Week 7: Missing my girls...

Freaked out this week. My mom called and said to me "I just emailed you the information to where my will and legal documents are kept, in case something happens to me and your father." WHAT?!?!?! As is my habit here in Vietnam, sometimes I can go for days without checking my email or even turning on the TV, so I didn't hear about the category-5 hurricane Rita making a beeline for my hometown. My mom told me that in the mass paranoia (perhaps in part due to Katrina a few weeks before) all the neighbors have fled. Traffic heading out of Houston crawled at 20 mph, with cars running out of gas while on the road. My parents decided to take their chances at home, carefully taping up their windows and buying tons of water and unperishable food. Thankfully, the hurricane did not do as much damage as anticipated, and Sugar Land was not even hit. (The only thing doing any damage in Sugar Land these days is Tom DeLay.)

Am really starting to miss my girlfriends (Did you hear that ladies?). I haven't been in Hanoi long enough to make female friends yet--other than my sister. Also, there is no Vietnamese equivalent of the "Girls' Night Out." I have some AMAZING friends back at home--smart, beautiful, strong, successful women. I'm really missing that here in Hanoi. My de facto and self-imposed singledom wouldn't be all that bad had I a support network a fraction like the one I have in the States. I miss you, ladies!!!

Song currently playing on iPod: Genius of Love (Tom Tom Club)

Had another nasty run in--only this time with a Vietnamese man. My sister and I decided to have a "Girls Day" of working out, shopping, hair and nails. While working out at the gym, I asked the man on the next treadmill nicely if I could change the TV in front of him to CNN. He grunted at me, which I took as a yes. I didn't think he was watching the TV behind him, so I turned it off. He reaction was instantaneous--he started banging on the treadmill, and proceeded to call me a whore and a prostitute, mouthing off all sorts of obscenities. Turned to him and said, "You work out at a 5-star hotel, yet you are so uncivilized and uneducated!" "I got here first!" Was his reply. I quipped, "You got here first so you hogged two TVs!!! What, do you need one for each eye?" He screamed at me, "I was watching the TV!!!" I replied, "You could have asked me courteously." "I did," was his lame answer, to which my sister told him, "You call banging on the treadmill and calling my sister a whore courteous? It sounds uneducated and uncivilized to me!!" He then shut up, but all the while scowling at me and my sister.

Reflecting back on this episode, I am amazed at how hot-tempered he was, how quick he was to label a woman (whom he'd never met) a prostitute. The guy knew NOTHING about me. All while his docile wife (who wasn't even exercising--she was just standing there and handing him bottled water and towels!!!) stood there and watched while her husband proceeded to make a fool of himself. Unfortunately, I run into that type of man all the time in Hanoi--newly rich, aspires to be "westernized," self-righteous, quick to judge, hot-tempered...just shows that money doesn't buy culture.

In dissertation news, I'm finished logging in all the newspaper issues I need. Now I start the long and arduous process of digitizing every issue. ARGH. Hope my digital camera is up for the challenge.

As promised, I have posted a picture of my new motorbike. Must run--its 9 PM and I haven't had dinner yet... More next week.