Exhaustion

Today sucks. I would like to officially call an end to this day and begin tomorrow immediately.
Today started with a power outage, which means I woke up because my air conditioning and my fan, both of which I consider life-support equipment in this climate, BOTH stopped working and I began to feel myself starting to melt. Then, my neighbors began hammering at the adjoining wall for reasons neither T or I were able to determine while walking by later. They appeared to be hammering at their wall for absolutely no reason!
Also, my Vietnamese neighbors, and people in general here, have no concept of noise, and no appreciation for other people's need for peace and quiet, so we were also exposed to people yelling at each other in the laneway, and the 5 hundred dogs living in our neighborhood taking turns barking loudly, all of which conspiring to keep us from being able to open the windows and therefore smothering us in our bed. We decided going out for brunch might be a possible solution, and set out in search of air conditioning.
A fairly short bus ride later found us in the old quarter looking for lunch. We decided on the Gecko Cafe, a local chain that generally serves decent Western fare and reasonable prices. I opted for the "seafood basket" after being accused by T of always ordering the same menu items. I was expecting some fish and perhaps a shrimp or 2. What I received was a greasy plate of shrimp, octopus and squid bits, heavily breaded and deep fried. Needless to say I was unimpressed.
On leaving we noticed that it had started to rain again, which was a signal to me to RUN FOR COVER NOW before a torrential downpour started (see yesterdays post for more on rain in Hanoi and my aversion to water). We ducked inside the nearby Backpacker's Hostel for some cheap smoothies just in the nick of time as the sky opened up and remained like that for the next hour.
Once the rain let up, we headed home for a nice warm shower and a rest in a cold room. Right now I am waiting on T as he is teaching his last class with a group of students before we head out to say goodbye to them with karaoke and snacks. Hopefully we've turned the page on the dodgy bits of today and are on to something good. Wish me luck!