Elephant Trunks and Monkey Brains

Today we headed to Chau Doc to visit my dad's family. We would have gone earlier but there weren't any bus tickets. We ended up taking a huge charter bus that easily could have seated 45-50 people and there were 6 passengers total. I felt a little guilty leaving such a large carbon footprint.

The ride down to Chau Doc was long, about 6.5 hours + 1 hour shuttle transit time. We started our journey to the shuttle center at 8:30 am and finally arrived in Chau Doc at my aunt's house at 5:30 pm. Of course we were greeted with great food (Vinny's favorite was the egg roll that was wrapped in potato shavings instead of a regular wrapper). Vinny kept saying how the Vietnamese are crazy drinking animals and my uncles (I have 6) kept telling him, all the uncles were waiting for us to arrive so in the meanwhile, they had to drink to occupy their time. Vinny was such a trooper even trying shrimp paste (which I can't even eat because it's so pungent).

The next day, my aunt grilled us the spiciest beef I've ever eaten but the best also. My aunts and uncles love to jest with one another and the entire day was spent joking with them, translating their conversations for Vinny, and watching my uncles and aunts try to teach Vinny Vietnamese. It was such a great time, especially when my aunts told me to tell Vinny he was eating elephant trunks dipped in monkey brains (not really, it was grilled okra dipped in a sweat and sour sauce. I was able to introduce my aunts and uncles to Gchat, and for the first time ever, all my aunts and uncles were able to talk to my mom and dad via Gchat. I love technology. I was joking with one of my uncles about why he didn't say more to my dad during the 2 hour conversation and he told me that he hadn't seen my dad or heard my dad's voice in so long, he was overcome with emotion and couldn't speak. It was a really special day and I don't think I've ever see my dad that happy since the day Doug was born and he finally had a son in the family. I love technology...