Differences...

It feels great to be able to buy groceries and eat in! ...Just finding crackers and cheddar cheese at the supermarket felt like a small success. Many natives eat out for most of their meals. Pho, rice, meats, and other Vietnamese foods are sold everywhere on the street.

One of the front desk girls at the hotel that I became 'friends' with, Jennifer, tried to get me to move into her building... Although the apartment is only $200 or $300 a month she thought, it is just a room - no bathroom or kitchen. I told her that I really wanted my own bathroom and kitchen in an apartment... but she said that there's no need for a kitchen because they just eat out!

The supermarket is an experience. It's very crowded and people cut in front of one another in line all over the place - especially me since I'm obviously a foreigner!

Thank goodness Louise (elementary librarian) told me a bit about the procedure to buy produce yesterday. You get what you want and put it in a bag (like in the U.S)... then you take it to a person weighing and pricing it... but there is a huge crowd around. You add it to the basket of all the other peoples' produce, the person finally gets to yours... weighs it, puts a price sticker on it, closes the bag, and then drops it into a basket on the other side of him/her... at that point, you race over and grab what is yours! HA!

Grapes were about $5.00 yesterday... that's pretty steep. I ended up just getting a dragon fruit... we had some on the plane on the way here and I liked it. I'm reading up on it now... low in calories, high in fiber, Vitamin C, antioxidants, calcium, etc... and it's a type of cactus! Anyway...

Louise told me that I'd definitely be able to find hangers for my clothing at the CoOp... the big supermarket near my place ...where I was buying the groceries. Well, I didn't see any... I couldn't find any kind of home things. Then I realized that all of that stuff is upstairs. Well, you cannot take bags upstairs... so home I went with the groceries last night... and then back again for non-food items.

You cannot take a purse into the grocery store either... you check it at the front, get a key with the locker number on it, and then pick it up when you leave. I have started just carrying a tiny coin purse that fits in my pocket. (AND is less easy to grab when driving by on a motorbike!!)

When upstairs and trying to find what I needed, some products have English on the label as well as Vietnamese, but most don't. (The milk didn't... I think I ended up with whole milk instead of skim!) I thought I bought a big bottle of body lotion but it turned out to be another shower gel... so I think I have enough shower gel to last me the 2 years now! ...I went back this morning for body lotion and all of it is "Body Whitening"... the Vietnamese do not want their skin to tan. Many will consciously stay in the shade, wear long sleeves and pants, or hold a magazine in front of their face when walking... so the lotion apparently helps make their skin whiter! I don't think I need that, however... so I finally found ONE bottle of Nivea body lotion that didn't have the whitening part on the label... it'll work.

I was able to find a lot of what I needed (hangers, toothpaste, dish soap, paper towels, etc. etc.) upstairs at the CoOp... and my total was over 1 million dong! Oh my!

...It is really only about $60 haha. This was the first time I've used my debit card since being here... so began another 'experience'! The girl told me to take a small receipt with the total that she gave me downstairs to "Service Costumer". There, I had to fight my way to the front of the crowd... the girl took my card, printed off some kind of other receipt, had me sign it, gave me a copy, and told me to head back upstairs. Back with the original cashier, I gave her the new receipt, she asked for my card again, charged it, and then gave me... a receipt! Finally, I was able to take my things and head home.

My time in the electronics store was similar. I bought an external hardrive as well as a cell phone... but I could not buy them both at the same time. The man selling the hardrives gave me a form to bring to the cashier across the store, I paid her, she gave me a receipt back, which I took back to the hardrive guy... and then he gave me the hardrive.

...On to the cell phone lady... she gave me the form, I went to another cashier, paid, got the receipt, and then got the cell phone... so funny to me!

Louise told me that everyone here has a 'job' and they do only their 'job'. There is a very definite system of hierarchy among workers. She said that in school, there are the security guards (they wear tan uniforms), the maintenance workers (they wear blue), the office workers, etc. etc. (I may have the colors mixed up, but you get the point.) And she said that when we try to do something that is someone's 'job'... it is like we are telling them that they are not doing their job well. For instance, a parent came into her library one day last year and was then going up to see a teacher. Louise was going to take them upstairs... but was told that her assistant would do that.

I found this a bit today at school when I asked Phuong if I could make a copy of my passport and Visa page for my landlord. She said that it was not a problem and she could "help me". So I started walking towards the door with my passport... she told me that no, she would take it and bring it back to me. I guess that was her 'job' and not mine. I'm glad that she understands that things are different here for me and sometimes she needs to explain them.

Another surprise came at the bank today when I was trying to exchange some money. I wanted to exchange $300 for dong... but only ended up being able to exchange $140. James (the new literacy teacher at the elementary school who moved from Parker, CO) told me that he had to go to 4 different banks back in the U.S. to get crisp, new $100 bills. He asked if I had had trouble too... I didn't know what he was talking about.

He then explained that many places will only exchange / accept bills that are in new condition. And if they do take a bill that is not 'nice', you may not get as much as it is worth. ...I had no idea!

For those of you that know me well, you know that I read a users manual from front to back for anything I buy (a stereo, a new phone, an iPod, etc. etc.) before even turning the device on... I have read all of the packets and things that the HR lady at school has sent me, page for page, and never read about the money deal. ...Nor did I see anything about it in my travel guides!

Anyway - it's not really a big deal. I can go to an ATM every now and then and just save my 'yucky' bills for when I go back to the U.S. but... it's another instance in which I'm caught by surprise.  :P  And they really inspected each bill at the bank... one little tear and it's no good!

It's interesting to be learning these things each day...