Of Mice and Men

Some days are longer than others. Ours started at 12:30 a.m. when T found a mouse in her bed moussing her hair. (She notes her mother always called her hair a "rat's nest", but literalism here is not well received.) We had found that something had chewed on fruit the day before and shown the hotel staff, but the suspect clearly had not been apprehended. T turned on the light and saw the miscreant head into the bathroom. We called the hotel staff and they arrived immediately but were unable to find it. The night staff promised to move us to a room of similar size in the morning once one opened up, which they did. Kudos to the adoption agency staff for encouraging the hotel management to follow through on their commitment. We stayed up for a while repacking all of our stuff. CN slept through all of it, fortunately. I returned to bed with CN but T stayed up. Ironically, the Panthers/TN Titans football game was being broadcast live, but w/o the TV commercials. Yet the audio feed from the announcers stayed live and we could hear the announcers ripping the poor play of the Panthers QB during the breaks. The Panthers look as bad from the other side of the earth as they do up close. I finally was able to fall back asleep.

CN appears to be more comfortable with us as he woke up several times during the early morning hours, but just looked at me and went back to sleep, rather than sitting up in a bolt of panic and crying as he had done earlier nights.

We got him out of the hotel a couple of times today in car rides to various business meetings and shopping with yet another friend of the same friend. CN enjoys traveling (car, bus, plane) as he can watch all the action outside.

Our schedule for the next week is falling into place. Tomorrow we are traveling Hoa Lu, the 10th century capital of VN during the Dinh and Le dynasties. We'll also take a boat tour of three caves on the Hoang Long River. The typography in this area include the steep hills unique to SE Asia (think of Chinese art). Wed is our interview with the INS at the US consulate for CN's visa. Thurs, we'll spend half the day seeing the highlights of Hanoi and the other half traveling to the Bat Trang Ceramics village. Presumably, we see the natives make ceramic objects rather than see a village made of ceramics, though the later would be more unique. (There's a free idea for any entrepreneurs out there seeking to create the next tourist trap.) Come to think of it, the Chinese do have their ceramic army that has been dug up from the Mingh dynasty. (OK, I don't know if it was from the Mingh dynasty. I read more Steinbeck than Chinese history. Cool--a over-the-top, stretched link back to the title of the post and it happens to be true. If I could plan these things ahead of time, I might be a decent writer. Thus, I warn you not to reread the post looking for hidden symbolism. To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a mouse is really a mouse. I'm a teacher; I try to make everything completely obvious only to find that the obvious is less obvious than it appears. How's that for fortune cookie wisdom, speaking of China?) Nevertheless, the Chinese have a major tourist attraction in their ceramic army and a ceramic village would be even more lucrative, especially if placed in proximity to a casino. (Note that if I didn't go off on tangents about Steinbeck, I also might be a better writer. Oops, did it again.) Which reminds me, one of our VN guides today said that her favorite American pop star is Brittany Spears. Bad taste apparently knows no cultural limits. I should have told her to read more Steinbeck. Or, perhaps, since I'm clearly in stream of consciousness mode, I should have recommended Faulkner. But I never could understand him either... So good luck with this post!

Now that I've completed my tour of American literary references, tomorrow, I'll make references to 11 American movies without invoking Platoon, Apocolypse Now, Full Metal Jack, Born on the 4th of July, or Forrest Gump. Yea, there's something to look forward to!