Livin' in Da Nang

That's me at about 5am in the morning. Sunrise in Vietnam. If California has the best sunsets, I'm giving Vietnam the prize for the best sunrises. There's nothing quite like the view of a sky as it changes colors as the clouds meet the rising sun. And that morning, as I floated in the cool waters of the other side of the pacific, I thought about how the sun there around three o'clock for everyone back home. And here I watched it rise. Quite the mind-trip.

It's so strange to see this week nearly at an end. Out of them all, this one has flown by the fastest. I think it's because I've been here long enough to get into the flow of things here in Da Nang. As I near the end the second to last week of teaching and working here in Da Nang, I find myself comfortable; familiar with my surroundings. We all have a bit of a routine, and night activities to look forward to. Thus time feels like its better able to slip through my fingers. Even so I've been doing my best to.. well.. make my best of the time I have left.

Our teaching has been good. The more classes we have the more comfortable and competant we feel. Even though half the ideas we have end up more or less failing, the fact that we've been able to come up with fresh new ones is a miracle on it's own. And the kids get more and more precious. Vietnamese kids rank among the cutest in the world. Which is saying something, cause to me their all precious.  And the feeling that I get when they make that connection, when they discover that the color that I'm trying to get them to learn is also the color they're wearing, well- it's an incredible feeling, and one I hope to find again when I teach back home.

And when we aren't teaching, we're "working" at an orphanage in the mornings. But who can call that work? We get to play and attempt to teach these kids english. And I only say attempt because oftentimes they know more than we do. Today I played a version of hangman that included a drawing of the object in question, and they guessed the word more than half of the time. Guess I should've known that superman was popular internationally. Other times we just play games with them. They've their own version of rock paper sissors, which includes a "slap" on the palm for the loser. And they catch on to everything so quickly. For example- one esspecially nimble little man had learned a dance routine from Amanda by the end of the hour.

So with teaching in the kindergardens and "working" in the orphanages together, it feels like I'm really getting to connect with all the kids of Vietnam in a special way. And with the Vietnamese. Even on the streets the adults try to coax their kids into saying hello to us. We're always a spectical of some sorts, whether for our white skin, our tall frames, or for our beards. Even if my beard isn't the best back home, it reigns supreme in Vietnam (only cause Tyler shaves his).

So there's life in Vietnam, and I'm living it. Weird things have been eaten. Motorbikes have been ridden (but not driven, yet). Pictures (thousands) have been taken. And of course, high fives have been given. And it's not over quite yet. Even if I miss home, and even if I sometimes fill my idle thoughts with long lists of all the food I'm going to eat when I get back home, there's still time for me left here, and I plan to make the most of it.