it was a hot one yesterday, so i right after i snapped this shot, i sauntered over to the little blue plastic stools across the street for a glass of iced tea. it's terrible stuff - really bitter - but it is refreshing. that said, i reckon anything would be when sweat is dripping down your back and your butt is wet. (seriously, sometimes when i get off my bike or stand up after lunch, there is a sweat stain on my rear. why i haven't found myself any vietnamese suiters by now is beyond me.) anyway, it's also a fine chance to practice my vietnamese. i had just purchased a wooden fan scented with something marvelous, and dare i say, exotic, and my hostess was eager to know how much i'd paid. 25,000 dong ($1.56), i said, and she confirmed that it was 2.5 times what she would have paid. that sounds about right. fortunately, the tea was only 2,000. so in the end, i think i made out alright.
last week i had to post a blog entry about 'ways to stay cool in ha noi' (yes, i'm blogging in vietnamese too!), and if i could add to that list, i'd add 'drinking iced tea on the sidewalk whilst lazily fanning oneself and chatting about shopping' - doesn't sound too different from summers in texas actually. come to think of it, neither does the sweaty butt scenario.
No comments:
Post a Comment