Encoded

Not much to report today. I taught Listening 2 in the afternoon, but the most exciting part of my day was when Trang and I exchanged a (short) series of messages entirely in Vietnamese. She used that texting code I've mentioned in the past. It probably would have been easier for me to recognize the words without w's and s's and x's and f's and whatnot mixed into each word to indicate tones and special characters, especially since I still haven't really internalized the tones that go with all the words I know (though of course tones are crucial), but I guess it made for good practice in that regard. Here's an example of one of her texts:

Dduwowcj rooif. Xe muwowif mootj giowf ba muwowi. :-) 

as if normal Vietnamese weren't hard enough. But like I said, it's good practice. If you're curious, it means, more or less, "Correct. Bus at 11:30."

And what is that bus for? Laos tomorrow! Our plans are pretty loose, but I do know there is a 10-hour bus ride in store for me at some point during the week. Can I look forward to more roosters on the bus? Pigs? You'll be sure to hear about it when I get back.