Cross Cultural Relationships

(PICTURE: The weirdest thing about dating Huyen is not that she still yanks out my white hairs when I'm not looking.)

I've been asked a few times what the strangest thing is about dating a Vietnamese girl. Well, that answer is really simple: It's waking up in the middle of the night to your girlfriend talking in her sleep...in Vietnamese.

What's even stranger is the next morning when you try to use your rudimentary Vietnamese skills to tell her what she was saying: "Um, you kept saying...'"

Vietnamese Cereal

(PICTURE: My morning cereal on the sidewalk.)

I have never been much of a cereal eater. I've always preferred eggs or pancakes or leftover pizza or Chinese food. Perhaps it is because I'm slightly lactose intolerant or because I always found cereal commercials irritating as a kid (just give the rabbit some damn Trix!).

However, I've recently found a cereal I like in Vietnam. It's called sticky rice. You eat it in a bowl with a spoon just like cereal. It's delicious!
(PICTURE: Huyen and I eating breakfast.)

Tailgate

(PICTURE: My Dad and brother at the tailgate a few years/pounds ago...)

A couple weeks ago while I was eating some strange meat on a sidewalk I had a flash of homesickness:

One of the things I miss most about home is that it is football season. And no, I don't miss watching games. I miss tailgating. My family has had NY Jets season tickets since the Jets played at Shea Stadium. I have always loved going to football games with my dad and brother but it wasn't until about a decade ago that we started to get the full football experience -- we joined the best damn tailgate in the world.

Every once in a while I get a nice reminder from my brother what I'm missing. He sent me this email in October:

forgot to tell you that we had 2 deep fried turkeys at the tailgate this weekend. we also had lamb shish-kabobs and I brought two steaks marinated in a "texas teriyaki" sauce that I found. It was teriyaki with the kick of cayenne peppers.

(PICTURE: The traditional "toilet bowl" dessert. The bowl was painted by my brother a few years ago. It made him a legend at the tailgate.)

Man, I would kill for some tailgate right now.

Weasel Coffee

A couple weeks ago Ryan and I finally tried weasel coffee. From what we had heard, weasel coffee is the best coffee in Vietnam. Sounds great, right? Well, you just have to get over exactly how the coffee got into your cup.

Here's the basic recap on how weasel coffee is made:

Step 1: A weasel approaches a coffee berry.
Step 2: A weasel eats said coffee berry.
Step 3: A weasel regurgitates said berry.
Step 4: The regurgitated coffeee berry is collected.
Step 5: The coffee berry is brewed.

Apparently other Asian countries have similar coffee that is passed through the digestive tracts of their local weasels. According to wikipedia this type of coffee is the most expensive in the world per pound. Vietnamese weasel coffee is a little cheaper since our weasels only puke it up and don't shit it out. Honestly though, you really do need that shit flavor to get that absolutely perfect cup of coffee.

The Dirtiest Bathrom Ever. Period.

(PICTURE: Don't forget to brush your teeth.)

From time to time I've posted some blogs of things that aren't exactly up to my hygiene standards. Well, this one takes the cake. For months I've been meaning to bring a camera with me to this sidewalk restaurant my Vietnamese frisbee friends and I go to after we play on Saturdays.

The food at the bia hoi is great but the bathroom, well, it's pretty disgusting. The thing is, I've been in dirty bathrooms before and you'll never hear me complain. I mean, I lived in a fraternity house for a semester; dirty bathrooms are no big deal as long as I'm wearing shoes or sandals. The thing that gets me about this bathroom though is that above the urinals is a cup holding a toothbrush and toothpaste. That's right, this is the bathroom for the family who owns the bia hoi. You would think that they'd want to remove that cup before an assortment of roughly 40+ drunk men use their toilet every night. But hey, maybe I'm just anal.

To Hannah´s Friends and Family

I have heard some complaints that I have not posted anything about Hannah yet. I urge all of you to be patient. Between bonding with my sister, the skyrocketing costs of internet, lazily relaxing on the beach, etc. etc., I have not had the time to post blogs. It was with this foresight that I had pre written a dozen or so entries.

I promise there will be tons of posts in the near future about my hilarious and clumsy sister. Again, ahoyhanoi urges patience...from you too, mom!

P.S. If some punctuation is wrong in this it is because I´m typing on a Thai keyboard that doesn´t allow me to use dashes or question marks. That is why I purposely didn´t write any questions in this entry.

English Festival Part II

The day after the English Festival, Tuan, one of my Intermediate 2 students came up to me at Language Link and said, "You are a very famous teacher." I laughed, thanked him and then curiously asked why. He looked at me and said, "You were the judge at the English Festival." I asked Tuan if he was there since he is a father of three and perhaps one of his children was in the contest. He said: "No. I saw you on television."

Yeah, apparently it was televised.