New goal!

I have decided that my new goal is to blog almost everyday. I'm going to try my best to take lots and lots of photos since I know there are only seven more weeks here. I am so bummed. I want to stay longer... even only a couple days, but my mom won't let me. She said that being away from home for four months is already long enough. I asked her how is she going to deal if i ever get married and move far far away. She just responded by telling me, "that's later. this is now." I really miss my mom, but I feel like I am growing up more quickly and learning about myself more than I am on my own (kind of). I already changed my return date from the 17th to the 20th to stay in Quy Nhon for another week after the program ends. I talked to my mom on the phone yesterday and I want to change it again to the 23rd to have a couple more days in Hanoi to spend with water boy. What is weird is that she knew that I wanted to stay here longer because of him. Moms are the smartest people in the world!

Sometimes I get confused and have to think about my relationship with water boy. Everyone ere in the little town within the university seems to know about us... even people I have never seen in my life. They just randomly say hi to me and ask me if I know where my "người yêu" or ask me if "yêu chứa?" I am almost positive that I spelled that wrong, but I just to just keep on rambling on instead of looking it up. What's so funny is that even Chị Hạnh, the lady that sells pineapples on campus everyday, asks me about us. She said that she sees me and water boy playing footsy and smiling at each other a lot. It's kind of embarrassing, actually. I really like spending time with him. He has taught me that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have fun. Taking long walks and just sitting and talking in front of Ho Hoan Kim are some of the most relaxing and romantic things you can in Hanoi, I've decided. He's actually from Ninh Binh and came here only three months ago, so we are actually discovering the city together. So much fun.

So about the Sapa trip... did I particularly love it? Um, the city part yes. The trekking part, NO. I hate to say it, but I'm a city girl. I'm being completely honest about the hate to say it part. I wish that I was more able to enjoy the scenery and the whole experience of the hike, but barely enjoyment existed. But thanks, Gerard, for making me do it. I'll never do it again, though. I really really love the town though. Craig, Mindy, Trang, Thuy Vy, Co Ha, and I met the funniest, smartest, spunkiest Hmong girl ever. Her name is Ha. She spoke almost perfect English, French and probably many other languages I can't remember at the moment. She understood Vietnamese so well but was reluctant to speak it. I don't know why... but she's so cute! he kept on talking about how the girls weren't tourists because we are Vietnamese and have yellow skin like she does. Then she kept on going on about how Craig was a tourist because he has white skin. She doesn't like selling to Vietnamese because all they ask is "how much how much how much and never buy." She likes selling to "tourists" because they actually buy. What I will always remember is when we asked her if she has a boyfriend, and she said no because having a boyfriend is like wasting money; her friend has a boyfriend and she spends so much of her money because each day, she has to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with him. She said she would rather save her money and give it to her parents. So smart! I hope that when I have a daughter, she will be as smart and have as much personality as she does.

And some more pictures from our Sapa trip:
This was the first sight of Sapa I was able to take in at the top of the hotel we stayed at. SOOO different from Hanoi.
Me, Linda and Trang after the best best best omlette I've ever had at the hotel

.. and I will post more later since the internet is super slow and it takes 5 minutes to upload one picture.