Feb 4 HCMC friends and Vietnamese lessons

i am sitting at the internet cafe, having lunch with my group.

yesterday, i went out with the architecture friend I met in Hong Kong. He took me to a good hot pot place, with this little fish. it was new and fabulously delicious. i had half a bottle of Heineken and i definitely felt the effects, though i did not get sick cause i did get to eat before we drank. i got my dried cuttlefish, and hanging out with him. he told me stories about his days in architecture school in viet nam. and he also told me stories about his living in Ohio. He's in Cleveland, i believe, for the past six years. he got to go to the u.s. with a student visa. i'm so glad i met him, he's given me a lot of knowledge about growing up in vietnam, and he can relate to me about not feeling quite at home in viet nam now that he's been living in the states for the past six years. he feels like is he returning home to visit, but viet nam is not quite a home. it's interesting, that he feels what he feels even though he's been in the states for only six years.

and i was also supposed to meet with my artist friends, the vietnamese calligraphers, for a coffee shop hangout, but i came back late. i should be hanging out with them tonight. hanging out with vietnamese friends make me feel invigorated. as long as i get my vietnamese firends at night, i can enjoy hanging with my american group during the day. we had another vietnamese lesson today, and i realize how much more i don't know. so i am glad for hte basics, to know the more correct and formal way to speak, respond, and put sentences together.

i enjoy it a lot. it's weird, and makes me so proud to have vietnamese be taught in the classroom. even in california, at Pomona college, everytime we have a vietnamese speaker, i would always be crying out of sentimental feelings, overwhelmed with feelings of home and missing home, yet so excited that vietnamese culture and cultural products are in my vicinity. so hearing vietnaemse being taught makes me really proud, overwhelmed with good feelings.

my food is here. so i will eat and write more later. one day i should sit down and post on my blog, let people see some of the sights. :O)