I Now Live in a Romeo and Juliet House on Turmeric Rice Cake Alley

As we enter the door, Katherine, Tarn and I share the instant feeling that we have found our home: above the kitchen is a rounded balcony with a pink curtain. Juliet should be on it, or Rapunzel...or someone singing Karaoke.

Isn't that the way it should be, when you just know? I haven't written too much about our search for a place to live, but it has been filled with disappointment and despair. We are down to the wire, school starts Wednesday and suddenly, we see the balcony with the pink curtain.

The curtain hides a little "room." This will be your guest room if you come to visit. But be aware, Tarn can't keep away from the balcony. As we explore the house, we keep saying, where is Tarn? And he is always standing in front of the pink curtain.

It's a five story colonial style house...so many houses here are built straight up, in narrow Lego stacks. The bottom floor holds a kitchen and a bathroom, floor two holds only the pink balcony, floor three houses two bedrooms, a bathroom and a long outdoor balcony, floor four houses my room, a bathroom and an outside deck. To get to floor five you must climb a ladder, but floor five is the best: it's a rooftop deck with a bar table.

I feel the same as I did when my sister, dad and I were buying the '66 Mustang in 1981: I know I'm supposed to contain my excitement, but can't. We make an arrangement to sign a contract for the following night (tonight) and both Katherine and Tarn confess to me today that they have secret desires to be DJ's, and they see the house as a good vehicle for practice in party hosting. I tell them that one will be assigned to DJ on the Pink Balcony and one will get to DJ on the roof. I hope we have enough people coming to our parties for both of them to get work. I couldn't ask for two better roommates; I mean, I didn't even want roommates and I couldn't be happier with these two. They are so laid back and fun.

Tonight we go early to check out our neighborhood a bit before signing, and it's just as cool as we thought: it's off the main road at the end of a long alley -- the neighborhood is probably about five long alleys with many winding twists and turns. Our street hosts a salon called "Bum Bum Salon" as well as many seamstress shops. We see on the map that a market is nearby.

So we are wandering through the narrow alleyways with all of these tall colonial stacked houses and suddenly I have to suck in my breath-- before me, just sitting there in an alley one block from my new home, is a woman cooking turmeric rice cakes in a cast iron pan with twelve slots. I hit Katherine. "SHE'S MAKING TURMERIC RICE CAKES!" Tarn and Katherine have no idea what I'm talking about. Turmeric rice cakes are the best item on the menu at the Tamarind Tree, in my opinion. Sometimes I order a plate all to myself. The cakes come with a shrimp on top, then you wrap them up in lettuce leaves with basil and cilantro, pour sauce on top and stick the whole thing into your mouth, dealing with so many flavors at once.

"HOW do you know about these?" Katherine is incredulous, and I feel so proud, like the Olympic athlete of Vietnamese food. I feel I've been training all of these years for this one moment in this one alley in Ho Chi Minh City. We order two cakes each and they cost $1,000 Dong a piece, or six cents. The woman is happy to sell us her cakes and she fills our to-go bag with lettuce, basil, cilantro and sauce. We take them to a nearby outdoor restaurant and eat them as appetizers before a meal that costs us 90 cents. The whole meal is delicious, but the rice cakes are amazing.

We meet our real estate person, Linh, and the owners of the house at seven. Both of them ride motorbikes to meet us and park them in the front room. The couple doesn't speak any English, but their two children are being educated in the States. Going over the contract takes two hours with lots of interpretation. The house is furnished, but not all the way, so the couple will go shopping for one more bed, one more water heater, etc, and we can move in tomorrow night.

It's a ten month contract. It's in a very very cool neighborhood about a ten minute taxi ride from school. And a woman makes turmeric rice cakes in my alley for six cents a piece. I just feel so happy...

Oh, and here are some names on my sixth grade roster: Lucky, Mickey, Pink and Mirror. One seventh grader is named Fire. A note of concern: Cynthia is in the hospital with very swollen legs and feet. They are keeping her there for three days for tests. She will not get to see her first graders on the first day.

I'm wondering: who will be my first guest in the Romeo and Juliet guest room? Thespian friends, how can you NOT come to Vietnam now? Just FYI, be ready to recite a monologue!

Bahn Xeo Street

You know how I like streets with food themes...remember Stir Fry Street and Noodle Alley in Shaoxing, China ?

Well, Tarn and I decide to wander from school on our way to meet Kathryn (she teaches at the elementary school across town) and see another rental (did I mention that the security guards live at their schools here, so they are always available to let us in?--they sleep on the floor and shower in the gym) and we find a Bahn Xeo Street. Bahn Xeo are Vietnamese crepes made with an egg, rice flour and coconut milk batter and they are stuffed with bean sprouts, shrimp and pork...my mom loves them at the Tamarind Tree. I have barely seen Bahn Xeo here and suddenly, this street is lined with cast iron little stove pots with fires underneath, usually about six or seven of them next to a huge pot of grease.

Bahn Xeo Street also has quite a selection of vegetarian stands, and since Tarn is vegetarian, we find one stand with five teenage girls presiding over about thirty dishes. They are all laughing because they are unaccustomed to tourists here, and they find our wonder at the array amusing. Finally, I pantomime a kind of, "Tell me what is good" and they take a plate of rice and heap it full of their favorite items, giggling as they work. We sit at a table and they bring us a coconut milk drink, soup and bananas. For two huge vegetarian feasts we pay a total of $1.80. We know we are staying in the tourist area, because we sure don't eat that cheaply around our hotel, and the people aren't nearly as friendly.

We also wander into a temple. We see a huge bellied Buddha in one room and many people dressed in green-grey robes lighting incense and praying. This is only the big room...there are so many little side rooms and a place where people sit at long tables eating noodles. We look at a staircase but we are a little shy about tresspassing; then a petite toothless woman approaches and very gracefully invites us to take our shoes off and go upstairs. There we find even more rooms filled with pictures of ancestors (I guess) or Bodhisattvas...I need to read more about what we saw. In one of the larger rooms a Hindu looking figure presides and mostly women kneel at tables with little prayer books. Some are lighting incense and some are bowing. But some are smoking and some are text messaging, too. I'm fascinated by the variety of activities going on and want to understand it more. I keep reminding myself that some of that will come in time- after all, I do have ten whole months to figure it out.

Here is a picture of my classroom and the view from my classroom window. Not bad, huh? Lots of people email and ask how I have the time to blog every day...well, I love to do it, of course. And I have to choose from so many things to write about. Like now, I left out ten other cool things in favor of the temple and bahn xeo. But I suppose we'll see how this week goes as to whether I will find the time to write every day. The countdown is on...hopefully I will write very soon about the very cool place we will live...

Which lizard would you choose?

You see all of these little wading pools? Critters are playing in them--they just play and play and play until you choose them out of the pool and eat them for dinner. See the pool in the lower right hand corner? It's filled with clams that are twice the size of my hand.



This is the typical Vietnamese restaurant I'm invited to last night with Alice Audrey Hepburn, her parents and some of their friends- they work at the other international school (last post I said there were two schools, well, there are actually three).



So, yeah, it's a bit different than the Tamarind Tree. Simon, Alice's step-father, orders for all of us: a platter of tamarind prawns, lemongrass clams (twice in one week for me), tamarind crab, grilled eggplant, and tofu. He does not recommend the lizard, but their friend Garreth is set on it. Garreth puts a lizard tail? lizard arm? lizard leg? on my plate and I taste it...it tastes like chicken. But you knew I would say that, right? I have no need to eat any more lizard that tastes like chicken. Look over to the right...which lizard would you choose?

After dinner we go to their house and make music~meaning that Simon plays the guitar and everyone else gets a drum. Alice sings and - #1 Fan, Sbill, I'm telling you, she can sing. Wish you had been there, too.

What happens in Saigon...

Saigon is a mysterious place of intrigue. The ex-pat community is full of characters and I already know that the relationship between Vietnamese and foreigners is filled with book-quality material.

Alice-the drama teacher and international beauty- and I have decided to become detectives on these issues and we are gathering information from many sources. I will refer to her here as Audrey Hepburn because she is sophistication epitomized. Every day she comes dressed in flowing dresses and scarves and high heels with make-up and jewelry to match. Remember, she is the one who has been involved in experimental theater in New York City for ten years. She calls me "Hunny Bunny." She's Audrey Hepburn, down-to-earth, and fun.

Last night we have a "mandatory" dinner to attend and the event offers many pieces to our growing puzzle...the mysterious "M's" - a couple who has invested heavily in the school, are sponsoring the evening. The restaurant is huge-- it has eight food stations: a raw food bar for outside barbecue, a hand cut noodle bar, a snail bar...etc. Enormous restaurant. All of us, old teachers and new, office staff and administration, sit in long rows with hot pots on tables and clowns up front wrapping kids in toilet paper to circus music. Seeing everyone together is amazing, we're all dressed up and happy to be a part of it all, anticipating the year, eating at the stations for hours. But it's strange- The M's never show. They pay for all of it and we don't get to meet them.

Ater dinner a few returning teachers take us to a bar in District One that is popular with ex-pats. A Filipino guy named Jerome plays guitar and sings for three hours; he's fantastic. At one point, Alice cannot control herself and gets up in all of her drama glory and begins a middle eastern dance to his acoustic version of Nirvana's "Come as You Are." Every single eye (especially the men's eyes) are on her. If Rita had been there, she would have had to join Alice on the floor; and that is what happens. A "Rita" of Indian descent, also beautiful, enters the dance and the two of them create a the most exotic spontaneous show together. The crowded bar is speechless. When the song is over, I see them laughing and talking, then Alice comes over to us. "You won't believe this! (Her accent is a mix of French and British and Thai and Spanish- she speaks all of them fluently), "Charmaine is the drama teacher at the British School!" So that is how the only two international drama teachers in Saigon, a city of nine million people, came to be friends and exchange cell phone numbers.

As for the gossip and intrigue, well, for now it will stay in Saigon. But just know that I am working on it. I will leave you with a picture of Cynthia, many readers' favorite, and will tell you some of the names she has on her first grade roster: Rufus, Spiderman, Simba and Little Bean. Yes, you read that right! "I just can't wait for them to come!" she tells me last night.

Today's Happy Discovery: Cross-Cultural Napping

I have little idea what I'm going to teach, I don't have any books to teach from, I have not seen class lists, entire floors are still under construction, I haven't found a place to live and our meetings are long and meandering. But I am having so much fun. And my air conditioner works.

I really, really, like these people and this school. It is an amazing collection of highly educated, compassionate, interesting people, and every lunch break or after-school event brings another good story. Like anywhere, there are a few negative ninnies. One says she's going to have a party and tell us about "all of the corruption at AIS." But most of us have a very different attitude: we knew it would be chaos when we signed and we're just along for the ride. We've talked about having another party "The Office" style...if you are familiar with that episode, you know that means we are going to hold a different party at the exact same time and enthusiastically compete for attendance.

A few facts about the operation of the school: three security guards are stationed on each floor and the floors are not big... maybe five or six classrooms each. Each bathroom on each floor has a full-time attendant. After lunch I hit a foot when I open the door because my attendant is sprawled on the floor taking a nap. I like the way they take charge of their napping. I used to nap in the bathroom at Seattle Central between work and school until Jaci had a big fit about it, but now I hope she can see that I was practicing cross-cultural understanding for my future.

Yeah, so the school isn't finished...I'm trying to upload pictures of an unfinished floor and my classroom, but the blog won't allow them...the picture of the construction zone is great because two men are napping in it. Oh, and it's funny- every time I leave my room, security locks my door, and since I don't have a key, this gets a little bit tiresome. But they are so nice and smile so much there is absolutely no way you can get annoyed with them.

Tonight Katherine, Tarn and I have beer, lemongrass clams and fried squid with onions out on the sidewalk sitting at one of the ubiquitous plastic tables with tiny plastic chairs. The three of us began looking for three single apartments, but now we are looking for a house with three bedrooms. I guess it makes sense, doesn't it? The houses here are built straight up, so we should each have an entire floor to ourselves and share a kitchen and a "lounge" area. We feel we are getting closer to what we want, but finding a place is a tough thing to do in this city. The picture to the right is looking out a window of a potential apartment from earlier today. I just love all of the colors. So often, Vietnam reminds me of Mexico.

Well, back to dinner at the plastic table and chairs: Right in front of us near the road and just inches from the army of motorbikes, a girl is sauteeing chicken feet and whole fish on a grill over hot coals for the restaurant inside. The clam broth is so delicious, I eat what's left like soup. The whole meal costs about $8, including beer. Tarn, having spent the last year in China, agrees with me that Vietnam seems very expensive compared with China.

Tonight he tells a story about walking around Tiananmen square with an Olympic ribbon tied around his mouth during the opening ceremonies. Nothing happened, to his disappointment, except for some confused staring. I wasn't clear what he was demonstrating against...but Tarn is such a low key New Zealander, I find the image to be quite amusing, and his story reminds me of an article written by Nicholas Kristof- op ed columnist for the NYTimes- about applying for a permit to demonstrate during the Olympics. He goes through the application procedures and finds that no one actually gets the permit, but he says at least it is a step in the right direction. Here's the article by Kristof if you're interested: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/17/opinion/edkristof.php.

Since I return to the hotel so "early" I decide to walk next door and get a $10 full-body one hour massage (great but no cousin Lisa or Tari). I'm surprised I don't see Cynthia there.

So, now a word for my #1 fan: Ahem, I think my brother is trying to edge you out. I realize you are in school full-time and have two kids and that you just moved, but I hate to see you lose your spot. My brother is pretty quick.

The Tapeworm is Tired of Baguettes

Food. Finally.

Katherine and I go apartment hunting again after school, and we are taken to District 3 by people at Nicehouse.com "Real Estate Services for Foreigner." We like the place, but we like the two-hour walk back to our hotel even better.

District 3's got what I have been waiting to find: winding alleyways filled with interesting food and markets without a tourist in sight. The people in these back streets are friendly and welcoming (making it so difficult to pass up any of their food)and therefore Katherine gets a taste of what it's like to be with me on full stomach drive (perhaps my surroundings make me forget the stomach churn). I like her even more now because she just rolls with it and wants to taste everything with me. She's totally unfamiliar with Vietnamese food, so that is fun, too. The woman in the picture is making Bot Chien. At first we think it's fried potato and eggs with green onion, but it isn't quite potato-y in texture. We have no idea what it is, but some girls spell it for us and we Google it when we return: it's fried rice flour cake, and it is delicious. Here is it in serving form topped with shaved green papaya and served with soya bean sauce:

We sit at a little plastic table with little plastic chairs for about twenty minutes...this woman is very popular with the after school teenage crowd and she takes her time with her art. I wash my bot chien down with something called "Bird's Nest White Fungus-Nature's Drink." Very tasty. After the bon chien we find this cart with humbao, Vietnamese style filled with minced pork and a hard boiled duck egg. Brian, do you think my tapeworm and I could pass this opportunity to make you happy? No way. I am very grateful to my tapeworm for allowing me this opportunity.

Hopefully I will tell you about my new home and school details within the next few days...

Michelle, Cecilie, "Sweetie" and TW

I just watched Michelle Obama's speech on YouTube...how cool is that, and how cool is she? She should be VP. Now I am trying to streamline Marty and Jody's morning show on 103.7. How cool is that (if I can figure out how to do it), and how cool are they? I'm so close to the world, here in my little Lan Lan hotel room in Saigon.

Everyone went across the street to eat green papaya salad, but I have only graduated to scrambled eggs in the baguette. My stomach turns a full rotation every hour or so, but I am not sick. I think I just have a very long tapeworm living inside of me. Soon perhaps I will hold a "Name Marjie's Tapeworm Contest." So instead of eating, I decide to wander through District One by myself.

Here is what my Eyewitness Travel book says about about the center of district one..."Arguably the liveliest part of the city, Dong Khoi does justice to the city's old nickname, "Paris of the Orient." This street became famous during the French era, and is home to elegant hotels and boutiques. The communist regime shut down most of these establishments, but Vietnam's economic liberalization in the mid 80's revived the area. Evidently, it is the center of action in Graham Greene's The Quiet American. As I walk, I just think about all of the stories this part of town could tell.


The Opera House, City Hall (pictured) the Municipal Theater and the General Post Office are all beautiful colonial buildings. But what is absolutely breathtaking is the Notre Dame Cathedral, sitting in the midst of everything. It was built in the 19th century of locally quarried stone and the red ceramic tiles were imported from France. The Virgin Mary was added in 1950.


I have to cheat and find these pictures on Google because I can't capture any of it at night. Standing in front of the Virgin tonight are about fifteen people holding books and candles, reciting a very very long prayer, followed by raised hands and singing. It's a very beautiful sight...they are surrounded by sunflowers and candles. I do have to say, though~ what they're doing does not seem very Catholic at all. But I suppose it must be.


After walking down Dong Khai, I decide to get completely lost. I have the name of the hotel in my purse and figure if it comes down to it I can just show the address to a taxi driver. What a magical place asia is at night... at least what I have seen of asia. Like in China, everyone takes advantage of the cool evenings. People are ballroom dancing on rooftops, so I can just see heads bobbing up and down, flowing gracefully together. Kids are practicing both karate and Tai Chi if they aren't text messaging while lounging against their scooters. Adults play badminton on the sidewalks.


Speaking of scooters, imagine this: You want to cross the street, but the army swarm of scooters does not stop. You scout the horizon for a break, but there really isn't one. So you just step out into the street. And you walk. And the scooters move around you, filling in the spaces between. Walking here is all about faith in the movement of people. No one gets angry...I haven't seen one bit of road rage...they just move into the open spaces. And they honk to let you know they are there. According to one of the school's Saigon experts, motorbikes stop and move for you, cars do not. Fortunately, a car did stop for me tonight when I got myself into a bit of a tight spot while practicing my walking faith. I must practice more. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to hire one of these motorbike taxis. They give you a helmet and you just get on the back. Lots of people from school do it, but I just don't know. I would have to close my eyes the entire time.


Returning to my hotel, I pass the Reunification Building. Tu did not point out many landmarks on our way from the airport, but she seemed very proud of this one. During the 19th c

entury, this was the palace of the French governor general. Later, it was occupied by Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam's president. In 1962, most of the building was destroyed by his own airforce in a failed assassination attempt. It was rebuilt soon after, but Diem was killed before he could move in, and the succeeding president fled from the rooftop in a chopper before North Vietnamese troops took over Saigon. in 1975, the South surrendered to the North, and the palace gates were knocked down by a N. Vietnamese army tank. The photograph of this event has become symbolic of the reunification of Vietnam. Everyone here talks about reunification.


OK, here's Cecilie's part: right after leaving my friends at the restaurant, feeling a little sad about my stomach, etc, I find a shop with beautiful silk clothing. I have heard that you can have clothes made very cheaply, but I don't know how that works yet (of course). So I'm just looking at all of these exquisite clothes that are very small and a cute young shopkeeper follows me, smiling.

Finally, I pantomime that I am a giant and cannot wear any of them. "Oh!" she says. "We will measure you and make your size!" Her English is perfect. We talk for quite a while and I find that she moved to the city from a rural town to learn English. Her Vietnamese name...well, I try to pronounce it but cannot. After three attempts, she says, "In English, it means 'Sweetie.' You can call me 'Sweetie.'" Now, calling someone "Honey," "Hun" or "Sweetie" does not come naturally to me. Casey and I agreed that there is a waitress at Mama's Mexican Kitchen who can call other women that (the same conclusion that Julie, Jessica and I came to years earlier about the same waitress). And perhaps someone who rides a Harely could as well. But I will call her 'Sweetie' and feel really weird doing it. I am going back tomorrow and I'm going to have a dress and a sweater made. I think they will cost about $40 and $80 respectively, but I will have to check on that. Sweetie, like all Vietnamese people I have met so far, are so eager to befriend Americans. The support staff at work today, the builders, people on the street...they are all looking and waiting for a smile and friendliness. When they get it, they give it back times one hundred.


Anyway, back to Cecilie. I want you here as my shopping partner. After the silk shop I find a shopping center with every top label you can imagine inside at very low prices. I really need an expert to help me! And I am just laughing that shopping has trumped eating for me so far. Are you all thinking of names for my Tapeworm?