The time has come, the peter said, to talk of many things...

...of bricks and gifts and lecture halls, of pizza huts and things.

Well I tried to fit the events of the past week into a rhyme by Lewis Carroll and it didn't quite have the punch I wanted. Plus, the only thing I could find to rhyme with thing was thing.

Bricks: The empty lot a couple doors down from my house is finally getting built upon. Maybe there used to be a house there that fell apart or something. Now there are several people there working on the house, starting in the early morning and often waking me up. They've got the bricks piled on for the walls and also a roof, but the inside is mostly bare. There's also an old woman who sits outside during the day bending metal wires into rings. I'm not sure what it's for. I haven't really inspected the area because people are always there and stare at me when they see me, even if I cheerfully yet awkwardly greet them. Sometimes in the evening they're eating or playing cards, and even at night, the workers sleep there in hammocks or on blankets on the ground. I don't know if they're going to be living in the house or if they were hired to build it. If they were hired, I don't know why they'd sleep there at night.

Gifts: Yesterday was international women's day, which no one seems to care about in America, but it's a big deal here, even though they also have a vietnam women's day. Uyen adamantly told me she doesnt like flowers, so when I drove down the street and had flowers thrust in my face by the roadside vendors, I had to politely refuse. Instead I found a cute stuffed bear that she liked a lot and practiced saying "happy women's day" in vietnamese. Even moreso than Valentine's day, this is a day to go out to eat with girls and treat them to things. Also, many husbands will do the housework and cleaning and cooking that the women usually do.

Lecture Halls: Well, not quite. But I just started teaching more classes in the afternoon at another public school, and the classes are much larger than what I'm used to, with students all packed in in nice rows. There must be at least 40 in each class. The Vietnamese teachers helps to keep them in line, even slapping a ruler on a desk to calm them down if they get loud. They all greet me with 'hello teacher' in unison at the beginning and when i say 'how are you' they all respond with 'Fine. Thank you. And you?' Doing certain games and activities is difficult with such a big class and so little room to move around, but the teachers helped me out. It's easy enough to make two teams by splitting the class in half, and taking one student from each side to square off in a game on the board, like writing or drawing or saying or slapping the right word.

Pizza Huts: I went to Pizza Hut in Vietnam for the first time, and just like in Greece, it's a fancy place to eat. It was nice having a thick pizza for once, with all the greasiness and crispiness I was missing when I got pizza at other places. I also finally got some real pepperoni. This pizza hut also has lots of other things like pasta and salad and soups, so it's a far cry from the pizza huts in America where you just run in to get your pizza and get out.

Things: I'll admit it, nothing to say here. I've been busier with more work, and Uyen got a full-time job last week where she works monday-saturday, which is pretty standard. I guess she's working as a secretary for a construction contracting company or something. So now I only see her on Sundays or if I happen to have a night off, which is ok. It gives me time to work on my novel which I will probably never start or finish.