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Also in the department of thing I'm amazed I don't have a picture of is the bathing suit I bought in Nha Trang. It was a full coverage tank suit. Red. And covered with zebras. Not zebra print, mind you, but actual zebras-- black and white, thumb-sized, ever couple inches or so.
It would have been totally awesome had it not also totally cut off the circulation in my legs, and not turned my torso pink, and not been see-through.
I gave it to my sister as a souvenir.
By the time we got to Ho Chi Minh City, we thought we'd experienced every scam in the book, so when we arrived at our hotel late at night and discovered that the owner had forgotten to write our name down in the reservation book but-- don't worry there's another great hotel down the street-- we were highly suspicious. Our suspicion transformed into more a kind of bewilderment when, en route to the other hotel, we all stopped off at a fruit vendor where the hotel owner purchased an insane amount of rambutan for us. Like 100 of them. Pink, prickly, and still on the twigs from the trees. I'm sort of amazed that I don't have a picture.
Oh right, that's because it was 2am and when we got to the other hotel, all the power had gone out.
Hey! Google and Halcyon were born on the same day!
Over there last night for Seth's last Lounge Arcade, since soon he'll be rockin' it west coast style (blogged here; here). Out at Brooklyn College this morning for the start of school week number two. I know I've been sort of a recluse lately (which you think would lead to more blogging not less but) I've got tickets to the Ex tomorrow night and Erase Errata friday, so if you'll be at either of those you should let me know.
I've got a couple more stories from the road, but I've also got David Copperfield to read by Thursday, so bear with me.
City streets in Vietnam are totally insane. Someone somewhere told us that the nationwide ratio of people to motorcycles is 4:1. With a basic understanding of statistics, you might then assume that the remaining 3/4 of the population walks, or owns a bike or car, or doesn't live in an urban area, but no-- the remaining 3/4 of the population just rides on the back.
I'd never been to a country before where solid double lines in the middle of the road have little-to-no meaning, and "stop at the stop sign" is only a suggestion. In this zoo of transportation, we had several hair-raising near-death experiences, not counting every time we had to cross the street.
There was the one in Hanoi who had no idea where he was going and wouldn't stop the car to let us out, so we had to jump out in the middle of the road at a rare traffic light-mediated intersection. There was the one in Bangkok who cut across five lanes of traffic, repeatedly, in order to avoid entrances to the toll road, cars speeding slower than he was, and who knows what else. In Siem Riep we had a cabbie drive us through a small river when he saw that the bridge was down. But the kicker is this-- on the way to the airport in Ho Chi Minh City, our cab driver nearly hit a nun. I swear to you. There was a nun crossing the street and our cabbie nearly hit her.
I think that's the end of the story.
Far and away the best moment of the weekend was earlier this evening. I'm writing up the syllabus for the Freshman Comp class I teach starting tomorrow and trying to figure out which essay to assign on the first day. It's down to a Lester Bangs piece from that new anthology and an essay from The Baffler when I realize that I love my new job. So far, at least.
Other good things-- amazingly delicious street food across from the Red Hook pool-- fried plantains, fried corn things, fried pancake with meat and cheese things, burritos, quesadillas, the list goes on. Next time you should come too.
And I will say that winning $100 at that Body Glove thing wasn't too bad either, but where did it go?
On to Vietnam next time around. In the interim-- Qoo!
Trying to keep a positive spin on things. If you know me you probably know why. That's Aileen, me, and some Qoo. I just can't say that enough.