overdue update

Summer is in full swing, and the weather is not letting us forget it! As I'm sitting here at 6:45AM sweating buckets, I have no plans on leaving the position I hold in front of my fan blasting me, until I absolutely have to.
And apparently it's not just in the tropics of Vietnam--I've heard many reports of the over-dramatic heat hitting my friends in LA and yes, even Seattle. Craziness! I hope you're all finding ways to stay cool and find energy. My favorite answer: a nice fruit slushy!!
Because of the heat, the city turns the power off for different neighborhoods for certain amounts of time every once in awhile, in order to save energy and prevent uncontrollable blackouts. This has come at seemingly horrible moments at home--in the middle of lesson planning or getting ready for work; until we get to work and realize the power is off there too! Last week this happened about 4 times, once during class. I recently changed classrooms, so I am now in a middle room with no windows...my students went a little crazy in the pitch black. Luckily another teacher down the hall came to my class with his laptop open as a flashlight, to guide me and my class to join him in his room with a window. It was hot, smelly, chaotic, and tiring.
After about 45 minutes I think, the power came back on, so teaching my second class was just fine. What an experience though! Talk about change of plans...
This weekend I went with some friends to get massages again. The place we go to is a project to benefit the blind. The masseuses (is that the right word?) are mostly all blind, and very good at what they do. Both times I've gone I've had the same woman, and she's great! It's interesting though, since we don't speak the same language, and she can't see so I can't even use gestures or facial expressions to communicate with her. But she can hear my tone and hear when I laugh, so we had some good "conversations" through these means. And of course I could see her smile and hear her tone as well. I am really learning a lot about communication in all forms and senses of the word.
Since the other teachers have been here I've been trying to reestablish a routine that adapts to my new home, neighborhood, mentality, schedule and community. Kaitlyn has started joining my on my morning walks, which is nice. That, like so many other things, was a time I have been used to having just to myself, so it was really hard at first to share it. But we set up a system that the night before, we decide if it's going to be a talking walk or a solitaire walk. If it's a solitaire walk, we'll go together, but not talk; listen to our own music or whatnot. It's been really great, and again another learning experience for me in change and adaptability.
Sunday evening the pastor at DIF (Danang International Fellowship) and his wife invited the 20-30-somethings out to eat elephant fish. So we all met at their house and then rode our bicycles to a patio restaurant to eat wonderful fish and get to know one-another. After, some of us went out to Karaoke, something I've now done twice since I've been here. It is so much fun! My mom likes to do it at home with her friends from work, and she'd tell me how they had private rooms and it was really quaint and fun. It always sounded a little uncomfortable to me, because in my head it's like on the movies when there's a stage at a bar or something, and all eyes are on you. Actually not just the movies, also in reality like at O'Houlies! =)
But here, it's so common, there are multiple Karaoke places on every street, and they are just small rooms for a group of people to hang out in. No pressure, just lots and lots of fun! A great experience indeed.
I'm getting to know my new housemates more and more each day, and it is wonderful. Even Kaitlyn and Ashleigh, who I knew well before I came here, I am getting to know them more and more as we all spend more time together and in a different capacity than ever before. I am truly excited to see what lies ahead for us.