Dinner for 80

Oh, the traffic here! It's an oceanic ballet with a full cast. The roads are the currents, directed by the great canyon walls which are the matchbook buildings wedged next to each other. Little tributaries, or alleyways, feed into the deluge. Motorists are the fish; up close they all seems to have their own mission but, from afar, one sees a school of like minded travelers. Just as a school of fish operate, you can work your way towards the middle and use your surrounding friends to shield you from other packs of fish, being nosed by the sharks (cars), or slapped by whales flukes (side swiped by busses). I wobble about on my bicycle, disoriented and slow like the pufferfish, avoiding the speed and shimmer from my faster marine counterparts...

OK, enough with the poetic injustice... The traffic here is effing insane, bottom line. Sorry you all had to read through that sappy analogy.

Slowly but surely I am learning my way around the city. I have become comfortable with enough with direction: "if I cross train tracks I know I'm here", "I'm on the street where they sell ____", etc. The bicycle has been key to take things slowly and learn the "rules" of the road.
And the best part about the traffic is that there's no road rage. Seriously, I've watched drivers swishing between other motorists, going twice as fast as the flow around them, and then slam on their brakes to avoid hitting some other person driving on the wrong side of the street. Not an eye bats, and I'm 200 feet away ready for a brawl.

I received an invitation from my friend/"travel agent" Quynh to join him for the grand opening of his restaurant. It's located in a beautiful three story building. Traditional Viet lacquer paintings of girls and lotus flowers adorn the yellow walls of the multiple dining rooms. There's a buffet setup downstairs and Quynh, looking super smart in his pinstripe suit, hand me a glass of red wine and tells me to dig in. And I do. 4 different kinds of fried spring rolls, salmon and shrimp sashimi, cassava noodle salad, glass chicken feet (delicious, trust me), black pepper beef with cauliflower, steamed snail meat wrapped in dill (eww), char-grilled prawns, curries, unknown fruits, etc. There are images of roses painstakingly etched onto the surfaces of melons, the centerpieces for each table. It was quite the spread and very delicious. It was nice to take a break from the lower end Vietnamese food and eat some fancier local dishes. I made it clear to Quynh that it would be an honor to sneak into his kitchen for a few lessons.

Speaking of lower end food, I've been hanging out around the street stalls quite often. I try to stick to dishes that come out hot and meat that's been cooked to order or at least reheated. This isn't the case everywhere, as I am just recovering from a specific meal that has lost me some sleep. Nothing debilitating! If anything I think it makes me wiser. If it doesn't kill you... It might next time.

So it's been 10 days for me here... I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable with my surroundings; I don't have to get off my bike every intersectiong to figure out where I am. I've been meeting a bunch of people, many locals and westerners. I went to a sports bar last night to watch Manchester United v. Liverpool with about 18 Brits. Rowdy football hooligans! Good fun. Talked about teaching English which seems to be the choice profession here. I've put a few resumes out to teaching centers and a restaurant... no word yet. But that's OK. I've got to get into the swing of feeling like this is somewhat a vacation until I find real work.