A coconut for your thoughts

I opened the previous post with a picture of a beetle. I was happy to have my gestalt confirmed in the comments: it is a longhorn beetle. This morning I stumbled upon this guy, flailing in slow motion. He was about the size of my big toe. I righted him, but about a minute later he was back on his back. Alas. 

Do you recognize my shirt? When I bought my pajama set I intended to use the top as a blouse. This morning I put that to the test. I was slightly worried that someone would recognize it, but if anyone did at least no one said anything. And I felt cute.
When I first arrived in Ben Tre I was warned that my students would be like teddy bears: cute but silent. The teachers often refer to them that way, though hopefully not to their faces. Thus far this had been shown to be a largely inaccurate description, but today both of my classes seemed to have been repopulated by teddy bears. Maybe that's to be expected when you wear pajamas to class.

Trang and her sister took me out to lunch. We went to a place she had taken me on one of my first days, but back then my camera was on the fritz. We had the sour soup again, as well as cá hú, which literally means screaming fish, and a pork womb stir fry. The screaming fish was prepared in a sort of cast iron pot and it was probably my favorite of the three. When the pork womb came out I thought it was octopus, as the pieces looked more like chopped up tentacles with suckers, and it actually had a similar consistency. Despite the potentially off-putting organ identity and its rubberiness, it was really good. It had what I would describe as a Chinese-y brown sauce and was prepared with ginger.

Sour soup

Cá Hú   Maybe not the most visually appealing dish, but really really good

Stir-fried womb with pickled cabbage(?) and ginger

In the evening Morena and I went out for phở at a place that is closer than but not as good as the usual place. Other than when my friends visited for my birthday, it is the first time I have eaten at a sit-down restaurant without being in the company of a Vietnamese person since coming to Ben Tre. Moreover, it is the first time I have really had to do all the leg work myself: ordering food, drinks, and asking for the bill. To my pleasant surprise, everyone seemed to understand all of my requests without much need for miming or repetition. It was empowering.

On the way back to campus I decided to stop to buy a coconut. In Hanoi coconuts cost around 20,000 VND (just under $1). Here in Ben Tre, where they are locally produced, I had been buying them for 8,000 VND. Yesterday I stopped at a different place and was charged 3,000 VND. That's about 1¢. While some of my readers might prefer the penny, I'll happily start taking a coconut for my thoughts.

Prepping the coconut: another life skill I hope to acquire while I'm here

After dinner it was time for the student English club. I recently learned that Morena will be taking over this once October starts. This makes me a little sad, as it is one of my favorite activities, but I will probably keep participating at least occasionally. I had already started planning a Halloween party for the students, and intend to follow through on that. Tonight was as fun as always, and we reviewed past songs and learned new ones. I taught them "I'm a Little Teapot" and an abridged version of "You Are My Sunshine." Did you know that the latter is one of Louisiana's state songs? The full lyrics were certainly a surprise to me.

"When I get all steamed up, hear me shout: tip me over and pour me out!"