Friday, November 26, 2010

Is that an egg in your pocket or are you happy to see me?



The other night Huyen came home from work and threw her bags onto the bed. She then took of her puffy vest and threw that on the bed too. When that hit the bed there was a small, but noticeable cracking sound. Huyen immediately winced and pulled out a plastic bag with two egg in it from her vest pocket. I looked at her quizzically and then asked, "How long have you been carrying eggs in your pocket?" Huyen shuck her head at the egg and answered, "I just bought them." This was a true Vietnamese moment to me for a few reasons:

1. In America we don't buy just one or two eggs at a time.
2. We surely don't stop on the street on our way home from work in the city and buy two eggs to carry home on our motorbikes (or cars for that matter).
3. We always have sort-of-protective cardboard egg crates to keep our eggs from breaking. Here they just put eggs in plastic bags.
4. It was a testament to how fresh dinner is every night that these eggs in Huyen's pocket were minutes away from being in our meal.

As a foreigner, I just found this moment very funny. I'm pretty sure I've never carried eggs in my pocket.