The main language spoken in Lang Son is Vietnamese. Some people speak Mandarin Chinese and a handful of people speak English. Most of my students speak all three languages!
There are no coins in Vietnam. Instead, everyone uses the Vietnam dong which only comes in paper form. On every bill, you will see an image of Ho Chi Minh. Many people simply call him "Uncle Ho." Like George Washington on the one dollar bill, Ho Chi Minh is a very important person in Vietnam's history.
Because of the typically old plumbing found in Vietnam, it is not safe to drink water out of a faucet unless you boil it at a high temperature. A bottle of water costs about 26 cents. Many people fill a water cooler in their home. This habit is better for the environment than that of buying bottled water.
This week I made a Vietnamese specialty dish: banh mi. To make banh mi, you simply take a baguette and add some meat or an egg, vegetables, and hot sauce. Most of the time, banh mi is served warm. I don't eat meat, so I went to my local market and bought some quail eggs to put in my banh mi.
