My dinner partners....

This evening I went to my typical 5-6:30pm volleyball game. We played until long after dark...which was a big challenge! The sun sets around 6:15pm and since Hanoi is located about 20 degrees north of the equator, the sun rises and sets pretty much the same time (give or take a few minutes) year-round. So tonight after the game I was given a ride on one of the players motorcycle back to my "compound". I call it a compound because I am living in a dormitory complex with about 3,000 other students. They have big iron gates around the complex which are locked from 10:30pm to 5:15am. Really! I am LOCKED in each night. I wonder what I am going to do if I get back later than 10pm. I usually am into bed very early...so that hasn't been a problem. The other interesting thing is that they have bars over all the windows and doors....and each of the dorm complexes (except my wing) has another set of gates. Those gates are also locked at night. So the students are locked up tight at 10:30pm each and every night of the week. Imagine that in the US!

Well, tonight after volleyball I get back to the complex and I am sweating like crazy--but very hungry and have no interest in showering and then going out to a restaurant and eating. The other option is to eat a peanut butter sandwich in my room...and that doesn't sound very appealing tonight. So I run up to my room and grab my wallet and walk back downstairs to the student cafeteria. Everyone tells me not to eat there....but I do anyway. It is convenient...and very, very inexpensive.

I walk over to the rice and "stuff" station...and they put a HUGE pile of rice on my plate. I give it to a young man and start pointing. Tonight I pointed at some pork...so I got about 5 small pieces of pork on the rice. I pointed at a spring roll...that was added. Green vegetable next...looks like spinich, but isn't. I point at something that looks like scrambled egg with rice in it. It is dumped on my plate. I also get some cooked vegetables that I think are a type of winter melon...green, cooked and very tasty. So now I have this big pile of food. I go over to the cooler and say Bir. Folks, they sell Hanoi beer (bir)in the student cafeteria. I have never seen anyone drink one--because they are "expensive". I grab a bowl of soup with green things floating in it and I am good to go. Cost 20,000 dong... or $1.21. typically this meal would cost me 12,000 dong (75cents) but the beer added a whopping 50 cents to my meal cost. And the interesting thing is that the food is ok. Not great, but ok.

So I sit down and start to eat. Suddenly I am surrounded by kids! Everyone wants to talk to the American. Tonight my dinner partners were a 4th year student who is in my Reserach Methods class; her 17 year old brother; and a young female (15 yr old) friend of the brother. I was amazed that these young kids were eating here. I found out that the 17 and 15 year old are students at the high school located at the university--very similar to the lab schools universities often have. The interesting thing is that these kids live off campus in rooms by themselves. The 4th year student in my class lives in the dorms here...but her brother is living in a very small room by himself, as is his female friend. We talked about washing clothes by hand....something I do almost every day. We all agreed that it is time consuming --but also a very necessary task. I lust for a washer and dryer! My arms are getting strong though, by the twisting I must do with each and every piece of clothing I wash. If you don't wring them well...and then wrap them in a towel and wring again, your clothes will rot on the line. I learned that lesson week one here!

So dinner was fun and interesting. These kids really are amazing. Very friendly, English is so-so. We get about 1/2 of what is said to each other. But I really am very impressed at how they value education and are working very hard to stay in school and maintain their grades. By the way---to live on campus is a great honor! You have to be a GREAT student and typically pretty poor to live here. Many, many more students would live on campus if space was available.

Well.....I am going to sign off. I have a HUGE public lecture to give tomorrow and I am stressing out about it. The Hanoi Beer at dinner helped a bit! Shower...read...and bedtime--hopefully by 9pm at the latest. My alarm goes off at 4:50am so getting to sleep early (with earplugs because of the screaming kids in the quad outside my door) is critical to my survival.

night!
Gail