Westerners in Ha Tinh?!

My world has just opened up. I have now officially met my first ex-pat living in this teeny tiny city.

When I told him how surprised I was to see someone who looked like me living here, he told me that there are actually lots of people who live and work here- some from Germany, some from Belgium, and some from Britain like himself.

Not that I'm looking for an escape from Vietnamese life, because generally I am very happy here, but it is incredibly nice to know that if I want to speak (fluent) English with someone, they are even closer than a one-and-a-half hour bus ride away (as much as I do like seeing Sasha as often as possible, I don't want to depend on her being my only support mechanism). It would be nice to make friends and branch out into some new networks that are outside of my University. It might be nice to also meet some people who look at Vietnam through similar eyes that I do, and who may experience the same confusion, outrage, frustration, and fascination that is so difficult to express to people who live here.

In other news, in an attempt to branch out, keep my neural pathways young and supple, and in general keep myself from falling into a rut of frequenting the exact same restaurants and cafes all the time, I took myself to this other cafe (the power + Internet are out at my school right now) to do some work. My overall impression is that this may possibly be the strangest cafe ever. There are two men behind me smoking cigarettes, and their mangy dog is lying on the floor next to me. Other than that, this huge cafe is entirely empty, with no lights on, and no service. Is the cafe closed? Not sure.

Okay, Allie, it's time to stop procrastinating and start doing your work.