Vientiane!!!

Saibidee! means hello in Lao.  I am in Vientiane!!  We flew in on Sunday morning.  And it has been going swimmingly so far!  We are staying in a guest house, and we each have our own room which is nice too!

Before coming here we always heard how laid back and calm Vientiane/Laos is, and after being here only one day, I already got that feeling.  There is hardly any traffic- especially after coming from Hanoi, and it's wonderful. There is so much more green - grass, trees and such- here than in Hanoi.  The city is nicer looking and cleaner than I was expecting.  Sadly though, there are many more wats (temples) in the city. I won't get into wats and religion now, maybe in another post.  The people seem friendlier too.  They always smile and say saibidee! 

We started  Lao language school on Monday.  We go every afternoon for three hours and will continue for at least three weeks. After four days of class, I have finished learning the consonants of the Lao alphabet! We sound pretty funny when we practice these new sounds - almost like we're singing. :S  I do not know how many vowels there are... but we'll start learning them tomorrow.  And we have learned a few phrases and words that will hopefully be helpful.  The teachers are really good, but it is just lots of learning each day.  But so far I feel like I've learned some!

Monday night we went to an outdoor market thing for dinner (supper).  Corky, our leader who has been in Laos for 13 years, told us some stuff wrapped in banana leaves is rice with coconut stuff and is good, so we should try it. So we point to the wrapped banana leaves to buy some. We go and find a table to eat at.  It is outside and dark out.  We unwrap our leaves excited to try some new tasty food! But it doesn't look like rice; the three of us (Corky had left) don't know what it is.  We think it might be raw meat, but everything here is cooked and ready to eat, like a restaurant, so there's no way it could be uncooked meat!   We try a teeny bit of it, it doesn't taste disgusting...  but it looks like raw beef.  So we decide to eat our other food and didn't worry too much.  On Tuesday, we asked some Lao people at Steph's what it might be. We were informed that it is pork that is soaked in some liquid stuff and spices for some time and NOT cooked.  So, we almost ate raw meat!  And actually we all tried a little.  : P YUCK!  I still cringe with shivers and almost gag every time I think about it.  ugh! But thankfully we obeyed our instincts and didn't eat more.

mystery meat

this was one of the many food stands where we could buy dinner

Stephanie, another teacher with us, lined up some Lao friends for us. They can help us with language, buying bikes, buying material and making sinhs (the traditional Lao skirt) to wear for teaching and other things, and showing us around Vientiane and teaching us about the culture. Tuesday night we all went to Steph's house and cooked together. We tried to help with the cooking, but I have a feeling we Americans were more of a nuisance than a help. We ate some pretty good Lao food though. I will have to learn some exercises or stretches for my legs so that they don't fall asleep and need to switch positions every few minutes as we sit on the floor to chop veggies and eat.  They (Lao) all look so neat and graceful and comfy as they're sitting, but we (Americans) are having a harder time figuring it out... you're not supposed to stick your legs out, and the ground is hard....  anyway, I'll need to do some practicing to find a polite way to sit on the floor that is comfortable.  Hopefully soon!

Mon is making papaya salad

This is That Luang which is near our guesthouse. It's some park and market place. There's lots of pretty architecture in Vientiane.

For those of us without cars, there are two main modes of transportation available: tuk tuks and motorbikes.  Here I am riding on Mon's (my new Lao friend) motorbike.  Wednesday night we went for dinner with them and then they helped us with some homework.  It's a little scary to ride behind someone, but will be fun for me when I can drive one in a few weeks. :)

Elise and I are riding in a tuk tuk.  It's kinda hard to see, I'll find a better picture for later. It's like a motorcycle with a teeny truck bed on the back with a plasticy roof?  It has a row of benches on each side.  Bouthanome, our tuk tuk driver has been faithfully driving us to and from language school this week. It's nice and breezy in the tuk tuks because they're open on the sides, but get a little spendy. Hopefully soon we'll have bicycles to get us around a little easier.