Tôi thích Vinh!

Today is the first day in about about a month that the sun has been out. It was so nice today that I moved my couch out onto the balcony and just soaked up some sun while I read a book about cross-cultural adjustment. It was so wonderful!!! The book is called Cross-Cultural Connections" by Duane Elmer. It is really helping me get some perspective on adjusting to life over here. It is good to know that I am not crazy the emotions that I go through are completly normal. I think the sentence that I will be saying alot this year is "That is not like me and I do not understand it...yet. But that is you, and I accept you and your ways." So when I get asked to sing all the time, get stared at, have to eat strange things, or have to bargen the price of what I'm going to eat I will know that it is not like me yet. I am learner every day how to speak more and more Vietnamese and of course I have people helping me.

I really love speaking Vietnamese with the people around the market. Here I am asking the women how much the a kilo of apples is. "Quả táo bao nhiêu tiền mọt cân?" It always makes the market ladies smile when I speak Vietnamese to them. Either because my pronunciation is so bad or because I am making a geniune effort to be a part of the culture. I really hope it is the latter!

This past weekend some of the teachers that are with ELI came down to Vinh for a visit. We had a lot of fun hanging out and I enjoyed showing them the sights of Vinh! From left to right it is Robyn, Sandy, Me, Katheryn, and Will. In the picture we were at Nam Đàn, which is were Ho Chi Minh's was born and spent the first 11 years of his life. I had never been there before and it was kind of neat to see where such an important leader in Vietnam's history came from.

On Friday night all of us walked down to Ho Chi Minh Square with some second year students. I had so much fun. The best part of being here in Vietnam is the relationships that I am building with students. The girl that is standing next to me, Nguyet, and the girl in the yellow, Nhân, are my language tutors. They are so funny and I have really enjoyed getting to know them! I don't think I have ever met such sweet girls in my whole life!

Sandy and I on the balcony outside of our rooms. I have said it before and i will say it again, I am so blessed to have Sandy as a partner. She loves all of her students so much and has taught me so much over the past couple of months. I would be in a world of hurt without her! I am so thankful for her.