Sai Gon. March 26, 2001. I just wrote an entire page and a half long single-spaced typed letter to mom in Vietnamese. How cool is that, huh? I had no idea I knew how, nor did I know that I could read so well when I received mom’s email today (I thought, oh, man, she wrote a LOT). But then I read it and understood 99% of it, and was able to write back (hoping she can understand my writing). I suppose that is the benefit of a phonetic language – the ease of reading and writing. The problem is that I pronounce everything incorrectly and thus spell the way I pronounce.

I have just discovered from Mom’s letter that the people I met at Vung Tau, Mr. Bang, is the uncle of Mai Lien, the woman whose home I stayed in both times I visited Paris. Very unexpected connection!

Today Chu Mung, who works for my aunt, drove me to work & picked me up. He takes me when Thanh is off duty (2x/month). I realized suddenly, this afternoon, that my ride home would be a wet one, since it was raining out side and we didn’t have anything but the shirt on our backs to shelter us from the rain. Luckily, it was ony a light rain (huge drops, but few of them). I don’t think drizzling actually occurs here. There are two seasons – sunny season and rainy season. I think we’re beginning to enter rainy season.

FYI, family, Di 10 is in town and Cau Nhan (they both went up to Ohio to visit CauMo Tu). If you want to send anything to me, ask Cau Nhan (they return on April 5). Ciao.