Vietnam Day 9 (6/16/09)

This morning we had our second Vietnamese class. The first one was much easier because I'd learned some of the numbers before coming, but this time we went over a lot of new material very quickly. We learned terms for ordering in restaurants and bargaining, which will both be useful if I can possibly remember them outside the classroom. We had a new instructor today, a beautiful smiley woman who speaks rather quickly but is wonderful at explaining pronunciation. Afterwards Van Anh and I finished up our work, making a brochure and questionnaire to the sound of karaoke somewhere in the building.

For dinner the whole group went out for "special noodles," which really were special. The broth was amazing, though I could be biased by the gallons of hot sauce I poured in. Almost everyone got theirs with chicken, but Loan got pig's blood which she gave me to try. I was definitely going to try it, but I was a little tentative about the brown gelatenous cube so I split it with Kendra and made her try it with me. We took a deep breath, counted to three in Vietnamese and took a bite. After all that ceremony, it turned out to be a non-event. It didn't taste that odd, in fact it didn't taste lik emuch at all. I don't think I'd ever order just pig's blood, but I certainly have no objection to it if it ever ends up on my plate again. On the way back to the guest house, we stopped by to pick up our laundry from a little house in the side-street around the corner from us. It's still unclear exactly how clean our clothes get through this process, but all of my things came out fine (though a couple of people had proplems with their white shirts).

Later that night we were all invited by Phil's cousin to a dodgeball game with a bunch of expats. Half of us were tired, so we decided to wait until next week when they play again. Those of us that stayed behind decided to satisfy our cravings by going ot the little supermarket and buying chocolate (except for Wen, who instead got some knock-off saltines that ended up being a big hit, and Alex who got onion rings that tasted like fishy paper). We spent the rest of the evening talking and enjoying our Western food.