Birthday Blog

I should have written this one first, if we're being all chronological here...


So my birthday was Sunday, and I entered it with mixed feelings as I have been very pleased with the age 23, hesitant to enter a new age. And, as usual, I had no idea what I wanted to do and Erica was no help because she was determined that it was MY DAY, and she would only do what I wanted to do. Stupid self-lessness.

On the morning of my birthday, Erica woke me up with balloons on my door and we went to get coffee from my favorite place with my favorite lady. We've gone there enough that as soon as we walk up, she runs in the back to make our coffee and a pot of hot tea and have it ready for us. In fact, I've determined that we can never walk down that alley unless we are getting coffee, because she would see us and we wouldn't be able to explain that we were just walking... One time when we were having coffee there, I went to pay and I had to duck to go inside and she thought it was the funniest thing and didn't stop laughing until she had thoroughly mimed it, compared heights with me over and over until she was convinced that I understood her meaning. Her husband knows a little English so he will come out and try to speak with us everyday.






Then we left for fellowship in district two. We’ve only been to this one two times, but on our first Sunday we met Janell, who took us out for lunch and showed us around with her roommate Aletta. They made us feel so welcome, and like we could ask them anything. And this Sunday, I asked Janell what her plans were and she said that she was hanging out with the birthday girl! I am confident that no one has ever said that to me that I've only met one time.





Janell knew of plenty of places to go and she took us to a mall with a foodcourt with lots of food options (perfect for indecisive Carolyn and Erica) and paid for our taxi and my meal! Then Aletta showed up with a piece of cake for me. She actually told us that the little piece of decoration on the back of the cake here was the Vietnamese 'birthday symbol,' and if she hadn't corrected it, Erica and I would have believed it forever.


















Next they took us to Ben Thanh Market, where I've been wanting to go, and they navigated us through. Erica and I have had several conversations about Janell and Aletta and we can't believe how nice they've been to us. We're so touched by how they've gone out of their way to help us in this new culture (I promise I'm not just saying this because I found out you read my blog). Later, they gave us directions to another area and we parted ways. We never found exactly what we thought they were talking about, but we got to walk a lot. Poor Erica is very easy going and doesn't mind my love for walking around the city-- map completely unfolded-- blatantly touristy looking. I just love to know where I am and to be able to associate actual places with the streets on the map.


We stumbled on a movie theater and stopped to watch, "Land of the Lost," with Will Ferrell. Wow. It was pretty funny but one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen in my life. And maybe that is why it's funny. We discussed their target demographic and were completely dumfounded. Maybe middle school boys..?

It started to rain and I was getting hungry, so we stopped at a food stand on the side of the road. I wasn't really excited about it, but it turned out to be the best soup I've had so far! Incredible. I have no clue what all was in it, but wow. And we also had some mincemeat pork something cooked in banana leaves. Excellent birthday meal. Excellent birthday. Thanks so much to everyone for their birthday wishes!