monday on the rise.

what a weekend.

after a full week of teaching (we got to I in the alphabet and through the entire rainbow of colors) we took a tour of the city on saturday morning.

we visited monkey mountain.

THERE ARE NO MONKEYS ON MONKEY MOUNTAIN.

i know, i was disappointed too.

we went to a marketplace.

i have never experience so many strange smells at once.

and! our tour guide pointed our a full pig leg, thinking i would think it was funny.

poor guy, i did not think it was funny.

at all.

we went to a store that sold this beatiful embroideried tapestries, and i suddenly wished i had thousands and thousands of dollars to spare to spend on vietnamese art.

for lunch we went to a restuarant that serves western food.

cheeseburgers, french fries, and potato salad, OH MY!

also, it's entirely run by a community of deaf vietnamese people.

i need to brush up on my charades, but we did a pretty good job communicating.

once our bellies were full, we proceeded to the beach.

i sat on a chair under an umbrella and read a book.

(its called No God But God. it's by Reza Aslan, it's really good)

everyone else went in the water. i hear it was nice.

but i don't do water.

today we ate some more traditional vietnamese food which involved a lot of rice and tofu for me. and then we came home after a walk under the very hot sun and took a three hour nap.

i wasn't aware i was capable of such a nap.

we now have another friend in our room to join sally, moses the gecko and i.

his name is Papa the Roach.

...a little bit gross, but we are trying to love him.