You look so strange!

Karen took us 6 to her most favorite "Nem Nướng" hole-in-the-wall-and-plastic-stools eatery today for dinner. As we were walking, we ran into a student that we recently met and invited her to come along. She said yes even though she had already had dinner. Then we walked some more and ran into her friend, a boy that Karen has known for two years now and who has also just happily told her last week that he had just got saved over the summer. We extended the same invitation to him, and, again, he agreed even though he had already had dinner. Now, all 9 of us were walking and we ran into one of Karen's former students. Karen introduced her to all of us new foreign teachers, and the girl shook my hand and pointed at my head saying, "you look so strange!" I didn't know how to react except to say, "Yeah, I don't have any hair up there." Later on, as we said goodbye to her, she pointed at me again and said, "You look handsome!" I thought to myself, "So am I strange or am I handsome?" Well, she didn't come with us for dinner, so I didn't get a chance to ask her. But 'strange' is a good word because I have yet to see a bald man here in this town. There were so so so many students on this street around dinner time and so so so many street vendors hoping to get some business from them.

Between my bald head and the Karen's blond hair and the cute little Isaiah, we attract attention everywhere we go. After dinner, I chatted with the owner lady for a while and left. Then we walked to a "chè" parlor to have some dessert, also another of Karen's favorites. I started a conversation with the lady owner and found out that she has two other sisters that are also in the same business of selling "chè." One sister is just a few shops down the street and the other sister has a store on a street downtown. The owner said Caleb looked Korean. That's a first. I saw "trôi nước" on the menu and asked her what it was. She said it's the same as "xôi nước," but most people here call it "trôi nước." I grew up calling it "xôi nước." That reminded me also that here, "xe ôm" is often called "xe thồ"--another local variation.

After "chè," we walked back, and Grace stopped by a book store to get some stationary, and I stood outside answering a phone call from some former students in HP. On the way back I also got a text message from another student that I knew from three years ago saying that she saw us walking to dinner as she was riding her motorbike but she didn't stop because I was with a big group. We passed by a popcorn stand and Caleb wanted to get some. So we got a big cup of popcorn--tasted more like kettle corn, for 5000.

We got back to campus and it still didn't rain, so I thought to myself, "We could have hung our laundry outside instead of in our living room all this time." Anyway, it was a pleasant evening out--lots of interaction with people.