Traveling 8,500 miles to build schools and homes and teach school children! Adventures to come...

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

You Know You've Been in Vietnam for 2 Months When...

  •  You’re excited when there’s toilet paper
  • Speaking of toilet paper, it’s a treat when there is a squatter rather than just a whole in the ground
  • You don’t look twice at that one motorbike piled with 5 people, 2 live chickens, 1 pig, and a couple of bamboo mats
  • You feel like something’s missing when a  fish or chicken head isn’t in dinner’s soup
  • You're hotel might also sideline as a brothel 
  • Stripes and poka dots together doens't seem so off anymore
  • You have started measuring things in cement bags ex: “I’m so hungry I could eat 2 cement bags full of rice!”
  • You're use to the restaurants doubling as the family's living room
  • Your hair has yet to come out of a braid or ponytail
  • You might not like the stench of the market, but now you can at least tell the difference between some of the smells-squid, dried shrimp, durian, raw meat, fish
  • Last night you dreamed of eating a hamburger (with peanuts and salmon on top?), and the night before, a Chipolte burrito.  Turns out malaria pills give you weird dreams, and we are all craving American food
  • You have replaced your morning makeup with a bucket of sunscreen and insect repellent
  • A lizard falls from the sky onto your arm as you’re eating your rice (just happened to me!)
  • Your conversations include all the American food you are going to eat when you get back
  • One minute there’s a caged live chicken in front of the restaurant, and after you order, the chicken is gone
  • You’ve taken a nap 2 feet from a national highway
  • You haven’t been on Facebook once
  • You’re use to the “more than occasional” lizard or cockroach hanging around in your room
  • You’re confused when there’s no rice on the table
  • You are no longer fazed by the yells, hollars, hoots, and stares
  • You’ve stopped comparing bug bites - we all have too many to count
  • You have no idea what the “Top Ten’ songs are on iTunes or what movies are out
  • You no longer think that all those people with masks are doctors or their patients
  • You’ve finally learned how to properly wash your clothes by hand
  • You’ve had someone drive by on their motorbike and try to snag your purse (happened to Devyn-we won!)
  • You don’t look twice at all the crazy food- scorpions, cobras, eggs with baby ducks inside, congealed blood, etc.
  • You’ve eaten enough rice to fill a swimming pool
  • You can successfully walk across a street in Saigon without flinching-imagine: NO crosswalks, no traffic rules, motorbikes and cars everywhere
  • You know how to order dog meat, although you will NEVER eat it!
  • You can take regular naps on a bamboo mat on the cement floor without getting a crick in your neck
  • You have mastered the art of the chopstick – or at least, relatively
  • After Quang Tri, you don’t think Saigon is that hot
  • You haven't watched TV-no Bachlorette or Pretty Little Liars 
  • You fell in love with the country and are sad to leave the yummy food and friendly people

No comments:

Post a Comment