Did I mention....

Yes I am wearing shorts & sunglasses in the snow!!

.....it is 1998 here in Vietnam, seriously. I have heard so many old school Britney Spears songs, NSync, and Backstreet Boys that I sometimes have to look around and make sure I'm not in the halls of GHS. At first I just thought it was the Pearl Cafe, but no at the gym, at random stores, it is bizarre and a blast from the past.

....when it rains it dumps buckets, within minutes. Last night I was downtown at the Market doing a little Xmas shopping and grabbed some Japanese before hailing a taxi back to the apartment. I get in the cab and tell him my address and he tells me no, too much rain, flood. The next one said the same one, I had to wait till an SUV/van type taxi came by. It is literally so bad on the street by our apartment complexs that motorbikes flood, it gets knee deep sometimes, crazy. I saw two people on motorbikes get hosed by a truck the other day, kind of laughed and then realized that could be me. I'll still to cabs in HCMC, people drive like maniacs here.

.....there are no rules when it comes to driving. Ok there are probably some, but from watching people drive here, I would say no, none. You can go down a one way, you can drive on the other side of the street, cut people off. It is all about how can "I" get to where I need to go the fastest, take the sidewalk, yep I think I will.

.....crosswalks are non existent, even if you find one that means nothing. The traffic never stops and it is never "your" right away. I've learned that if you look at the traffic and try to cross they keep on coming and you have to dodge them but if you take a leap of faith and look at the traffic and then just start walking looking forward at the other side of the street, they go around you. It's a risk but it has paid off so far. Also people put up their hand to stop the traffic and then cross the street, looks so funny but I tried it once and think it worked.

....Vietnamese is the hardest language ever. I mean think about it, in the U.S. we all speak english and look at how different we sound. Now if you equate that to Vietnam we would all be saying different things in their language. Heck when I say thank you here I might be saying rice cereal sometimes, who knows. I never realized how much spanish I actually knew until I came here, sometimes I just want to try spanish.

.....the workers at our school are clueless as to how a school runs. Case in point. I come into the Multi Purpose Room (MPR)to teach and they have the huge rolls of carpet out and are setting them out outside the room for Halloween the next day. I tell them I have class and they nod like they understand but keep on going on with their stuff, they almost took out one of my 3rd graders. I just have to laugh it off and say, oh Vietnam. Also today they decided it was time to start jackhammered the stage in MPR while I'm teaching my 2nd grade class. Oh, Vietnam!

.....how tiny the people are here. Like not just short, they are tiny, tiny people. Like I was bigger in 6th grade than most of the population here.

.....Vietnamese children are adorable, I just want to wrap them up and take them home with me. The kids at our school really are the cutest, it is hard to get angry with them because they can give you that cute little smile. Oh but they know Miss Jennifer has an angry side and know they don't want to go there.

.....I went to Snow World this weekend at a big park that had a beach, zoo, amusement park, etc. It cost $2.50. We get in there and they give us a winter coat, rubber boots (felt awesome with bare feet, all wet) and little gloves. We then go into this big freezer with snow (stuff they make at ski resorts). It was so cute, they had a sledding hill. It was great, I felt like I got a little part of home that day. First time I went sledding in shorts.


.....that giraffes have the longest tongues. I got to pet and feed some at the zoo saturday. Their tongues are insane, wow. I also saw a white tiger at the zoo, that was pretty cool.

.....it is still HOT here, yep that's right. Hard to think it is almost Thanksgiving back home, I feel like it is still July or August here.

.....the Cowboys suck, Love the Packers!!!

Until next time.....