Whaaa?

Since there are many “whaaa?” moments in the first couple weeks living in a new country, I thought I would take a minute to describe some of my recent favorites.

Drinks

Coming from a girl who likes ice in her (skim) milk, having ice in my beer is like a dream come true.  Ordering beer in America is like a race between money, toxicity and temperature.  Personally, I don’t favor chugging beer because I like the taste, I don’t like spending tons of cash on booze, and I don’t want to get drunk too quickly.  Here, all of these things are solved with ice.  Not to mention, Tiger (Singapore) and Heineken (Netherlands) are the main beers served and they are a mere 14,000 and 19,000 dong respectively (.60 and .90 cents - Helloooo running schedule that I've been meaning to make happen.) 

Bird's Nest - It wasn't until after I drank a full delicious can of this mystery drink that I googled its ingredients.  Bird saliva.  

Smoothie Heaven - The smoothie stands here are aplenty and they're allll natural.  A mango smoothie is made with a whole real mango.  No preservatives about this delicious operation.  

Movies

Andy eating popcorn!

My fellow English teacher, Andy, and I went to the movies last night.  It is on the top floor of the Big C (kind of like Costco but with lots of guards everywhere).  Since it was a Friday night, we weren’t surprised to see every teen in Da Nang present.  While enjoying some coffee cheese cake and beer (which we continued enjoying throughout the movie), Andy clued me in on something I was already starting to pick up on.  Going to the movies is a mega deal in Vietnam.  Imagine you’re about to go to Disneyland - that’s how these teens feel about the movie theater.  They’ll take pictures in front of the cardboard displays, while ordering popcorn, and standing in line to get their tickets ripped.  They’ll even video their entrance into the theater.  How cool is that!?  It made a very ordinary night suddenly seem like a big event.  Walking into the theater, there were several English-speaking attendants ready to show us to our pre-reserved seat (which was ultra-padded btw) and the movie?  In English with Vietnamese subtitles.  Keeping in mind how much it cost every time Chris and I would see a movie in the states, I was floored to realize this very big event cost $3.50 a ticket. 

Skin Products

Now, as far as skin tones go, I’m on the translucent side of the spectrum, and this is quite favored in this neck of the woods, so deciding on shower and lotion products was a fun challenge today.  The bottles which displayed any English typically read “Ultra white” or “Pearl whitening beauty” or “Naturally lighten your skin.”  I don’t think I can get much whiter, and who knows what ingredients are helping these gals achieve their target tone, so I had to be very careful about what lotions and soaps I chose.  The pinnacle of the shopping trip?  Miming sunscreen and not lightening cream to a very helpful shop attendant.  Might have been my best charades round yet.