my goals

On Tuesday, I thought that found the one meal I can eat for the rest of my stay in Vietnam: bánh mi trừng… but then I ate it three times in a row and I kind of got sick of it. That’s probably a good thing, because then I would have high cholesterol like no other. I’m glad to say that my stomach is getting used to the food here, but I’m sure that it’s going to take a little longer to get used to the way food is cooked here versus at home. The closest I can get to a home cooked meal is the cafeteria, but the food there is so salty and full of fat. It seems like when I get meat, three fourths of my serving is of fat. Gross. It’s also cold most of the time. SO! My first goal is to stop being so judgmental of the food here and just enjoy the different flavors of northern and southern Vietnam. I don’t really have a plan on how to go about this… so I’m just going to force myself. I’ve puked here three times already, so it’s not going to be a surprise if it happens again. If I had to choose one thing to eat everyday for the rest of my life though, it would be the trái cây… or hoa quả here. It’s so sweet and good… and inexpensive! The logans here are so delicious. I was so amazed by how small the seeds are here versus the ones I buy in the states… which take up three quarters of the whole fruit itself. The mangoes here are humungous. I didn’t even know it was a mango until the seller lady told us. I guess this brings me to another goal: try EVERY fruit here. My face is going to be covered in pimples… I’ve already got some from eating pineapples, apricots and logans here already.
One of my biggest goals while studying abroad here is to improve my Vietnamese so that I can amaze all the people back home. I want to have conversations with people, and I want them to say, “Con nói tiềng Việt hay quá!” Being able to speak many languages is a goal that I’ve had for awhile. I tried learning French by using Rosetta Stone, but I got really irritated with it because it kept on saying I pronounce “le garcon” wrong… but I think I was saying it right. I really, really enjoy my Vietnamese class! I think that it’s so fun the whole time we’re in there. I find it so amazing that Wayne reads and writes in Vietnamese way better than the rest of us simply because we are all Vietnamese and he is Taiwanese. He’s so amazing! Our class is full of laughs, and our teacher is absolutely darling. She has so much energy at 9:30 in the morning. I had such an amazing time during Friday’s lesson in the computer lab. I love typing in Vietnamese! It’s so fun! I’m not being sarcastic either. One thing I will not understand unless I really study it is the SMS stuff… It’s making me confused with the correct way to spell in Vietnamese!
I also want to learn the differences between the north and the south and the reason why northerners and southern have different accents and dialects. I never knew that each part of Vietnam used different words for some things until I got here. It still takes me a moment to understand when someone says cup, fruit or China here! I just think it’s so amazing how one nation can be so complex in language. I understand how in America, there are different accents, such as a western v. a southern accent, but they don’t use different words for the same things!
One thing that I absolutely loathe and will never get used to here is honking from those huge trucks… ugh. They’re so annoying, and I feel like I’m going to go deaf by the end of the week. I also feel like they are doing it on purpose. Sometimes when I’m walking at night down an alley or something, the truck drivers honk even though there are no other cars in sight… and I know that they’re not honking at us to get out of the way because we are on the sidewalk as much as possible. SO ANNOYING! I also don’t think I will get used to all of that dust in the air when the trucks and cars pass through the alley ways. I really need to invest in one of those masks. I wonder if anyone is selling a one with a cute Hello Kitty on it?
This is really random, but I was just looking in the dictionary right now, and I came across this word: dại trai: madly in love with a boy and give way to his temptation. I give it a lol.