Fix-it for cheap

Three times in the past month I've been wowed by the work of Vietnamese fix-it folk. I rolled over on my glasses and snapped a tiny wire that held my left lense in place. My eyes are about as good as my Vietnamese, so I had to do something. I have spare glasses, but the prescriptions are weak, and that's a guaranteed disaster on the motorbike here. But my fiance Phuong took the glasses and lense to a shop she knows and the guy was able to replace the tiny wire and secure the lense in less than an hour at a cost of 10,000 dong, which is about 50 cents U.S. Amazing. The soles were coming off my beloved sneakers that my daughter Jessica picked out for me in the U.S. (The heat is rough on shoes here.) I was ready to toss them, but fiance Phuong came to the rescue again. She knows a shoe repairman in the Bien Hoa Market area and he replaced both soles ... for about $2 U.S., or 40,000 dong. As some of my Vietnamese students like to say: "Unbelievable!" Finally, my room air conditioner wasn't giving me the big chill I wanted, but guess what? Phuong knew a cleaning service that came out to my house and spent more than a hour washing and scrubbing and adjusting the air conditioner. Now my room is an icebox and I love it. Oh, and it cost 60,000 dong or so -- $3. In my opinion, there's no such thing as too cool. All the repairmen did good work, and they were prompt and friendly. And of course, Phuong is perhaps the most wonderful human being on planet Earth. But I notice that almost everyone here likes to tinker. My students break toys I bring to class, and then they fool around with them for a short while and fix them. They're patient and clever, two attributes I'm sadly lacking as I muddle through life.
I'm in a good food rhythm here now that I've overcome food poisoning at an outdoor restaurant. And it only took me five days to get better. The chicken here is awesome, the pork is fantastic, and the clams and oyster are excellent and reasonably priced. Phuong is a great cook, so I'm blessed again. The beef here is pretty mediocre, but I'll eat it once in a while because I like meat.
There is a down side to having a beautiful and talented and wonderful fiance. A lot of Vietnamese men come on very strong to Phuong. They're a-holes of course and Phuong is very cool about it. She basically tells the guys that she's married and that they can go home to their wives, mom, or grandma. Or all three. Of course the chuckleheads do this crap in front of me, but they speak Vietnamese with smirky smiles on their smirky faces. I guess I deserve it for having such a beautiful fiance, but I don't like it. Phuong tells me to chill out, so I go to my bedroom and turn the air-conditioner down real low.
Phuong and I were playing tennis today, and the doubles teams that took the court in front of us included two guys who smoked cigarettes while they played. I should have taken a picture, but I was too busy smoking a cigarette after I thoroughly thrashed Phuong in tennis. Actually, we just volleyed and it was great fun, except for the incredible heat. I drank four bottles of tea and lemonade afterwards.
Classes are going well, even though they're quite plentiful at the moment. But I'm gearing up for my trip to the U.S. next week, so all is well. I'm very sad Phuong isn't coming with me this time, but that will make returning to Vietnam wonderful. I'll miss her so much.