Sunday, April 19, 2009

Vietnamese People Are Built Differently



About two months ago Ryan and Jessica told me they saw an accident. They said that a man was driving fast on his motorbike and was hit by a car (or ran into a car or something with a car...right Ryan, Jess?). They said the guy flew off his motorbike and hit a tree in the median. Seconds later they said the man popped up, got back on his crashed bike and rode off. I took this story with a grain of salt...until yesterday.

Yesterday I was resting in the pool, trying to catch my breath, while surveying the insane sea of people. At the time there must have been at least sixty people in and around the not-so-big pool. As I was watching everyone, I saw a teen -- probably around 18 -- sprint out of the locker room towards a group of his friends. Generally in the states we have signs around pools that say "No Running" because well, the tile can be really slippery. Well the tile at this pool is definitely slippery. The teen ran about fifteen feet and then WIPED OUT HARDER THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN ANYONE WIPE OUT. The kid was probably two feet off the ground with his body almost completely parallel with the floor. His head came crashing down first and from thirty feet away I could hear the THUD. My heart skipped a beat and I literally felt nauseous. I was about to jump out of the pool when the kid jumped to his feet, quickly rubbed his head, and then continued to run to his friends. His friends laughed at him, hit him on the head, and then ran across the tile back towards the locker room with him.

I have never seen anyone bounce up from anything so obviously painful. If that was me, well, I would have gone to the hospital. Yeah, Vietnamese people are built differently.