"we are one family"

the past few days have seen some interesting moments...but let me begin by saying, yes i still have a fungus. no, i don't know how i got it (though the doctor suggested changing my clothes more often), yes, i got medicine, and no, you cannot drink while taking it (i would have to eat pills for a month). therefore, it was a simple question of fungus vs. sobriety and well..this is a drinking culture, and it doesnt even itch or anything, so fuck it.

that being said, two nights ago i got wasted with a former viet cong general. in his words "we were once enemies, and now we are friends". i couldnt have said it better, mr. truong huu hung. in between shots of vodka, my new best friend instilled words of wisdom ("a man without liquor is like a flag without wind" being perhaps the most memorable), showed me pictures of himself, broke into song, and took me up into his attic, where he keeps all his oriental medicine/potions/whatever. after assessing my ahem, fungus, he opted not to prescribe any "faeces tragopterum" or "semen juglandis" (dead serious), though warned me--"western medicine will kill you. eastern medicine will kill you...slower". this guy is amazing. and to think nicole nearly ruined everything by almost eating food off his ancestral alter!

the next morning our group was bussed out, reluctantly, to the university's communist youth union "cross-borders camp" with 300 of our closest vietnamese friends. when we first heard "communist" and "camping" we got pretty excited, but then we realized that this is vietnam and we don't know anything. apprently in vietnam "camping" means a 36-hour techno-hyperscheduled-creepytouristresort-awkward playdate. we got seperated, grouped into countries (i was the philippines with 13 vietnamese kids). we were made to come up with chants and songs and skits and dances, play one trillion get-to-know-you games, line up in groups every 10 minutes, and listen to the aaron carter cd on repeat for 3 hours. oi, the thing is, the vietnamese kids love this shit! after the second or third skit competition, where i played guitar for the official camp song "we are one family" (penned by none other than my homestay brother, quoc..don't worry, after we record a couple more songs i'm making a myspace), and the tent decoration competition, it was 2 am time to go to sleep. well, for me at least. everyone else continued to sing and dance and whatever else, while me scott and megan found a concrete slab far enough from the blaring loudspeakers to fall asleep into mosquito-feeding, hip-bone-bruising bliss. wow, so it was simultaneously the most horrible and maybe amazing experience of my life. from the safety of retrospect, at least. there were enough "what-the-fuck" moments added up to last a lifetime. ridiculous. i will never think of camping the same way again.

in other news, i've been stocking up at the saigon square market..lots of cheap bootleg dvds, designer sunlasses (okay, maybe they're not actually versace..), gucci and louis vuitton hats (i didnt know they made baseball hats! for so cheap, too), and maybe some presents if youre lucky. im going to the beach friday-saturday with scott and quoc, to the cu chi tunnels with adrian on sunday, and to hanoi for 3 weeks after that...covering some ground. i'm finally starting to befriend the kids who live in my alley (well, in houses in my alley), but still they know more english than i know vietnamese. shit's hard, i promise. and man, how about that heat?? ok, end.