Vietnam. OH my! The adventures I have been on in this country...

Day 2

It was so incredibly hard to get up the second day even despite my excitement for the events planned that day. I was lucky enough to get on a SAS service visit to a local school for the deaf. Getting on a service visit is next to impossible since the demand is so incredibly high. You have no idea how excited I was to finally get on one. I had been trying since port number one. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had already signed up and paid for an over night trip to the Mekong Delta before I had even left Madison. Even though it was a fair amount of money, I quickly decided to forgo the over night trip, loose my money, and do the service visit instead. I am SO glad that I did. We arrived at the school early in the morning and they greeted us with several performances. Several girls did two Vietnamese dances and the boys danced to some “hip hop.” For a while I had forgot that they couldn’t hear until I noticed that their teacher giving them signals as to when the song started. It was pretty incredible. We then had some time to interact with the students. The kids were about 6 to 18 years old. We were given paper and markers to draw with. Mary Alice and I sat down with the cutest little boy. He helped me with most of my drawings lol. I must not have been doing them correctly. I’m not sure how much I should have trusted him since he seemed to get more marker on his legs than on the paper. He would decided when I would use which color by taking the marker out of my hand and giving me another. A little bit later, a boy (14 years old) came and sat down next to me. Eventually we got to drawing animals for each other. Either of us would draw an animal and we would both write its name in our language. I’m surprised he recognized my drawing of a frog…it was horrendous. I also busted out the butterfly stickers I had brought with me. Let me tell you, any time you bring out stickers in a school you are bound to have a good time. One girl took the whole sheet and ran with it. A few minutes later I saw her covered in them. When we left to go to the zoo, I saw half of the stickers stuck to the floor. I felt so bad… but it was pretty funny. We each paired off with a student to be with at the zoo. The 14 year old boy was pretty much stuck to my side at this point making him my kid. Mary Alice and I told our leader that the two of us should not be held responsible for two other human beings. Our friends already had called dibs on our stuff because none of them believe that the two of us will make it out of this country alive. Seriously, they did and I don’t blame them lol. We all boarded the bus but there weren’t enough seats for everyone so I ended up sitting on the floor in the back. It was one of the most silent bus rides of my life even though there were tons of conversations going on. It was interesting to watch them interact with each other. I noticed that there was a lot of hitting one another in order to get the other persons attention. It was boiling outside by the time we arrived. Mary Alice’s kid was on a power trip and my guy sauntered along making the whole keeping track of our kid difficult, esp. since they couldn’t hear/understand anything we said. They bolted straight for the reptile center, which made me laugh because Mary Alice is deathly afraid of snakes. So for a while I was responsible for two human beings. Eek. Scary thought I know since I can barely keep track of myself most of the time. I managed though. They didn’t seem real interested in the rest of the zoo since I am sure they have seen it a million times. We just followed them around a lot. We met the group back up for lunch (which was from the ship). My kid had absolutely NO idea what the mustard packet was or what to do with it. I tried to explain it to him but of course it was extremely difficult. Eventually I got it across to him that it went on the sandwich. I had him taste it first before I helped him put it on. We did the same with the mayo packet… and judging the face he made after tasting that one, I threw it away. After lunch, they jumped some rope and we left to drop them back off at the school before going back to the ship. I wished we would have stayed at the school and spent more time with them in their element because that was incredibly fun. The entire experience was pretty amazing, and as I said earlier, I am so glad I went.

We arrived back on the ship and took a quick shower after sweating all morning in the hot sun. We met up with our friend Brandon for the rest of the day. He is such a good sport. We dragged him back with us try on our dresses and get them adjusted. I was a little nervous but it didn’t matter because mine weren’t done yet. I’d have to come back tomorrow. Mary Alice tried hers on and got them refitted but would also have to come back tomorrow for a second fitting. Afterwards, we went back to the market to do some serious damage… and I was successful. I forgot to mention it in the first day’s entry, but at the market Mary Alice and I were walking around looking at stuff when this old man stopped us and asked with the up most enthusiasm, “would you like to buy some postcards?” As usual, we said “no thanks.” He responded with an “Oh my god! But why not?!” It was the funniest thing I had ever heard in my entire life. His facial expression and tone of voice were priceless. It was as if we had chosen to die by torture right then and there than to live. We have been laughing about it ever since. We hope to go back and try to video it so that people will understand how incredibly funny it was. He did a version of it again the second day so our fingers are crossed for a third time. The market is an interesting experience in itself. Brandon and Mary Alice both got hit at least once. Women would grab and you and try to sell you things. One time a woman grabbed my arm as I walked by and she held on as I kept walking. Eventually I said “uh, I kind of need my arm. Can I please have it back.” After a little while longer she gave up and I was freed. The smell in the market is also a bit overwhelming. The corner of the market devoted to food made my stomach curl. We tried to push through all the people as quickly as possible before we all got sick. After the adventures at the market, we did more shopping as we made our way to go and get a message. Which reminds me that I never mentioned what it’s like to cross a street in Vietnam. Imagine about 40 mopeds and 5 cars and a truck or two coming at you all at once and crossing anyway. That is pretty much what it is like. For those of you who know my fear of crossing the street in Madison when the crosswalk sign is red, you’d be impressed. I actually find it fun. It’s kind of like playing a game of dodge ball with vehicles. I’ve had a couple of close calls, but no harm done…yet. We made it alive to the message place we had picked out. If I will remember one experience from vietnam, it will be the massage I received. Mary Alice, Brandon, and I all get put in to this pretty tiny room separated by some hanging cloth. Brandon gets his own little stall and Mary Alice and I get put in one that has two massage tables in it. Before we know it, two women are pretty much undressing us right there. We were like “hmm, is there like a towel or something.” We were laughing shock and disbelief. Was this really happening? Oh yes, it was. They handed us each a towel but it hardly mattered. Eventually we got situated and they started. To say the very least, the towel served almost no purpose whatsoever… Mary Alice and I got close very quickly. We were pretty quiet at the beginning of the massage. It was a little rough but still good. The two giving us massages would talk and then laugh about something. I assumed that they were laughing about us. At one point, the woman got on top of me and started walking around. All I could think was “I have a little Vietnamese woman walking on me right now.” I wasn’t expecting it since we ordered the hot stone massage. We were lying there when we heard a new person come in next to us… a few moments later we heard an English voice ask “Is there a towel or something?” We both laughed and thought “welcome to our world.” It was when the Christmas music came on that I completely lost it. Mary Alice and I couldn’t stop laughing. The whole thing was just hilarious. I was laughing so hard that I was crying. Later, she cracked my neck and I could have sworn by the sound that she had cracked my head right off. It felt good though. At the end we were still laughing. It was the best spent $20 of my life solely for the experience and entertainment value I relieved from it. Afterwards that adventure as we like to call it, we went to Vietnam House for drinks and appetizers. I had the national dish apparently. It was a beef noodle soup. Pretty tasty. We then moved to a different restaurant for our main course. We left the business card of the restaurant on our friend teddy’s door with a time to meet us. We didn’t know if he would actually make it or not but he did. At the moment, I can’t remember what I ordered so it must not that been that great lol. Afterwards, we went to a new restaurant for dessert. I had a yummy strawberry banana smoothie while we sat and hung out for a good while. Exhausted, we all headed back to the ship to crash. Again, I tried calling my mom with no luck. MOM!! I wrote the first entry of Vietnam’s blog and passed out.