The Anastasi's: Settling in

We are getting settled into our new apartment and starting to enjoy life here in Vietnam. We decided to stay at Sea View (I posted pics in the previous posts) but moved into a 3 bedroom apartment for more space. It is lovely. We still have amazing ocean views and the location is great! Cory and I love to get out and walk in the evenings to eat dinner, get yogurt or walk the busy streets for nightlife action. Shops don't close here until very late and some stay open 24/7, so if I need to buy some clothes at 3 am then I can! I don't think the Vietnamese sleep much, either that or they sleep during the day when its hot and are up all night drinking beer, having coffee or just hanging out on the boardwalk. Life couldn't be more different here!

Bryson is starting to get used to living here and loves his new nanny, Mrs. Vung. I have recently started to let him stay with her so that I can hit the gym or hang out with the girls and he doesn't seem to mind...actually, he says bye, bye when I leave and sometimes doesn't even want me to hold him when I get home. Mrs. Vung is wonderful and loves being around Bryson (hopefully she likes Cory and I too!). :) She is teaching us Vietnamese, of which Bryson can already say a few words...very impressive! I enjoy having her around not just because she cooks yummy food for us but also for nice company, friendship, and translation when we go out to find stuff. She is great!

We are having to get used to many cultural differences, some of which I will have to tolerate but not change my ways for. For instance, the people can be so nice yet so rude in certain situations. They LOVE to come up to us and ask questions, take pictures and play with Bryson but this all changes if we are trying to check out at the market or a shop. They will cut right in front of me even if I have a full basket of food on one arm and Bryson in the other...just flat out rude! So I have learned to push my way up to the register and make sure they know that I am not backing down (I am bigger than most of these people so its quite easy to make myself known!). Another irritant is how they jack up the prices on items because we are "Westerners" as they call us. An example is when we tried to buy a balloon at the park for Bryson during their holiday (Kinh Do) festivities. We were told by a nice lady who spoke english that she paid 10,000 Dong for one and when we asked the man selling them, he said 50,000 Dong. This is roughly $2.75 USD when it should have been only about $.50. A huge difference as you can see! So we ended up going to another lady selling them and paid 15,000 Dong instead.

Another aspect of living here that I don't think I could ever get used to is how dirty it is. People throw their trash wherever they want even if a trash can is starring them in the face. They pull over their mopeds to use the restroom on the street. Babies don't wear diapers and are trained to pee on command (the "ssss" sound). I have seen this in a restaurant where the baby went to the bathroom under the table and I see it all the time now out in the streets/sidewalks. It is hard to run sometimes when you come across a stinch that will turn your stomach! I have learned where it smells the worst and hold my breath as I run by. :) Bathrooms are not really bathrooms here, just a hole in the ground and a bucket. I took a picture of the restroom at our favorite restaurant, which I will post below. Living here you just have to ignore and be in denial that they probably never wash their hands. The food is great though and have yet to get sick...knock on wood!

One last interesting note...the nanny has informed me that they call the women here who "hunt" for men in the evenings (if you know what I mean) Chicken Girls. They come out at night in teeney-tiny outfits to attract men into bars/restaurants. They especially like the Westerners or Whities as I call ourselves. :) Morals are nonexistant for a lot of people and a stripper or prostitute is just another job in their minds. No big deal. The country also has a major drinking problem, especially with the young people. I have read articles that the government is quite concerned about where the country is headed because of this. Mrs. Vung's daughter has no interest in settling down due to the high instances of cheating. Drinking being a major factor. It's just shocking how different we all are! A funny story about Chicken Girls is when we went into a bar last weekend desperately searching for a bathroom. We had just eaten at our favorite place and were walking around town when we had to go (I blame it on the beer!). We were far from home and had no choice but to find a place and the only places with bathrooms were bars or restaurants. We came across a street with 2 bars next to each other....one called Pussy Cats and the other Honey (you can only imagine right!?!). Sooooo, we decided to see what Pussy Cats was all about. As soon as we opened the door, there were Chicken Girls everywhere in tiny outfits playing pool and gambling....awesome. While Bryson played with the Chicken Girls, Cory and I had a beer (we couldn't just walk in there and not buy a drink) and took turns in the restroom. Surprisingly they had a toilet AND a sink with soap! Amazing. We laughed all the way home about our newest adventure. I would definitely go back for a beer and a potty. ;)

Okay, enough writing and on with the pictures: