Chi

(PICTURE: Chi not cooperating in posing for a picture.)

When I return to Language Link in January, Chi, one of my favorite people will be gone. Chi, an all around amazing person, left Language Link the same day I did...for another branch of Language Link. We're going to miss you at Cat Linh, Chi!

Zebras

I've been told time and again that Hanoi gets really cold in winter. At first I brushed this off thinking that Vietnamese people were just used to warm weather. However, it has been downright freezing this fall making me think that winter will be ice cold.

I think the main reason that it is so cold is that no buildings have heat. And for that matter, they probably don't have insulation either. So, I came up with a plan -- ADULT ONESIES. Yeah, onesies. I'm talking about an adult version of those adorable little outfits that infants wear. Well, I told the idea to Huyen and she thought it was really funny so we went to a tailor to see if it could be done. I printed up some pictures from online of exactly what I wanted (I'm not reinventing the wheel here since you can actually buy them online). The tailors looked at the pictures and laughed but said it was doable.

The next step was Huyen and I getting fabric. We went to the fabric market and searched high and low until we found the perfect material and pattern. We went with a 75% cotton, 15% wool blend which is both comfortable and warm.

Before I left the onesies weren't finished (they had forgotten to make us our butt-flaps and didn't sew on the shoes) but they let us try them on. Check it out:

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Happy Birthday, Ryan! Sorry I'm not in Hanoi to help celebrate. Glad you're creeping closer and closer to my age!

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.