Eating Latkes in Vietnam

All kinds of unexpected things have been happening to me today. This morning, I got locked inside my apartment, my roommate forgot I live there too and put a lock on the door which can only be opened from outside. Normally, there are two nice ladies parked on fold up chairs in the hallway watching people go by the whole day. Luck would have it that this morning, they were nowhere to be found. After waiting a while for them to come back, I devised a whole operation that included a mirror (angled at the hallway), keys and my face shoved in between the bars. Once they came back, I used the 5 words I speak in Vietnamese and was quickly released. A real Hanukkah miracle!

I rushed to work and realized that today is the day a TV crew was coming to MSS to film a short report about Americans celebrating Tet in HCMC. The crew followed Aryeh around for a while until they realized they need some strong supporting actors and I was chosen! I knew I’d be discovered one day! So, scenes of me walking around with Aryeh and Bao in Zen Plaza are being edited as I type soon to be on a Vietnamese TV channel.

After work, I went over to Saigon Center where Chabad was throwing a Hanukkah party for the Jewish community in the city and Israeli backpackers passing through. It was my first time eating Latkes with dragonfruit, not a traditional Jewish combination by any means, it was great.