Stuff we've been seeing and doing!

Vietnam has been a total shock to our systems.  Plain and simple. 

We've only been living here for 6 weeks but in some ways it feels like we've been here way longer.  So as the title would indicate, here's a bunch of stuff that we've been seeing and doing in the last 2 months! 

This was some of the first food we found. 
Lucky for us, it was clearly identified as "FOOD". 
They tasted like cardboard, so they might have been made in China. 

We found some pho and figured out how to order - go us!! We were pretty excited about this the first week.  (Our first dinner was rice and pineapple so this was living big for the first week here.)




Johnny pushing the motorbike.  There's a funny story to this one - I'll let him update it :)



We stopped for a snack in the Old Quarters one day. 
This was delicious - hot chocolate and fresh chocolate
mouse with this crunchy topping.  We're not sure what
 the writing says but it sure made our tummies go yummy!



Work is going well!  This is my class learning about capacity.

A local theater with guys out front trying to sell tickets.



People really use these things all the time!

Granted, this was in a more touristy area,
but I thought it was funny.

Not the best photo but the building looked cool.



This was a pretty big day for us!  I remember it was just one of those days where you feel like you're starting to get it - where everything is coming together and you realize you'll be able to make it in this entirely different world.  We went down to the Old Quarters on our motorbike for a language and culture lesson. 

This place looks like a giant boat.  We had a lesson
at the café on the top one night and it was a pretty
neat view.  I'll post that pic once I find it/get to it.
This night our lesson was mobile and more hands
on which was very helpful! 

 I love fountains.

Random shop in The Old Quarters





Some of these little ladies are strong!  I think she has
Tet preparations in there. 

A little lady and her pedal bike.



A random rooster - they're not uncommon.

The road opposite the rooster.

People strap all kinds of stuff on motorbikes here - this is a descent load, but certainly not the most we've seen!



Seriously, we've seen people have 3 of these on one motorbike - it's totally nut-so!  I keep wondering how often the oranges fall and hit the drivers while they're driving. :)

This was pretty sad.  These are the puppies at the end of the video clip. :(

The buses are a little crowded here....

An average entrance to one of many markets.



Whole families travel on one motorbike.  There's four people on this one - that's a little guy up front.  We've seen some crazy things with motorbikes.



Peanuts and whole dried fishies - pretty tasty!  It's just the
 appetizer that they put out at a restaurant we like.

The whole fried fish that we love from the same place.  We've been told the secret to Asian food is to just drown it in fish sauce, which this is, along with lots of chopped garlic, a couple of scallions and a few sweet chili peppers. It's awesome!

Alright, I think this is just about all I can do for tonight.  I'm going to try to upload a video clip too that I took on the back of the motorbike while Johnny was driving.  It kind of gives you an idea of what the place is like.  Please forgive us for not all of the pictures being the best (come on, we're really just getting started here!)  and who knows how the heck the formatting will turn out - it's been frustrating me a bit tonight!




I do hope to start updating this thing chronologically, and to go back and write about our first impressions and kinds of stuff, but for right now this will have to suffice.  *There aren't any pictures from our first explorations because we were a little too uncertain of the areas to even feel safe taking pictures.  We are much more comfortable now and we'll try to update that stuff once normal life resumes after Tet.*