Flooding at the superbowl

Yesterday night, as my evening class came to an end, a sudden downpour of rain declared itself sonically through the walls and windows of my classroom. Oh no, it can't be! Why now??? A group of us teachers had a night planned for bowling at the Superbowl near the airport, very close to my school. Nevertheless, we didn't let the sudden storm ruin our plans. Come to think of it, "sudden" may be an unreasonable attribution, as we are after all entering the wet season in South Vietnam. And if one cancels a plan because of rain in Vietnam, then one will have a hard time fulfilling plans for the next 6 months.

So I took my time putting away the teacher's folder and packing up my bag. Perhaps the rain will subside in the next little bit, I told myself as I procrastinated getting out of the school, employing different errands such as drinking cups of water and checking my text messages. Finally, I wasn't kidding anybody. I went out to the parking lot where I saw the rain crashing down. I rolled up my pants, lodged my bag onto my motorbike, turned my key into the seat trunk and got out my dandy burgundy raincoat. I sat on my bike and draped the front part of my raincoat over the front of the bike, creating a small tent to keep my bag and my thighs dry. My shoes were a lost cause. I wished I'd brought sandals with me. Then I started the crazy treacherous ride to the bowling plaza.

It was insane. The streets were flooded everywhere, some parts as deep as 3 feet. The rain slapped on my face, and soon my sight became all blurry because my contact lens were floating around on my eyeballs. I tried to ride slow enough to be careful not to hydroplane, as well as to not veer onto an unseen bike on the side, since the stiff raincoat being battered by rain didn't make it very easy to turn and glance to the side, and my sideview mirrors were being covered by my raincoat. Yet I tried riding fast enough so that I would never have to stop the bike and plunge my feet into the flooded ground.

With those not-so-favorable conditions, I made it to the parking lot of the plaza, where the workers were walking in their bare feet to arrange the bikes around in the flood. At the end, I still had to tread in water with my shoes, although they were already soaked from the ride. But tonight was the first time I felt glad for the tacky space-aged mandatory bowling shoes.