hello!

HELLO!! It's Silas. Vietnam is awesome. The air is sort of smokey, but it also has the scent of tropical flowers, a surprising sort of good smell. At night there are geckos all over the walls, they are about 2 inches long (I still have not caught one). The Saigon river is filthy, I went up to its bank and I saw a sandal and a glove and tons of wrappers everywhere!
The currency of money here is crazy! 17,000 dong is 1 US dollar! So a can of coke that's 6,000 dong is only about 25 cents!
Ho Chi Minh city is about 3 times bigger than Boston, it has 7 million people so it's pretty large! It's pretty polluted and some people wear cloth masks over their noses and mouths because of it. It's climate is a little bit like florida but a lot warmer, like it's in the 80's in the dead of winter. People are very friendly here. They say hello in english just to practise it! One other thing about the city, mopeds and motor bikes are everywhere... The streets are packed with them like a can of sardines! There is also tons of construction going on, the emerging economy makes things pop up within a week. They are paving a road near my apartment today, out of nowhere! There are at least thirty new projects in my district, one next to my "house."
So I have to go now, (to lie in front of my air conditioner) so I will keep everyone posted!

Silas.