O.M.G. FOOD!

Ok, so I'm sitting in my hotel room after shopping at the supermarket down the street, trying to decide what I want to do for dinner when my hotel phone rings. Confused, I answer it. It's one of the other new teachers (from New Zealand). She found her way to my hotel and invited me out to dinner with her husband and a few people he works with. They just got here a week ago. Her husband is an engineer and is working at a plant here in Saigon. He just started work this week. So I go downstairs and we walk to her hotel where we meet up with a few other people. *side note....some hotels will not allow anyone that is not staying at the hotel to go to a room. I wasn't allowed to go upstairs to their room because I'm not staying there. Makes you feel better, knowing they don't allow....sketchy late-night guests around.* After hanging out there for a few mins we go down the street to this amazing restaurant. Dinner, which started out as a few people, turned into 22. My co-worker and her husband are from New Zealand and the other people were from Australia and Germany mainly. It was fascinating eating this huge meal with people from all corners of the globe. I spent a lot of time talking to this Australian guy who was relatively close to my age. He's been here for a month. Most of this group is leaving HCMC this weekend so it kinda stinks that I almost found a cool group of friends but they are only here for a few more days. Anyways, we talked a lot about Vietnam and a lot of the misconceptions that Americans and Australians have about it. We talked politics and government (how much America's system just doesn't make sense) and how communist governments aren't as bad as they're cracked up to be. It was fun talking to these people and seeing how similar we all really are. It was hard not to start talking with an Australian accent, though haha. But his advice was this: grab a cab, go to District 1 this weekend, walk around the markets and streets, and just soak up the people and culture. Oh, so the restaurant we went to was absolutely insane. They stick these huge rods racked with meat on your plate and scrape off a helping for you. The first time I saw it was when he put it on my plate. I was like, "HUH?" So he scrapes off a helping and goes to the next person. They just kept bringing out more meats and more spears full. Attached is a picture. It as incredible! I ate SO much food! I also had some delicious Bailey's and creams for $2.85. The best part? I didn't have to pay for any of it! Three of the guys treated everyone. It was so great to interact with all these different people and really connect. My co-worker seems really awesome and I'm glad we're bonding. Tomorrow she and I are going back to the school to spend some time in our classrooms getting acquainted with them and the school. It will be good. Well, it's time for bed! Night, all!