the tangled mess that is my mind

Well, it's been a long time since I gave people any real news, so I want to update people on a lot of things, and give some observations, but it's difficult to organize my thoughts, so I will be presenting ideas randomly and not in any logical order. Enjoy!

1. I asked my maid one day to cook avgolemono soup. This is a Greek soup, and one of my favorites, it always reminds me of home, especially when I'm sick and my mom would make it for me. Basically, the name means 'egg and lemon', but it also has chicken broth and pieces of chicken and rice, and I also like to squirt lots of lemon juice in it. Anyway, I tried to explain a recipe I found online to my maid and her daughter, who knows some English, and they sorta got the gist. However, when I saw the finished product, it was quite different from what I was hoping. The egg is supposed to be all mixed together as part of the soup. But there were pieces of egg floating in it. Anyone who knows avgolemono knows that this is a very strange appearance. No matter, I heated it up and ate it and enjoyed it, but it wasn't the same as what I was familiar with. Part of this reason is because...
2. Lemons seem practically non-existent here. Instead, it's all limes. When I ask for a lemon, they point to a lime. I can't remember if I've ever seen a lemon here, but maybe I have and don't recall. At any rate, they're rare. If you know me, you know I like lemon on a lot of food, like rice and broccoli and fish. Lime is not an adequate substitute. I guess that's one more thing to look forward to when I come home.
3. I have applied to several law schools and now I'm waiting to hear back from them. Actually, there's one more I may apply to this week, and my app is almost done. It has a slightly later deadline than most other schools. I probably should have applied to all these schools earlier to increase my chances, but it's been busy and I feel confident about my chances.
4. An interesting restaurant: The City Diner. This place looks just like an American 1950's diner. It has a non-functional jukebox, cozy booths, stools, signs on the walls, a harley davidson hanging from the ceiling, it's got it all. Even pop art pictures of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. I explained to Uyen all the history and culture of diners, and she got a kick out of it. The food was pretty good too. They have lots of good sandwiches and burgers and even stuff like chicken fried steak and meatloaf. I got a meatball grinder that I enjoyed very much. No diner would be complete without a good amount of breakfast dishes as well, so maybe I'll have to come back to try it out. The place is a little hard to get to, though, and it seems to be almost in the middle of nowhere. From a busy area in district one, you take a long road which seems to stretch on into the abyss, and it crosses the saigon river to the far end of binh thanh district where there does not seem to be much, but development is in progress. There is lots of construction, and half-completed shells of tall buildings. One day it may be a busy area but so far its kind of a spooky, desolate area with a post-apocalyptic feel. The diner itself is part of a massive apartment complex called The Manor, which looks like a wealthier place to live, particularly because the diner had prices in American dollars rather than dong, and the prices were almost up to the level of a diner in America. I mean, dinner for both of us cost about $15 so I guess I shouldn't be complaining.
5. Pizza Hut exists here, but I haven't eaten there yet. They don't deliver. I tried to run in one day to grab a pizza before my class, but I got held up at the post office and didn't have time to wait for the pizza (they told me it would be 17 minutes). But, similar to the pizza hut in Athens, it has the appearance of a nice restaurant, or at least like a ruby tuesday's or something, not like the places in the US where you basically just run in, grab your pizza, and go. Anyway, there are many pizza places in Saigon, but so far I haven't been able to get one with actual pepperoni, just some cheap knockoff sausage stuff, and I miss those red crispy circles. I hear Pizza Hut is the real mccoy, so I'd like to go there to get a taste of home. There's a Vietnamese teacher I've hung out with a couple times and he's suggested we go there some time. Last time we hung out at a Vietnamese place, and I tried rabbit meat for the first time. It was okay, like chicken, but it was on the bone so it was difficult to chew off. My perennial favorite at Vietnamese places is squid. Also on the menu at this place was frog. I'll have to give that a whirl someday.
6. I've been getting some more classes lately, and I hope to get another public school class for an hour every other day, but I've still got mornings and afternoons mostly free, and if I can it wouldn't hurt to find another place to work so I can save up some more money.
7. One of my roommates, the one who just moved in in January, is named Yen (pronounced "een"), and she's spending all of march in Cairo, Egypt for some training program for her job, which sounds interesting. She's very friendly and I just started getting to know her a little. Her English is good, but not as good as my other roommate Le. I hope I'm not embarrassing her, but something she said was very funny, and I think that all mistranslation stuff is funny. I was watching a rebroadcast of the Oscars on tv a few days ago, and she was chatting to me about it and asked "is your favorite waiter or waitress in there?" It took me awhile to realize that she meant to say "actor or actress", and when she realized her mistake she was pretty embarrassed. But they are both pairs of words with the masculine ending in "ter" and the feminine ending in "tress", so I can see how she could confuse them. God knows I've done enough stupid things trying to speak any language throughout my life.
8. Speaking of languages, one of the languagecorps folks is Tzachi, from Israel, and he apparently has started some Hebrew classes just for some of his friends, for 11:30 on Sunday mornings. Sounds like fun, I always love learning the basics of a new language, and it's a reason to wake up before noon on a sunday since I don't have church here. I really miss Orthodox church services and I want to find one for Easter. I've read about a Russian church in Vung Tau and I hope to get more information rather than going on a wild goose chase trying to find the place.
9. I've been pressured to talk more about cockroaches. There's not much else to say. Apparently Mortimer has a large extended family, and sometimes a new cousin will wander into the house. I find them grotesque. Last time I put a box over one and let it slowly die. When I took the box off, it was curled up on its back. I wonder why they always die like that.

10. Today I said goodbye to Genessa and Greta at a special dinner at Pacharan with the other languagecorps crew members. It was a bittersweet time, because as long as I've been in Vietnam they've been there, and we did the whole training in Cambodia and everything. I can't believe that was 7 months ago now. And I'm actually over halfway through my time here. It still feels like it's just beginning for some reason. Anyway, I haven't even explained what Pacharan is. It's a spanish restaurant, with lots of good tapas and dishes, and I decided to go all out and treat myself to a nice big steak. I hadn't eaten a proper steak since I was home, so I enjoyed it. It had blue cheese on top, and came with roasted potatoes and vegetables, very tasty. We were on the top floor of the restaurant and could look out on a good central area of district 1. We were directly across from the gigantic famous Continental Hotel. It was a wonderful night even though it briefly monsooned in the afternoon. The girls will be going home on Tuesday to resume their normal lives and move to different places in the States for jobs, so i wish them good luck.

I'm probably forgetting ten more important things, but for now I think that's a good update. Adios!