somewhere over the mekong: My room gets hot without the air conditioning on.

I am stressed at work. When I am stressed or exhausted I have this ringing in my ear, a warning if you will, telling me to just lay down. I fall asleep. Sometimes I get sad because I think I'm lazy, not diligent enough, and not on top of my shit.

I'm silly. I think my mind is thinking really silly these days because thoughts surface and go very quickly. I'm stupid. My heart is stupid. I'm overwhelmed. I'm leaving soon and I'm not sure if I'm ready to say goodbye. I'm also not ready to stay. One second I find myself on a bicycle in rural areas with little kids following me. The next I find myself falling asleep on the plane. The next I am on a motorbike. The next I am on the bus. The next I am reading emails from close friends. The next I am staring at the computer screen wanting to feel something. I log onto facebook and feel nothing. Life is confusing. The time is ticking.

I call my mom today since I haven't talked to her in a while.

Are you busy in September?
No not really, unless I find a job. But I mean I don't have to find one yet.
Do you want to go Canada? Can you go for two weeks?
Um yeah ok!

I like how mama and I will be unemployed. This will be interesting. My mama has dealt with her unemployment by traveling to Australia, Vietnam, and Texas for long periods of time. She travels to see her friends, live with them and just be. I enjoy that.

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I enjoyed a grand three day weekend full of coffee, bike rides, funky accents, a beating sun, an hour of obnoxious American music with the friends Lillian, Ai, Elliot, Tony and Phillip. I also recently got my hair permed on Tuesday with Mark and Hy. I realized that I don't talk too much about my daily activities, my friends, who I talk to and what I do. So here's a snippet and maybe you can understand why I stayed in Vietnam for two years. I have really awesome down to earth friends here, all of whom I admire. Click their names to see what they're up to.

Friday night - Number of coffee's: none; Number of cupcakes: 3

I arrive to Lillian's in Saigon after the usual 5 hour bus ride after work. I take a motorbike taxi to Lillian's. It cost me $1.50. Lillian lives on top of "Cali Steakhouse" I enjoy this fact very much. We bake cupcakes (Party Rainbow Flavor), eat lychees and drink beer. I tell Lillian to add cinnamon to the batter and it becomes fantasmic. Mark, Hy and I get delighted talking about haircuts and Art Hair Salon and we schedule a time to get our haircuts done on Tuesday when I come back. I have coupons and I want a perm.

Looking up haircuts.

The haircut I want.

Saturday early early morning - Number of coffee's: 2

With little sleep, Lillian and I wake up at 4:30 am. Our flight is at 6:40 am however we have to go pick up 4 boxes of kotex pads for our friend Ai's shelter in Hue. Each box has 900 pads. That's hella pads. However, we do anything for our friends so wearily trug out of bed and push those boxes to the airport (with the help of the taxi driver).

Talking to the airport people.
What's in these boxes?
Pads.
What?
PADS.
OH ok.

We arrive in Hue safety. For those that don't know Hue its a quaint city in the middle region of Vietnam. It's seeped in history and retains many of its temples and buildings from it's past including a gigantic nostalgic feeling citadel. I spend the rest of the day accomplishing the goals I set out for this trip: eat good food, spend time with good friends, and play with sparklers.

Chili Chili Chili everywhere.


Of course, my first Hue meal, Bun Bo.

First Hue coffee!

Coffee with ice already in the cup is called "Cafe Saigon"

Ellioto in his natural habitat

In the supermarket. Yes, there are TWO security guards to protect the hot out of the oven bread buyers. See the red baskets ready? There's actually a whole system in place, these women come buy the bread and then sell it outside for an extra 1000 VND to people who are too lazy to park and come into the supermarket. Vietnamese people are so saavy.

4th of July Party on Elliot and Ai's roof. Awesome mats.

The BBQ setup. Those are onions and garlic wrapped in foil. YUM.


View from Ai and Elliot's roof.


View to the right. Awesome lookin' church.

South Africans sure know how to bbq man. Christaan doing his thing.


Tony and his responsible ass.

FEAST.

Ai and Tony chit chattin' it up. Oh how we love eachother.

I busted out the sparkler for people of all nations to enjoy! The South Africans! The British! The Vietnamese! YAY.

Ai obviously enjoying herself to the tunes of Party in the USA.

Elliot being grumpy over our obnoxious USA play list (music nazi)

A lot of people that I don't know.

USA Crew

FEAST ATE.

Sunday - Number of coffee's: 1; Number of smoothies: 2; Number of fresh squeezed sugar cane: 1

A day of more good food and bike riding all around Hue. The hot was pretty damn hot, but a shower and smoothie later we were on the road again exploring and biking.

Sunny side up eggs with beef!

Coffee, napkins, and cow.


Mango and papaya smoothies. This place also has this special peanut butter fruit cup with ice. I ate it before I could take a picture.

Ai clearly enjoying her smoothie.

Right outside of Hue.

Just outside of Hue. These cute kids found us amusing. I asked them to point the way back to the city, they laugh and point to the right.

Bicycle gangster chasing me, i.e. Lillian

Nhau time.

Monday - Number of coffee's: 1

Last day in Hue. Lillian and I don't leave until late at night though but I suppose out of the revelry of the day I didn't take any photos except for the morning. We ate really good hue dishes wrapped in leaves. Ai's organization that she ~~slaves~~ volunteers for Friends of Hue is opening a cute cafe. Lillian and I help Ai paint a table and see her stressed. Ai yelling in a Hue accent is a pretty great site to see, too bad I didn't film it. At night we had dinner at a bomb ass vegetarian place and ate some che with the spare time we had. Then it is off to Saigon.