Vietnam Study Abroad Fall 2009

Conclusion to My Blog

2009-12-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I know it has been a very long time since I last wrote my blog and I thought I should provide a wrap-up for the semester. I was unable to access my blog the last couple of weeks in Vietnam because of government censorship, which also often shut down facebook. Fortunately, I am now back in the US where there seems to be a bit more freedom of the internet.

The end of the semester was very fun and of course, a little sad. The last weekend before finals, Anna and I went to Loretofest. Loretofest is a music festival put on by RMIT, an Australian University and featured bands from Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the American band, Ratatat. It was held in a big grassy area, quite a rarity in Ho Chi Minh City, so I was very excited to run around the lawn. The bands were really great and the highlight of my night was probably dancing with Pham Anh Khoa, the winner of Vietnam Idol and featured in Coca Cola advertisements all over Vietnam (and also Cambodia I discovered). We also got to see Ratatat front row, center.

The guy with is shirt off is Pham Anh Khoa, Winner of Vietnam Idol

Before we knew it, exams were over, final projects were turned in, and it was our last night of the program. For our farewell dinner, we went to a restaurant with our Vietnamese teachers and roommates, sang karaoke, and Anna and I played the flute.

After a visit from my dad, I flew to Hong Kong to meet with my mom for a vacation. After Vietnam, Hong Kong was a little bit of a shock. Although Ho Chi Minh City was very large, I was not prepared for the sky scrapers and shininess of Hong Kong. I kept telling my mom, "Wow, it's like a city of the future!" We took the ferry across the harbor, ate a lot of amazing dim sum, and met up with one of my mom's high school friends.

The Harbor
Night Skyline

After a few days in Hong Kong, my mom and I flew to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The city reminded me a lot of Ho Chi Minh City with motorbikes whizzing by, lively outdoor markets, street vendors, and a river running through the city (though this river was much nicer than the Saigon River!). We went to the royal palace (or the small section that tourists are allowed to see), the genocide museum, and the killing fields of the Pol Pot regime. Cambodia was still very poor and under-developed and it was clear that the country had still not fully recovered from the relatively recent attrocities of the Year Zero campaign. However, there were certainly signs that the economy and tourist industry have improved greatly in recent years and I also saw evidence of numerous public work projects. It was interesting to compare Vietnam and Cambodia and the relative position on the trajectory of development for each. Vietnam seemed, understandably, more developed than Cambodia. It will be interesting to see if in 10 years, Camodia's development will be similar to Vietnam's today.

Phnom Penh's Royal Palace

Thanksgiving at Little Rose, Visiting the Green Bamboo Shelter

2009-11-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

Even though the Vietnamese don't typically celebrate Thanksgiving, I've tried to bring a little Thanksgiving to Vietnam since it is my favorite holiday. Sunday at the Little Rose Shelter, I taught the girls how to make pumpkin pie. I had made pumpkin pie a few times in the United States before, but it is a completely different experience in Vietnam, especially with 20 teenage girls! When I had made it before, I always used canned pumpkin and ready-made crust. These things were not available in Vietnam so we had to make the crust from scratch and use a real pumpkin. Also, pumpkins in Vietnam are a little different than in the US. I was a bit concerned because the outside of the pumpkin was green and yellow but the pie ended up looking the same and tasted wonderful. Cooking was a bit chaotic and I ended up very floury, but in the end we had a lot of fun and produced three fairly decent looking pies. Anna and Alyce also came to help out. Anna and I did a performance on the bamboo flute which we recently learned to play and Anna also showed a couple of the girls how to make an origami turkey.

Baking the Pie, Basically one of my favorite pictures ever

The pie right before going in the oven

The next day, following up on Anna's popular idea, I did origami with the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. The girls loved it and it no one wanted to stop. The especially liked making the boxes and by the end of the day there were boxes of many colors everywhere.

The next day, I went to visit the Green Bamboo Shelter, a partner shelter of the Little Rose Shelter. It is similar to the Little Rose Shelter except it is for boys and near the center of the city. I met one of the supervisors at the Little Rose Shelter and he invited me to come check out the place. The boys are a little younger than at the Little Rose Shelter. They are ages 7-16 instead of 12-18 and have not necessarily been abused. Many of them were homeless or their parents sent them away because they could not afford to take care of them. The boys were incredibly energetic, but in a surprisingly well behaved way. As soon as I came, they starting showing off incredibly complicated break-dancing and gymnastics moves. One boy pulled on my arm and said in Vietnamese that he wanted me to draw with him. He took out paints and a piece of paper. Even though he had only heard my name once and only knew a few words in English, he painted my name on the paper and spelled correctly SARA.

Me and some of the boys

They were little monkeys

Mặc dù người Việt không ăn lễ Tạ ơn nhưng tôi muốn cho lễ Tạ ơn đến Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ. Chủ nhật tuần trước tôi làm bánh bí với các em gài ở đó. Làm bánh bí ở Việt Nam hơi khó vì ở Việt Nam không có "ready-made crust" hay hộp bí. TÔi phải làm bánh "from scratch." Làm bánh với 20 người thanh thiếu niên cũng khó lắm! Anna và Hồng đi Mái Ấm để giúp tôi. Anna và tôi đã chơi sáo và Anna dạy các em gái làm gà tây origami.

Vì các em gái rất thích origami, nên thứ hai tôi làm origami với các em gái. Chúng tôi làm hộp, con méo, con chó, và con hẻo. Làm origami vui lắm.

Thứ hai, tôi đi thăm Mái Ấm tre xanh. Mái Ấm tre xanh là mái ấm cộng tác với Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ. Mái Ấm này và Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ khác nhau tại vì Mái Ấm Tre Xanh có các em trai thôi. Các em trai nhỏ hơn các em gái ở Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ, từ 7 tuổi đến 16 tuổi. Tôi thấy ngạc nhiên vì các em trai vừa năng nổ vừa lịch sự. Tôi chơi nhiều với các em trai. Các em trai rất thích nhảy. TÔi cũng giúp các em trai học bài tiếng Anh.

Mangroves, Chinese class, My last few weeks in Vietnam

2009-11-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

I haven't written for awhile because we've just been in Ho Chi Minh City for the past week and a half, but a lot has happened.

On Thursday, we took a field trip to Can Gio for my environmental sustainability class. Although Can Gio is considered Ho Chi Minh City by some sources, it was about a two hour drive away and is actually on the ocean. We went to learn about mangroves, mangrove restoration, and biodiversity in Vietnam.

Can Gio is not very wealthy or developed, but is extremely important to Ho Chi Minh City. Our teacher calls it "The green lung of Ho Chi Minh City" because all the trees are very important for providing oxygen to an already very polluted city.

First, we went to see the beach at Can Gio. It is a really interesting beach because it goes to the ocean so gradually. Because of this, the high and low tide are dramatically different. We saw many people fishing and catching various crustaceans.

Sifting through the sand for mussels

Then, we went to an island that has a mangrove protection area. Mangroves are very important to the environment because they provide a habitat for many species of animals, stabilize coastlines and mitigates the effects of tropical storms. Many of the world's mangrove populations have been greatly diminished and this is an especially big problem in Vietnam due to over-farming of shrimp and some lasting damage from the Vietnam War. The place we saw was actually a Vietnamese base during the war to protect Saigon from ocean attacks. In recent years, the government has implemented mangrove restoration projects and the results seem to be quite favorable so far. The island also had a lot of monkeys on it. The monkeys were very used to people and would come right up to you. They were both very cute and a little scary at the same time.

Mangroves!

Monkeys!

Yesterday, Trang invited me and Anna to a cooking competition in her Chinese class in celebration of teacher's day. It was a really interesting experience. Anna said it was a lot like a Japanese party. Everyone cooked a "Chinese Dish" although I'm pretty sure none of them were really Chinese. Trang made Singapore spring rolls, another group made sushi, another made chè which is a Vietnamese desert and another group made fried shrimp. It was also kind of funny that they spoke mostly Vietnamese with some occasional English but I didn't hear anyone speak Chinese the whole time. After that, we did performances (Anna and I sang the one song that we know all the words to in Vietnamese) and had a competition to make cards for the teacher. There was an extremely complicated point system for everything we did. After being judged on and assigned points for about 20 different categories, our group won the overall competition out of the four groups present!

Trang working on the Singapore spring rolls

Today, we also went to an art exhibition featuring artwork by blind children. It was really incredible what the children were able to produce, even without the ability to see. Many of the pictures used textured materials such as beads or were carved into wood. Everything was for sale and the proceeds went to a school for blind children where Vi did her internship.

Some other things to look forward to in my last couple weeks here are:
-Baking pumpkin pie and doing activities at the Little Rose Shelter for Thanksgiving
-Only one full week of classes left followed by a week of final presentations and tests!
-Loretofest, a huge music festival featuring bands from Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, and group from the US that I really like! Ratatat! Also, the expat magazine that Anna is working at is giving her a press pass and she gets to interview Ratatat! So exciting!
-Another visit to the HIV clinic
-Visiting The Green Bamboo Shelter, a partner shelter with Little Rose that takes care of only boys
-Farewell dinner for CET program
-My dad coming to visit and a huge Vietnamese food festival in Ho Chi Minh City

A busy last couple weeks before meeting my mom in Hong Kong!

Thứ tứ tôi đi chuyền với lớp "bảo vệ môi trường." Chúng tôi đi Cần Giờ, gần Sài Gòn. Chúng tôi đi Cần Giờ để học cây đước. Cần Giờ có nhiều cây đước và bảo vệ môi trường ở Cần Giờ quan trọng lắm. Cô giáo bảo vệ môi trường nói rằng Cần Giờ là "phổi xanh lá cây của Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh." Cây đước ở Cần Giờ quan trọng vì nhiều chim và cá sống gần cây đước và cây đước làm dịu bão. Chúng tôi đi bãi biển và đao khỉ. Đao khỉ có nhiều con khỉ. Các con khỉ dễ thương mà tôi thấy hơi sợ.

Hôm qua, em đi lớp tiếng Hoa với Trang. Mặc dù lớp tiếng Hoa nhưng chúng tôi không nói tiếng Hoa. Chúng tôi không học tiếng Hoa mà có cuộc thi nấu ăn. Tất cả các sinh viên đều phải nấu ăn món Trung Quốc. Trang, Anna, và tôi nấu ăn "gỏi cuốn Xin-ga-po." Sau đó, chúng tôi hát và làm thiếp mừng cho cô giáo của Trang. Cô giáo tính điểm và đội của Trang thắng!

The Rest of the Central Region Tour and the North

2009-11-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

I have so much to write about. We're so busy and I have so many things that I've seen the past few days so this entry might not do everything I saw justice. I may try to fix it up a bit and add the Vietnamese version when I get back to Ho Chi Minh City.

After Hoi An, we went to the My Som ruins. These are some beautiful ancient temples near Hoi An. They contain a lot of Hindu iconography and are different from the majority of temples in Vietnam which are mainly Buddhist. These temples resemble those in Angkor Wat, Cambodia. However, many of these temples were destroyed during the Vietnam War. We were able to see a few of the original temples, some that we left damaged by bombing, and some that were restored.

After that, we went to Hue. Hue was the old capital of Vietnam and is a beautiful city with a lot of History. We spent a lot of time in the forbidden city which has beautiful temples commemorating Vietnam's previous emperors. Our tour guide was full of stories about which emperors may or may not have been infertile or homosexual.

Standing in the Forbidden City

Following Hue, we went to Alyce's family's hometown of Quang Tri. Quang Tri is in the central region of Vietnam and definitely not a tourist spot, though it is close to a lot of interesting historical sites. We saw the bridge that crossed the river separating the North and South during wartime and another set of tunnels used during the war. The Vinh Moc tunnels are not as famous as their Cu Chi counterparts, but are just as, if not more interesting. The site definitely has a quieter, less touristy feel to it and is on the beach which provides a beautiful setting. The tunnels were not, as in Cu Chi, "widened for Western visitors" but were still larger than those at Cu Chi. Our guide explained that was because these tunnels were used for refugee from bombing rather than for fighting. They needed to be equipped for long term survival as people lived in there for six years and even had children inside the tunnels. I went through the whole thing this time though because these tunnels didn't have bats!

Venturing into the tunnels

Although most of Alyce's family lives in the United States, she still has a lot of family remaining in Vietnam, mostly in the central region. We were able to meet some of her family and their friends. We met her aunt, who sells motorbikes and is the richest woman in Quang Tri. We also visited her family's old house where three guys that her family's church were helping lived. We met the three young men and saw the small farm that they had in the backyard. Sadly, a lot of the plants and animals that they were raising were lost in the recent typhoons. The boys did take the large pig up to the second floor of the house though and he was saved. Next, we visited the village where her grandma used to live. Now, three women from her family's church live in the house and look after it. They were extremely sweet and hospitable, though I thought they might kill me with food. They made an enormous and very delicious Vietnamese meal for us. We all ate so much but the oldest woman kept telling us that we weren't eating enough and that she was offended that we didn't like her cooking. She said that I was a college student and an American so that I should be eating more. She told me I wasn't fat enough and if I didn't gain weight, no one would want to marry me. They all offered to let Anna and I live upstairs free of charge so that we could practice our Vietnamese. This may sound strange, but we also spent a lot of time in the Central region visiting graves and memorials to the dead. It is very interesting to see the extremely elaborate graves that Vietnamese people have. Some graves are Catholic and some are Buddhist, but they all share the Vietnamese characteristic of taking care of your ancestors even after they die. Many of the graves had incense and offering of food and flowers. We also got to see a lot of homes and farms of villagers. There were houses, a lot of farm animals, and a school full of really cute kids.

Walking through the village

Kids hanging out in front of the church

In the evening we flew to Hanoi. We arrived late at night and went to bed early so that we could go to the Perfume Pagoda. The perfume pagoda is a really beautiful pagoda in a cave on top of a mountain. We met up with students from another study abroad program in Hanoi (they made me feel better about my Vietnamese. They had been taking classes here for two months and could barely count) and took a long bus ride to a bay near the mountain. After that, we went by boat. The water was unbelievably clear and beautiful, which is a nice change compared to the Saigon River which I am used to seeing. We then climbed the 600 steps to the top of the mountain and saw the beautiful alters inside of a cave at the top. It never fails to amaze me how many beautiful temples and pagodas Vietnam has tucked away in the mountains and caves.

On the way to the mountain

One of the altars inside the cave at the top

The next day, we went to Halong Bay. If you are one of those people that has a list of places to go before you die, add Halong Bay to it right now. It is easily one of the most beautiful places I have been in my life. We took a boat ride around the bay and saw many villages of people who have lived on the water for years. There were boats for fishing, houses, and even a school. We also had an opportunity to explore on our own in kayaks. Anna and I went through little caves and lagoons and found out that we are terrible at steering!

The beautiful Halong Bay. Incidentally, this rock is featured on the 200.000 dong note

Getting ready to Kayak. I'm super excited

Heading out

The next day, we had the amazing opportunity to attend a panel discussion about environmental issues in Vietnam. The panel talked about climate change, fisheries, waste management, environmental health issues, and a host of other interesting issues. We were able to ask questions about Vietnam's environment to a number of local and foreign experts in the field. It really was an amazing educational opportunity for our environmental sustainability class. After that, I went to visit the Hanoi School of Public Health. I had read about the school's opening before I went to Vietnam and knew that I wanted to visit. I was a little worried because I did not plan ahead and contact anyone before I visited. Fortunately, Vietnamese people are extremely friendly. I just wandered over to the school on my own and told the guards at the gate that I was a student at another school and just wanted to look around. They thought it was cute that I was speaking Vietnamese and gave me a visitors badge. I wandered around the school and met a consultant from Colorado. We started chatting and he told me about his work with anti-smoking campaigns in Vietnam. He introduced me to his colleagues and I talked to them about their work there for awhile. After that, I spent a few hours in the library, practicing my Vietnamese with the librarians and looking through their collection of Vietnamese and English books about public health.

After that I went to visit the temple of literature. This is a really beautiful park in Hanoi that contains manuscripts of Vietnam's kings inscribed on huge stone tablets which rest on the backs of turtles. I then headed back home (talking to a few people on the bus, of course) and have been writing this blog entry pretty much for the rest of the day... We head back for Saigon tomorrow afternoon so my project for the plane ride will be translating all of this into Vietnamese.

Sau Hội An, chúng tôi đi di tích Mỹ Sơn. Di tích Mỹ Sơn có chùa cổ, đẹp, gần Hội An. Mặc dù hầu hết đền ở Việt Nam là chùa Phật giáo nhưng các đền này có nhiều biểu tượng Chàm. Các đền ở Mỹ Sơn giống các đền ở Ankor Wat ở Campucia. Nhiều đền ở Mỹ Sơn bị phá hoại vào chiến tranh. Chúng tôi xem các đền gốc, các đền bị phá hoại, và các đền được trùng tu.

Sau đó, chúng tôi đi Huế. Huế là thủ đô cổ Việt Nam. Huế là thành phổ lịch sử.

Sau Huế, chúng tôi đi nơi quê của gia đình chị Hồng, Quang Tri. Quang Tri ở Miễn Trung Việt Nam và không là nơi du lịch. Thành phố này có một khách sạn thôi! Mặc dù không nơi du lịch nhưng Quang Tri gần nhiều nơi lịch sử. Chúng tôi thấy cầu chia cắt Việt Nam, miễn Bắc và miễn Nam. Gần cầu này có đài tưởng niệm chiến tranh. Sau đó chúng tôi đi hầm Vinh Moc. Hầm Củ Chi nổi tiếng hơn hầm Vinh Moc mà tôi thích hầm VInh Moc hơn. Hầm Vinh Moc không có nhiều khách du lịch và gần biển. Ngoài ra, ở đây không có dơi!

Mặc dù Hồng ở bang Cali nhưng có gia đình và các bạn gia đình ở miễn Trung Việt Nam. Chúng tôi có dịp gặp họ chị của Hồng và cô của Hồng. Chúng tôi đi thăm nhà cũ của bà của Hồng. Bây giờ, ba người làm việc ở nhà thờ của gia đình Hồng ở nhà này. Ba người nấu ăn nhiều và nói rằng nếu Sara không ăn nhiều hơn và béo ra thì không thể lấy chồng được.

Hoi An

2009-11-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

This week, our class is going on a tour of the central and Northern regions of Vietnam. This has been the week that I've been looking forward to since I first decided to go on the CET trip. We took a language pledge for the trip to only speak in Vietnamese but I think by writing my blog in Vietnamese also, I should be ok!

We started out taking the trip by train. The trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An was an impressive 17 hours but we had a sleeper car so the trip went by pretty quickly. I did a lot of work on my research project, played Chinese chess with Alyce, looked at the interesting scenery, read Harry Potter in Vietnamese, and of course, slept.

Anna and Alyce Playing Chinese Chess on the Train

We got to Hoi An around noon on Saturday and went to explore the town a bit. We rented bikes and went through the countryside a bit where we had to dodge water buffalo to cycle down the narrow roads and saw a lot of interesting village and farm life. It was very interesting that just a 10 minute bike ride from the touristy beach-resort town of Hoi An exists a completely different world.

Sharing our bike trip with a herd of water buffalo

Later that day, Anna and I explored the touristy part of town a bit. Hoi An is very famous for it's clothing and tailoring. I had to greatly restrain myself from buying about 20 dresses. However, I have to say the number 1 thing I'm looking forward to when returning to the United States is not having people yell "Madam, you want to buy!" every two feet. It seems that almost everywhere I go, it's impossible to escape. There was one woman who very enthusiastically told me that I should buy a dress from her because "I give you a discount because you have body like a Vietnamese woman. See, you short, same like me and not fat like an American."

We ended up the night at a bar called "Before and Now" which was oddly to be Che Guevera themed and was filled with foreigners. It was pretty unremarkable but Anna and I enjoyed speaking to the waitresses in Vietnamese who were easily impressed with our very basic conversational skills, as most people we meet are. Especially people who want to sell you stuff.

Tuần này lớp của tôi đi du lịch đến miễn Trung và miễn Bắc. Cả học ký tôi đã muốn đi chuyên này! Tối thứ bảy, chúng tôi từ Sài Gòn đi Hội An bằng xe lửa. Mặc dù đi bằng xe lửa mất khoảng 17 tiếng nhưng tôi thấy chuyên này vui lắm. Tôi đọc Harry Potter bằng tiếng Việt, chơi bài với Anna và Chị Hồng (Alyce), viết giấy nghiện cứu, và ngủ nhiều. Tôi xem cảnh đẹp lắm.

Chúng tôi đến Hội An chủ Nhật. Anna và tôi đi lòng vòng. Chúng tôi đi mua sắm và đi xe đạp. Chỉ 10 phút bằng xe đạp thôi có một làng. Làng có đường hẹp và nhiều con gá và con trâu.

Vào bưởi tối, chúng tôi đi quán cà phê tên "Before and Now." Chúng tôi uống bia và nói chuyên với những người phục vụ bằng tiếng Việt.

Mekong Delta Trip

2009-10-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today, our class just returned from a trip to the Mekong Delta. We left early Friday morning to go to Can Tho. We arrived around noon and ate a really good restaurant with food from the Southern region. I have sampled a variety of interesting foods in Vietnam so far and I definitely added a few to the list this weekend. Prior to this trip my list included: water buffalo, ostrich, snail, wild boar, pig intestines, and deer. After this weekend, I can add frog, rat, eel, and snake to that list. And to think that I spent the past five years as a vegetarian...

After lunch, we walked around the city a bit and went to a few stores. We again had a huge feast for dinner; food seemed to be a pretty big theme for the weekend. In the morning, we woke up obscenely early to leave for the floating markets at 5am. We got to see the sun rise over the water and the buying and selling of produce at the floating markets.

The sun rises over the Mekong River

A woman cuts pumpkin on top of her boat while the pumpkin on top of a pole indicates to buyers what fruit she is selling

After going to the floating markets, we took a 3 hour boat trip to Vinh Long where we had lunch and visited a brick factory. Apparently the Mekong Delta region has very clay rich soil and is good for making bricks. We got to see the enormous kilns cooking the bricks and other pottery for export to other countries.

Our lunch: The enormous "elephant ear" fish

One of the giant brick kilns

We then traveled to our homestay where we spent a relaxing afternoon riding on boats, hanging out, and of course, eating. We even got to help the family that we were staying with cook dinner. Here is Loan singing a song as we meander down the river in our conical hats.

The next day, we went to see how different specialty foods of the Mekong Delta are made such as rice paper, puffed rice, and coconut candy. We also went on a beautiful hour long bike ride through a village. It was amazing to see what life was like in a new place and enjoy such a peaceful and beautiful setting. Overall, it was an extremely relaxing and enjoyable trip.

Hôm nay, chúng em mới về nhà từ Dồng bằng sông Cửu Long. Sáng thứ hai, chúng em đi Cần Thơ. Chúng em đi lòng vòng và ăn nhiều đồ ăn vừa lạ vừa ngon. Chúng tôi dậy sớm quá để đi xem chợ nổi. Sau đó, chúng tôi đi Vĩnh Long bằng táu. Chúng tôi có dịp đi xem nhà máy gạch, cơm, và nước mắm. Chúng tôi ở nhà ở Vĩnh Long và nấu ăn với gia đình ở đó. Chúng tôi ăn chuột! Ngày hôm sau, chúng tôi đạp xe một tiếng. Chuyên này vui lắm!

Little Rose Shelter

2009-10-17T03:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday and Friday, I taught a singing class for the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. I was thinking of doing something by the Grateful Dead or the Beatles but the teachers at the shelter felt “If you’re happy and you know it” was more appropriate. To spice up the lesson a little, and because I’m a bit of a hippie, I borrowed Vi’s guitar and learned how to play the song. The teachers wanted me to come at six instead of two, like I usually do, so I got to experience a truly packed bus and I stood out even more than usual. After getting the guitar to the shelter safely, we learned how to sing the song. The girls seemed to like it a lot and even offered to do duets and solos. They taught me a Vietnamese song as well and one girl showed off the other English songs that she knew. Afterwards, I taught the girls who were interested a few chords on the guitar. I felt really happy when I came back the next time and the girl who let me into the gate greeted me by singing, “If you’re happy and you know it.” Another particularly rewarding moment was when I talked to one of the girls after the class. She looked very sad throughout the class and was singing extremely quietly. Afterwards, I went up to her and asked her if she was alright. She said no. I asked her if she was sad or tired and she said no. She was about to do some homework so I talked to her a little bit about her classes in school. Even though we just talked for a few minutes, and even I she looked noticeably happier after our conversation, as I was about to leave, she started singing, “If you’re happy and you know it” quietly at first, then louder and she started to smile.

Thứ ba và thứ năm tôi dạy hát ở Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ. Tôi muốn dạy một bài hát bằng “The Grateful Dead” hoặc “The Beatles” nhưng các cô giáo ở đó nói tôi nên dạy “If you’re happy and you know it.” Tôi mượn guitar của Vị và học chơi bài này. Vì tôi không đi lúc 2g mà 6g, xe buyết đông người và chắc là người thấy tôi hơi lạ với guitar của tôi. Sau đó, tôi và các em ấy học hát bài này. Các em ấy rất thích bài này và hát một mình hoặc với một đưa con nửa. Các em ấy cũng dạy tôi một bài hát bằng tiếng Việt và nghe những bài hát khác mà các em ấy biết. Sau đó, tôi dạy những đưa con chơi guitar. Tôi thấy vui lắm vì khi tôi đi Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ thứ Năm, một đưa con gài mở cửa cho tôi và hát “If you’re happy and you know it.”

Cần Thơ

2009-10-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

After returning from Đà Lạt, I went South to Cần Thơ in the Mekong Delta. Somehow, half of Michigan State is currently in Cần Thơ so I had a lot of people to visit! First, I went to visit one of my mom's student's family. Her student, Hiep, has a lot of family members in Cần Thơ and I stayed at their house for a night. They were extremely hospitable and made an amazing Vietnamese dinner for me. I can't remember the last time I ate so much! After that, Hiep's nephew, Triet, showed me around Cần Thơ. Though much smaller than Saigon, Cần Thơ still is a very lively town and there were a lot of people out at night. The next day, we went to visit Cần Thợ University, where Triet is a freshman. The campus was very large and beautiful. I had a great time looking around and got to meet many of Triet's friends.

Some students playing soccer on campus

Later that day, I went to meet with the second set of Michigan State people living in Cần Thơ who happen to live just four houses away from me in East Lansing, Michigan. Small world! Reade and David are a retired couple who are doing some work for Cần Thơ University teaching English and working on public health projects. We had lunch at their hotel where we, amazingly, met up with another Michigan State alumnus. We had fun reminiscing about Michigan and sharing the highlights and challenges of living in Vietnam. After that, Hien, another one of my mom's former students, came to pick me up and take me to his house where I would be staying and where Anna would later come to join us. Being the extremely friendly and kind person that he is, he invited everyone present on a sightseeing tour the next day. So much Michigan! We then went back to Hien's house where I met his wonderful family. I had a lot of fun playing with his daughters and talking to him and his wife.

Hien and his family, note the Spartan gear :)

The next day, we went on a sightseeing tour. In the morning, we went on a boat trip down the Mekong River. We got to see the amazing floating markets. They are truly an amazing sight. Basically, it's like a market but everyone is in a boat! The vendor boats all have a giant pole sticking up that has a pineapple, a cabbage, or whatever that person is selling on top of it to let the other boats know. If you want to buy something, you just pull up to the boat in your boat and buy what you want! I think this is mainly for wholesale buyers (not everyone just has a boat, probably) but they have some stuff for tourists or locals who just want to buy some produce. I had the opportunity to wittness one of these water sales up close too! David bought a bottle of water from a mother and her child in a small motorboat. It was really quite remarkable. The boat just went alongside it, the child grabbed onto our boat, and the transaction was made!

A boat on the Mekong River

Making a purchase at the floating market

After that, we walked around a park in the city and had dinner at a wonderful restaurant on the water. We got to meet some of Hien's students and see a bit more of the city. It was a fantastic trip and I'm so happy that I've been able to see some more of Vietnam!

Sau khi đi Đà Lạt, tôi về nhà và ngay chuẩn bị đi Cần Thơ. Nhiều người mà đi trường bang Michigan đang ở Cần Thơ nên tôi đi thăm nhiều người! Thứ năm, tôi đi thăm gia đình của cựu sinh viện của mẹ em. Cựu sinh viện của mẹ em tên là Hiệp. Tôi ở nhà của gia đình Hiệp một đem. Gia đình Hiệp thân thiện và hiếu khách. Chúng tôi ăn tối ngon quá! Sau đó, cháu trái Hiệp, tên là Triết, và tôi đi lòng vòng ở Cần Thơ. Tuy Cần Thơ nhỏ hơn Sài Gòn nhưng nhịp sống về đêm vẫn rất sôi đông. Ngày hôm sau, Triết và tôi đi trường Cần Thơ. Tôi có dịp gặp các bạn của Triết và đi lòng vòng trường.

Sau đó, tôi đi ăn trưa với hai hàng xóm ở East Lansing, Michigan! Chúng tôi ăn ở khách sạn của ông bà ấy và gặp một cựu sinh viên trường Michigan nửa! Hien, một cựu sinh viên khác của mẹ em đi khách sạn để đưa tôi đến nhà của Hien. Anh ấy mời ba người đi lòng vòng với chúng tôi. Sau đó, chúng tôi đi nhà của Hien và tôi gặp gia đình Hien. Hien có hai con gài dễ thương và vợ thân thiện.

Ngày hôm sau, chúng tôi đi sông Cửu Long và đi bằng tàu. Chúng tôi xem chợ (Tôi quên "floating markets" là gì bằng tiếng Việt!) và đi lòng vòng Cần Thơ. Tôi có một chuyến vui lắm.

Tết Trung Thu và Dalat

2009-10-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

There is so much to update on! This will be a long post guys... Maybe the Vietnamese post will be a little shorter today.

Saturday was Tết Trung Thu, or the Vietnamese mid-autumn festival. This is a special festival in Vietnam. It takes place on a full moon and people give children mooncakes with an egg yolk in the middle to represent the full moon. Lanterns and traditional stories are also part of the festival. On Friday, I brought mooncakes to the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. We had a great time eating the mooncakes. talking, and playing with various lanterns that they had. After that, I got to help the staff members translate some educational videos about preventing sexual abuse in children from English into Vietnamese. They are working on developing some educational videoes in Vietnamese and hopefully I will be able to see more of that process during the rest of the semester.

The girls at Little Rose with lanterns

Later that night, Hanh showed us a slideshow about how mooncakes are made and we all got the chance to eat mooncakes and light lanterns outside our dorm.

Anna and me with our lanterns

The next day, Anna, Vi, and I participated in a moon festival performance. The performance was part of an event for children with HIV/AIDS. Smile Vietnam is an organization that organizes fun activities for children with HIV/AIDS to improve their mental well-being throughout their medical treatments. This event had carnival games, food, a magic show, a fire swallower, and some performances by students at VLS, the place where I take my Vietnamese classes. First, we put on a play called "Sự tích chú cuội cung trăng." This story is about a man who discovers a magical tree with healing powers. He uses it to bring dead people back to life. One day, he uses the tree to bring the daughter (played by me) of a rich man in the village back to life. Of course, after that we get married and take care of the tree together. Unfortunately, as I am sometimes in real life, the wife was very forgetful. One day when her husband was gone, the wife forgot to water the tree with clean water and used the leftover water from her laundry instead. The tree was so unhappy with this foolish action that it flew into the sky. Mr. Cuội tried to grab the roots and stop the tree but the tree simply took him to the moon and even now, when it's a full moon, we can see the silouhette of Mr. Cuội sitting under the tree. The children really seemed to enjoy the performance and we all had fun putting it on. Later in the night, Vi, Anna, two of the teachers at VLS, and I sang a song call "Em thấy mình là hoa hồng nhỏ." This is a very sweet song called "I am a little rose."

Me in my costume for the play

Early the next morning, Anna and I were off for our fall break adventure to Đà Lạt. Đà Lạt is a city in the highlands of central Vietnam. It is a very popular tourist destination for both Vietnamese and foreigners and is famous for its beautiful mountains and cool climate. The weather was a huge draw for Anna and me. Although, as in Ho Chi Minh City, it rained for a couple hours every afternoon, the temperatures were very pleasant. They were in the 60s and 70s as opposed to the 80s and 90s of Saigon. I think the Vietnamese might find the city a bit too cold even as huge parkas and wool sweaters were sold on every street corner... and actually worn by many people!

Anna and I arrived in the afternoon and greatly enjoyed walking around the city. Although the city was extremely touristy, it was nice to go somewhere less crowded and in a bit more of a natural setting. Also, because it was the rainy season, the often crowded city was actually quite peaceful. The disadvantage of this was that we, especially me, were even more of a target than usual for the constant yell of vendors and motorcycle taxi drivers. At times it was quite overwhelming. We were scared to even stop to look at the map sometimes because if we did, about five motorcycle taxis would come up to us and offer to take us somewhere, often quite agressively. We did have fun though walking around the lake and visiting the very touristy, but actually kind of fun "crazy house." The crazy house is basically a huge house with multiple levels, twisted staircases, and random rooms and towers. We also went to the night market that had many stalls selling wool sweaters, Dalat strawberries and artichokes, and other assorted souveniers. I definitely came home with a much fuller bag then when I left.

Me standing in front of "Crazy House"

The city center at night

The next day, we went on a day-long hiking and climbing expedition in the mountains, which was really the highlight of the trip for me. We went with two guides that the owner of our hotel reccomended. I was a little nervous about following two strange men through the mountainous jungles of central Vietnam and trusting them to use safe rockclimbing equipment, but they were extremely nice and very safety oriented. They picked us up on their motorbikes in the morning and drove us to a place near Dalat. We were told that we would hike up and down one peak, then hike up the second peak and hike and abseil (repel) down the other one. Our hike began through some farms and grasslands and we passed by many grazing horses. The scenery quickly changed to pine forests that reminded me of home a little bit. The forest seemed like it could be in Colordao or upstate New York. The only difference was the distinctive reddish-orange color of the soil. The climb was beautiful, but very steep and tiring. It took us about two hours to reach the top and the view was breathtaking. We could see the city of Dalat and beautiful scenery in every direction.

Horses grazing near the start of our hike

One of our guides, Kha, observing the view at the summit

It did make me very sad, however, to see how much litter was at the summit of the mountain. Even though the only way you can reach this summit is by taking a two hours walk on an extremely challenging and narrow mountain path, people still managed to litter styrofoam containers and water bottles everywhere, ruining an otherwise breathtakingly beautiful location. In fact, despite being a beautiful natural setting, I noticed that many places in Dalat have a huge trash problem. The lakes and streets of Dalat had so much trash in them that I felt disgusted, despite the natural beauty everywhere. I think that perhaps Vietnam's tourist economy has grown so quickly in recent years, that certain considerations, such as waste management, have yet to become a major public concern, though I believe it will soon be a huge one. A quote in a tourism magazine in our hotel was very telling of this issue. The magazine, written in both Vietnamese and English, was covering a new race up a mountain near Dalat. Though the translator may not have fully understood the conotations of his words, I think the message is still there. The English version of the article said,

"It must be wasteful if we can not take advantage of the location and favorable environment to exploit as a picnic service combined with climbing. This will contribute to develop the local tourism which has a lot of unwaken potential."

After climbing the first peak, we started our trek up the next peak. The amazing thing about the second peak was that the vegetation changed completely. This mountain was covered in jungle whereas the mountain directly next to it was covered in evergreen forest. I'm sure I learned how this is possible in my freshman ecology course but it is not coming to mind right now... This trail was even more challenging and we had to use our hands to grab tree roots and pull ourselves up the trail almost the entire way up. It was hard to capture just how hard this trail was with a camera but I think this shot of Anna gives you a pretty good idea.

After a delicious lunch at the summit of the second mountain (fortunately, our guides were very environmentally concious and followed leave no trace principles) we practiced repelling. We each practiced a few times on a smaller rock face before hiking a little further down the mountain to the 25m cliff that we would descend. Repelling down the cliff was extremely fun and not as scary as I imagined.

Getting read to descend the 25m cliff

We then hiked the rest of the way down the mountain (this was not as much fun because it began to downpour). At the end of the hike, we went to see a nearby minority village. This one was a little done up for tourists which I found a little disturbing, but was nevertheless interesting. Our guides were at least honest about this part of the tour and didn't have any pretenses. They showed us a traditional minority house and then explained that they don't actually live there anymore. We went home muddy and exhausted, but very satisfied with our trip.

A muddy but happy pair of hikers finished with our trip

The next day, despite being incredibly sore, we set out for some more sightseeing. We ended up getting in a fair amount of exercising as the sights in Dalat are very spread out. We walked around the lake and saw the Dalat flower gardens, then headed over to the cable cars. The cable cars were very pretty and offered great views of mountains, lakes, and agriculture. At the other end of the cable car was a group of Bhuddist temples with beautiful views of the mountains and lakes.

The Dalat flower gardens

The cable cars

The temples

Then we took a trip to Datanla Falls. The falls were very pretty, but Ithaca has spoiled me too much. The falls were very touristy and I couldn't help but think "This waterfall is about the size of the one that was ten feet from my dorm last year." The falls near my dorm were also free of admission and did not have souvenier shops everywhere.

Datanla Falls

We finished the day with another trip to the night market where we had a great time picking out Engrish t-shirts. I am modeling mine below.

Betrer said

The Twigay ENTHUSIAST YOU JUST SUPPOSEDLY

Today, we finally returned home from our exciting trip. The bus ride was also fairly exciting. The road to Dalat is a little terrifying and we got held up a couple times when a herd of water buffalo crossed the road, but everyone made it home safely. Now to bed before my next big adventure in Can Tho tomorrow!

Chào các anh các chị. Hôm qua tôi đi Can Thơ và bây giờ tôi ở nhà của bắc Hiên. Tôi có thời gian trước Anna đi Can Thơ và ăn tối nên tôi sẽ bất đầu viết blog bằng tiếng Việt. (I hope the characters show up on this computer. Some of them are not showing up but maybe it will be okay in the final post. If not, I'll correct them when I get back to Saigon).

Từ Chủ Nhật đến Thứ Tư Anna và tôi ở Đà Lạt ở miền trung Việt Nam. Đà Lạt nói tiếng ở Việt Nam vì có cảnh đẹp và trời dễ chịu. Nhiều người đi du lịch ở Đà Lạt nhưng vì mùa mưa nên Đà Lạt không đông người. Anna và tôi rất thích trời ở Đà Lạt nhưng chắc là những người Việt thấy trời lạnh quá. Nhiều người bán áo len và áo khoác và tôi thấy những người Việt mặc!

Anna và tôi ở khách sạn mini. Chủ khách sạn rất thân mật và tập nói tiếng Việt với chúng tôi. Chủ ông nói nếu chúng tôi thích léo núi thì nên đi tua với bạn ông. Chủ ông gọi điện thoại bạn ông và sang mai chúng tôi đi tua với hai người hướng dân.

Typhoons and trips

2009-10-01T05:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Some of you have expressed concern about Typhoon Ketsana so I wanted to let everyone know that I am out of harms way. We've had some heavy rain but Ho Chi Minh City should not experience any major problems from the typhoon.

Also a lot of you tell me that you like reading my blog but no one ever comments! So please do, I'd love to hear from you.

In other news, I had two very interesting class field trips recently. The first was to an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. The orphanage had mostly children with special needs, such as children with Down Syndrome. Another one of Alyce's great contacts was able to get us into the orphanage. Vi wanted to work their previously as her service placement but they didn't want anyone from America working there because they thought we might have swine flu. When we went, at first the guards wouldn't let us in but the woman we went with bought them breakfast and promised that we would wear face masks and they eventually let us in. We played with the children and helped feed some of the smaller ones breakfast. The children all wanted to be picked up because they are taken care of, but there are so many that they don't get many chances to be picked up. It was so sad because I'd give a piggy back ride to one kid but then all the other ones wanted one, but the first child wouldn't want to let go. After playing with them, we went to visit the babies in the nursery. Most of these babies did not have developmental problems. Some did, but most of them were abandoned at the nearby church's doorstep. We helped feed all the babies their bottles and held them and played with them. They were so cute and I had such a difficult time leaving. Our program director had to tell me that we were going several times but I felt terrible leaving the baby that I was feeding before her bottle was finished.

The next day went with a church group to two ethnic minority villages near the Cambodian border. We went to give food and money to the villagers and moon cakes and lanterns to the children for the mid-autumn festival. We saw the villagers do traditional dances and gave food to them. The priest who we went with talked about how he came every two months to give food to supplement the villagers' diets because most of them work on rubber plantations or farm and only make about 8000 đ per day, or about 50-60 cents. He also tries to encourage them to keep their cultural traditions such as traditional dancing and weaving cloth for traditional skirts. Many ethnic minorities try to emulate the Kinh, the ethnic majority in Vietnam and wear jeans and t-shirts instead of traditional clothing. The pastor was telling them that they should be proud of their culture and keep their identities.

The oldest woman in the village, at 86, sits with the bags of food an presents that we are about to give out

Some of the older women in the village play gongs to welcome us

After visiting the first village, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that I think was owned by a friend of the priest. Our lunch included some interesting dishes such as a whole chicken (including the head), deer (though I've never seen a Vietnamese deer), wild boar, and fish ball soup, all cooked in front of us. A drunk guy also came to our table and started trying to get me and Anna to drink with him while Alyce was freaking out a little bit. He kept talking about how he didn't like Vietnamese girls, he liked Japanese girls and white girls. Then his friend came over and told him not to bow to foreigners because he was sort of leaning over the table that we were sitting at. All in all it was a pretty entertaining lunch.

Cooking the deer meat

After lunch, we went to visit a second village where we gave out more things and met with more people. This was an interesting experience because it made me think a lot about charity in Vietnam. So far, most of the charities I've been to have been Catholic and I have to say I greatly admire the work that they are doing. They provide many much needed services where public service is greatly lacking. I was especially impressed with the remarkable doctors that I met at the HIV clinic that we visited earlier. They were completely selfless and worked 13-14 hour days for extremely little pay. I was also impressed that despite being a Catholic charity, they gave HIV patients counseling on safe sex practices and how to use condoms. Now, all of this being said, there were some things about this trip that I was very disappointed with. Below is a picture of the church that the church group we went with helped build in the second village.

Now here is a picture of another church that they are building near the village

Alyce and I went away from the group and explored on our own and found some houses like this. It's basically some sticks in the ground with leaves for a roof.
I can appreciate that the church brought poor people food and that they are providing jobs through the church's construction, but sometimes I wonder if their priorities are in order. Sorry to end on a somewhat pessimistic note, but my next post will be about mid-autumn festival activities so that should be a bit happier!

Tôi mới có hai chuyên đi với chương trình CET hay lắm. Thứ ba, chúng tôi đi một trại mồ côi. Chúng tôi có dịp chơi với các bé nhỏ. Tôi thấy buồn lắm vì những đưa bé có sự tàn tật như Down Syndrome. Tôi tuy buồn nhưng vẫn thích chơi vơi các bé nhỏ. Tất cả các bé thân thiện và dễ tương. Tôi giúp những đưa bé ăn sáng. Khi giám đốc Alyce nói các sinh viện phải về nhà tôi không muốn đi vì muốn chơi với các bé nhỏ nửa.

Thứ tứ tôi phải dậy lúc 4g sáng để đi thăm một làng nghèo gần biên giới Camphuchia. Chúng tôi đi với một nhóm đạo Thiên chúa và cho người nghèo đồ ăn và tiền. Chúng tôi cũng cho các con ở làng bánh trung thu và đèn. Người ở làng múa truyền thống.

Binh Hoa Part II

2009-09-27T05:38:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to go back to Bien Hoa (Trang's hometown) for the second weekend in a row. This time we stayed at Loan's house, or rather houses, but more about that later. We started out shopping in teams, with each of us making around two dishes for a competition that Loan came up with. Trang and I went to the market right by her house while the other pairs went to a market near Loan's house. Trang and I picked out vegetables, fruit, beef, and shrimp for our dishes.

The market near Loan's house

We headed to Loan's house to make our dishes. Trang and I made canh chua, which is sour soup. This is soup with shrimp, pineapple, tamarind, and vegetables. We also made a stir-fry with beef and vegetables and a dish with mushrooms and greens. The other dishes were eggrolls, mango salad with shrimp, fried fish, and one other dish which I can't remember. We finished the meal with a selection of tropical fruits.

Hanh flipping the egg rolls in the hot oil

Me stirfrying some carrots and greenbeans. There is a little stove under the pan.

Vi posing with the whole spread of dishes that we made

After we cooked and ate lunch, Loan surprised us all by saying, "Ok, now we're going to my other house." For some reason, her family has two houses. The first house, where we cooked, was very similar to Trang's house. Her other house was just a few blocks away and was very fancy. It was a brand new three story townhouse with big screen TVs and a Western style kitchen. She also had a karaoke machine which everyone loved so we spent the next few hours singing karaoke. Or rather the Vietnamese students did. Anna, Vi, and I got a little tired after going through the very short selection of Vietnamese songs that we knew but I've found that Vietnamese people really love karaoke. When they were finally done singing, we went to go see a fortune teller in Trang's neighborhood. I understood very little of what she said because I am not at all accustomed to Vietnamese fortune telling vocabulary. Even Vi needed a few translations from the Vietnamese roommates. Here are a few of her fortunes.

There is a man in the United States who loves you but you don't love him back

This year Anna will have a lot more money than you

An older Vietnamese man will follow you and tell you that he loves you, but really he just wants his money. You should give me all of your money. (My roommates said she's joking, mostly)

Your scholarship application is doing well

You're clueless about Vietnam, be careful

Don't get married this year, wait a year or two

(To my question, will I have children?) If you're not careful, you'll get pregnant this year

We finished the evening by having dinner and walking around a pretty park by the river. All in all, it was another wonderful weekend.

A bridge over the river at night

A wedding and a birthday party!

2009-09-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the very exciting opportunity to go to a Vietnamese wedding. My roommate’s boyfriend’s cousin was getting married and Trang was nice enough to invite Anna and me to the wedding in her hometown and to stay at her house the night before. We got to meet her family and have dinner with them. Trang’s ten year old brother took us on a tour of the town, including his favorite place in the whole town, the supermarket. We also got to meet a lot of Trang's friends from home. We all went to a beautiful cafe by a river. Then we went to the town's large night market where I bought earrings for the wedding the next day. Finally, I got to experience a Vietnamese karaoke bar. Unfortunately Anna and I have only learned one song in Vietnamese but we sang that one, attempted to follow along with a few others and did two Beatles songs.

Playing a board game with Trang and her little brother

The next day we had breakfast at a great noodle place in the alley where Trang lives and got our hair done for the wedding. That was quite a funny experience. Anna had just gotten her hair curled and the hairdresser was spraying her hair with hairspray. We all closed our eyes to avoid getting hairspray in them and when we looked up, Anna's hair was gold. Apparently the hairdresser thought that Anna's black hair would look nice with some gold, glittery highlights. She eventually got her hair returned to normal color but we all had a good laugh. The wedding itself was a lot of fun. Waiters brought out course after course of delicious food while we were entertained by various singers. The bride and groom went around to visit all of the tables and talk with their guests and I got to practice Vietnamese with the people sitting at my table. Throughout this, the bride changed wedding dresses several times. The first was a traditional, white, Western style wedding dress followed by, what can only be described as a series of 80s prom dresses.

Trang, me, Anna, the bride and groom, Trang's boyfriend

Tuesday, we had a birthday celebration for Anna who just turned 21! We went out for a special dinner of bánh căn, small fried cakes, they are a little difficult to describe but were very delicious. After that, we made a surprise (for Anna) visit to a coffee shop with live music. We listened to some classical violin playing followed by a rehearsal of a band doing covers of really old American songs like "Money, money, money" and "Yellow polka dot bikini." Then the violin player came back and played happy birthday on the violin and we brought out a cake for Anna. She was very surprised! I've attached a video of Loan singing a special birthday song for Anna. Sorry that it's sideways, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it. Maybe one you technical types out there can point me in the right direction.

Cuối tuần sau tôi có dịp đi lễ cưới của họ của bạn trai của Trang. Trang mời Sara và Anna ở nhà Trang tối trước ngày lễ cưới. Anna và tôi gặp bố mẹ của Trang và em trai Trang, Thi. Thi chớ Anna và tôi đi tour nơi quê Trang. Tôi hỏi Thi "Em thích nơi nào nhất ở thành phố này?" và em trả lời "Siêu thị!" Nên chúng tôi đi siêu thị. Sau đó chúng ta ăn tối với gia đình Trang. Sau đó, Trang, Anna, và tôi đi quân cà phê bỡ sống và gặp các bạn của Trang. Tôi có dịp tập nói tiếng Việt và các bạn của Trang dễ chịu.

Hospital visit, water puppets, and cooking class

2009-09-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

This has been quite a busy week for me and I only have a short time to write before I am off to my roommate's hometown for the weekend to have dinner with her family and attend her boyfriend's cousin's wedding. I have been having all sorts of trouble with this website lately from pictures not uploading to deleting blog posts, to having the Vietnamese characters not show up so hopefully this post works out alright.

Thursday Alyce arranged for us to meet with Vietnam's #1 lock and key mogul who is also a benefactor to many charities in Saigon. She visits the city's largest government run cancer hospital to give presents and money to children with cancer and their families. We were fortunate enough to go with her to help her distribute milk and mooncakes for the mid-autumn festival. We also got to play with the children. I really enjoyed this because I had a very nice conversation with a cute five year old boy. Talking with children in Vietnamese is fun because I can have very manageable conversations like "What color is your shirt?" "What animal is this?" that wouldn't necessarily fly with an adult. Afterward the boy's mother said to me "Chị nói tiếng Việt giỏi lắm. Chị nên lấy chồng một người Việt Nam." This means, "You speak Vietnamese very well, you should marry a Vietnamese man." The trip to the cancer center was also very sad though because the conditions at a government run clinic are not very good. There were about 40 children living in only 6 medium size rooms. Many had to sleep on the ground because there weren't enough beds. The women we met with informed us that most of the children were terminal and about 90% of them would die in the hospital. All the children at least had rooms though. There was not enough room in the hospital for all the adults with cancer so many had to sleep in hammocks outside the hospital. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to visit this place because it is often difficult for foreigners to gain access to government clinics.

After that, we went to see a traditional Vietnamese water puppets show. The show was very impressive and featured elaborate puppets including fish that shot water out of their mouths and dragons that spewed fire. I have posted a short video clip of the performance.

Today, the big excitement was that I was able to teach a cooking class at the Little Rose Shelter. Anna came with me to help out and we both had a really great time. I thought it would be fun to make chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Yesterday, Loan and I went out looking for ingredients. We were unable to find baking powder but the pancakes were still quite good without them, just a little flatter. We also couldn't find chocolate chips but we found M&Ms and a chocolate bar which we cut up into little pieces. Trang helped me out by teaching me new vocabulary such as "flip" "batter" and "stir" and I taught the girls a few new English words like "flour" "sugar" and "milk." For the most part, I explained how to make the pancakes in Vietnamese but the girls sometimes had a difficult understanding my pronunciation of the words. What was really funny was that one of the girls, who didn't speak English, could somehow understand my bad Vietnamese better than anyone else and acted as "translator" meaning she just repeated what I said, fixing the pronunciation and grammar so that everyone else could understand. I was really impressed at how quickly the girls caught on. Anna and I only made one pancake as an example and then the girls took over completely. They figured out exactly how to adjust the heat and when to flip the pancakes without any instruction. From my time at the Little Rose Shelter, I am extremely impressed at how well they take care of the girls. They let them play and be kids, but also teach them how to be extremely independent and self-sufficient so that they can be successful after they leave the shelter. I think many American teenagers could learn a lot from the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. The girls declared the pancakes "ngon!" delicious, and distributed them to all the plates that they were preparing for breakfast. It made me really happy that they all wanted to get their picture taken with me and many asked when I would return again.

Teaching the girls English words for some of the ingredients

A traditional Vietnamese breakfast of fish, rice, cucumber soup and M&M pancakes

One of the girls expertly flipping a pancake

Tuần này tôi bận quá!

Thứ năm, tôi có dịp đi bệnh viện ung bướu chỉnh phụ. Tôi đi với một người giàu, giám đốc công tý chìa khóa ở Việt Nam. Cô ấy thường đi thăm bệnh viện ấy và cho các em bị ổm đồ ăn, tặng, và tiền. Tôi chới với các em bẻ. Tôi thấy các em bé rất vui vẻ. Tôi thích nói với em bẻ vì tôi có thể hỏi "Cài náy màu nào?" và "Con này là con nào?" được. Nếu tôi hỏi người lơn các câu hỏi này thì thấy hơi ngu! Sau khi đi thăm bệnh viện, tôi thấy rất buồn. Bệnh viện này không có đủ phòng cho tất cả bệnh viên nên nhiều bệnh viên phải ngủ ngoài bệnh viện. Tất cả các em bé ngủ trong bệnh viện nhưng khoảng 40 đứa bé ở sáu phòng thôi. Tôi biết ơn có dịp đi bệnh viện vì khó người nước ngoài đi thăm bệnh viện chỉnh phụ.

Sau khi đó, tôi đi xem múa rối nước. Tôi rất thích múa rối nước và tải lên một bộ phim.

Sáng thứ sau, tôi đi Mai Ẩn Hoa Hồng Nhỏ để dạy các em gài làm "pancakes" với M&Ms. Tôi cũng dạy những từ bằng tiếng Anh như "flour" "stir" "sugar" and "milk." Tôi giải tích làm pancakes bắng tiếng Việt, nhưng nhiều đứa trẻ thấy tôi khó hiểu. Một đứa trẻ hiểu tôi hơn và em ấy là "người dịch" nhưng không dịch tiếng Anh bằng tiếng Việt. Em ấy dịch tiếng Việt xấu bằng tiếng Việt tốt! Tôi thấy lớp nấu ăn vui lắm và hình như các em gài cũng thích lớp ấy. Tôi thấy các em gái rất thông minh và độc lập.

2009-09-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Gibbons at the Cu Chi Wildlife Rescue Center. The man giving our tour explained that they make that siren like noise when they are being aggressive and that they do not like large groups of females.

Over the weekend, we took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and a wildlife rescue center. The tunnels were quite eerie. For those of you that have never heard of the Cu Chi Tunnels, they are a series of tunnels near Saigon that were used during the Vietnam War. These tunnels were very important because they provided refuge for resistance fighters. Even though the tunnels had been widened for Western tourists and reinforced with cement, it was still quite a tight fit for our whole group, which consisted entirely of small females. I was telling everyone how excited I was to see them but when the time came to actually go in them I was so scared! The tunnels were very dark and full of bats. I've always been a little scared of bats but living in Vietnam, I've been getting used to the ones that fly around at night. However, I was still not prepared to be in a very small tunnel with them. After having bats fly within an inch of my face in two of the short tunnels, I was a lame tourist and refused to go in any more of them.

A random place where you could eat potatoes by lantern underground...

The Cu Chi Wildlife Rescue Center was a lot more fun. The center takes care of animals, most of them threatened or endangered species, that were being sold on the black market then confiscated by the government. Above is a video of some of the gibbons that we saw. The center also had Asiatic bears, endangered otter species, exotic birds, snakes, and a species of turtles that only have about 100 remaining in the world. The animals that were only recently taken away from their homes are rehabilitated and released into their natural habitats while others that have been out of the wild for too long to survive on their own will stay in the center or at a zoo forever.

We also went to a beautiful temple near Cu Chi that commemorated the soldiers from Cu Chi that died during the war. Finally, we ate at a place near the water that had a great view. There we ate a massive feast. There was so much good food and I felt very full after wards. I will be gone for the whole weekend this weekend because my roommate is taking me to her boyfriend's cousin's wedding. I am so excited to see a real Vietnamese wedding and meet Trang's family!

Back again

2009-09-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry! I know that I have not posted for awhile. There is a lot to update on! Today I did not have class so I have some time to write. Last weekend, our class went to the Reunification palace and the War Remnants Museum. The reunification palace was pretty boring. It was the former residence of the president of South Vietnam. After the war, it was turned into a museum but some official functions are still held there. We basically just went through a series of fancy meeting rooms that had no descriptions on them and we were crowded out by a huge group of Chinese tourists.

The outside of the reunification palace

One of the many fancy meeting rooms

After that, we went to the war remnants museum. It was one of the strangest museums I have ever seen. It was very interesting, but quite different from museums in the United states. There were a lot of photographs and maps with paragraphs in Vietnamese and English. The point of the museum seemed to be to evoke strong emotions. There were many, many photos of agent orange victims and graphs of deforestation and land area bombed. There was even a display of deformed fetuses of agent orange victims. There were also a couple of bizarre souvenir shops selling everything from Obama's autobiography to I Heart Vietnam t-shirts, to Vietnamese dolls. I found the museum to be extremely one-sided. It made the war seem to be entirely between the Americans and the Vietnamese as opposed to the Americans aiding the South Vietnamese against the North. Although I personally don't think either of those views are entirely accurate, I think that the museum could have been a little more balanced in its portrayal of the war. However, the museum was by no means anti-American. It has a large section on American protests of the Vietnam War and tried to show that the country as a whole was very against the war.

Sunday, Anna and I went to Cho Lon, Saigon's Chinatown. There were so many shops crammed into such a small area, it was truly amazing. And while people were somewhat agressive about selling things, it was much, much better than Benh Thanh market where I was grabbed from all sides by vendors. I think I expected it to be more like China though. The food seemed to be mostly Vietnamese, and almost everyone spoke Vietnamese. The only different seemed to be that some shops had Chinese writing on the shops as well as Vietnamese.

An Dong Plaza, the central shopping area of Cho Lon

I am continuing to volunteer at The Little Rose Shelter. It is sometimes a little frustrating because they don't seem to have a clear idea of what they want me to do there and language is definitely a large barrier for me to overcome. Some members of the staff speak English, but it is about the same level or worse than my Vietnamese and the girls only speak Vietnamese. At the staff's request, I've been teaching them English because they want to be able to communicate better with foreign NGOs. I also spend time playing with the children. Sometimes this is frustrating because I have a difficult time understand their accents and there is a lot that I cannot convery, but it can also be rewarding. Today they taught me some Vietnamese songs and and how to make the baskets that they sell for fundraising at craft fairs. When it was time for me to leave, the girls all asked when I would be back again. When I said Monday, they asked if I could come tomorrow. Today I finally felt that if nothing else, I was at least able to provide some friendship.

A 13 year old girl at the Little Rose Shelter practicing painting her fingernails

Wednesday, our class had the very unique privledge of visiting a not-for-profit HIV clinic on the outskirts of the city. I was extremely grateful for this oportunity because I am interested in public health and especially health initiatives in Vietnam. I am considering writing my Biology and Society honors thesis on some topic related to healthcare in Vietnam. Following are some of my notes on the clinic and things that I learned about healthcare in Vietnam.

Today I visited a nonprofit hospital run by a catholic church. I am leaving out names and places at the request of the doctors and the woman who took us to see the clinic. Although there are government run clinics, they are often crowded and discriminate. The doctor I talked to said that the government clinics will often turn away criminals or injection drug users. The woman who took us to see the clinic also said that it is very difficult for foreign visitors to visit government clinics because they communist government wants to have tight control and not show the problems with public health. The surgeon that we talked to, who is also the founder of the clinic, was one of the first surgeons in Saigon to operate on HIV positive patients. Government clinics refuse this. Government provides ARVs for pregnant women. If patients can afford it, a small fee of 20,000d is charged for a visit. If they cannot afford it, they can wait at the free clinic for services but must wait longer. If someone travels to the clinic from far away, they provide lodging for poor people to stay. We had to wear masks because tuberculosis, a common opportunistic infection in developing countries, is frequently seen in these patients. We saw patients whose tuberculosis had spread to other parts of their body and patients who showed the wasting effects of HIV. While I was there, I saw a seven month old HIV positive baby and his parents. The parents had gotten HIV through unsafe sex and the mother passed it on to the baby. Because they did not know that the baby had HIV, the doctors at the hospital gave the baby a shot that is routine for newborns but deadly for those with a weakened immune system because it is a live shot. The baby had a severe lymph node infection from it. The nurses were attempting to clean the wounds on the lymph nodes. This was occurring on a piece of newspaper on a plastic lawn chair while the baby’s parents looked on. The clinic is run entirely on private funds and donations. It does not receive government help. The surgeon we spoke to works long hours, often going to work before his children wake up and coming home after they have gone to bed, yet he still took the time to give us a very thorough tour of the clinic and answer all the questions that we had. In addition to treating patients, the clinic also provides counseling for those who come in. Because most of the patients are poor and uneducated, they do not know much about the diseases transmission and need information about how to prevent transmission to others. Another interesting aspect of the organization was that they tried to hire and train some nurses from the highlands of Vietnam. They represent an ethnic minority in Vietnam that has historically faced a lot of discrimination. The surgeon explained that it was his hope that the nurses could go back home and use the skills they learned to help their communities.

An assistant attempts to calm and distract the baby while nurses tend to its wounds

In the examining room with the doctors. Because tuberculosis is a common oportunistic infection in developing countries, we were required to wear masks for our safety as well as the patients.

An HIV education poster hanging in the doctor's office

I will write my Vietnamese entry tomorrow, but now I must go to bed because we are waking up at 5 in the morning tomorrow to drive to Cu Chi. Also my Vietnamese keyboard seems to have stopped working... sorry for the abrupt end.

Xin lỗi các anh chị. Tôi không viết được bao lâu. Vì hôm nay không có lớp nên tôi có thể viết Blog của tôi. Cuối tuần trước, chúng tôi đi Dinh Thống Nhất và bảo táng nhớ chiến tranh. Dinh Thống Nhất khá chán. Trong khi chiến tranh Mỹ, tổng thống miền nam ở cung này. Bây giờ Dinh Thống Nhất là bảo thàng và tỉnh thoảng có cuộc hơp chính phủ. Dinh Thống Nhất không có nhiều thông tin và đông quá.

Sau khi đó, chúng tôi đi bảo táng nhớ chiến tranh. Bảo táng này hay lắm. Bảo táng có nhiều hính chiến tranh và nạn nhân chất độc màu dâu cam. Tôi thấy bảo táng buồn lắm nhưng tôi thấy bảo táng chỉ có một ý kiện thôi. Bảo táng làm hình như ngươi Mỹ xâm lược Việt Nam và không giải tích người Việt Nam miễn Nam cũng trận chiến người Việt miễn Bắc.

National Day

2009-09-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Today and yesterday I got the day off of classes because of National Day, a national holiday in Vietnam. To celebrate, we all went to a beautiful park just outside of the city. It was a little touristy but interestingly enough all the tourists seemed to be Vietnamese. We walked around the park for awhile then ate at a truly impressive buffet that they had there. The buffet had 84 dishes. Some of the interesting things that I tried included water buffalo and snails in coconut sauce. After dinner, the park was lit up with lanterns and a musical group played traditional Vietnamese music.

Me and the other girls in the program at the park

The park lit up at night with lanterns

A musical group playing after dinner

Mặc dù Ngày Quốc Khánh, hôm qua và hôm nay tôi không có lớp. Các sinh viên khác ở CET và tôi đi một làng đẹp lắm để ăn mừng Ngày Quốc Khánh. Chúng tôi đi làng vòng và ăn Buffet đặc biệt miễn Nam. Buffet có 84 món và tôi ăn nhiều món như trâu hầm sả và ốc len xào dừa. Sau khi ăn tối, chung ta nghẹ nhạc và ngồi và xem nhiều đền.

First Week of Classes, Life in Saigon, Tourist Activities

2009-08-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend the entire Vietnamese contingency of our group, Vi and our roommates Loan, Trang, and Hanh, has gone to visit family so Anna and I took the opportunity to be American tourists today. We went to the Vietnamese history museum, the botanical gardens, the zoo, and the large shopping center, Diamond plaza. The history museum was very nice. It was set in a very beautiful Chinese style building and had a lot of artifact and art displays. Thanks to Professor Paterson, I was able to identify the Buddhist and Hindu imagery in the artwork and talk about the four positions of the Buddha, the objects that Vishnu holds, and the inclusion of the lotus in artwork. Introduction to Southeast Asia for the win!

Vietnamese history museum from the outside

The Hindu sculptures I was able to identify

After that, we went to the zoo and botanical gardens. The gardens had a lot of bonsai trees as well as a surprisingly large collection of cacti. I'm not usually a huge fan of zoos but this one was not bad for being in such a big city. The zoo had a large collection of animals native to Southeast Asia and Southern China with my favorite probably being the Asiatic black bear. Another cool part was that some of the monkeys didn't really have enclosures and were kind of just swinging around the trees.

Botancial Gardens

After that I had my first bành mí, a Vietnamese specialty that shows a fusion of Vietnamese with French influence. It is a baugette with pork, Vietnamese vegetables, and some type of sauce which I do not know the name of.

Me eating bành mí

Then we headed over to the Notre Dame cathedreal next to Diamond plaza and a very nice park where old people like to do calesthenics in the morning and where young people like to have coffee at night. Going into Diamond plaza was kind of a reverse culture shock after a week in Vietnam. The store has several stories of designer clothing and makeup with a Pizza Hut, KFC, bowling alley, and arcade games on the top floor.

Notre Dame with Diamond Plaza in the Background

Tonight we plan on going to place that has Vietnamese musicians singing Vietnamese and English songs called "The Acoustic Bar."

Yesterday also marked the end of my first week of classes in Vietnam and so far things have been going pretty well. Sometimes I get a little homesick or overwhelmed by speaking Vietnamese almost constantly (Friday I had three hours of one-on-one Vietnamese class, two hours of volunteering at the shelter, and a lot of Vietnamese conversation with my roommate), but overall this is turning out to be a great experience. I alternate with being very impressed with how much vocabulary I have and how much more easily I can speak with being frustrated when people can't understand my basic sentences because of my accent. Hopefully my frustration will lessen as I become more accustomed to people's natural pace of talking and the subtle (to me) differences in tones. In other news, Anna has learned more about the rooster, or, in fact, roosters, that we hear outside our window every morning. One early morning when she was taking a walk she discovered them being boiled alive in a giant pot of water. No wonder they are so loud...

Cuồi tuần này sinh viên Việt Nam, Vi và các bạn phần phòng, đi thăm gia đình nên Anna và tôi tìm hiểu Sài Gòn. Trước hết chung tôi đến bảo tàng lịch sử Việt Nam.

Starting classes, volunteering

2009-08-24T03:24:00.000-07:00

My guest house at night

Yesterday our teacher explained our class schedule to us and talked about some of the trips that we would be taking. I am extremely excited for the trips. The ones that are coming up are a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, a wildlife reserve, a trip around the Mekong Delta, and seeing the reunification palace and museums around the city. After lunch we met our roommates. My roommate's name is Trang and she goes to the foreign trade university which people here say in the best university in Saigon. Right away we started bonding with a very challenging game in which we had to go around the city and find certain things and take pictures of them. We worked in pairs with our new roommate. We got one point for one roommate being in the picture and two points if we asked someone else to take a picture with both of us in it. I was extremely embarassed to do this, especially since we were asking to take pictures with very odd things like a bành mí vendor or a tailor specializing in áo dài. We were only allowed to take the bus or walk. It may have been far out of my comfort zone but it was a good way to get me to speak Vietnamese with strangers, learn how to use the buses and get to know my roommate. I'm starting to get used to the buses here but they can be a little intimidating. They don't really stop when you get on or off, they just sort of slow down and there is usually someone standing by the door to push/pull you on/off. I think I'm probably one of the first white person that anyone has seen riding the bus as well. I've posted a few pictures from the photo hunt.

My roommate and I looking a display of áo dài

Next to a bánh mì and tofu pudding vendor

Today, we took our placement test for Vietnamese. As I expected, the written portion was fairly easy but I got very shy when it came to the oral portion. Overall I think that I did pretty well but it doesn't really matter because Vi is completely fluent and Anna is a complete beginner so we will all be in our own class anyways. Our classes seem like they will be very challenging and helpful. Monday and Wednesday we have a standard class with reading, writing, speaking, and listening and on Friday, we have a practical where a teacher will give us a conversation task with a stranger from the streets. For example, we might have to ask someone directions to a place or have a discussion about the Vietnam War. Tomorrow is my class "Society and State in contmeporary Vietnam."

Today I also went to my first meeting at the Little Rose Shelter. I have mixed feelings after my first meeting. On one hand I was extremely frustrated because I was supposed to meet with the director at 2 but when i got there, the staff was having a meeting and they made me wait around for 50 minutes only to tell me to come back Wednesday and start work then after I had taken two buses and 40 minutes to get to the shelter on the outskirts of town. I'm still not entirely sure what I will be doing there. On a positive side though, while I was waiting I got to talk with some of the girls there in Vietnamese. My program director warned me that it might be difficult to talk with them and that many were very reserved because of their past experiences but the girls that I spoke with were very friendly and sweet and patient with my Vietnamese. It was also very surprising how young they all seemed. The Little Rose Shelter takes girls age 12-18 but they all seemed younger than that. If I hadn't known this previously and asked some of the girls how old they were, I would have thought that they were between 8 and 13. I suppose I will learn more on Wednesday and hopefully it will still be a very positive experience for me.

Ngày thứ nhất

2009-08-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

Today was my first full day in Vietnam and it has been full of excitement. I woke up very early this morning and went to a meeting with the director of our program. She is a Vietnamese American named Alyce and is very kind and helpful. She talked a lot about the trips we would be taking and the activities that we would be doing throughout the semester. I am getting really excited for our weekend trips and especially our long trip to Hue and Hanoi where we get to take the train and see Central and Northern Vietnam. We each must also submit a proposal for a weekend activity plan during the semester. If anyone has suggestions of things to do within a couple hours drive of the city, I would be happy to hear them. Although very friendly, Alyce spent a lot of time scaring us. She started a lot of sentences with, "I don't want you to be paranoid but..." There are certainly dangers of living in the city but I think overall she prepared us very well for them. The cockroach that I found in my room this morning. My first reaction was to jump up on my chair like a little girl, then to take a picture, then to smash it with my notebook.

Then followed our walking tour of the city. I finally got to face my fear of crossing the streets here. It wasn't so bad with a group of four of us and eventually it actually became kind of fun. If you walk at a slow steady pace, the motorbikes will just go around you and even though it seems that the stop lights are more a suggestion than law, they can make predicting the flow of traffic much easier some times. We saw great alleyway places to eat, fancy department stores, large markets, parks, the famous Notre Dame church, and government buildings. I was amazed how exciting and diverse the city is. We were also taught how to spot "fake cabs" which often wait outside of tourist attractions. After our walking tour we had lunch at a very nice restaurant specializing in bún. It was nice to sit in the air conditioning for awhile as I still have not quite gotten used to walking around in this heat and humidity. This afternoon Anna, another student, and I walked around the city a bit on our own trying to get our bearings and try crossing the streets outselves. We also ate a very nice restaurant for dinner. We ended up going to a pretty nice restaurant for dinner and I was worried that it might be expensive. It amazes me that even at this "expensive" restaurant, the bill came to a little under $5 for the two of us. I have also noticed that the three restaurants we went to, all sit-down places, deliver your food to you less than two minutes after you order. We also had quite a funny experience at dinner. Anna ordered the spring rolls, which are what the restaurant was known for. The waiter brought out my dish and a bowl of bún, Vietnamese rice noodles (vermecelli), with rau, various leafy greens and vegetables as well as a bowl of nước mắm, fish sauce and vinegar. We were both expecting something already rolled with meat inside so we were very confused. Anna started making wraps with the bún and vegetables and started eating the nước mắm like soup! A short while later the waiter brought out Anna's actual dishand all was well. It turned out that what we thought was the meal were just condiments.

Anna and her attempt at a spring roll

Her actual dish

Hôm nay là ngày thừ nhất của tôi ở Việt Nam và tôi rất thích. Sáng nay tôi gặp Alyce, giám đốc của chương trình CET. Chị ấy là người Việt Nam-Mỹ. Chị nói về Việt Nam và chương trình này. Mỗi cuối tuần chúng tôi và bạn cùng phòng của chúng tôi sẽ đi nhiều nơi gần Saigon và một chuyến xa đến Huê và Hà Nội. Nếu tôi muốn đi một nơi gần Saigon thì tôi có thể dề nghị hoạt động và cả lớp sẽ đi. Alyce cũng nói về ngủy hiểm của Việt Nam như xe nhanh và trò lừa đảo.

Sau khi đó chúng tôi đi bộ và xem nhiều nơi nói tiếng ở Saigon. Chung tôi xem Notre Dame, "Diamond Plaza," và một chợ lớn nói tiếng. Tôi tập qua đường và bây giờ tôi thấy qua đường vui lắm! Trời ấm và ẩm và tôi chưa quen trời này nên tôi vui khi chung tá có ăn trưa ở một hiệu ăn với máy lạnh.

Bây giờ em phải đi ngủ tại vì ngày mai chúng tôi sẽ gập Alyce để nói về lớp học ký này. Xin lỗi, tôi biết tôi không viết đủ bằng tiếng Việt. Bây giờ viết bằng tiếng Việt vẫn mất lâu lắm nhưng tôi hy vọng tôi sắp viết bằng tiếng Việt nhanh hơn và giỏi hơn.

Arrival

2009-08-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

It is 5am in Ho Chi Minh City and I am awake. This is partially due to my jet lag, partially due to the rooster that has been cock-a-doodling outside my room for the past 45 minutes. In any case, this seemed like a good chance to update everyone on my trip and my first few hours in Vietnam. I apologize if I am becoming one of those people who gives every little detail of their life. However, at this point, every small thing is very exciting to me.

I left from Detroit Thursday afternoon to fly into Tokyo. The flight was very, very long, but not too terrible. I got a bulkhead seat with no one sitting to my right so it was easy to sleep. On my left was a very sweet Thai couple who I had some very pleasant discussions with. The Tokyo airport, which for some reason I had been fantasizing about, was actually not terribly exciting. Since my flight from Detroit arrived a little late I just walked directly to my next flight, only stopping at the less disappointing, tricked out bathrooms.

The flight to Vietnam was very interesting. As I walked onto the plane, I realized that I was the only white person on board other than the pilot. This wasn't a bad thing but it was an interesting experience for me. I know many people routinely feel this way so it was interesting to see that perspective. On the plane, there were quite a few people wearing masks but strangely, no one seemed that concerned with wearing their mask all the time. It seemed like they kind of took them on and off when they felt like it so I wasn't entirely sure what the point of the masks were. Indeed, when we landed, almost all the officials were wearing them, but many just had them hanging from their ears, not actually covering their nose and mouth. I suppose this is a good example of effective/ineffective policy implementation in public health.

I arrived in HCMC close to midnight but fortunately I was able to find Hue, the person who was picking me up from the program, quite easily. He is a student at the Ho Chi Minh City school of economics and will be an aide for our program. His English is excellent but he was nice enough to help me practice my Vietnamese conversation skills for a bit. I was very worried about my Vietnamese at this point because the woman sitting next to me on the flight to HCMC had a very hard time understanding my Vietnamese but he was able to understand me much better so I felt a bit relieved. We took a cab to my guesthouse which was a very exciting experience. Though the traffic was not terrible at midnight, I still got an idea of how fast paced city life was as cars, motorbikes, and bicycles weaved in and out of each other, miraculously without incident. It was neat to see, even so late at night, that there were such a wide variety of people out and about on the streets. I saw young men on motorbikes, teenage couples, old women in conical hats, and two girls who looked to be about 12 pedaling a bicycle, one on the handlebars.

We arrived at my guesthouse and I got settled in. It seems like the location is very nice. It looks like a very safe area of the city and it is right across the street from my classes. I even felt a little homesick for Cayuga Lodge as I observed all the bats flying around outside. The student who was helping me gave me a key and told me that I could keep the key myself or that I could keep the key with one of the men who worked at the apartment complex with the note, "The other girls wanted to keep their keys because the man is usually drunk." I suppose that settles that... My room is really nice. Though small, in some ways it is nicer than the dorms that I have had at Cornell. There is a TV, refrigerator, a watercooler, air conditioning, and my own bathroom. My roommate will arrive tomorrow. Apparently this is her second year participating in the CET program and she attends Hong Bang University. I am very excited to meet her.

Now that it is finally getting light outside and the rooster seems to have quieted down a bit, I should start getting ready for my morning meeting with the program director. Orientation is today and tomorrow and classes start on Monday. Monday I also meet with the director of the Little Rose Shelter to come up with a work schedule for me and determine what type of work I will be doing at the shelter. Maybe I can even find a good place for some Vietnamese iced coffee...

Tôi rất mệt nhưng tôi sẽ viết ít về chuyến của tôi bằng tiếng Việt. Bây giờ tôi ở Việt Nam và tôi rất thích. Saigon hay và đẹp lắm. Hôm nay tôi, các sinh viện khác, và giám đốc của chương trình đi bộ. Tôi sẽ viết về đi bộ này lấn sau, có lẽ ngày mai. Bây giờ tôi phải đi ngủ một tiến nên tôi có thể tăm dò và đi mua hàng chiều này. Tôi sắp viết!

The final countdown

2009-08-18T04:46:00.000-07:00

I leave for Vietnam in two days and I thought that it was time for a blog update. I am home in East Lansing for a week and am frantically trying to complete all the necessary preparations for Vietnam and say goodbye to all the people that I didn't see all summer and won't see for at least a semester. Yesterday I got my travelers cheques, bought clothes, an adaptor, bug spray, etc. It can be quite challenging to pack light and be prepared for any situation. I suppose the answer is that you can never be prepared for all situations.

In other news, I've learned more about the specifics of my program. There will be three students in total, all from different colleges. It's funny to think that while my peers at Cornell will all be in 200 person plus lecture halls I will have class sizes of 1-3 people. I also learned a little bit more about the volunteer project that I will be working on in Vietnam. I will be doing an internship at The Little Rose Shelter in Ho Chi Minh City. This is a home for women aged 12-18 who have been victims of or are at risk for sexual exploitation. The home was started as a response to Vietnam's problems with sex trafficking and the growing prevalence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in Southeast Asia. The Shelter provides free health care, psychological counseling, vocational classes, and sexual health education. This should be a great experience for me to learn more about public health/international health programs.

I am very excited and nervous. The next time I write will be from Vietnam!

Tôi sẽ đi Việt Nam thứ Năm! Tôi đang ở East Lansing từ một tuần và muốn chuẩn bị và gặp các bạn của tôi tại vì sau khi tôi về Mỹ tôi mới gặp họ. Hôm qua tôi đi mua hàng và đi ngân hành để có séc du lịch. Tôi muốn chuẩn bị nhưng có lễ tôi không thể chuẩn bị dủ được.

Bây giờ, tôi biết nhiều hơn thông tin về chương trình ở Việt Nam. Chương trình của tôi chỉ có ba người thôi. Một người sinh viện học ở trường Carleton và một người sinh viện học ở trương bang Washington. Khi tôi ở Việt Nam tôi sẽ làm việc ở Mai Am Hoa Hồng Nhỏ ở TPHCM. Mai Am Hoa Hồng Nhỏ là nhà giúp người nữ trẻ, tuổi 12-18, ai lâm vào cảnh nguy hiểm (tôi không biết giải thích chương trình này bằng tiếng Việt). Tôi hy vọng tôi sẽ biết về sức khoẻ và tập nói tiếng Việt.

Tôi sắp viết từ Việt Nam!

2009-07-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm just trying out this blog business for my semester abroad at the request of some friends and family. My posts will be in English and Vietnamese and I will try to update periodically with stories and pictures from Vietnam.

Chào các bạn! Những người có hỏi tôi rằng tôi viết blog khi tôi học ở Việt Nam học kỳ thu này. Tôi sẽ viết bằng tiếng Việt và tiếng Anh và tôi sẽ có những câu chuyện và ảnh.