... A small reference to the book Paradise of the Blind, a book about everyday life in Vietnam in the time after the reunification of Northern and Southern Vietnam.. Anyways, Happy Friday the 13th! I thought I would celebrate such a delightful occasion with some blog writing. It has been a while but the clock seems to tick faster here in the South - it really feels like we just arrived! An indication of the good time we're having here.

I really am enjoying myself. The standard day basically goes like this: breakfast, lecture, lunch, reading at the beach, doing whatever fits us. I'm definitely not stressing myself.

I have decided to volunteer as en English teacher and so far I have had one class. That was an interesting experience. Barely had the class started before the teacher gave my a textbook in my hand saying "Here, now you teach!" which, at the time, brought me into one of those rare occasions of speechlessness. And I pretty quickly learned that the Vietnamese have different ways of teaching. Seemingly they are know how to express themselves on paper but when it comes to speaking English, it is something very different. I did feel like I was forcing words out of the two (!!) pupils mouths but that is probably the whole point of an English class called "Conversation".

I was going to sign up for Vietnamese classes as well but those fell through because of low attendence and a high price. I really should use the opportunity to learn some Vietnamese considering I have a Vietnamese room mate but I must say, my Vietnamese is very limited at best. BUT the last few days I have been practicing my Norwegian pronounciation which has brought doubt on whether I'm actually Danish, a Norwegian Pakistani or a Polish person. You can hear how I'm discriminately being assimilated by Norwigean imperialism! In fact, I really enjoy my time with the Norwigeans around me even if their language isn't as developed as their first place on the Human Development Index indicates. ;)

Academically, I'm getting challenged in the way that I'm meeting different perspectives to development than just the anthropological one. While no one should be affraid of lossing me to the econonomics, it does introduce light and shade to my understanding of development. I'm bringing this into considerations of the bachelor project, I'm writing next year, which means that my mind is situated in an almost constant cloud of academic fantasizing. Maybe not today, though - I'm a bit hungover.

I really enjoy that the course is in English and I have realized that I actually know how to express myself pretty well both on paper and when speaking. But still I guess that expressing myself briefly and clearly will never really be my biggest attribute...

I know I have mentioned it before but... the FOOD! I love it here! While I never really get full from the Vietnamese food (but then again, did I do that before?), I feel like I'm enjoying every single meal here and we are browsing through all of the different restaurants throughout town spoiling our taste buds. Tonight, I'm going to a place specifically known for the cakes which I'm writing while my computer keyboard is getting wet from me drooling.

Last weekend we even learned to cook a bit of Vietnamese food ourselves and even if I constantly threw my Banh Xeo from the pan to the floor, I do look forward to treating people back home with some Hoi An specialities!

The same weekend we decided to cross every notion of good sense and rent scooters/motor bikes to go to the Champa ruins of My Son. As I might have described earlier, the traffic here is crazy, but we thought we might as well give it a try. And it was AMAZING! Even if we got lost enough to reach the ruins in 2½ hours instead of 1, we had a memorable ride. Finding your way on the Vietnamese roads is not easy. Highways are not just highways. The roads are always densely populated and it seems like towns are never ending which also means that you are not going particularly fast. About 40-60 km/h perhaps. Doing the daytrip on a scooter was really the main experience this afternoon and it is not the last time we are going to do this. In fact, while most people are going to traditional traveling destinations in the 4-day weekend we have in 2 weeks, me and the other guys are talking about just renting scooters and then just go out in the countryside and go where the road takes us. That would be so cool!

This weekend we are going to the Cham Islands, which are some islands right out of Hoi An, where the diving should be particularly good. I have arranged most parts through a dive shop so that almost the whole group is going, either snorkeling or diving and staying overnight having a bonfire and a party on the beach. I'm very excited but I really think I need to make a few prayers to Thor to ask him to stay away so we don't get hit by bad weather. The weather pattern is very unpredictable. It is rainy season but we had a whole week where we didn't get any rain which was followed by several days with continous rain. And it's hard to count on weather forecasts. But as one of the geographers in the course said in a not at all ironic sense: the weather depends on your positive attitude and well-behaved birthday-boys/girls. At least I can bring the good attitude!

We also get to go out a lot and have found a main bar that everybody knows of by now. The group mentality is pretty good and it seems that most people are up for the different activities arranged which is really cool. I just hope it can stay like this :)

So, yeah, I'm doing pretty well right now. Almost 3 weeks have gone by which is really absurd in my head. 7 more weeks just doesn't feel like enough! Good thing we have plenty of time to travel together afterwards. But that is a whole other story that I will come to when time makes it relevant - and that might just happen faster than expected!

Hope you are all doing well back home or wherever you are! I really appreciate that you are using your time to follow what is going on in my life right now. Thanks!