this post is taken straight from my journal Nov. 25

this post is taken straight from my journal, which is why it sounds a little different...

Today turned out to be an awesome day! I started late to class and was consequentially in a bad mood. But then after class, I had a stroke of genius and decided to go to The Bookworm, this little bookshop near the Temple of Literature and Fine Arts Museum. Bookstores always make me feel good. Always. I took my camera and got some great pictures along the way. I met a woman collecting donations for the blind and disabled for the Red Cross. Karma points check. The Bookworm was perfect, exactly what I could hope for. All the books were second-hand, my favorite. Second-hand clothes and books and such just have so much character. It is like being a tangible part of history, connected to every other person who owned that item. The staff was so great! It made me miss Books on the Common, the bookstore I work at back home. As I was buying my books, the small staff and the other two customers in the store got to talking about the books I was buying, books that the others were buying, what we all liked to read. Exactly my kind of people! It was such a good discussion just between people who are passionate about books.

When I left, I walked along Hoan Kiem lake and saw some men out in a boat but couldn’t figure out what they were doing. I stopped to watch for a while. There were three older Vietnamese women watching it too, near me. I said, “Xin chào” and they smiled and stared at me. They kept smiling and staring and speaking in Vietnamese, obviously about me. I did not mind, as I think I usually would (I thank The Bookworm for my very good mood), they were sweet old ladies and it was really just funny that they were so interested in me. Then this younger Vietnamese woman wandered up and she spoke some English so she told me that they said I was beautiful and had a child’s face. She said they were not from the city so were unaccustomed to foreigners. It was really amusing.

Then I went to Highland’s Coffee (like Starbucks) to sniper shoot justice ladies walking from the balcony. I was sitting by myself but talked to this couple there with their whole family from Australia. They were super sweet! It was nice to talk to them, just me. Sometimes I get lost in the crowd, even/ especially with a close group like ours. Then this group of four people from England sat next to me. One of the men was taking a picture and I offered to take it for him so that they could all be in the group shot they were trying for. I sat back down after and after a minute or two the first man came over and offered to take my picture with my camera. He said his daughter had traveled alone a few years ago and had said her biggest trouble was that she never was able to send pictures of herself home because no one to take them. It was so sweet! It was so like a parent looking out for me. It is getting to the point where I am ready to go home.