stolen, and a weird dream

My tape recorder is missing. Luckily I have almost all the files I'd recorded on my computer now, but still. It's an expensive-y piece of equipment and a pain to replace. For now I'll just take notes, at least tomorrow with the students. Oops forgot to call the professors... do that tomorrow.

Obviously, I'm not the best at scheduling my time. I'm not used to having nothing to do but what I make myself do. It's very interesting. Plus it'll be tough to adapt to Can Tho, where I'll be teaching classes at set times and all.

Also, I had this crazy dream last night that I'm sure accurately depicts my subconscious reactions to everything going on here and all I've been told throughout my life. It was a continuation from a previous dream a few nights ago, the night I went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum to watch the soldier's take down the flag and sing the anthem. In that dream you could only play traditional Vietnamese music in stores, or else the government would censor it. So in most recent dream, I was in my car driving around Hanoi playing pop music, and suddenly Ho Chi Minh's smiling face was beeping projected-like all around me and I got arrested! The jail was very nice, and was actually the British Council room in which I'd seen a debate on Friday night. It was plastered with HCM everywhere, and we prisoners had to paint busts of him. That's it.

Basically, I'm still keeping busy. Trying to be touristy while working, as usual. Hanging out with the Princeton and Duke kids here, and saw Adrian last week too to get my Yale fix in!

Photos: HCM's mausoleum at night, a dragon on a pagoda, silkworms and their silk from the silk village, one of the Princeton Viet roommates and a baby.

Also, while I was bargaining down a price for a motorbike taxi today, the men told me that I'd find it hard to find a husband. Original price: 40000. Final price: 15000.

an uneasy truce

Mr. Daddy long legs gets the back of the toilet. I get the front.

That said, Vietnam is fantastic! I've been here for almost two weeks now, which is hard to believe. My hotel room is quite homey now, with my map on the wall and post-it notes of places, bus routes, people, things to do, etc, and a fridge full of stuff. Lots of delicious food and delicious adventures.

I've been failing at keeping up with myself. I'm supposed to write down everything that happens and everything I observe in order to conduct this anthropology project really well, but I've just been so in the moment. Whenever I have free time I grab my laptop and head to the national library and start typing up notes and journal-y stuff.

Wow.. there's just so much to say that I'm speechless. I've met so many people and done so many things in these past two weeks. I love motorbikes and bought my own helmet yesterday. The rain hits hard and suddenly, but luckily with some warning- you know it'll rain when the sticky humidity gets absurdly oppressive. The heat isn't so bad though. I don't understand how everyone here wears pants all the time and I wear skirts and people stare at me. People stare at me a lot.

People also love me a lot. I speak a lot of Vietlish/French added in just for kicks and giggles. I talk to people a lot more here than I did in France. Have made friends very quickly. A newspaper article was about me. Everyone knows who I am. May be slightly famous. Photo exhibits, museums, temples, libraries, seminars, film screenings, architecture debates, lunches with directors of things, interviews, interviews, research, more interviews, living, living, life. It all moves quite fluidly.

Photos: the lake of the Restored Sword (Ho Hoan Kiem), middle of Hanoi. Me on a motorbike with a math student I interviewed. A cat statue at a monument of sorts. Delicious food at this girl's house.

eek

Better now, after spending the day wandering a few blocks, eating delicious food, taking a terrifying motorbike ride with the guy who works at the front desk to buy a phone, and looking through family photos of people I've never met. Curiously enough, my biggest challenge to living alone so far seems to be the two daddy long legs in the bathroom. Wish to shower, do not know what to do.

Here is a photo of me in my traditional Vietnamese wedding dress and my brother in the limo on the way to his wedding last weekend.

I did it

I'm here, in Vietnam. In a big hotel room with air conditioning that costs $15 a night. By myself. After sixteen hours of flying. I've never been more scared in my life.

More updates to come.