Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday when the second taylor was measuring me, she was impressed with how white my belly is. The women crave lighter skin here. I wasn’t sure what to say – I said that it was because of my parents.

Hue!

Yesterday was the day of the motorcycle tour of Hue and surrounding area. Don’t worry if you’re thinking that I was given control over my own motorcycle. Each of us was paired up with our own motorcycle buddy who drove us around, so I was just on the back. It was very fun. Mildly nerve-wracking at first, but then fun after a bit. We ate an animal-free lunch at a working Buddhist monestary, stopped at lots of places to take photos and buy souvenirs. There was a boat ride, too, to the pagoda. (which I will remember the real name for and purpose of later…)

Dairy

I told the tour leader at the start of the tour that I don’t do dairy – when he asked the group for dietary issues. There has been no dairy except for the obvious: condensed milk in the iced coffee, for example. The coffee is crazy thick here, and best consumed, or so I hear, with condensed milk with ice cubes stirred in (they melt and water down the coffee a bit). I tried some of the coffee black this morning with a titch of sugar. It was very very strong. I’ll try some more with more sugar.  It was strong and bitter but I kept sipping at it. I just wanted to try it, at least, even without the milk.

Our tour group has been eating meals- lunch and dinners, as a group, passing around share-plates. The group leader took a tally of everyone’s food allergies/dietary preferences but so far there’s been no dairy in anything. I’m eating well.

As the only two Canadians in the group, Julie and I had a brief conversation regarding hockey at dinner last night. (Fights good or bad?). Represent.

We’ve made it to Halong Bay to find that the storm is coming earlier than expected probably, so we’re not allowed out on the boat overnight. Boo. But I am on a boat right now, only just for a little while – we get about 2 hours. So we’re going to the caves and then we get lunch and that’s it. Better than if we were getting here tomorrow, as originally planned, when the bay will be shut due to the storm. Better to be safe, but riding out a typhoon would have been hardcore.

We’ll overnight at a hotel by the bay and then back to Hanoi tomorrow to pick up our original activities there (tour of the city, water puppets, etc.) And then the next thing (I don’t have an itinerary handy.)

There is nothing like being freezing cold on an air-conditioned bus and then stepping out into the warm, sticky air outside. It’s rainy today, so extra sticky. I like the heat, just being careful to drink water (haven’t been doing this as much as I should).

Monsoon! Or, quite possibly, typhoon.

It’s just past midnight and I just put on my pajamas.

Posts will not be this frequent after this. The trip to, and being in the airppost has afforded me a lot of free time.

Here is a picture of me (Maybe? I don’t know how this will work on my phone) having just arrived at YVR. I appear much more awake than I was feeling at that point. I have since had a green/white tea combo that was delicious and perked me up a little. I met up with Julie at about 10 or so, and we checked in and found out that we can’t take our knitting needles on board with us! So into checked baggage they went. Good thing we asked. After that we went to Wendy’s for our last western meal (presumably) for a while.

I’ll put Julie into context now, since I’ve received permission to talk about her here. Julie and I met when we were in the art program at Camosun. She was very very quiet the first year, but we’d get to chatting about fashion and fabrics and such. In second year she got quite talkative, which amused me, considering how little she spoke the year before. It must be noted that we graduated from Camosun ten years ago.

Lately, Julie and I meet up to watch the musicals that come through Vancouver (The Lion King, Cats, Wicked, Les Mis, etc)

Now I have to board so hopefully this uploads before I go into airplane mode.

I had a dream last night where people
kept invading my space. I was in my apartment and my roommate had invited all these people over and they were setting up for a Jennifer Lopez concert. This involved renovating my apartment and the whole building into a shiny mall with a raised platform for a stage. I didn’t get to the concert because I woke up. “Woke up” because I was in another dream where I was being woken up by someone kissing me: *someone who hadn’t been there when I went to bed.* So they had not only snuck into bed with me but also unlocked the door to my apartment to get in. It was ok in the end because it turned out that we were previously acquainted, but I was still shocked and annoyed. Then I woke up from that dream and I was back in real life.

Today is Friday. All I have pending for the weekend is to do dishes, as I don’t believe I have cleaned any since least weekend. I’ve been busy this week. Except for Tuesday, I’ve been out every night. There weren’t very many dishes on Tuesday so I left them, and anyway, I didn’t want to do them then anyway. I sometime get to them on Wednesday if it don’t do them on Tues but I was a bit rushed, having gotten home a bit late from an accupuncture appointment, and having to take an extra nap (I had dozed at accupuncture, but then afterwards I felt sick, and napping, along with eating, seemed like, and was, a good cure. I have a new favorite thing that I ate: brown rice, black beans, sourkraut and avacado. It’s a recipe from the gluten-free cookbook mum got me for my birthday. I’m going to have another portion tonight before dance. I had a burrito as well on Wednesday, so maybe I’ll do that again, too.)

Then last night I went for dinner with Susan. We went to Value Village after. I finally got to try Be Love and I had everything: dinner, dessert and a milkshake.

I’ve been sick a lot lately. It sucks as I have things to do. I had to cancel my birthday party (not this past Saturday but the one before) but the invitees came for a visit anyway and gave me presents. And cupcakes. Tamara made vegan cupcakes. I still have some in the freezer. Susan got me a map of the world to hang on my wall, which I find most pleasing. I haven’t hung it up yet. I will soon. I was sick and then I was busy. Yesterday (Sunday) I was busy watching movies. I also made myself a pile of food for this week. This is a five-day week, but it is the last five-day week I have for a while. I made a roast.

I started acupuncture last Wednesday. It was the last straw, since I’ve been sick three times in the past 10 weeks or so (eight weeks! I just counted). I was at the doctor a couple weeks or so just to make sure I didn’t have something I could take a pill for. The doctor was very helpful, but didn’t have anything useful for me except to say that what I’m going through is perfectly normal. So that made me feel better, a bit. So now acupuncture to try to fill in the gaps. I felt a lot better after my appointment on Wed (no weak legs! Clear-ish respiratory system). So that was great. I went again on Sat but my legs were still weak after. Lungs were clearer though. I went Sat and it was someone else than who I had on Wed, so it was a bit different. Wed guy said come to see him again on Monday but that wasn’t going to work (I was meant to be helpdesk today and I didn’t want to mess that up). So I changed my appointments to Sat and then this Wed (when the original guy is working again). I think it’s working. It’s defiantly helping with the remnants of my cold or whatever it was. I didn’t stay for a whole hour on Sat so it might have worked better if I stayed.

Acupuncture on Wed, and then a massage on Thurs. I sent an e-request to see a consultant at the travel health clinic but I’m yet to hear back from them. I should have waited to make my massage appointment just in case – but I did request a morning appointment at the travel health place.

Appointments!