The Vietnam Dong Song

I know where to get you a balloon?

Thanks to Travellerspoint and our nifty little digital camera, we are now able to upload videos to our blog. We've received a few requests and overwhelming people want to see videos of Nadine. Thus, at the end of this witty blog entry, you have your wish, Nadine in the video form. We've also added a few photos from Angkor Wat and other spots, in addition to two new videos of Nadine, one on this blog entry, and one entry from Thailand. Links are on the bottom, enjoy.

Also, the currency of Vietnam is the dong, and everytime we have to pay for anything with dong, we sing it just like Nelly's Thong Song. Thus, the reason for the title.

So after our crazy Christmas Eve Mass at Notre Dame, we spent Christmas Day just like anyother Christmas. We woke up to cake for breakfast. We found out we couldn't go on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, so with no other choice, we went back to sleep for another couple of hours. In the afternoon, with a few errands completed, we called our parents to wish them a Merry Christmas from the other side of the globe, and then went to the gym. I sure that is what you did for Christmas too? Needless to say, Christmas was a little different than usual for us. We did miss our families quite a bit. It would have been great to be with them and friends, but we did enjoy our last quiet Christmas for the next 20 years. Next Christmas, we will have another another member of the family joining us. Make your bets now whether it will be a boy or girl.

The day after Christmas, better known as Boxing Day to some, or St. Stephen's Day if you are Scuba Steve, we were on a bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels with Mr. Bean, our guide. Mr. Bean promptly informed us that he had indeed worked with the American forces during the Vietnam War and that all American women have big asses. I didn't see the coorelation there, but I would agree with him that quite a few do, but not all American women. That was pretty unfair generalization, and maybe a little unprofessional. Probably acceptable in New Mexico though.

Former U.S. Military Tank

Back to the Cu Chi tunnels. They were tunnels built by the Viet Cong to move around without the American soldiers being able to spot them. They were small underground tunnels that had three levels. These tiny tunnels functioned, and they left the small Vietnamese undetectable while they still fought, ate, slept, cooked, all underground. They were miracously able to travel every night 3 miles to nearby American bases and steal their weapons. It wasn't until after the war was over that the Americans learned of these tunnels. As Nadine and I submerged our large, oversized American bodies into these tiny tunnels, I couldn't believe they were able to do this for years. When the first exit presented itself, we had a choice of continuing down to the second level or up to fresh air and room to move my arms, I was out of there.

Not only did the mountain of negative comments from Mr. Bean about Americans continue non-stop, he was even alienating several of the non-Americans on the tour. Two of those folks were Irish, Jacqui and Josephine. We began to chat with them, and broke the ice by saying that because of Mr. Beans' words of enlightenment, I now hated Americans as well. Recognizing the dry humor, they laughed along and mentioned that Nadine and I were indivudually responsible for everything wrong in the world. As we walked together recounting all the horrible things we've done together, I was able to cynically convince another young American girl from Philadelphia, that everything Mr. Bean was saying about the U.S. was absolutely true.

Me - "Everything that Mr. Bean says about the U.S. is absolutely true! I know it is."
Naive Philly girl - "No, it's not all true. He's wrong with a few things."
M - "I know it's true. I've been to the U.S. once before. And it's all definitely true."
N.P.G. - "No!!! It's not true!"
M - "But it is! I have been there once!"
N.P.G. - "No it's not! I'm American! I should know."

It was at this point that Nadine gave me "the look" as the Irish girls looked on curiously at this little interaction between two Americans. What made this interaction funny was that I didn't change my voice at all to sound French, English, or from anywhere else in the world accent. I was speaking English with a slight Texas drawl. To avoid making her look even more foolish, I admitted that I too was Texan and American. I then had to end my cruel little game, but I couldn't get over the fact that she didn't even suspect that I might be American. Segway to Dumb & Dumber, "let's put another shrimp on the barbie!"

That afternoon we spent lunch with the Irish girls, and laughed about the day's tour and our Philly girl. Hope she isn't reading this blog. We said goodbye and walked to our respective hostels. As we were walking, we came to find out that we were going to the same hostel. As we had sat in the hostel that morning waiting for our bus to arrive, we groggily didn't notice each other in the very small lobby of our place.

Next day we were eager to do another tour, and this morning we did notice J.J. in the lobby, and we both hoped that Mr. Bean wouldn't be on board with his bag of slander. As we waited in our hostel chatting, guess who came to pick us up. None other than Mr. Bean himself. With looks of worry and grief on our faces, he drove us around the block a few times, until we were moved to another bus, and out of permanent earshot of Mr. Bean.

The Mekong tour carried us to the massive Mekong River that runs from China and through the vast majority of Southeast Asia. A selling point of this tour was the chance to see floating markets. Floating markets turned out to be a couple of boats just sitting in the middle of a tributary of the Mekong. But an interesting factoid was that the handful of boats selling would hoist up their vegetable of choice on a stick to identify what they were selling to buyers, but other than that, the "floating market" was a sinking letdown. As we passed the few boats in the water, we all looked at each other perplexed wondering if this was it. It was. So we dutifily took photos like a good tourist.

I hope this python has had his lunch already

The rest of the afternoon, we stopped at a coconut candy making factor, excellent candy without processed sugar, a rice popping exhibition, and an authentic Vietnamese lunch on a large island in the Mekong River. Before eating lunch, I stopped to throw a python around my neck to squeeze a little extra space for the meal. The perfect way to quelch an appetite for others. For the rest of the time on the island, we sat in a hammock rocking the afternoon away.

The tour up to that point, felt like a big shopping tour around the Mekong, and as we neared our last stop, a brick factory, we began to wonder if they were going to sell us some bricks. "The prefect gift for your loved ones, an authentic Vietnamese brick to put in their Christmas stocking." I couldn't get over the fact that they took us to a brick factory. What?!?! What did the people who designed this trip think when they included, "to complete the tour, why don't we visit a brick factory. People will love that." Nadine made the most of it to learn, but I just keep shaking my head and wondering why we were there, as I took obligatory pictures of a pile of bricks. I can't wait to show my pictures of bricks when we return home.

This crowd in just 15 minutes!

During our time in Ho Chi Mihn City, Nadine successfully set up a teaching job for us. We would teach English for two weeks to a group of nuns in the town of Thu Duc outside of HCMC. On the day before we began teaching, the nuns took us up to the mountain village of Long Dien. Here we met what seemed like half the village who worked with the Congregation de Notre Dame des Missions. Not knowing that there was going to be some foreigners visiting, they set up an impromptu concert and presentation in the spam of 15 minutes. One of the most amazing organizational jobs I've ever seen. Along with Sister Marie Therese (Australia), we were treated like royalty and to a concert. They also asked us to come back and bring our friends, because they would love to learn English. So, if you want to teach English in Vietnam, we know just the place.

Can you find Nadine in this photo?

As far as our responsibilities of teaching, we've been running the nuns through a gauntlet of speaking and writing exercises in the morning, followed with a quality nap at noon, and then finishing up in the afternoon with readings and pronunciation. When you do come to teach English, they will properly respond to all your questions with an interjected "y'all," "yes maam," and "I didn't know there was a New Mexico either" in their best Texas drawl. During our first day of pronunciation of the letter "p", I sucessfully managed to have a nun say the word "poop". It could be useful.

These nuns are honestly some of the nicest people on earth you could meet. Others might be just as nice, but none nicer. Great people with big hearts. Even though their Vietnamese New Year is in February, they celebrated ours on January 1st with us and by presenting us flowers and necklaces.

What is Nadine teaching these nuns in the middle of the video?

Another quality that they own and have in common with my grandma White is that they will feed you until the cows come home. Everytime we turn around, it's "would you like some more fish, or some bread, or maybe some lemon juice. We have some tasty chocolate in the fridge. Nadine, you should be drinking more milk." So in preparation for our weekend trip to the beach, they even bought us some beer. They are doing us up right. Maybe we will have to stay longer, or maybe that is what they are trying to do by giving us a six pack of beer, bait us into staying longer.

You never wear your shoes inside

Here are links to videos and additional photos that we have added.
Video of Nadine in Thailand, at bottom - Oh Koh Lanta, Get Off My Jungle Gym
Pictures from Angkor Wat - Running Among Cobras and Angkor Wat
Pictures from HCMC - Christmas Scooters Gone Wild

The person with the correct answer to this weeks question will win and receive a postcard from this weeks answer;

What was the former name of Ho Chi Mihn City before 1975?

Good luck. Life is good for us. We are doing well and enjoying teaching. Hope you enjoyed the 29th blog entry from our trip around the world!

JW