Day 2: Food and Family

By the time we landed it was May 13 in Vietnam, it was about 11:30pm. We went to the baggage claim area and saw that many people, like us, had brought along cardboard boxes all taped up, worried that the inspection people would steal their belongings. Once we grabbed our luggage and boxes, we exited the airport building. As we left the airport we saw a mass of Vietnamese people outside waiting to pick up family and/or friends. Mom was worried that our family didn't know to pick us up that night, so I stood with our luggage as she went to look for our family members. They were nowhere to be found. When she came back, a security guard asked her what was the matter. When he learned that we didn't know if our family was there to pick us up, he let mom use his cell phone to call them. And just as mom thought, they thought we were coming the next day. After the phone call was made, they came about 30 min. later. There was Ma Muoi, Dung Muoi, Ma Tam and Ma Muoi's son, Anh Dat. They arrived in a taxi van. Once we loaded the car, we headed over to Ma Tam's house.

As we drove, it was obvious that we were no longer in America. As the taxivan rolled through the streets, the driver didn't bother to even slow down, let alone stop, at intersections. Instead of looking for other vehicles in the road, the driver just honked his way through intersections as to warn others that he was coming through! Another thing I noticed were the electrical wires, which exceeded those in the U.S. greatly, quantity wise. They were like huge bunches of cords running along the streets. If I had to guesstimate, I would say that these bunches were 1.5 ft. in diameter.

When we had arrived, we unloaded the car and brought the luggage in to má Tám's house. When we entered I thought it was pretty small, but soon later I learned that there were many floors more to the house. When all was brought inside, we sat around and talked. Well I didn't talk much, I just kind of sat there and listened, trying to make sense of what everybody else was saying. Then, although it was late, I think 2 or 3 0'clock in the morning, dừng Mười took me out down the street and around the corner to get a bowl of late night phở. It was delicious!

After hours of being in flight and a bowl of phở, Mom and I finally went up to the room we'd be staying in and went to bed.
In the morning I awoke to a procession of music going on outside. I had no idea what was going on, but according to my mom, this is what is done when someone passes away. Then I brushed, the bathroom was a bit smaller than I'm used to, but it did what a bathroom needed to do. When I went downstairs there was a bánh mì waiting for me (that's a Vietnamese sandwich). It was really good! But I did end up picking out a lot of the fat in the pork meat...which I think was kind of weird to my family in Vietnam. I just really don't enjoy eating all that fat!

After breakfast, I rode a motorcycle for the first time! It was awesome! I rode over with dừng Mười and then back home with chị Thanh.

Honestly, I don't remember too much about this day and have very little notes to refer to, but this was the day that I met má Bảy, cậu Hai, cậu Tư, chị Thanh, anh Thịnh, and chị Bặp (sp?).