-^-for posterity-^-

things are chaotic here and very competitive in a friendly way. that makes everything a bit odd.

i'm sitting in a dusty internet cafe in a small town on the coast surrounded by young people of both sexes talking to people on the internet. they are all very attractive, the boys and the girls, and they sit next to each other and talk to people in other cities around vietnam about who knows what. chatting has become quite a phenomenon in vietnam. i have read articles about people finding spouses on the internet but never believed it until i met a very attractive girl who lives in long xuyen. she is young and met her 36 year old austrailian husband to be while chatting. they had an internet relationship for a few months and he stopped by. while he was here he proposed. they're going to get married soon enough. they chat and i rest from my morning of playing in the biggest basketball tournament in vietnam.

we are in one of two groups of male teams. we played our first game this morning against a team from ho chi minh city.

the game didn't start until 7:30 but we rose before five. the room was electric as people took down mosquitoe nets and shook me awake. we went to eat noodles in our uniforms and then trotted to the court. the other team arrived and we warmed up opposite one another. the other teams from our division were there to scout. it was an incredibly weird sensation having people size you up for competition. it felt like every dribble and shot was being invisibly measured and ranked by hundreds of eyes. the stands were packed with people, not as many as for a night game, but a lot none the less. children sat in packs on the sidelines and the speakers blared names.

we were all introduced (my name is pronounced 'chon') and the game began with me at the position of center.

the referee tossed the ball high in the air and i batted it to a teamate and we started to run. i have never truly experienced any actual competition with spectators in my life. it was a horribly stressful experience. my stomach churrned constantly. i tried to play it all off by being very casual but it didn't help that most of the spectators would try to chat with me when i got close by. i sang a song in vietnamese at a coffee shop last night and word has gotten around. the song was called 'xe dap oi' and people would chant that when i scored.

i did fairly well and the other team wasn't as good as we expected. the announcer woudl give a running commentary on what was going on. he would say 'vao khong?' (is it in?) when the shot was floating through the air and then 'vao!' if it went in or 'khong vao!' if it didn't go in. also, if someone would score he would say 'write two points down for chon!' (or whoever else scored).

it's a lot easier playing when you're winning. i can't imagine the experience will be the same tomorrow morning when we play the dreaded team from 'phan thiet'. they are a team made up of semi-professional basketball players from around the coastal area here. they are all tall, slim and very athletic. they also have somehow gotten a player from malaysia to play on their team. if we lose there the best we can hope for is third place. if we win, we have a shot at second or first though i have heard that one team in the other bracket has imported players from ho chi minh city who are paid to play. i met one of them and he makes 300 dollars a month playing basketball. i make 100 a month teaching.

we'll rest this afternoon on our bamboo mats. i'll play more chinese chess and have people make fun of how poorly i play and, of course, we'll sit in coffee shops for hours.