A Proper Update

Time for, as the British would say, a proper update.

Today is also my birthday! Although it hardly feels like it, because today I had to work, and so I'm celebrating on the weekend. And it's strange not having all my usual family and friends around. But at least I can celebrate with Uyen.

The past couple weeks have been moving at a slower pace, as a lot of my classes have been ending. Since many classes started up soon after Tet, and they last about 10 weeks, a lot of them end around this time. Maybe there won't be any new classes until after the next holiday (april 30 to may 1). This holiday celebrates the reunification of Vietnam, or the fall of saigon, and then may day. It's one of the biggest traveling times for the vietnamese, and this year it's on a thursday and friday, meaning a 4-day weekend for people who dont work on the weekend (or a proper weekend for those who usually have to work weekends). I was hoping to go somewhere new and interesting, like Binh Chau hot springs, but it got all booked up quick. So now I'm trying to book a room in Vung Tau, which I've been to a couple times before.

A few days ago, I was pulled over by a cop and my heart started racing. But, less than a minute later, he let me go and I was on my way.
What happened? Well, I was moving into the left lane in anticipation of a left turn onto Pasteur street from Dien Bien Phu. It is not allowed for motorbikes to be in the left lane, and it is strictly enforced by the cops here, but I hate getting stuck in the right lane trying to make a left-hand turn so I thought I could fudge the rules like everyone else. No dice, and I was waved by the cop to pull over. I decided to play dumb and kept repeating in English "I go left!" and using hand signals. So he finally gave up and waved me to continue on. I was fretting because some foreigners get pulled over and have their bikes impounded because they dont have vietnamese licenses. But apparently it's the cops on bikes who ride around and pull over foreigners, not the stationary ones.

On Monday, I celebrated Easter belatedly at the Russian consulate. I tried in vain to find an Orthodox church service on Easter, but I did discover that a priest was coming from Russia on Monday, so I stopped by the consulate to see what was going on. I was happy to stumble upon a small room with 10 or so Russians inside and the priest doing the service all in slavonic, which is an old, church version of Russian. I had no idea what was going on but I can only assume it was the service for the day after Easter, so I joined in and crossed myself when I saw the others do it. It was really nice just to smell that incense again and hear that beautiful music. After the service he flung a lot of holy water on us, and I got a little wet, but it was nice and reminded me of home. After the service, I didn't quite understand what was going on but I could tell they were preparing for another service, and since I didn't have to teach for another hour, I decided to stick around. It turned out to be a baptism! So I stayed and watched because I was sorely missing all the beautiful Orthodox services. I guess the small Russian expat community has to wait a long time for the priest to come, so while he was there to celebrate Easter, they had him baptize a baby as well. After it all, I introduced myself to the priest in my bad Russian and he said he spoke a little English, so we chatted for a bit. He was pretty friendly and bearded, and I was glad that despite different languages and cultures and being in a completely different country, we had something that connected us in the faith. Finally I said "do svedonya" and went to my class.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next "proper" update!