Thank goodness for MJ

In an effort to broaden my horizons and keep my neural pathways supple, I decided to venture to a new cafe. I've only been in Ha Tinh for 2 months, so there is plenty left to explore and find. I don't want to become complacent and settled in a prematurely decided routine, so I made the conscious decision NOT to go to my favorite cafe in order to locate Athens Cafe, which Jens had mentioned was his favorite in Ha Tinh.

Unable to locate the Athens Cafe (partly due to my bad map-reading skills, and partly due to the fact that I truly believe that Jens incorrectly marked it on the map that he gave me- just saying.....), I ventured to another cafe that looked pretty. I ordered my typical xinh to (fruit smoothie/milkshake) and it came out and just wasn't what I wanted, and it wasn't very good. To top things off, just looking around the room, I could see four rats at one time. FOUR.

Of course I didn't want to stay, but I was conflicted. I had just ordered a drink, and if I went elsewhere I would have to order something else in order to use the free wifi, but I didn't want to pay for two drinks, nor did I want to get back on my motorbike and take the time to relocate. Luckily, MJ swooped in as my moral compass. She had messaged me just to say hello, and I told her my quandary. She suggested that I cut my losses and leave before finding anymore rats.

So here I am, relocated, at the elusive Athens Cafe, which is tucked away on a little street (and definitely not in correspondence with Jens' map drawing!). It is much cleaner and brighter, and the Internet signal is strong. No complaints here.

In other news, I have to report on one thing that continues to catch me off-guard here, even though it totally shouldn't, since it has happened about 10 times since I've been in Ha Tinh. Older men and women will come up to me on the street when I am shopping at the market, and speak to me in rapid Vietnamese. (No, this is not the surprising aspect. This happens to me 43290743074 times a day) Then, oftentimes, they will say something that must be the Vietnamese equivalent of "Back in my day, when we walked to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways, kids didn't put holes in their faces," and then they touch my nose ring and sometimes pull on it.

Given that the concept of personal space is non-existent here, it is perfectly fitting that they think it is appropriate to reach out and touch someone's face. It still continues to catch me off-guard, but after the second or third time of this happening, I have developed a pretty decent response. "Dep qua, phai khong?" (Very beautiful, right?) Usually they laugh and say, "Khong!" (No!) quite forcefully.

Okay, so if older generations in the States are turned off by body piercings (this blog entry is dedicated to you, Nana!), I am not surprised that in a much less westernized locale, older generations are downright disgusted with it.

Ok, now on to lesson planning, and maybe rewarding myself with a massage later if I finish with a good amount of time left. Ready, set, go!