Tid bits.

Some tid bits:

• Did more taekwondo today. Today was sparring day. Full contact sparring, barefoot on the concrete with only a chest guard and a helmet. Warmup was full contact sparring with no pads.
• I got ax kicked in the face today, but it's okay, because I returned the favor by plowing the guy with a jumping back kick moments later.
• I made a new friend today. His name is Hieu. He took me out to get sugar cane juice with him after practice and wants to teach me Saigonese slang. Perhaps I'll gain some street credibility in the process.
• I took a pictures of poor children begging outside a market. Usually you don't give them money because they will surround you and follow you everywhere for the next half hour. I gave the kid money for letting me take a picture of him. I don't know if this is a morally wrong thing to do, but I feel that the world needs to see these children and their poverty needs to be documented.
  
• I feel like an asshat for taking pictures of children begging in the street and giving them money for being helpful.
• Someone asked me today if I was Korean, completely outside of the context of taekwondo. My response was to laugh maniacally.
  
• I'm beginning to think that my Vietnamese name is lucky because I keep hearing stories about other "Loc"s who have walked the streets of Saigon doing amazing things.
• There's a lady who sells xoi (sweet rice) outside my door every evening. When the police come, she has to run off because she's not allowed to sell there. She sells about 10kg of rice every night and makes about 30.000 VND (a little less than two dollars USD) a day. The other day, the police caught her and took away the roof of her cart. It was pouring wet outside.
• I'm getting used to being really, really dirty all the time.