Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Booze, Boys & an Hour-Long Busride

Tonight after Spaghetti Wednesday, the American coaches and a handful of the Vietnamese coaches hopped on the brown bus and headed to Can Tho to stock up on more Panda cookies and snacks, and of course lots of booze for our pre-Director Thirsty Thursday celebration. We mostly just wanted to get our weekend started since all we do on Fridays is manage the competition.

The bus ride was supposedly only going to be twenty minutes long because we were going to a closer supermarket on the outskirts of Can Tho. Sophia and I chatted it up the whole time. We started out with swapping boy stories. The latest on her dating fiascoes and my brief history of college. Then we realized the ride had already lasted twenty minutes and the sun was long gone. So brought up families, chatting about how amazingly crazy our grandparents all are, how close we are to our parents, and how our siblings both seem to be in very serious/very awesome relationships.

When we saw some shining lights, and what looked like a small town and/or civilization, we brought up partying. I'll leave those details out though :) That information is definitely on a need-to-know basis.

After an hour, I stopped our on again boy conversation and shouted out, "Where the hell are we? This is definitely not a twenty minute ride." All of the city lights had vanished and we were sitting at an intersection with a karaoke bar on one side and a dark field on another. But just a few minutes more, and we arrived at the exact same supermarket we shopped at this past weekend...not on the outskirts of Can Tho but completely in the center of the city.

This supermarket is not Publix or Schnucks. It is a Walmart that meets Kohls-- then they have twin babies together, and those babies are named Tilt and Borders. The first floor has a food court, a grocery store, a meat department, a bag check, and an ice cream shop. The second floor is all clothing with some stuffed animals, while the third floor is reserved for books and an arcade.

My mission was simple: buy snacks, booze, and bug spray for the weekend.

Two bottles of vodka, one wine-spritzer, 24 Tiger beers, a box of crackers, four mixer drinks, a box of cookies, one candy bar, and a yogurt later, I was checking out of the store with a bill of 450,000 dong. Yes, that is only $22.50. We all sat down and had a little bit of ice cream before heading back to Hoa An.

The trip back was filled with yet another flavorful conversation. I am now sitting in a room with my American director, Anna, who is pretty sick, and my other too roomies, Sophia and Morgan, who have been doing nothing but chowing down on snacks with me for the past hour. My laptop is perched on a case of beer, and I'm surrounded by crumbs. #Winning like a fat kid at camp! We didn't have to have a meeting tonight so I've got all the free time in the world! Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.


Linh, Ren, Dat and me during my sick day...no volleyball in the hot sun.


Burning rice pods behind camp.


Captain of my Chubby Ship.


Making s'mores on a coal fire with chopsticks as skewers

And my favorite quote from camp thus far:

Anna: There is so much money in porn.
Lauren: Is that why Vietnam is so poor?

Yes, I went there. Peace, love and sex baby!