After three flights, two layovers, thirty hours of being in transit and an additional hour driving in to town, I made it to my new home in Hanoi, Vietnam! I want to give a shout out to Singapore Airlines for being absolutely fantastic. Their service is impeccable and I highly recommend that airline to anyone traveling out this direction. Greeted with warm towels before take off, inclusive and rather tasty meal options, snacks and alcohol and a ton of great movie options, they make you feel very at home for a long journey. Another thank you to the people I met in transit the last day and a half. I engulfed in many great conversations, introduced Mad Libs to a Brit, and was invited to the VIP lounge at my layover at Narita Airport in Japan, where I took a shower, drank beer and connected to Wi-Fi for free! Singapore Changi airport is beautiful and was very peaceful at 3:00am. They have coy ponds, resting areas and a really large art.

Upon arrival yesterday, Jordan, another teacher and I, came in only about an hour apart from each other so we were picked up together. It was so exciting seeing someone holding a sign with my name! Totally a movie kind of moment. My last name was spelled wrong, as it usually is. It had a “g” instead of an “f” but did have the double “n’s.”

I suppose this has been coined as my Vietnamese last name for now. We were taken to eat at a local street food joint for pho. It was absolutely delicious!!! For my first introduction to authentic Vietnamese street food, I opened it with an open mouth and belly!

Afterwards, we were dropped off at the dorms, given a key and the Wi-Fi password and then were left on our own. It was a weird and uncomfortable feeling at first, but it subsided once I started unpacking a few items. Having another person with me was definitely comforting and shortly after our arrival some other teachers came back and we all had each other.

Five of us went out to explore, withdrawal money from an ATM and most importantly, find beer. We started at Thai Café, got some Wi-Fi (since mine wasn’t working at the dorms), touched base with some family and friends at home and tried my first Vietnamese coffee. It was absolutely delicious and only 20,000 Vietnamese dong (VND), which is equal to $0.92 US dollars, (USD). After that we walked over to what we call the Bird Spot and had beers. Each beer is 15,000 VND, equaling $0.69 USD. There are birds in cages hanging from the ceiling and we sat in tiny plastic yellow chairs.

Continuing on our beer and food crawl we went to get food a few shops down and got “duck” and two rounds of beer. The meat was a little chewy, but wasn’t horrible. There were a few other items on the table, some mystery meat wrapped in endless rolls of leaves and bland, but tasty peanuts. It took a few moments to actually try the leaf meat, but we all did. After paying our bill, we took off to a different spot around the corner and had more beer and fried dry noodles with vegetables and “beef.” This was a really good meal! The ladies taking care of us were so nice and were teaching us some Vietnamese words. We will definitely be back! Carrying onwards, our fourth spot was a trendier spot, more inward of the city. We had Budweiser and BIA Saigon Special beer. They put ice cubes in the Saigon beer, which none of us had ever seen or done before. It was someone’s birthday and they kept playing this pretty epic, Vietnamese birthday song. This turned out to be our highest bill since we were drinking imported beer, but it still was only $18 USD for two rounds for five people. When everything is so cheap, it’s easiest to each take care of a bill at a time so there doesn’t need to be any confusion with splitting checks. On top of how inexpensive everything is, you don’t tip here either. I can get used to this!!!

Us teachers are currently living in the dorms at the school. We have our own bed, desk, closet and a balcony overlooking the school and city. Jordan and I are rooming together and woke up this morning at 3:30am to what may sound as rain, but was the ceiling in our bathroom leaking. While waiting for our coordinator to arrive and help solve this problem, we put trashcans to catch the water and were dumping the filled one every so often down the shower drain. We went down to the security guard at 4:30am and tried to use Google Translate to explain our problem and see if there was anyone around to help. It was a failed attempt, to say the least. It was rather comical and I am just thankful it chose to leak in the bathroom and not on our beds! The amount of water was ridiculous. If only I can ship it to California to help with the drought!

Jordan and I walked in to the hall to see if anyone else is up and they were having the same problem as well. There was a massive puddle in the hallway, but it seems no one had as much flooding in their rooms as we did.

Putting all judgments and fears aside, I am willing and able to try whatever comes my way. Eating unknown meat and having a flooded bathroom all within 12 hours of arrival is only making this experience more memorable.