little or no objective, and it was lovely. We discovered new streets and areas of town, explored an appliance store (I saw the first ovens and vacuum cleaners I've seen since coming to Vietnam four months ago!), tried to get my necklace chain repaired, looked for a backpacking pack for me. The latter two goals were not achieved but I wasn't particularly invested in either.

While biking through the tourist area (in hopes of finding a backpack) we passed the Texas restaurant. Yes, there's a Texas restaurant here. We decided to see if they had macaroni and cheese--I've been craving it lately. As we approached the menu that was sitting on the podium outside the restaurant, and middle-aged man in the restaurant said, "If you like American food, you'll love this place. We import everything." He was clearly American himself, and I informed him that we were, too. We chatted for a few minutes--him on the stoop of the restaurant, Katherine and I on the sidewalk with our bikes. Turns out he's from California, not Texas. After a couple moments it started to rain, so he invited Katherine and me in for drinks on the house.

He didn't have macaroni and cheese, but he did offer a couple hours of conversation. Katherine and I sipped our tea and talked with our new friend Charles, comparing experiences here, etc. He's been in Vietnam on and off since 2006, was in HCMC for the past year and just moved to Nha Trang three months ago. And he plans to die here, apparently. He seems like a really nice guy, and he treats his staff really well, which I appreciate. It seems like that isn't the case with some foreigners in this town, who are condescending and rude to their employees. After a while, another middle-aged man joined us. I think his name was Larry but I'm not sure. An American as well, he's been on holiday here for 3 weeks but is planning to move here. We learned that he's a member of the screen actors' guild and used to be on The Bold and the Beautiful. Between our actor friend and Charles, whose wife (19 years his junior) divorced him a coulp years ago, Katherine and I made some interesting new acquaintances today. I was pretty dismissive of the expat community here, but these men seem genuine, generous, and not exclusively here to find women. Charles demanded that we "don't be strangers" and offered to take us out sometime. And between the vegetarian dishes he's promised to work up, and the pancakes with maple syrup he has on his menu, I'm sure I'll be back!

After leaving Texas and grabbing dinner, Katherine and I tried the second of two new bubble tea places we've discovered. Our drinks weren't phenomenal but I did manage to have a legitimate conversation in Vietnamese: How old I am, where I'm from, what I do, how long I've been here and how long I'll stay. Unfortunately that's about the extent of my vietnamese, apart from "No meat", "I'm a vegetarian", "One sticky rice and 2 soy milks, one without ice and one with," and "2 che, one with taro ice cream." and "What are you doing?" I'm embarrassed by how little work I've done learning Vietnamese....

While I had a lovely day biking in the city and making new friends, the highlight of my day occured back on this side of the bridge. Recently Katherine and I noticed that, in the building in front of which Monsieur Banana sits and sells his bananas, a new microbrewery has been erected. Yep, a full-on microbrewery with huge copper vats and pipes and such. And tonight, when we stopped for our nightly bananas, Monsier was sitting with a few other men and several huge cups of beer. He picked up his glass and offered it to me, saying "C'est superior!" And I thus shared a glass of beer with Monsieur Banana. I don't even like beer, but it sure made my day.

Our last English Club of the semester is tomorrow, and I can't say I'm sad about it. 7am on a Sunday morning just isn't an optimal time for me to be singing and dancing around. And I know that no one who participates really enjoys it--the students think it's boring and the teachers are sad to lose their one day off a week. I tried to talk to some students about how to improve the age-old tradition, but they unenthusiastically explained that there just aren't enough resources or money. I'm going to try to think of somethings, though, to improve on next semester, when apparently I will have more autonomy in planning it.

Before that happens, though, I'm looking forward to some traveling adventures. On 8 December the Embassy is flying me (and the other Fulbrighters) to Da Nang to do some seminars and such. I'm so excited to see the gang again! After Da Nang I'm heading up to Dong Hoi with Becca. I'll spend a few days there with her while she finishes up teaching, and then she and I will leisurely work our way back down the coast to Da Lat, where we'll meet up with everyone again for Christmas. Dong Hoi should be quiet and very "authentic", but there are some caves and other things to see. And the best part is that Becca and I are going to rent a motorbike and go exploring!!

Becca, it turns out, is also thinking about staying another year here, which excites me. "You, me, and some wine need to sit down and talk about this," she said. I couldn't agree more. Just another reason to look forward to conference in Danang.


Currently listening: Lost Songs, by David Gray