Some final tasty morsels from my Easy Peasy Vietnamesy language lessons

• Chuối - banana. It’s almost the same as the word for “discouraged,” so in Gen Z slang, “Bananas!” means something that’s so difficult that you have no motivation to do it anymore. Students also never eat bananas before an exam, for fear of slipping on the peel.

• Bơ - Butter. It’s also slang for ghosting someone, like slipping away smooth as butter.

• Bốn (“Bone”) - 4. Four is an unlucky number associated with death, so many buildings do not have a 4th floor. Nor a 13th. Nor a 7th, also associated with death because a soul continues to live 7 weeks with their family after death. So, since the ground floor is the 1st floor, if your hotel room is on the 14th floor you might only climb 10 flights of stairs.

• Nước - Water. But since Vietnam is largely defined by its 3,260km coastline along the South China Sea (for perspective, that’s equivalent to the entire Eastern Seaboard from Amherst Nova Scotia to Miami Florida), nước also means country. When they ask what country you’re from, they’re literally asking what water you are from.

• Ôi trời ơi! - Oh my God!  Trời (“choy”) means the skies, or weather. Ôi (“oy”) is to call for someone's attention, like “Hey!” Strung together, “oy choy oy” would be “hey sky, hey!”, but translates to our “Good Heavens!”

• Ngủ ngon (“N’goo n’gone”) - Good night. Ngủ means to sleep, and ngon actually means delicious, so we tell each other to “Sleep delicious” (a variation on “sweet dreams?”)

And some final delicious photos that didn’t quite fit into other narratives. A lot are from the first few weeks when everything was fresh. Before forgetting how miraculous it is to cycle past water buffalo in a rice paddy on the way to a coffee shop. Before broken rice became a staple lunch instead of a novelty. Before becoming accustomed to the everyday splendor that for two glorious months has been life in Hoi An, Vietnam.