Nam's diaries: Day 59

It’s 6 am when the alarm clock rings and today we go to the countryside… I’m taking my shower when Xuan comes to my room and tells me we’re leaving. It’s not even 6.30 am… I dress and get ready as quickly as I can and head downstairs. The kids are already in the car and Xuan tells me I’ll go with the kids in the back, basically the 2 seats in the back are down so the kids can sleep, like when you have a car with the net for the dogs… it’s how I felt but without the net. I’m bigger than an average Vietnamese so my legs were just crossed over and I couldn’t move as Thach Thao and Phuc only wanted to play. I’m not a morning person, specially without breakfast, and who knows me knows I’m not fond of children, I like a couple of them like Thach Thao and Phuc or Mini César and Teresinha but it’s not my thing… getting all this movement and excitement in the morning was too much for me…

Before leaving the city we stop to pick up Mr. Tho and his wife, the first nail painting teacher I had, and there we go to the countryside, 6 adults and 2 kids in a 7 people car… that’s how you roll in Vietnam! After 1 hour we stopped at the Mekong Delta rest stop for breakfast, the place we always stop, and met Mr. Truong, Mr. Lam, Mr. Duang and 2 employees of Mr. Truong. Of course all of them start laughing when they see my marks from Chi Lam’s massage, normally non-Vietnamese don’t do this crazy stuff… guess I’m getting Vietnamese while the time passes by…

It’s time to go on our way so we all hop into the car and continue our trip. When we arrive the way to the temple is closed as they’re building a new bridge so we have to go by boat, as we’re 13 it was better to rent a boat than go all by taxi motorbike. We pass through the market and literally hop onto the boat and after being there for a couple of minutes we have to go away because the boat is not working and they cannot solve the problem, which means cross the market again and go rent taxi motorbikes for everyone!

At the temple I’m so thirsty that after walking around and say hi to everyone I head outside and sat in the little shop in front of the temple and drank iced tea until I couldn’t take more. The one sin the shop head back to the temple and after a little bit is already time for lunch. Today the food is amazing, in fact is one of my favorites here in Vietnam. I eat 3 bowls of these yellow pasta with veggies and a bowl of mushroom soup and then I eat for dessert coconut pudding… hummm! So good!

After lunch I go rest a little bit because it’s so hot that I’m melting outside. I rest in a wood bed without a mattress, it’s a monk bed… my pillow is my jacket and my a/c is the electric fan near me. =)

I wake up around 2.30 pm and it seems it’s time to head back home which means go back in the taxi motorbikes and jump in the back of the car with the kids. Everyone’s tired now so the kids fall asleep and so do I in a weird position. I don’t know what happened during the drive back ‘cause I just woke up when we’re arriving to the end of the motorway. When entering HCMC Carlos didn’t noticed a bump in the street and I was projected against the car ceiling… now I know what means “ I believe I can fly”! =)

We leave Mr. Tho and his wife at home and head back to our place. When we arrive it’s time to call Philip, Carlos’ oldest son and my childhood friend, because it’s his birthday and after is time to speak with my oldest cousin ‘cause it’s her birthday too!

All the wishes done and I’m able to speak with my parents, I show them my body and how I’m looking, I tell them about the past few days and we joke about my birthday. Before I even have time to start preparing my stuff for the nail art painting practice, we go for dinner with the kids as it’s the last meal Carlos have with them before leaving for China.

After dinner I go to my practice session and do a couple of pretty things… now I’m able to say I have a couple of different nail sections, including the animals section and the Halloween one…