"the heat is on in saigon!", indeed!

today was yet another scorcher. a blazing 31+ degrees celsius, give or take 10+ degrees on top of that with the smog and the humidity. oy. i've discovered ho chi minh's equivalent to starbucks or tim horton's: AQ. liz, matt, bill, and i decided to cool off by grabbing some iced coffee or caphe sua (pron. "cafe suah") - but after seeing that there was a wide variety of fresh fruit smoothies on the menu, our tastebuds lead us in that direction instead. really, you can never go wrong with a nice cool glass of fresh mango shake, blended to perfection. *muah*

other events that happened today included checking out the canadian consolate, strolling around downtown ho chi minh city, and accidentally stumbling upon the notre dame cathedral that was built by the french during the days of colonization. but unfortunately it was closed for the day, so we plan on coming back... :o)

oh, and it seems we have another resident staying at our place. a cute little lizard (for those ilongo ppl reading this, a "tiki"). i found him staring right at me once i opened my room door this morning. cute little thing, if you ask me. i named him herbert. there's actually a lot of them scurrying around the buildings here in ho chi minh city. but better than cockroaches, for sure. :o)

so now i'm here, back at the language center, passing time before my first tag-team lesson with liz. she thought it would be a good idea for me to jump into teaching mode by teaching the students one activity in tonight's class. tonight's topic: the weather. as i went through the lesson plan, i felt my first sensation of nostalgia: not being able to see the leaves change auburn, brown, orange, and gold this coming fall. why i let it hit me now, i have no idea, but it's sinking in. it's something so small, and yet, i know it'll be something that'll i'll miss - especially since i've come to learn that vietnam has 2 seasons: dry and rainy. we're currently in the rainy season which will pretty much last till the beginning of november... eeeps.

saturday i'll be giving a placement test to the high school kids on the other campus with bill, and then a grand dinner hosted by the landlord of my house. and who knows where the rest of the weekend will take me? :oD

that's one thing about vietnam - you never plan more than "20 minutes" ahead. :o)

chao for now!
estelle