"This is neither fun nor easy!"

I've made it to my homeland, Can Tho. My mom was born in a village not far from here, so I'm visiting it tomorrow morning at 6 am with my students. There's a big floating market there, called Cho Noi, and I'm pretty excited to see Cai Rang. One of my students is from there and he said he'd take me around.

I was in Saigon for three days. It was cool- more about that city when I go back there in three weeks. Vi and I got to our guesthouse on Sunday afternoon after taking a car and an unexpected ferry ride here- it took about four hours from HCMC. Our guesthouse, which we later nicknamed the Hell House, was essentially the worst possible lodging the university could have given its foreign volunteers. The plumbing kept breaking, we had no fridge (although we had a toaster oven and a sink of cockroaches), the fans worked intermittently (obviously no a/c), and we were missing some walls, as in Vi's bedroom had three walls and a scrim that didn't even cover the hole. Also no internet and holes in the walls (purposeful, for ventilation). It was pretty awesome. We also had a kitty and the university gave us two bicycles.

This week has flown by. Teaching English and the TOEFL is a blast. We both teach two classes, one at 7:30-9:15 and the other 9:30-11:15. At first I was very very nervous, but making lesson plans takes very little time and reading essays and homework is pretty fun. I adore my students, almost all of whom are older than me, who call me Teacher. After the first few days we started hanging out with our students, but the Hell House took a lot of energy out of us. Vi got crazy sick from eating duck fetus egg (after riding on the back of my students' bicycles, an experience from which the title of this post is derived) and on Wednesday I scoped out hotels and we moved into one. We lasted three days in Hell House, but it seemed like so much longer...

After Vi and I get on the backs of Minh and Thuy's bicycles: "See, it's easy to ride on the back of a bicycle? See? Easy! It's fun!"

Several seconds of telling myself I won't die and clutching the seat of a badly wobbling bike in need of air later: "No, Minh! This is neither fun nor easy!"

Possibly the best advice I've received in Can Tho so far: "Just think about what I'm saying! Don't think about the bicycle!"

I hope to rent a motorbike tomorrow. I already have my awesome helmet that Adrian got me in Hanoi, and although I don't have a license I can always pull the "American!" card.

Pictures: me on the back of Minh's bike, the unexpected ferry ride, banh xeo (one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes), hot vit lon (duck fetus egg) in tamarind sauce, Old Man Monkey who sits outside a restaurant that we like, and my room in Hell House. Pretty, isn't it? Looks can be deceiving.

good bye hanoi

I'm leaving in 13 hours for the airport to get out of Hanoi and head to HCMC, where I'll be for a few days before shuttling to Can Tho and starting my teaching English stint. I am crazy sad to be leaving this city, which is sort of a hole anyway, but awesome. I feel very strongly toward Hanoi, toward its traffic and streets and lakes and food and people and buses and xe oms (motorbike taxis) and haggling and markets and libraries and restaurants and my friends, my very good friends I've made during the past almost-month.

I spent the last weekend in the provinces. Well, first on Saturday morning I gave a kickass speech to the American Center English Club at the American Embassy, then we motorbiked out to Bac Ninh, the smallest province in Vietnam just a bit out of Hanoi. Hieu is the slowest, most careful driver I've ever met. It's pretty damn terrifying actually. Passing on the right is the worst idea ever. Anyway, Bac Ninh, or more specifically the village of Que Vo (Huong and Hieu's hometown) is awesome! I learned to plant rice, plow a field with a water buffalo, harvest shrimp, pick rau muong (don't know what its English name is), and drive a motorbike. Oh plus we went to another village, Phu Lang, and I learned how to make do gom, or their traditional pottery. We painted ceramics, put stuff in a kiln, designed pots, and hung out. Oh and I got some tailored Vietnamese shirts for free. Villagers kick ass.

Tourist traps don't. Halong bay is beautiful, but I would've preferred going in an American tour group just so I could know exactly how much I was going to pay beforehand. Oh but we did go paragliding, which was awesome!

I don't fit the clothes here but I needed shorts to learn to motorbike so I now have a fantastic pair of boy shorts. Pockets are freaking amazing!

In sum, I am crazy sad to be leaving my friends from the American Center, IVCE, Duke, Princeton, the hotel, family, and the randoms e.g. library. I had an absolute blast here and my Vietnamese has improved like no other. I'm excited for the future, but sad to be leaving the past behind. Off go more sheets from my page a day calendar of life.