Every night, my host cousin and my host mom watch a specific soap opera on the television.  The soap opera is dubbed into Vietnamese.  However, the dubbing isn't particularly good.  In fact, you can still faintly hear the original voices (or at least what I thought were the original voices) under the dub.  At first, I thought this was an American soap opera because I would hear English voices under the Vietnamese dub.  But the English voices sounded strange.  They sounded like they were also dubbed.  Also, the situations in the soap opera were pretty ridiculous, even for a soap opera.  Finally, after a scene where a mariachi band appeared at a wedding, I realized that this was a Mexican soap opera dubbed into English and then poorly dubbed again into Vietnamese.  The telenovela is called "El Cuerpo del Deseo" and after doing some research I found out that it is actually filmed in Miami.  So.  I am watching a Mexican soap opera filmed in America that has been dubbed into English and then dubbed again into Vietnamese.

It's things like this that make me realize how much our world interacts with each other, albeit inderectly.  I can only imagine what Vietnamese watchers of that show think of life in Mexico.  I couldn't even tell that the actors in the show were Mexican.  They all have very light complexions and live in enormous mansions. In the same way, Vietnam is very different than the American perception.  Mention Vietnam to an American and they'll automatically think of Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket.  The Vietnam I'm living in is much different.  Also, the Vietnamese perception of the war is different.  The typical American view of the Vietnam War was that it was a terrible tragedy.  However, in Vietnam the war is seen as a victory.  Lots of people died, yes, but the Vietnamese mindset is that they kicked out colonialism once and for all. 

Anyway, thats enough stream of conscience ramblings for now.  I'm off to eat food that was actually grown within the country in which I'm living.

...Although some of it may have come from China.