Full Moon Festival

Sorry this entry is coming a bit after the fact, it's been getting really busy over here. The city of Ha Noi spent a whole week preparing for the Full Moon Festival. This included decorations, thousands of stores opening up to sell mooncake, and the emergence of numerous Lunar Markets. The markets prove a bit troublesome since they literally shut down traffic in most areas of the Old Quarter, making my commute from work a bit more intense than normal. If I had written this during the actual week of the festival, it would have included a lot more complaining about absurd traffic jams, but at this point I can reflect on how interesting it all was. The Lunar Festival is basically an excuse to give mooncakes to people, and for children to dress up in costumes, carrying around crazy light-up toys. It's technically a holiday for the children, so my school had an entire day devoted to Full Moon celebrations. This means that all the students arrived in various costumes (ranging from Spider man and white fluffly fairy dresses, to bird masks and strange capes). It was very cute, despite the level of student craziness the festival was paired with. We had a very energetic dragon dancer, some Vietnamese clowns (who definitely weren't funny), some blind people singing traditional songs, and a midget Michael Jackson dancer. All in all, a slightly strange mix of performers, but the students had a great time. As fun as it was, the traffic on the actual night of the Full Moon Festival (this past Wednesday) was horrific. It was basically people standing still on motorbikes for about 15 minutes per intersection. You can imagine how long it took me to get home...

The night after was Parent-Teacher night. I had to work from 7:30 AM to 4 PM, then host Art Club until 5 PM, cram in some dinner, and begin getting my classroom ready by 6 PM. A very hectic day, but since most of the parents don't speak English, my entire presentation was through the interperter, making it very easy for me. I did a lot of standing around, nodding, and smiling, which suited me just fine after a long day of work. By the time I was finally able to go home (nearing 8PM) I couldn't imagine my day improving at all, but en route back to my house, I found that all the 1,000 Year Anniversary lights on my street had finally been lit! The lights have been hanging but not turned on for almost 2 months now, so I have been waiting patiently for the night they were finally switched on. Luckily, it was on a night when I needed cheering up the most, so it was a really welcome event in my evening. Hanging lights, lotus lanterns, and lighted dove banners span the street of Dien Bien Phu, crossing my house, and continuing down the street. In addition to the lights, flowers have been placed everywhere, making it currently one of the most beautiful streets in Ha Noi. Obviously this makes me very proud to live here, as I am bombarded with decorations on a daily basis. I think I will go out tonight with my camera to take some pictures so some of you back home can get an idea of just how crazy all these lights are. Ha Noi has really outdone itself decorating for the 1,000 Year party, I've never seen the city so lit up, so clean, or with so many flowers. Every day someting new appears in honor of the celebration, and I know that once it finally hits, the whole city is going to be in chaos. I plan on not taking my motorbike out if I can help it, since traffic is sure to be at a standstill, but I have to work the whole week. This fact leaves me a bit apprehensive about my daily commute, but Son told me that the government is making people from the countryside park their bikes outside Ha Noi and take a bus in, in an effort to curb traffic. Even with this system in place, I still think it's going to be insane, but I guess I will just have to wait to find out.

The Mouse

I had a very interesting run-in with a Vietnamese mouse last night (I say Vietnamese mouse because it has a very long tail and huge ears, it looks a bit more exotic than your typical New Jersey house mouse). After a hard day at work it felt so great to get into my bed, shut out the lights, and doze off. But right before I hit the wave of sleep, I heard this chewing scratching noise. I turned over in my bed, figuring it was my fan making weird noises, and tried to get back to sleep. Two minutes later, I hear a loud "plop!" and then the scratching noise ensued. Given my experiences with mice living in the walls of my bedroom in my first house in Berkeley Heights, this sound was all too familiar to ignore. With the intention of scaring the mouse away I noisily jumped out of bed and flicked on the lights. Sure enough, my bedroom was empty, my door to the living room was closed, and the only sign of life was two little mouse poops sitting directly on top of my bed side table. Obviously this fact was quite unsettling as I realized how close this creature had been to my head. I made a quick investigation of my room, found a couple more "mouse presents", then did all my best to get back into bed to sleep. By this point, I was getting nervous that it was not merely a mouse but a very large and scary Vietnamese rat, so I left my light on. I always close my bedroom door at night, so as I was laying, staring at the door, sure that some huge monster rat was going to walk through on his hind legs, I see this tiny little spot running from one side of my door to the other. I quickly grabbed my glasses to get a better view, and in doing so, scared it away. Relieved that it was such a tiny mouse (rather than a large rat) I relaxed a bit and tried to get back to sleep. Before this could happen, I heard the now familiar "plop!" and the chewing noise again. I slowly turned over, and reached for my glasses to see if I could make out the critter. With glasses on, I was able to see this tiny mouse climbing vertically up my wall, about 5 feet high until it "plop!", hit the ground and started frantically trying to nose its way under my door. It seemed quite focused on the area by the hinge, as it stuck it's head in, twisted it's body 360 degrees, flung its tail in circles, and starting chomping away in an effort to get through. I was quite impressed by the efforts of this tiny thing, and felt myself taking pity on it. Therefore, I got out of bed (but not before it ran into a corner), opened my door a crack, and laid back down to watch its escape. Minutes later, it was back out trying to climb up my wall, unaware that I had allowed it a means of exit. After falling back down yet again with a very unnerving smack, it ran along the door until it found the crack, happily slipping out. After its tail dissapeared, I slammed my door behind it; I was pleased to have the brave little mouse hanging out in my living room rather than with me by my bed, as I was quite content sleeping alone. The rest of the night, I was unbothered by any noises, and went to sleep quite satisfied with freeing the mouse from my bedroom.

Family

In light of some recent occurrences over in the East Coast, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my experience within the scope of family. The only reason I am here in the first place is because so many family members supported my decision to live and work abroad in a country they knew virtually nothing about. It's definitely hard to be so far away (and to send a loved one so far away) when heavy things are happening on the home front, but I am thankful that my incredible experiences over here in Ha Noi and my decision to write about them has let so many people glimpse into my Hanoian life style. I'm thinking especially of Pop and Geeka right now, as I know my blog is the closest thing they will have to traveling Vietnam. It is in this regard that I do my best to write about my day on a regular basis, despite how tired I may be. Right now I know that Pop is reading this from a hospital bed in New Jersey, and I just want to extend a warm hello and hearty thank-you for all the support through the years. I really hope my blog is working as a solid tool for expanding knowledge about the country and culture of Viet Nam. Additionally, it is Geeka's 80th Birthday today (I can't even believe it!) and I want to send him a "Chuc mung sinh nhat!"... or a Happy Birthday in Vietnamese. I feel that everyone in my family has offered an unbelievable amount of support in my adventure, and I put a lot of effort into my blog to show how thankful I am. I do my best to communicate just how different life is Ha Noi, and also to emphasize the excitement about how much I've learned and am currently learning.

I've been thinking a lot about family recently, even more so that I've decided to come home in December. I really can't wait to reunite with everyone at Christmas time and share my experiences in person rather than through the limitations of the internet. But, I think, I've done pretty well so far. So, here's a picture of me sending a big smile, a warm thanks, and lots of love from the top of the Reunification Palace in Saigon.

The usual

Work goes on as usual, weekends are quite the blessing when they arrive. Some of my students have abhorrent behavior, but the handfuls of adorable and polite little girls and boys make it bearable. I ran a lot of errands yesterday, going to multiple stores and markets with the intention of following some recipes in the cookbook my mother sent over. Unfortunately, almost every single recipe requires some ingredient that does not exist in Vietnam; Lemons are actually somewhat challenging to track down, but I did find some lemon juice which I consider a success. After multiple failed attempts to get my hands on some sour cream and artichokes, I gave up and invested in some crabs and clams for a good seafood dinner. My mom had insisted on me buying a "crab pot" when she came to visit, so I thought I might as well get some use out of it. I also managed to identify the Vietnamese version of the avocado (it looks very different and I had to have Son with me in order to know I was getting the right thing) and upon smelling numerous bundles of herbs, settled on some cilantro for some fine guacamole. The idea for guacamole arrived when I saw a bag of tortilla chips in a Western store. This is a BIG deal, since I rarely come across them here. Cooking in general always proves a bit tricky since my ingredient selection is, well, very South East Asian. But in my defense, I'm getting very good at making some traditional Vietnamese sauces and food. Currently, I am steaming some Banh Bao for breakfast, which is a dumpling of sorts, filled with meat. Ideally, I'd like to bring home some solid Vietnamese cooking knowledge to share with friends and family.

Speaking of friends and family, I think I've made the decision to come home for good around Christmas time. With the thought of grad school constantly on my mind, and the necessity to enroll in a couple tech courses before applying (which all tend to start in January), it looks like I need to be home earlier than anticipated. I'm obviously a bit saddened to have to leave Ha Noi and all my current friends behind, but I would like to return here with a masters in Architecture under my belt. This city is an amazing place for real estate right now, as it is developing with such fervor. It would be great to work in a firm here, but instead of looking too far ahead, I'm just trying to focus on not going crazy at my current job. :)

Viet Nam's National Day

I'm done with my first official week of school. Now that I have a routine going, the kids are starting to calm down a bit and my job is getting easier. I was a tad bit worried in the first week before starting to teach the curriculum, since it was basically chaos for 5 straight days. But now, after learning most of the names (a very impressive feat if I do say so myself), things are gaining normalcy and the students are getting comfortable. I had the day off yesterday for Viet Nam's national day. Although a lot of business took the day off as well, the Old Quarter around Hoan Kiem Lake was totally mobbed. According to Son, people from the countryside arrive around 8AM and then proceed to walk around the lake and hang out until the fireworks begin at 9PM. Son and I went out to a cafe overlooking the lake to get a view of the mayhem. Luckily this place is pretty well hidden and we had the outdoor terrace to ourselves. After my intense experience watching fireworks by the lake during Unification Day, I opted to take a more laid back approach and see if I could get a good view of the fireworks from the roof of my apartment. Since most of the buildings in the Old Quarter around the lake are short, I figured I would be able to see a bit of the fireworks. I had a bunch of friends who also weren't up to the chaos around Hoan Kiem and they came over to watch from my roof. Once the fireworks began, it was clear that my roof has a PERFECT, unobstructed view of the lake. Additionally, we were able to see fireworks happening at Lenin Park and at West Lake. It was great to walk around and see the different fireworks going off around the city. I felt quite lucky to have that roof available, and plan on throwing some sort of fireworks bbq at the next opportunity.The streets are getting all jazzed up for the upcoming 1,000 year anniversary of Ha Noi. Ranging from hanging lights, to sidewalk planters, to new road dividers, the city is putting in a monumental beautification effort for the anniversary. Granted, this is definitely something huge to celebrate; it's very hard for me to grasp just how old the city is, coming from a country that is considerably young. I believe the city is planning a week-long celebration for the event, with a whole range of performances taking place on newly erected stages all over Ha Noi. Needless to say, it is going to be quite a good time. The streets will no doubt be incredibly crowded and hectic, but that's part of the fun of Ha Noi. Below is an image of my street getting all spruced up for the celebration.

I absolutely love this photo, so inherently Vietnamese! Along with the mausoleum, the flag, and the soldiers in white, you've got the family of four squished onto a little motorbike. So authentic.

Here is a picture of a government building around the corner from my house. Thought it was very pretty and that those at home might appreciate-