Gray skies, pink, blue

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." - Rabindranath Tagore

There are a few things I forgot to mention about my trip home from HCMC. First, my xe om ride from the hotel to the bus departure point. When I got on the motorbike the driver asked me if I liked music. Assuming it was a generic question, I said yes. Once we got going, though, he burst into a hodgepodge rendition of the song 'We are the world.' I think he knew the first line and a handful of other words, but he certainly knew the tune. After cycling through that song a few times, he asked if I liked ABBA. This time I knew what the question portended, but I said yes anyway. I would assume that what came next was an ABBA song, but to be honest I wouldn't know. The whole serenaded ride was a surreal experience, and it reminded me of when our gondolier in Venice spontaneously serenaded us with 'Under the Bridge' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

When I was on the bus home, I thought I saw two men on a motorbike with about six naked women between them. I was only half right. They were carrying the lower halves of several naked mannequins. My first impression might have qualified for strangest motorbike cargo thus far but the reality isn't too unworthy of that title. I only wish I could have gotten a picture.

Today got off to a bustling start. Somehow my office hours are now at 8:30am, so luckily I was awake and dressed at 8:25 when I got a knock on my door. I was receiving a printer and it needed to be installed. Ok. At about 8:27 I got a phone call from home. At 8:29 my students arrived. Too much at once. I had to cut the phone call short and my students' presentation practice was frequently interrupted by queries from the printer people. An hour later the students were gone but the printer still wasn't working. Thirty minutes after that I found a polite way to express the fact that having a working printer was not a top priority at the moment; I had work to do, and regained access to my computer.

In the afternoon I spent 90 minutes sitting in the corner at the meeting of the student Communication Corner. It was conducted entirely in Vietnamese. I still have no idea why I am there. I watched the clouds grow thicker and grayer throughout the meeting, and had the sneaking suspicion that they would let loose just as I would finally walk back to my room. Instead, it never rained. At five Morena and I were taken out for dinner by Mr. Luan and his assistant, Ms. Long. After a long motorcycle ride we had bánh canh, a beef soup with thick rice noodles similar to Japanese udon noodles. I enjoyed it, and will be keeping an eye out for it on my street. Before leaving we were treated to a vivid pink sunset.

Bánh canh

Yes, I live in a postcard

The topic of tonight's English club for teacher was neighborhoods and businesses. When we were talking about karaoke, it was requested that I sing a song. I should have seen it coming. I opted for I'm a Little Teapot. Short and sweet and cute. It has become a habit for teachers to bring me a snack for their English club break-time. Today it was coffee-flavored chè rau câu, or what Wikipedia informs me is gelatin made from algae. During break I also learned that blue represents hope in Vietnam. When I shared that green represents hope in the US, I learned today that blue and green are not differentiated in the Vietnamese language. They are covered by the same word. If you need to differentiate, you say the word followed by something like "like the sky" or "like the leaves on a tree." Insert linguistics sigh.

The brown strips are the coffee-flavored parts