Say what? Can you repeat that?

My Vietnamese lessons from Donna YouTube have served me well, and annoyed a couple of local shop owners. I have a very basic understanding of the number system from 1 to 100, which is really all that you need in order to find out  what something costs. I can ask "How much?" before I pay, and I can sort of understand what the person is charging me. That knowledge killed one sale today, and forced another lady to give me the items I really wanted before I would pay. Both proprietors seemed pissed off, which is fine by me. I was polite. Vietnamese has sharp tones, so I couldn't tell if they were yelling at me or simply correcting my pronunciation. I think they were yelling at me. Most  folks are helpful when it comes to pronunciation, like coffee shop girl Hom, and hotel ladies Kimba and My Chi. A few folks seem to think that a White Monkey with knowledge is a dangerous animal. Hardly. I'm more than happy to repeat my Vietnamese until it's understood, or do without. Most times, I do without. And in fairness to the people I'm dealing with, they've got to listen to and try to understand my almost incomprehensible Vietnamese drivel that I read from a little notebook I carry. Oh well. Bien Hoa doesn't have a lot of westerners or English speakers.
Teenagers drink alcohol here. Or at least they look like teenagers. The males drink the watery beer and the girls drink Sting, an energy drink. They do the "Hai, Ba, Yo" (2-3-Yo) and chug thing, a tradition I can do without. Since I'm not drinking, it's not an issue for me other than being in the company of a lot of really drunk young people while I try to eat dinner. They seem really perplexed by my water drinking and refusal of alcohol, but that's life in the slow (and old) lane. I just point to my head when they offer to buy me a beer, which happens nearly every time I go out after 8 p.m. I've been going to bed early these days. It's killing me refusing free beer. I still don't know the names of all the foods, so I ended up with a meal of eels and tripe the other day. It was OK.
Co-teacher Joy suggested I take a motorbike ride and explore the city. So I went out and promptly got lost for nearly four hours on the other side of the Dong Nai River. And burned the hell out of my leg on the hot muffler. I was no more than 10-15 kilometers from my hotel, but when I asked the way to Bien Hoa, it was like I was speaking another language, like English. I finally found a nice coffee shop lady who pointed me in the right direction. When I got back to the hotel, my back tire was flat. I was lucky to make it. A guy fixed the flat the next day for about $1.50 USD, or 30,000 dong.
The city was really cleaned up for Tet, and most of the shops and stores are still closed. It's wonderful here, especially when you factor in the nice weather we've been having. Of course, many of the locals are "cold." I can't tell what's open or when. The supermarket shelves were pretty empty today, and then the supermarket closed before 2 p.m. While the city is pretty tidy, the canal that runs through town is pretty gnarly. Maybe that's where all the trash went. The canal smells, and it isn't pleasant. But that's always the case.
Classes start next week and I'm really happy about that. Trying to learn Vietnamese from Donna YouTube is excruciating, especially when you don't have a brain. And worst of all, the place where I get my head massage is closed this week.