Tuesday, October 01, 2002

have you ever had chicken noodle soup for breakfast? i mean a really big bowl. have you ever added things to it to make it really tasty? like, greens and spicy peppers? all for breakfast. have you ever added whole pieces of chicken? with the skin on? and then have you ever added mystery meat that makes people wish they hadn't asked what part of the animal it came from? for breakfast? then did you try to eat it with chopsticks? it goes all over and slimy noodles are tough to catch between two small pieces of wood. (especially when the user isn't an expert) well, it's called phơ and people eat it all over vietnam for breakfast. that, a good strong cup of coffee, and you're ready to tackle any project.

well, i havn't written in a couple days because i was traveling through the me kong delta. we woke up early monday morning to catch a flight that happened to be only three hours late. to fend off the angry crowd, they served us airplane breakfasts in the boarding area of the airport. could you imagine about 200 people eating these small trays full of food in the hanoi airport boarding area? it was hilarious...

we flew down to ho chi minh city to be greeted by a van from the university where i'll be teaching. i began to feel like a king. i had two people accompanying me to the university where i'll be teaching and there were two more people there to pick us up. did i deserve this? i would soon be prodded off of my high horse. we arrived in long xuyen, where the universtiy is, after a 4.5 hour drive. i would be spending the next year and 8 months in this town. heralded by some of the guide books as "one of the most boring towns in vietnam".

the me kong: it's beautiful. completely gorgeous. it's a swamp and a jungle and there are rivers full to the brim with brown water. everything is so flat that one would imagine the whole world being flooded in a single, large rain. then the trees: they are tall and lanky. they are lush too. i couldn't help thinking about fighting a war in these jungles. you couldn't see someone hiding two feet in. terrifying.

we finally crossed the last river, on ferry, a dinky ferry none-the-less, and arrived just south (i believe) of long xuyen. the town was beautiful. i never would have imagined it to be so lovely. (and lovely is a wonderful way to describe it) people are going about their daily lives and roads are well paved and flat and wide. oh my, i would love to spend the next 20 months there. oh, the movement of the people. i can't describe it. something like bubbling, churning water.

the university was not what i expected though i hadn't expected anything at all. there are brown tall buildings. there is soft ground underfoot. puddles are everywhere (it's the rainy season). we were shown to our rooms because we were spending the night. oh, the rooms were not what i had hoped for. i wanted a king size bed and big bay windows overlooking active rice paddies. i wanted a small boy waiting to hand me a glass of water. maybe a monkey that came and picked some of the chewy chewy co-ca beans from the co-ca bean bush every morning would yell something nice to me. it was otherwise. you enter to find a nice place to sit and have tea. then, there's the master bedroom (chuckle). it consists of a room built inside of the bigger room. it was made of some type of plywood with a glossy finish on it. it was shorter than the original room and obviously was placed in it after the original building was built. it looked like a shoebox inside of a slightly larger box. that was the bedroom.

upon entering, i was pleased to find a small tv there and two beds. (one had the mattress overturned so i would know not to sleep there) the other bed had a small foam mattress covered by some terrifying blanket. it was made of a type of material that clung to everything. it felt so strange and strangely that, after laying on it, one was prone to question "did i just get cancer?". the bed also came with a mosquito net. i had never slept under a mosquito net and didn't know how i felt about the whole situation. it was pink. i giggled and hung it up. laying under a mosquito net (for those who have not experienced it) is very exotic and dangerous. it feels like you're on safari. it feels like something is out to get you and its attack is thwarted by a pink net. it seduces you as it drapes from the crooked nails in the wall.

we met people and it was wonderful. there are new characters in this drama, for those of you who are following along. first there was alan and louise epp. they are my country representitives and i have a very nice relationship with them. they stay in hanoi. then there is mr. wang. actually, his name is spelled mr. hoanh but it sounded like mr. wang. he's the translator and general coordinator of things. he came down on this visit. there are others, but i will try to bore as few of you as possible. now, the cast grows: first there is miss dao. she knocked me off my high horse because she constantly addressed alan epp and never looked at me. wasn't i supposed to be teaching here? she's the head of the international relations department and i get a bad feeling from her. thin, short, pale and about 45. there is miss mai. she is energetic and young. she had arranged my visa and we all went out last night and she ordered a coconut with a straw in it. hilarious. she hangs out with mr. tre. he came to pick me up at the airport and speaks good english. he loves tennis (spoke of it at least 10 times in one day) and his father owns a sporting goods shop. he works in the international relation's department as do miss dao and miss mai. they all supervise mr. jack. mr. jack is actually jack merchent from seattle washington. he's led a remarkably similar life to me, spending time in seville and now long xuyen. we have a lot in common (both were vegetarians before comming) and will be good frineds. there are more but they will all be woven into this story in their due time.

everyone is mr. this or miss that. it feels like a board game.

we spent a day and a half there and toured the facilities. it was nice. everything reminded me that i was in a jungle. no carpet, stone everywhere, soft ground, bugs and lots of heat. the air smelled of something thick.

now i'm in ho chi minh city. i'm really alone for the first time. just me and the city that hums and beeps around me. i'm renting a room on nugyễn đình chiểu street from a miss trường. tomorrow, i'll go exploring.

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