here, there, everywhere

A rare non-sunny day in Hanoi; was woken up at six by the sound of rain pounding on the windows and - as always happens when it rains hard - the drains in my bathroom bubbling ominously (whenever it floods, the bathroom fills up with mud despite the fact that I live on the second floor). At any rate, there was no mud this morning, so the rain couldn't have been that bad, and I'm at Cafe Smile theoretically preparing for classes but really just playing on the internet. Work this week has been busier than usual - I have three classes every day, which is the most packed my schedule's ever been, but I love my students, even the bad teenagers (who stopped drawing penises on everything). My classes are mostly adults of all levels, though I have two teenage classes (yesterday we sang a Hilary Duff song SIX TIMES; no one warned me teaching could be so harrowing. Also, do you know how hard it is to invent follow-up questions about the deeply concealed meaning of her lyrics?) and one classes of tiny, ridiculously cute kids who speak extremely limited English, which means we play a lot of Simon Says, and color a lot, and then I bribe them with candy to take their midterm.

At any rate, a few more photos of Mai Chau: aside from the drive itself, the town of Mai Chau was probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I lost a sandal swimming in the river and my helmet was stolen off my bike, but it was the most fun I'd had in a long time and these pictures in no way do it justice.