The big E

 Elliot is tall. At over six feet, he towers over the people of a country that make me feel tall. This world is too small for him. Street food stools are so low his knees are almost up to his shoulders. Market awnings caress the top of his head. His legs couldn't be crammed into the space between his seat and the seat in front of him on the bus from HCMC to Ben Tre. But he is surviving.

With a group of students doing a scavenger hunt
"Take a photo with three foreigners"

Elliot arrived Sunday right around noon. Our quest for food took us to pizza: good for me, perhaps not the best introductory dish for him. We roamed the city for a while, walking through the French area, through downtown, and along the river. The shopping malls have expansive and elaborate Christmas decorations outside, irresistible photo-ops for every Vietnamese person within 50km (especially for families of Santa-clad kiddos). Walking through that felt worse than walking through traffic, and we quickly learned that anything that looked like a good opening was probably the space between photographer and photograph-ee. I did a better job leading Elliot to a proper Vietnamese dinner, and he enjoyed bánh bào and broken rice with pork and chicken. 

 

Waiting at the airport

Today we managed to get in a good number of sights before heading to Ben Tre. I took him to a market a few blocks away and we had a breakfast of bún thịt nướng (grilled pork and vermicelli) and nem nướng (spring rolls). It was tasty, but not enough, so Elliot supplemented this with a glorified rice cracker as we continued to wander. We decided to go through an alley, for the sake of seeing something different, and as it twisted and turned we wondered whether we were just losing ourselves in a neighborhood or whether we would find a way out. Luckily, a woman smoking a cigarette (very unusual here) wordlessly pointed us in the right direction. Perhaps she assumed that the only reason westerners might be in her neck of the woods would be if they were lost. We walked through a few parks before it was time to go.  

Breakfast, part 1

Breakfast, part 2

At the park

The bus ride to Ben Tre flew by for me. Elliot's company meant I couldn't fall asleep like I usually do, but it also meant that I had company. Back on campus I observed Trang's translation class, which I will start teaching this semester, and took Elliot on a quick tour of our tiny campus. 

Backyard river

We had plans to eat pho with Trang for dinner, but then she told us that we had been invited to a teacher's retirement party, but then she told us nevermind, that it would be better if the three of us had pho together. I gave Trang her Christmas present, which Elliot brought for me: "In a Pickle", a book about English idioms that I read in my childhood. As you may have gathered from past blog posts, Trang often asks me about idioms, their meanings, and their origins, so it seemed like the perfect gift. Trang was very happy with it. Elliot loved the pho, proclaiming it his favorite Vietnamese food thus far, and the three of us had a great time. We spent a good deal of time explaining cereal to Trang, who found the whole idea and the variety both perplexing and fascinating.  

This five-legged cricket landed on me right before dinner, perhaps to show
Elliot just how cuddly bugs are with me in Vietnam.