Autumng in Hanoi

I explained to you the difficulty Thanh and I had agreeing on the pronunciation of 'khong', the Vietnamese word for 'no'. I sincerely hope Thu can help me resolve this problem, because it's really starting to bug me. My new address is 43A Luong Van Can and when I pronounce the name of my street xe om drivers look at me like I'm a Kalahari bushman. I know it's that 'ng' sound. I had exactly the same difficulty while tracking down an incense (huong) shop today. Every time I said 'huong', I drew blank stares. But when I displayed the written word everybody would say "Ah…huong!" and pronounce the word—to my ears—exactly the same way I just said it. It's maddening. If I had any hair left, I might pull out a few strands in frustration.

I did eventually locate an incense shop. It wasn't on a street full of incense shops and incense makers as I half expected, but it WAS far from any street where you could buy a censer of any description or any kind of iron or brass bowl suitable for burning incense. Vietnamese merchants have a very compartmentalized way of thinking, it seems to me.

Autumn has arrived in Hanoi and I'm grateful. That doesn't mean I'm comfortable (except in rare moments). It doesn't mean my prickly heat rash has cleared up or that I don't turn on the AC the minute I walk in my door. But my shirts now just get damp instead of sopping wet during the day and sweat no longer drips off my nose onto the menu when I stop off for a bite. My former student Huyen—I interviewed her for one of my CELTA assignments—has been emailing me since the course ended and she describes the Hanoi autumn very poetically: she says the autumn shine is honey colored and the wind is cool as fresh beer. Not bad, huh? She closed that email by saying "Now my eyes are calling me to go to bed."

My eyes are giving me a bit of a shout out right now, so I'll close this with a list of some of the items available from the menu at Café Nhan:

Snack……………………….......…10.000VND
Fast food frozen food…………20.000VND
Sand wishes with fish
Humburgers with beef cake
Sour meat soap
Rousted chicken
Violet blutinous rice

And on the drink menu:
Yoghurt vitamin coffee
Maragitta
Grasoper
Tequila Sun Rice

Whoops! The power just went out in my apartment. Except for the glow from my battery-powered laptop, everything is pitch-black. Do I have a flashlight, candles, or a cigarette lighter? No, no, and no. I think it's time I went to bed.