Another Eventful Morning

I am always amazed by the amount of things that can happen before 9am. Somedays at 9 I feel like I'm barely awake, other days it's like I've already run a marathon. Today was one of the marathon running days!

I got up earlyish to talk to my fabulous Kansas City friend. Our Skype date was set for 7:30. I didn't actually get out of bed until 7:15 and was pleasantly surprised at my ability to move extra speedy this morning: get dressed and ready, eat breakfast, have my things ready to go for class and have my computer set up by 7:30. The internet stuck around long enough for me to verify the time we had agreed on, then it was gone. The little internet box only had three of the five flashing lights necessary, not good. I tried the few tricks I know that might fix it--essentially just restarting it and waiting for various periods of time. Nothing. Still only three lights. I was starting to get so sad! How am I going live vicariously through my friends and their post-college, English-speaking, equally as strange but in a very different way, American lives if my internet won't even work? And on top of that, I was ready for Vietnamese class almost an hour earlier than necessary. What to do...

Thats when I had a brillant idea! There are about 10million internet cafes in Hanoi, three within walking distance of my house. I would go there and if it was too late to Skype, I could at least send a message explaining my absence. So I rush out of the house, grab my bicycle and ride down the block. I stop at Trung Yen Cafe because it's one of my favs. Not the cleanest, but good, cheap coffee and internet I've used before. First I try sitting outside, no wireless connection. So I move inside, still nothing. I ask the server if he knows why I can't get it (ask being a very relative term, a few Vietnamese words and some pointing to convey my confusion is more like it). He rushes up the stairs to see if he can find out. He and I then began a 30-minute journey of trying to solve the missing internet conundrum. His iPhone (yes, his iPhone) says there is internet, but it can't seem to reach my computer. He tried some things on the computer, nothing. Then he takes my laptop and starts wandering around the cafe, searching for service like in the "Can you hear me now" commercials. At this point it is almost time for me to go to class, so I pay my 12,000 VND bill (about $.67) and pack up my things. But just then, he gets a ethernet cord and plugs my computer in. Even this takes a few attempts, but finally, success! I quickly send off my email and leave. Not so quickly that I didn't see the rat running across in front of me though...

I arrived at Vietnamese a few minutes early to find Calah sitting at the cafe across the street. Before it was even 8:30 I sat down at my 2nd cafe of the day. At this point I was more entertained than anything at the course my morning had taken. Seriously, it was a marathon of a morning.