Livin' Local

I had a wonderful soup for lunch today. The flavors, shrimp, veggies, and noodles were perfect... but better yet was the location and atmosphere. Restaurants pop up on the corner of streets throughout the day and evening and this "Soup Lady" has a great corner "restaurant"! We sat outside in little plastic chairs, at little metal tables... surrounded by locals. The place was packed.

I guess Soup Lady shops for her ingredients every morning at the market, makes one huge pot of soup and serves it until it runs out. I'm glad we made it before she ran out for the day :) Sitting on this corner, crouched in the little kids' chair, amidst local Vietnamese on lunch break was a pretty cool feeling. AND the soup was delicious :)

THEN when the xe om driver dropped me off, I hopped on my own scooter and...

...I drove myself to and from school!!! Each way took me about 15 minutes... but I bet I can get it down to about 10 or 12... which is great. I am surprisingly pleased that I did not make one wrong turn the entire roundtrip! There were lots of beeps (at me?? I have no idea... I'm really turning local and learning to not flinch or look around at the beeps) and a few close calls BUT I made it. (And really, "close calls" happen often with the xe om drivers too... so I think I did alright.) I arrived back at the apartment just after 5:00pm... so the traffic was significant during my ride, which felt great to show myself that I can do it.

Tomorrow I will drive myself to school! YAHOO!

(I am often reminding myself throughout the drive... focus, this is serious, ...but this rocks! haha)