It tasted like steak.

It really, really did. Dog, that is. Yep, you read that correctly. Today, a few of us experienced dog for the first time; an experience which was quite shockingly not shocking. We had met another American who was teaching at our middle school who joined us for today's activities, and he was intent on us being able to try dog. When he brought it over, it honestly looked disgusting. There were weird flecks of things on it and rosemary shaped herbs which looked almost like hairs, so, basically, the entire image was just a bit gnarly. However, early this morning, while face-timing my family, my father instructed me to live to the most of my experiences. Well, tada! I ate dog. I'm sorry Otter, I really do love you! I swear!

Alright. Now that the majority of you are either incredibly disgusted, judging me through disturbed lenses, or are just perplexed by the last tid-bit, we shall just move forward, by going backwards and starting from the beginning!

This morning came way too early, as many of you may have seen by my early blog post. 4:30 sucks. The rest of the day was extremely busy to follow, of course. We started out the morning after a breakfast of cheese and sausage sandwiches in a panini form. A little out there, sure, but it worked. After breakfast, her uncle drove us to school. One thing about Vietnam that I will never wrap my head around is the concept of driving and mopeds. The idea of traffic laws appear to be mere suggestions here. I have plenty of video to help place a visual for you all at a later date. Anyways, to give you a better sense of it, motorcycles weave in and out of each other (hundreds at a time sometimes) amongst cars, trucks, bicycles, and people on foot. To cross the road, one simply throws themselves into traffic under the rule that bicycles and motorcycles/mopeds will move around you, but you need to adjust your speed for cars. Once you leave the curb, you need to just keep moving, because stopping could cause an outright accident. It really isn't terrible, and you can get used to it, but the first few tries are literally terrifying. My little host buddy (13) throws herself into traffic all the time with not a care or second thought. It's mind boggling, but like I said, you get used to it... kind of.

Back to the motorcycles and mopeds. It's insane. People carry their entire four person family, entire shipments of things to stores, small children or babies, or even gallon tanks with gold fish on their mopeds, often on their laps. Women can even ride side-saddle without holding on to their driver. Awesomely insane. We met another American at the school today who has moved here to teach English at the school we were volunteering in, and he confirmed my theories that Americans would not be able to handle the moped madness; he had an extremely bad crash and broke his leg about three months ago. But thats another story.

Once we were at school, we departed on a bus to the other side of Hanoi where we visited a pottery village. There, almost all the residents of this village have the artisan craft of ceramics and pottery as their profession. I have never seen such an incredible amount of ceramics and pottery in one location ever, and I doubt I will ever see that much again. We were given the opportunity to make our own bowls, and then toured a pottery shop which creates, paints and glazes pigs, Pokemon, and angry birds piggy banks. We ended up wandering around the village and saw pagodas, a religious festival and a bajillion pottery shops. The intricate details that the Vietnamese put into their pottery (even the simple designs) are amazing. Love, love, love. Again, a moment where I wish I had photos. Soon, I promise! The end of the pottery village was the site of the dog meat consumption... yeah.

After the pottery village we met up with the father of one of my residents at Carroll, Duc. HIs father invited all the Carroll students and our advisors out for lunch to a restaurant which featured food from the middle area of Hanoi. When we arrived we had no idea what we were in for- a basically 10 course meal with options ranging from simple goey little circle things with a little spice sprinkled on them, to shrimp cakes (way gooey-er than one would imagine by the name), to banana leaf wrapped shrimp rolls, and to the Vietnamese version of what I associated as nachos. The flavors that I discovered blew my mind, and there were only about two things out of the countless numbers of items that I tried which I could not finish. I had originally believed I would lose weight on this journey, but of course the food here had to be straight from heaven. Or Buddha, or wherever. Darn spring rolls. They get me every time.

Once we finished lunch (and I experienced the first nightmare of an Asia bathroom), we went back to the school where we proceed to teach classes and do activities until 5, when we went home with our families. My little Ha surprised me with a treat after school which apparently is quite common in Vietnam: getting your hair washed. Before our evening activities, Ha lead me to the local hairdresser shop (which was multiple levels in a very tall, skinny building... wash your hair on the top level, cut on second, dry on the floor level) where I was treated to having my hair washed for about 15 minutes and then also having my face washed. My hair has never felt so soft, and my face never so clean. I felt like pure joy. Major win.

After the hair activities and such, Ha and I adventured out into the night city life with a few of the other Carroll girls and their matches. We hit up the occasional souvenir shop and tourist site, and indulged in Vietnamese ice cream. Life was good indeed. Unfortunately, time got away from me and this post is now a day late, and I am beyond exhausted, to the point of which I really don't feel like hashing out all the details which are pooling in my brain. I have so much I want to tell you all, but the words are eluding me. Therefore, until next time.