House Hunting

Today we went and saw three houses for rent. Let's just say this: we are going to have to redefine our notions of privacy and space. All three of the places had living rooms that literally opened right out onto the sidewalk and the street, which is not at all uncommon in Vietnam. One was a quite small one-story 2 bedroom apartment on a busy side street but just down a ways from a great park with a small ferris wheel, etc. though it was on a very busy street and right next to a store and an Internet cafe. The other 2 places were tall narrow houses, 4 stories high, with room after hot room on top of each other, but again, they both opened right out onto the very busy streets (motorcycles zooming and beeping every which way, people sitting right out front selling sugar cane slushes, etc.) So we are feeling a bit discouraged. Tomorrow we have another appointment to see a house about which we know nothing. We're actually thinking that faculty housing at Can Tho U might not be such a bad option, though we simply have to have air conditioning in the bedrooms at least. It is extremely hot and humid here.

The other big development is we both have cell phones (of course, in the States we were very uninterested in having them). Here, it seems all the people Mark has to deal with just couldn't fathom that we didn't have them, and so we caved to the peer pressure. Also, it seems that when people say that they want to meet you at--let's say--10:30, they might not show up until 11:00, so a cell phone buys you some freedom of movement while you wait for people. Mine is sparkly blue and I have no idea how to use it yet. That's tonight's project. Mark's got his up and running and it's our main link to house hunting.

That's it for now. It's happy hour.