For your sanity, today has been removed from the calendar

Catherine, Patricia and I voted today off the calendar. In the words of Patricia:

"The list of indictments are as follows:
1. It made Catherine get harrased at the airport for having diabetes.
2. It made Heather's plane rides less than enjoyable.
3. It gave us all travel edge [including my panic attack on the bus into Hanoi]
4. It promised us cake, and then pulled us out of our rooms for said cake and said cake had no serving utensils, and thus will be postponed until tomorrow, hopefully.
5. It teased us with the last 4 minutes of a great English language movie on TV
6. It convinced all technology to work against us.
7. It allowed Vera to almost not get through Vietnamese security (because the immigration official didn't believe the woman in her passport photo matched the woman standing in front of him)
8. It, in general, royally sucketh the ass."

That was a pretty hefty list

The one positive - it's 10-20 degrees cooler here than in Chiang Mai, so you no longer drip just from walking outside.

Hanoi feels so foreign right now. This might be an exaggeration, but it feels more foreign than Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Some of this I'm sure comes from the fact that I understand the fact that I'm not going to learn this language, and that my professors do not know Vietnamese either. Which is a little freaky. To me at least. No one else seems miffed about it. Also, I cannot deal with all the horn honking. I swear they (the Vietnamese) are carrying on conversations with their car horns. It's insane. It's the opposite of the states, where using the horn is taboo - something assholes do, or you might, maybe do to an asshole that almost kills you. Here though, everyone honks at everyone. I'm not really sure why. And there are no visible lane markers - I mean they're there, but they're so faded that you can't really see them ever and no one follows them anyway. It just sounds so angry and looks so chaotic to me. I'm really not looking forward to driving to the University tomorrow during what (in the west) is rush hour. Cringe.

I am very excited to see Hua and Trang again. They were the first Asia Termer's guides around Hanoi and the next year came to study abroad at Coe. Both women are so sweet and it's really nice to see a familiar face.

The other thought for today. As we were gathering in the Chiang Mai airport and chatting amongst ourselves this morning, we started discussing TSA and Homeland Security types, which prompted Bob to tell me this story:

Once there was a woman from an Arab country, living in the US. Her husband was very abusive, but she couldn't find a way to safely leave him. Then Sept. 11th happened. So the wife calls DHS and tells them that he's a terrorist. Abusive husband gets arrested and deported. Wife lives happily (?) ever after.

As Patricia said, as I stood there and looked confused, "You just blew her mind - she doesn't know whether it's funny or inappropriate, a good story or a bad one. You can almost see the wheels turning." *giggles*

Me: "Yeah...."