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Ok, pardon my 2 month hiatus. As many of you know, I am in the process of moving from house to house, getting married, and turning 26. I'll be living in America for a while it looks like, and I'm very pleased to be here, near family, and have some stability and prescriptions that I trust.

However, I woke up this morning and wanted to share my friends' newsletter on my blog. It seems more fitting that I continue to write about Asia since I named it such. My friend is living in Vietnam for her 4th year with the same program that I was with. She is an excellent teacher, and has stepped up into the roll of regional director since December of 2010. PERFECT job for her as she is so good at encouraging those around her, supporting fellow teachers, and making us all laugh.

I like her newsletter because often times similar things happen to me, but since she has such a better attitude about it, things tend to be a lot funnier because she goes along with it all. And she's so positive. And she's 6 feet tall and lives in Asia.

Also, she and her roommate have always supported me, and especially this last year as I struggled with culture shock, anxiety, and nervousness. And I believe that they are being obedient in Vietnam and great things will happen!

Let's try this out. I hope you enjoy her newsletter. I haven't decided whether or not to divulge her name yet, so let's call her Friend Jane Doe (they both like to watch CSI like I do, so I think she'd appreciate that).

"Hello! I hope you’ve had a good week! Thanks again for reading and pr*ying! Well, this week has been a very full one, even though we haven’t begun teaching yet. Last Saturday, we finished moving into our old room in the guest house. It was supposed to happen at 4:00 pm. Instead, they showed up at 6:30. At least it got done! It was a lot to move, but we survived, and even got up at 5:00 am on Sunday to go to the beach with Hannah.

Vietnamese people usually only go to the beach before 6:00 am or after 4:00 pm because they want to avoid getting a tan. White skin is the “thing” in Vietnam. We had a fun time swimming, and between getting overtaken by waves, had some good conversations with some of Hannah’s friends. After swimming and talking, we went to the shower area. Here, men and women shower together, with their clothes on. Most people wear their clothes to swim because they feel like swimming suits are immodest, so everyone just showers in their clothes. Yes, it’s kind of weird and awkward. After showering, you go into a little personal dressing room. The problem? They are built for short Vietnamese people, not 6 foot tall Americans. Everyone in the shower area always laughs when I go into my changing room because it only covers me up to my shoulders. Not only can people see me shoulders up, but I can also see into all of the other changing rooms. This makes for lots of giggles for the Vietnamese people in the shower/changing area. I’m used to getting giggled at, so it’s not even uncomfortable anymore.

After changing, Hannah’s friends invited me to a breakfast of rice cakes, which they cook over an open fire, dipped in spicy pineapple fish sauce. Yeah, as you probably already surmised, they are better without the sauce. We had a really fun time talking and sharing. I found out later that one of the ladies with us at the beach and restaurant is a member of the Vietnamese Parliament and is famous throughout Vietnam. I am glad that I didn’t know this when I was sitting across from her at breakfast! Oddly enough, I ran into her a few days later in the supermarket. It is really fun being in Tam Ky for a second year and knowing people around the city. It’s hard to believe that this is our fourth year in Vietnam!

On Wednesday, there was an outreach service at one of the chrches in town. I invited David and his friends, and they actually agreed to come. I was surprised and thrilled! The service was really good and relevant to young people. There was good music and a great message. I was sad, though, when David and his friends left about half way through. I was really hopeful, and was disappointed that they didn’t stay for the whole thing. At least a door has been opened, and I am thankful for that!

On Thursday, we went to Da Nang to visit the teachers there. We met them at an American restaurant, which was a huge treat for ROOMMATE and I since there is absolutely no American food in OUR CITY. Some of the teachers have been sick, and others homesick, so I was glad that we could go and help them out with some of the issues they are dealing with, such as not being able to put a water filter together.

Some things are really confusing the first time you do them. Even simple things, like going to the supermarket, are complicated in another country. The most interesting part of our trip was the bus ride to Da Nang and back. It took about 2 ½ hours each way to travel the 40 mile trip. The buses are smaller than US city busses, and yet around 70 people were crammed in there. There were people on top of each other, including us, as well as live chickens, live crabs, and large containers of gasoline.

We were in the back corner of the bus, and I started panicking when I saw people jumping out of the windows to get out because they couldn’t maneuver themselves over to the door. I really started panicking when I realized that not only could I not get to the door, even in an emergency, but I also would not fit out the window. The bus drove so wildly, and we were pr*ying as we had several really close calls with semi-trucks. Thankfully, we made it back to OUR CITY, but I have bruises to show for our crazy excursion. Unfortunately, the train doesn’t run at times that will get us back for chrch the next day, so the train is out. It costs about $50 to hire a driver and car to go to Da Nang, so we are trying to figure out a way to make that work so that I can continue meeting with the Da Nang teachers twice per month.

Friday was Independence Day from France, so almost everyone has the day off. I started off the day at 4:45 am at the beach. While there, some of Hannah’s friends invited us to go to the mountains with them. We went way up into the mountains where there is a huge lake. We had a picnic around the lake and grilled squid and small fish over a little fire. We just ate the squid and fish whole, excluding the bones. I tried not to think about all of the crazy seafood parts I was eating.

There were lots of children in our group of friends, including several teenage girls. The big hit for them was my arm hair. Apparently Asians do not have hair on their arms, so they began touching my arm hair and laughing. At least my differences seem to provide amusement to people! Usually it’s my height or weight, so arm hair is a good change! On Saturday, I helped Hannah with her children’s class again. As some of you may remember, I do NOT teach small children. However, for Hannah, I try to summon all of my energy and have fun with the little ones once a week. I also found out that Hannah has a friend who is a reporter for our province’s newspaper. He wrote an article about OUR CITY and talked about me in the article and why I enjoy living there. I will copy part of the article below. The translation into English isn’t the best, but I did my best, with the help of the Internet. I also attached pictures of our rice cracker/fish sauce breakfast with Hannah's son, Tom, the grilled squid at our picnic, and ROOMMATE and some friends at the picnic.

Please keep lifting up Hannah as she reads the books I brought. She has told me how much she is enjoying them. Also, please keep Holly in your pr*yers, as she will be having her baby in about a month, as well as David as he has at least attended chrch with me once. Also, please remember the other teachers as they deal with homesickness.

I appreciate your pr*yers and support! I hope you have a wonderful day! "

Love, Friend Jane Doe