all for one

I mentioned yesterday at work that my wallet got stolen, and since then the editor of the publishing house and the head of the English department that I work in have basically mobilized forces and gone to town with finding a solution. They called the bus station, filled out a report to give to the police station, researched banks to see where I could get money wired, bought me a calling card so that I can call my parents back home, actually took me to a bank to make sure everything would work smoothly, and Joe bought cookies. I wish now that I hadn't wasted all of Sunday not doing anything because 1) I didn't know what I should be doing, 2) I figured it was a hopeless cause, and 3) Erik (the director) didn't really do anything either.

My coworkers are amazing.

bad things always happen to me in waves

My wallet got stolen this morning during the bus ride to Just Massage. Everything is gone, even including my mailbox key, and I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do.

Today has not been my day.

beauty queen of only eighteen

[Photo credit: VN Express]

RECOGNIZE ANYONE IN THE BACKGROUND?

Probably not because it's blurred out. But that's Ha (Johnny's Vietnamese roommate), Phil, Bibi, and me.

Yesterday our group went to the Temple of Literature and, turns out, it was the same day that the Miss Universe contestants and Miss Universe 2007 were visiting the Temple as well. Ha recognized their bus as they pulled up (he's obsessed with the pageant), and him and Christopher start running after the girls, snapping photos. Christopher doesn't even like to walk!

Anyway, the contest this year is being held in Viet Nam in July, and they've been showing the preliminary rounds on TV (I learned on the busride back that apparently Miss Venezuela recently won the ao dai competition). Ha, Bibi, and I got to take a photo with Miss USA!

Or rather, Ha got to take a photo with Miss USA and Bibi and I just jumped into it last minute, so I'm still laughing in the picture.

The girls were all really pretty (though they were also all wearing layers upon layers of make-up), very poised, and insanely tall in their sky-high heels. Basically, I would like to look like them when I grow up, please.

pass the fish oil pills

A line from the book I'm currently editing:

"In 137 BC, Trieu Da fell seriously ill and then died at the age of 110, after a 60-year reign."

...110 YEARS OLD?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

someone needs an english phrase book

Every day when I go to work, the same (or I assume it's the same) middle-aged motorbike taxi driver always says to me:

"Hi! I love you!"

I'm fairly certain that this is the only English he knows.

It's weird being here for about two weeks and still feeling like I'm a fish in a bowl. I'm starting to recognize faces and places on the street, but everything from my mannerisms to my hair to my height screams that I don't belong. The attention ranges from overly tiring when it comes from rows of pestering vendors and motorbike and cyclo drivers endlessly hassling you to buy, buy, buy, to hilarious when it comes from locals wanting pictures or Vietnamese men hitting on your guy friends.

At any rate, I'm excited to meet up tonight with a group of kids here from Princeton. It'll be us plus possibly a Yale girl who attended one of our lectures yesterday evening, and we're all going to a bar together. Though I've learned so much from the Vietnamese roommates, I miss meeting new people that I can instantly communicate with without having to explain every cultural reference I make. I don't think I fully realized how unique the Greek system is until I came here.