Thrilling the World

Orientation is over, tomorrow I fly to Viet Nam for real! Can you believe it?! I can't. Orientation has been overall good. Some of the sessions were discouraging, but realistic so it is good to remember. And a lot of other times were great. Especially tonight. Calah and I got to go to the house of a couple who were the MCC Country Representatives for Viet Nam until just last summer. They lived there for 5 years and both of them absolutely LOVED their experience there. We got to see pictures and hear stories. They were really encouraging. There are so many new things to learn! I'm sure at some moments that will be overwhelming, but I am so anxious to just jump in and start learning! With each new bit of information I hear I think of 10 new questions and other things I want to notice and observe. I want to start learning the language, trying the food (I know it will be a challenge to like everything, but I want to try!), understanding family dynamics, finding my way around the city, be able to get around in traffic, learning to exercise with the Vietnamese women, cooking with my host mom, and so many other things! It's going to be great!

If you would like to learn a little Vietnamese with me, here is about the only thing I know so far: Xin Loi (seen loy) = sorry

Calah and I thought it would be important to know 'sorry' right away! And luckily I was given this great book from that has fun games and flash cards and other handy learning tools for really basic words. I'll keep you updated as I learn more :)

Finally, I have a little treat for you! On Wednesday night we had an international performance night, where people could perform traditional things from their country. Obviously this means somebody needed to do a little Michael Jackson :) So, we did. And here it is for you to enjoy. We joked about how it should be our goal to teach one person this dance while on our assignments, you know, just spreading joy. "Thrilling the world" you might say!