missing?

Poor little Vietnam gets left out all the time. In fact, in Stuart's Global Studies class, the entirety of South East Asia was omitted from countries that could be studied. Excuse me? Do Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, etc. have nothing worth learning about? Honestly, I don't get it. Stuart was able to convince the teacher that he could do a kick-butt job on Vietnam, having been there and all, but all other SE Asia countries are dis-allowed.

Then Audrey checked out a book about Asia in the school library and there were two sentences in the entire book that even mentioned Vietnam. It's a 100+ pages, but Vietnam wasn't even included on the map of Asia (though they did include Laos, Cambodia, etc.). Not sure what reason could possibly have been argued to keep Vietnam off the map, quite literally.

Our new housemate asked last night if I missed it and I nearly broke down in tears. There is no word to properly express the emotion in me, so I just nodded and said, "Yes, very much."

------
In funnier news, I was chatting over Yahoo with student in Thanh Hoa about dating and his upcoming (though yet undated) wedding. He was surprised to learn that I'd gone on a few dates, but none too sure that anything would pan out with any one of them. I told him that I am not so easy to date/fall in love with because I have children and that makes it awkward for guys. But he reassured me that it has nothing to do with having kids. I am just not an easy person to love. Of course, he inserted one of these cheesy grins :D and I thought I might keel over from laughing so hard. He's got sarcasm down, even in English. You crack me up, Cuong.