Thuong

I am wondering what you are thinking about the title of this blog post. Is it the name of a city? Is it a misspelled word? Is it a typo? Is it the sound of a sneeze? It is none of the above my friends. It is someone's name. This name is pronounced like the English word "tongue", except you put more emphasis in the word, which I cannot show you by writing in a blog post. So, that will have to do.

Anyway... this name belongs to a girl we met, along with her friend, Phi, pronounced like the English word "fee". We met these girls as we were walking to dinner. They invited us to come into their restaurant, but we never did because we always had something else in mind to eat that night. We would just stop and talk to them, and one night we finally did eat there. One night when we stopped to say hello, Thuong invited us to her house to eat. We set a date to come and that day was yesterday. We started off at 9:00 AM. She met us at the restaurant and we rode to her house on motor bikes. We came to find out later she had left her house that morning at 7:30 just to come pick us up at the restaurant, and then went all the way back! So, Thuong took us to Phi's house and we ate fruit there and met her family. All of the neighborhood kids were running around trying to get a better look at the foreigners! This is a picture of the neighbors house, which looked the same as Phi's house.



After we ate, Phi took us to a market and then we met some of her neighbors. She showed us her family's farm and it was all very beautiful! By the time 12:00 rolled around, we were told by Thuong that now we are going to go visit her family. So we set off to meet Thuong's family. We met her brothers and her parents, and ate lunch with them. Here is a picture of the scenery around her house.




We ate what is considered a really nice Vietnamese meal that her parent's cooked for us. We ate vegetables and meat and fat wrapped in rice paper. It was really good, and spicy! We also learned that Vietnamese people eat from the floor. We all sat down and had our bowls in front of us on the floor and ate merrily! It was very good and an interesting experience. I, of course made a mess of my area and her parents thought it was hilarious because I was making fun of myself the whole time for not doing it the right way. It was a hoot! At one point some food flew out of my mouth and onto the floor, it was pretty funny!

Anyway, after lunch, we all helped clean up (which didn't take much because we just swept and mopped and it was done!) I had to use the bathroom, so I asked to use the W.C. Thuong had asked a friend of hers to come over for lunch, so when I asked about the W.C., Thuong looked at her friend and kind of looked embarrassed. Stan said quickly, "It's just a hole out back. You'll have to get your shoes." Thuong's English isn't the best, so speaking fast makes it difficult for her to understand. That's why he spoke quickly, so I could understand what was about to happen, and it wouldn't embarrass her. I told her I could find it and went outside. I went out back, where all the dragon fruit plants were and found her mother. I made the "I have to pee" face and stance. Mama motioned for me to go pee back where there is more coverage and I wouldn't be seen. So, I just found an area where no one might see me, and used the facilities right there in broad daylight. Oh yeah, no toilet paper... I had to rummage around and find a leaf. I was pretty proud of myself! So, after I was finished I was thinking, "I didn't even see a whole... there must be some sort of miscommunication going on." Obviously. I don't speak Vietnamese and Thuong's mother doesn't speak English. So... anyway, after lunch we "took a break" before the next thing Thuong had planned for us to do. Stan tried to fight off the sleep (really, we all did after that big meal) and Thuong's father brought this out for Stan.


He was gone! Got a quick power nap in!

So, Thuong took us around to meet the rest of her family after we rested. All of her family lives on the same street. Stan was telling her it feels like home because in the country in America, it's the same thing. Her family was oh so nice and was constantly offering us things to eat. The food was sooooo good! But our stomaches just couldn't take anymore! So we kindly declined some of the food, and Thuong helped us by explaining to them we had eaten all day! After visiting with her family, she told us we should make our way back to our hotel because after night fall, we might not be able to remember our way back. haha, so she decided for us. That's Asia!

I had to go to the bathroom again, (I wish girls had the bigger bladders, not boys!) so I psyched myself up for the bathroom situation again, and made my way out back. Thuong followed me to show me the way this time. She pointed to a small out house in the opposite direction I had used the bathroom before. I still don't know why Mama pointed me in that direction before. I had clearly used my body language in the right way. :) Anyway, the outhouse was the hole Stan spoke of. It still had no paper, so I had to go searching for leaves again. I am woman, hear me roar! After that, we got on the bikes and got back to the hotel safely.

All in all, it was a fun trip! We were tired by the end of the day and I went to sleep pretty early! I'm glad we've made these friends. They are so sweet and we are grateful to have met them! There's so much I could write about, but it would be a super long blog post and this one is long as it is! So I tried to shrink it down to a short story for ya! Well that's all I've got! Thanks for reading! I love you all!