3 more days... and yet another strange bird encounter

Just about done with the TEFL course. It has been really intense and once Friday hits, pheeeewwwwwww. We have practice teaching every day until then, but I am happy to say that I finally got a tape player to work. Life changing, really.

So I've been going to the park at night to play a Vietnamese game called cau da tuyen. It is basically like a shuttle cock that is flat on the bottom, and people kick it around in a variety of impressive ways. I am incredibly bad and the hundreds of Vietnamese people in the park have a grand old time laughing at me, but oh well, I'm learning. My friend gave me one so I could practice on my own, but I'm not even good enough to kick it around by myself. Luckily, my neighbor is equally as awful as me, so we attempt to kick it around in our free time. Although it is less kicking and more running to various places to pick it up.

As I was walking back to my guesthouse from class today, I noticed that my neighbor had her gate open. And instead of some sort of prized Japanese chicken in a cage, she had a baby eagle in a cage. Obviously I had to go over and check it out, and the most I could communicate with this very ancient woman was that it was beautiful and small. There was another baby eagle placed in a box next to it that was splayed out and twitching. With my limited Vietnamese I was able to ask if it was dead, but she said "oh no, just tired." I have never seen a tired animal look so dead before, but hey, what do I know. Eagles, Japanese chickens, finches, crows, I never know what sort of pet bird I will see next. I've already semi-adopted a very sorry looking chicken who lives down the street. It is always tied up to this grubby little tree, and from all the pollution and dirt, the chicken is almost black. I always want to free it or something, but I'm not sure where it will go. Late at night I saw it running free recently, and I was very excited that it finally had made it's getaway. But, surely enough, the next morning it was tethered to its same dirty tree on the corner of the street. I think I like this chicken because it doesn't make noise and wake me up in the morning. Who knows, maybe I will own some exotic foul in my own house when I get to Hanoi. Although I'm thinking a cat is a little bit more reasonable...