feeling home

In the exceedingly wise words of Maeve McGarry, it's good to know that if I'm abroad and homesick, there's somewhere I can go that will always be constant. That place is church. Though I wasn't feeling super homesick, I was feeling the need for some Jesus, so we went to St. Joseph's Cathedral in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

We were planning to leave at 8am, but both of us overslept our alarms and headed out at 8:20 to catch the bus to the Old Quarter. As we were crossing the street, I saw the bus pull up to our stop, and I knew it would leave if we didn't make a run for it. The street was uncommonly clear at that moment, so I bolted after the bus and got there just in time to bang on its back as it was driving away in true Hanoian style. It kindly stopped and the bus driver and worker laughed with us as we got on. 

The service at the Cathedral was entirely in Vietnamese, though I recognized certain times when things were happening. At one point, we sang the Celtic Hallelujah, which I know from countless services at the Church of the Holy Family. Maeve and I sat next to this adorable family of two parents and a little boy and girl. Further proof that the DeHart women don't pay attention in church when sitting anywhere near cute children. I watched as the little boy palmed his sister's face and held on for a long while. She, rather than getting upset as I might have, seemed resigned to her grabbed-face fate. We took Communion and stuck around afterwards to take pictures.

Mass was followed by that great, American pass time called bagels and coffee. Maeve and I were told that there was a bagel place near the Cathedral, so we undertook an intrepid search for this Holy Grail of meals. After asking directions from an open tourism shop, we found Jomo. I got a bagel with cream cheese and a large coffee that came with a free refill. As I sat down with my first cup of coffee, Bon Iver was playing over the bakery's speakers. As I sat down with my second cup of coffee (to which I added a chocolate chip cookie), Louis Armstrong was playing. It could not have been more perfect.

We were walking home and saw this which takes weird and creepy to a whole new level.

There is a whole street of these mannequin stores. It's freaky.

I now sit in my room with a contented heart and a delightedly full tummy. I will spend this afternoon being productive and getting work done. Hopefully....