Tootsie Nears Her Breaking Point or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being Insane

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Posted by Tootsie

An email sent by Tootsie:
In a fit of temporary? insanity last night, I, Tootsie, flirted with and dang near reached the edge of the precipice of my rational thought process. It had been a busy day... the 1.5 hour trip back to My Tho turned out to be a 3+ hour trek, full of being told to get on one bus, crammed in with other smelly travelers, only to be told to unload all our stuff into another bus and cram again into the bus with 30 of our newest bff's. Then after a great island boat tour we went to the co-op again to get things to prepare for Tet. The place was jam-packed, no sardine-packed, with people and us 6 Americans. To say we stood out is an understatement. People would try to sneak up on us in an aisle to sneak a peak. Some giggled, and some hid from us or looked at us like we must surely be lost. I was really irritated when a store employee came and took the green onions that took a lot of effort to find, right out of my hands. I found out it was because she had to weigh them....my apologies to her for the instantaneous, mean thoughts I had about her. I went to pay for my items and some rude lady cut right in front of me and didn't even think twice about it. While the gang was facing the madness, Oz and Glinda got some food at the restaurant attached to the store. I didn't get time to go and since I didn't eat anything at lunch--you know, strange that coconut worm and crocodile aren't exactly on the top of my palate-- I was super hungry by the time we went out for dinner. There are not many places to eat around here, soon after I nearly fell down the stairs in our hotel, we opted for the close restaurant-- right behind our hotel. We had been there once before and the food was a crapshoot then, so I don't know what possessed me, besides possibly fatigue and brain starvation, to go there again. Long story short, my "fried rice with pork" ended up being fried seafood of every kind as long as it looked nasty enough for me to wretch internally with steamed rice on the side.

So, after hat adventure we got ice cream at the shop inside our hotel. After about the 10th person walked by and gawked at us like animals in the zoo, I was D-O-N-E. Can anyone guess what I did? I started making faces at the people going by.

This is a crazy time of year and the streets are full of street vendors and people. I mean one girl walked into a tree, literally walked her face into a tree because she wasn't looking where she was going because staring at us was a much better choice. I scared one little girl so bad, she hid behind her mother. And the kicker is.....I didn't feel bad at all! I was tired of being in a different place, being taken advantage of, being judged for being a large American, and I was HUNGRY! I made all kinds of faces at those people-- fishy kisses, the "I'm watching you" signal like Jack Nicholson in Meet the Parents, and I do believe I even threw some crazy chair dancing in for good measure. The feeling has eased, but I have realized how spoiled and blessed I am to live in the US, where there are all kinds of people, so now one really stands out like a sore thumb, there's variety, and I can do pretty much whatever I like and Ainokea what anyone else thinks. So I'll conclude this with the a heartfelt and tender.....GOD BLESS AMERICA! My home SWEET home!

--Tootsie