Mice Like Dirty Underwear

Tes and I at a nearby park

The university I am attending has a School of Development called Institute of Social Studies or ISS. All the ISS students are from all over the world and live in one of the eight student hostels or dorms. So far, I am living in a building with students from India, Indonesia, Germany, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. Tes, is my new friend from Vietnam and she is Catholic too! She is here to study Children Youth and Development and will do field research in India at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. Soo Cool! On Tuesday we helped out the church in the soup kitchen. We carpooled with other parishioners (an Irish and a Sri Lankan- I have only met one Dutch person!) to Rotterdam where the nuns feed and house women and children who have escaped domestic violence. When we arrived, Tes was ecstatic to discover that the nuns we were working with were from the same order as Mother Teresa, Missionaries of Charity!

This is where the nuns live.

After spending time with Tes, she has taught me a few things about Vietnamese culture.Such as "no" means "yes." When you offer someone a favor and the person responds "no" that probably means "yes." Also, it is generous to put food on someones plate while they are eating and you have to eat everything on your plate or its insulting. Later Tes asked me if I wash my underwear everyday. I told her no. She looked at me in discuss as if I said I wear the same dirty underwear everyday. I explained I have multiple pairs. Then she listed the benefits of washing your underwear daily. If anyone was going to convince me to wash my underwear every day, Tes knew exactly how to do it. She told me that if I didn't wash my underwear mice would come! Because mice love dirty underwear! Eww!