Day 69

When I wake up today I already know I’m not going to the nail salon today as Xuan asked me to help her with the things for the container. So at 6.30 am I get up, shower, dress and get ready to leave Thach Thao and Phuc at school.

Thach Thao is so in love with her swimsuit that she wants to take it for school, not dressed of course, but inside her backpack and Phuc wants to do what his big sister does. =)

After leaving them at school we eat breakfast at home, fried eggs with bread, soybean milk and I’m also fortunate to eat Portuguese cheese. Vietnamese don’t eat cheese, they think the smell is not nice and the taste even worst but if you saw what they sometimes eat, you’d think they’re crazy… the cheese is really good and every time I put a slice in my mouth I joke with chi Lam and ask her if she wants and she shakes her head and then asks me if I want chili. Heheheheh

When we finish we have to go to the place where the things will be delivered to put inside the container and it’s far away. We go by motorbike and we even get lost a couple of times but it’s with pleasure that I do a couple of nice movies and I’m able to cross Saigon bridge with an amazing view.

When we arrive to the container place we seat in a dirty coffee shop next to the road waiting for the container guy and the people that are bringing the cement Buddhas. While we wait we order cà phê sữa đá and even if I’m a little bit concerned with the health issues around, I drink it because it’s too hot. There’s big trucks passing us and dust and dirt and the sweat running through my back and breast is just too sticky…

Finally the container guy arrives and joins us waiting for the Buddhas’ people. After being sat there for almost 2 hours the guys who are going to deliver the Buddhas arrive and we all go to the warehouse where the things will be collected and organized in the container.

I’m starting to be sleepy so I seat on a chair in the warehouse and the container guy starts talking to me about the normal stuff, what am I doing here, how long am I going to say and so on until it arrives to the boyfriend and husband part that I start to be a little bit sick of. I don’t understand why this is so important?! I’m an independent woman, I’ve been earning my own money and never needed a man to support me (of course my dad doesn’t count! =) ). Right now I have no desire to get married and don’t be able to do everything I want to… I still wanna travel, know other people, know other countries, have the opportunity to work in other countries, I don’t wanna have to stay in the same place and leave the same life for the rest of my days…

Anyway, when his conversation starts to upset me, I catch Xuan’s cue and get up and go see the Buddhas. When all the Buddhas are in the right place we have to wait for the cement dragons and the cement lotus flowers, which come in Xuan’s brother’s truck. When they arrive and start to organize the dragons we see most of them are broken and we call their attention to it, and because I’m a very hands-on person I start helping with the Styrofoam to protect the dragons. When they finish is time for lunch for us and to go and pick up more stuff for them.

Xuan and me go around the neighborhood and go eat duck noodle soup. It’s a first for me and I can say I’m not a big fan of it. I like duck but boiled and with chopsticks is too hard too eat… guess it’s not for me. When we finish we try to find a coffee shop with hammocks and when we can’t we head back to the warehouse, put some carton boxes on the floor and just lay there.

After 30 minutes or so, the people who come to deliver the Vietnamese living room arrive and when they’re reversing I start hearing this…

This country is too funny! They have music and noise for everything: in the stores, in the motos, in the cars, they honk; they play music when reversing… too funny!

When all the Vietnamese living room is delivered, Xuan tells me we’re not going to wait for the guy from the dragons and we’re going to leave. We head back to the center of the town and end up in the massage parlor… and it’s so good to receive a massage by lucky number 27 and fall asleep when you feel your body energy completely drained… we end with the steam shower and then go pick up Phuc and Thac Thao.

At home, Thach Thao and me do a video of her singing and I think I have a follower in my TV career! =) Xuan and me are hungry and for the first time we eat dinner before the kids (around 6 pm), then I go to the office for some internet time and video converting, finishing it around 9 pm. I go downstairs to my room, shower, wash my dirty hair and put my p-jays on. Hop in my bed as it’s time for TV show and around 10.30 pm it’s time to sleep!

Night night peeps!