Rewiring

“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

Vietnam is starting to feel a little less foreign. I have finally edited my muscle memory to not reach for the faucet knob when I want to rinse my toothbrush. I filter out the cacophony of car and motorcycle and bus horns when I walk down the street -- sometimes to my almost detriment. Today is my last day of Vietnamese language class, and we have some kind of 'using your language skills in real-life situations' scavenger hunt in store for us. After this afternoon, all of our classes will be teacher training. While I certainly don't think I am fully equipped to fill my role as teacher, I feel even less prepared to successfully communicate in a city where I've been told I'll be the only westerner. I would much rather continue taking Vietnamese in the mornings, but so it is.

I have been under the weather for the last couple of days, but I think I am back up to speed. People could tell I was unwell because my usually voracious appetite was lacking. Speaking of appetite, an upside of being sick was that I discovered another dish: xôi gà, or sticky rice with shredded chicken. After a day of eating bananas and increasingly stale bread, it was exactly the simple, unthreatening but nourishing meal that the doctor ordered.

Yesterday I borrowed a CD of Vietnamese pop music from our language teacher. Last night I first dreamt one of the Vietnamese songs from the CD, but I think my subconscious substituted all of the lyrics with the few Vietnamese phrases I actually know. In my next dream I was teaching about 60 American kids about the US government or something, simultaneously troubleshooting for the fact that some of them were there with babies or getting into squabbles with their boyfriend/girlfriend. I guess my subconscious is trying to get ready for the next nine months.