Sunday, January 31, 2010

Given to Fly or in my case...Ride



I'd like to start off by saying that I only JUST realized that some people have been commenting on my actual blog. My apologies for not responding...I don't get notified! But I went through the comments last night and love them. keep sending them my way.

This weekend was a good one. Friday night, I had a girls night with my friend Trang and she brought me to this great Pho area not written about in the guidebooks that knocked my socks off. seriously amazing. The night was fun. The only downside is when she told me that I look like Celine Dion. don't worry though-just my mouth and nose. Um. that's the worrying part.

So far, since getting here I have been compared to Paris Hilton, a cat, and Celine Dion. Paris I get in the US, and while I don't agree with it have gotten over it. Celine Dion I am not sure I will recover from, and cats are cool. Vietnamese people are not afraid to tell you the truth to your face. Like, "Yes Alice, I can see where your nose is broken, there is a big bump." Of course this is a bit of a sucker punch, however it's more than my westerner friends say to my face. I guess I needed to come here to hear the truth. I've always hated my nose, but once it got broken I hated it even more. Coming here has solidified my decision to fix the break when I get back. I'll do my best to resist the urge to make it a cute nose too. Just fix what's broken. And by the way no comments of "your nose is fine" and "I can't even tell that it's broken" is going to stop this. I don't trust any of you.

Saturday, as you know, I got my bike and have instilled a constant state of panic in the heart of my parents and loved ones. Saturday night was wild...early to bed after scarfing down some Oreos and chocolate ice cream :) :) :)

Today was another AMAZING DAY! The weather outside was sunny and warm...perfect for a drive! Still slightly unsteady I expected my friend to drive but for some reason he thought letting me drive would be good practice. We started on some scenic back roads (at one point the terrain was too bumpy and we had to switch...Chip mumbled something about "not wanting to get killed" which I thought was rude)

Then all of a sudden we were on a main road and I thought...ok I can either switch places or I can learn how to do this. I didn't help that Chip said, "This is the road I crashed on." I mean, really...not the time.

Driving here is crazy. Utter insanity. You can not for a single second concentrate on anything else. I truly believe this will make me a better driver in the US. Driving is ok, the intersections are tough (to be honest we did almost crash once) but after I got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing. Even Chip said that I was doing a really good job and that he wasn't scared at all. All I need to do is concentrate, go slow at the turns and intersections and I should be good to go.

In my driving adventures, I got a amazing backpackers backpack...Northface for only $8...and more amazing Pho. I seriously can't wait to take my father to these places. I really hope he isn't too scared to hop on my bike.

I think the key to my bike riding is practice, but also having a calm, patient teacher. I was thinking the whole day, how I wished that Alex was here and how we could be doing this together. But then I thought that if Alex had been the one teaching me to ride a motorbike we would've gotten into a fight and I would've driven off or jumped off the bike and refused to get back on :) It's hard to teach or be taught by someone you love. to much emotion, passion, energy.

Tomorrow is back to reality...teaching little kiddies, finding a garage to park my bike and dealing with the organization. the upside of the mundane week? regular skype dates.

And for those of you who want to know things (not people) that I miss the most? Right now it's my low waisted Rag&Bone skinny jeans.

Til net time xo

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