Lazy Sunday

This morning Trang took me to the seamstress to have my aó dài taken in. I was measured for it when I first arrived, and it seems that in these last four weeks I have changed size enough for it to no longer fit properly. I also discovered that I have been wearing the pants backwards every time I have worn them.

After that Trang and I went to her home for lunch. On the way she paused to pick up a snack for me for later. I also needed to add minutes to my cell phone balance. Trang taught me the necessary phrase on the way and made me approach the shopkeeper by myself. I had to say it twice but she understood. By then Trang had come over to make sure it was working, and instead of helping me the shopkeeper started talking to Trang about my Vietnamese. She was very impressed, Trang later informed me, and started telling her family, further inside the shop, about my perfectly clear Vietnamese. Sometimes I think that people get so excited by the fact that I have spoken Vietnamese that they forget to do whatever it is that I asked them to do, leading me to think that they did not understand me in the first place.

I thought we were getting those waffle-looking things,

but we got these tiny bánh bao that I hadn't seen.

When we got to her house her sister and I started frying spring rolls while Trang went to pick up Morena so she could join us. The spring rolls were prepackaged and frozen and I will absolutely be buying them in the future. They were so good I lost count of how many I ate. We also had a meatball and dumpling soup with corn, carrots, and broccoli. Trang's son encouraged us to "make yourself," by which he meant "help yourself." I hear it quite often, and I think it is a confused combination of "help yourself" and "make yourself at home."

Trang's sister and I, master defrosters

Soup's on

When we finished eating Trang invited us to sit in some hammocks and take a rest. I warned Morena that it is impossible to sit in a hammock after lunch and not fall asleep. True enough, about three hours later, we woke up. Trang had told us that she would wake us up and take us back at 1, but it was now 3pm. Like a true mother, her reasoning was, "you looked so peaceful!"

Trang's sister told me she saw me on the news last night. I tried to ask whether it was just a photo or video but she misunderstood. She told me that it was a report about the fact that I was here through the Fulbright program and about how I will be helping so many people improve their English skills.