Hanoian Birthday Party!

This past Friday, my friend Phuong and I celebrated our birthdays with a big 'ole birthday bash. Phuong works at this bar/restaurant called House of Son Tinh up towards West Lake (a very posh neighborhood). Therefore, we decided to rent out the private floor and invite all of our friends. My friend Ryan has a band with three other Nigerian guys, and they call themselves The Only Reggae Band, which is very fitting because they are, indeed, the only reggae band in Ha Noi. They played a lively little set and had the whole party dancing. Upon my request, they gave a wonderful rendition of my favorite Bob Marley song, "Could You Be Loved", followed by a reggae-fied Happy Birthday. We had over 80 people show up to enjoy music, food, and drinks. The band brought a bunch of their Nigerian friends along, so we got to watch a whole group of them do some "native dancing", which was really cute and, naturally, I joined in. It was an awesome experience to have such a mix of Vietnamese and foreigners, and it turned into quite a lovely cross-cultural celebration. After the party died down, a bunch of us went to one of the few late-night spots in Ha Noi. The government has a curfew set in place, so most bars are supposed to be closed by midnight. Usually, "closing" involves shutting the doors and windows and trying to appear closed, and letting everyone stay inside. The bars only completely close when the police bust in and tell everyone to leave, which happens on a very regular basis. So, there is one "club" that is situated a bit out of the city center, bordering the Red River. It's hidden through a garage, and I have yet to see police close it down. So, given that this place was likely still open, we all hopped in taxis and made our way to Phuc Tan. There, were proceeded to dance to some out-dated techno or chat on the back porch when we needed a break. With ears ringing, we headed back out into the street and jumped into one of the taxis that was eagerly awaiting the arrival of white people.

The next morning, a couple of us met up at a favorite brunch spot, Cafe 129. This place calls itself "slow-food", which is not far from the truth, because you always end up waiting over an hour for anything to arrive... so you can only go here if you have time to sit around. This place makes the best "American breakfast" I have yet encountered; they make pancakes using imported Bisquik, which is really a huge improvement from all the other "Western pancakes" I tried before (which tend to be a lot more like tasteless crepes). After enjoying a much-needed brunch, I went with Son to his house to visit his father, who recently had knee surgery due to a motorbike accident. I had never been to Son's house before, and had been constantly warned that it was "really old", and "out of date". I think Son was a bit nervous for me to come since my house is brand new, super modern, and very clean. Given my propensity to love anything with architectural history, I had been hankering to visit his house for some time, since it had survived the war and was over 100 years old. So I finally got my chance, and really loved it. It was a very old, very traditional Vietnamese house. Small ladders took the place of stairs, and antique wooden furniture decorated the main living space. I particularly liked the kitchen, which had ancient tiles and a vast array of potted plants. Really, the whole house was a great lesson in traditional Vietnamese living; I tend to get pretty jaded living the "foreigner lifestyle" and I very much enjoyed seeing a house that had barely changed for over a century. Hopefully I will get to go back and take some photos, it had such lovely charm!

Well, my friend's band is now playing a little set down the street at Puku Cafe, so I am going to run over there and see if I can catch the end of it.

Christmas Fever

Yes, that time of year has hit Ha Noi... hard. The whole "Christmas Thing" is a relatively new phenomenon here; Son said Santa Claus and Christmas Trees appeared when he was almost out of high school, so between 5-6 years ago. Celebrating Christmas is a way to become more Western... and a way to spend some of the money that appeared after the globalization of Viet Nam's economy. I've been starting a project on Ha Noi's middle class, which is a pretty new thing as well (considering) and I'm thinking it goes hand-in-hand with the emergence of Christmas culture.

Stores have been playing English Christmas songs (although most of these tend to be techno versions, which are even more annoying than the originals). Christmas trees are appearing in the posh places in town, and animatronic dancing Santas have been lining the stores. I took a photo of a street-side Christmas shop for proof that

those scary moving Santas are unavoidable, wherever you may be. I was hoping that I would get a bit of a break from all the hokey Christmas stuff, but no luck. Since it's an even newer business here, people are really going all out. Ha Noi is covered in lights all year round anyway, but people are opting to add more, not giving much thought to discretion. It's all pretty cute in it's own Hanoian way, and I feel pretty lucky that I get to experience 2 versions of Christmas Time this month, since I will be returning with 4 days of the American Christmas frenzy to go.

I'm getting so incredibly excited to see all my family and friends, now I'm just contemplating what ridiculous gifts to bring home. Snake wine anyone?

Saigon Seafood

The weather has been amazing this weekend, and I've been doing my part to get out and enjoy it. It's been a cool 75 degrees, no humidity, and lots of sun, but since this is Ha Noi winter, everyone is in down jackets, hats, gloves, and boots.

So Son and I were driving around West Lake on a lovely Thursday afternoon and came across some men getting their chickens ready to fight. Usually I'm not a fan of cock fights, but all these guys were sitting around in a beautiful lakeside park, and I figured I might as well enjoy a

typical Vietnamese past time. Son informed me that the men breed the cocks especially for fighting and feed them all sorts

of special food. These birds are definitely the ugliest birds I've seen, and they are fed rice soaked in alcohol before a fight, apparently it gives them more stamina. So, the birds were put in the circle and went at, all the while men were shouting out bets. After about 20 minutes, they took a break to wipe the birds down, give them water, and restore their energy for round 2. These fights can go on a long time so after 20 minutes I decided I'd had enough and was back on the road.

That night we celebrated Son's birthday in style, and all met up at this place called Vine Cellar Door, that has wine tasting every Friday. It costs about 10 dollars to get 8 glasses of wine, and if you come in a group of four, you get a free pizza next door. Since we had so many people show up together, we ended up with 4 pizzas and bottles of wine that cost us 2 dollars, all and all an incredible deal. Usually I'm not a big wine drinker, but this place was really nice and had a great assortment of wine and a really nice crowd of people. I think if I'm feeling classy I will head over there again. Here's a picture of myself and Son...

On Saturday evening, a couple of my friends got together to go to this incredible street seafood that is cooked Saigon style. They had an amazing assortment of shell fish and snails, and served crab claws in a really tangy sauce. They grilled oysters filled with a light sauce, chopped shallots, fried onions, and peanuts. I've definitely never had oysters this way before, but really really enjoyed it. I'm mad at myself for not taking more photos of the food, but I was too concentrated on actually eating it.

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Freedom!

So I'm officially done with Singapore International School (well, not exactly, still have to pick up my last paycheck). The new teacher has taken over, I said goodbye to the kids and received some really cute "good luck" cards/poems/songs. I'm sad to leave some of the adorable kids behind, but excited to start living like an actual English teacher, rather than a full time classroom teacher... which is a drastically different life. All of my friends work at after school English clubs or teach English to adults. This mean they don't work every day of the week, so week nights turn into big party nights for a lot of the foreigner English teachers living in Ha Noi. Since I was doing a full-time gig, I was going to bed by 9:30pm on week nights and saving my energy for the weekends, the days that most of my teacher friends would go to bed early. So, the swap in lifestyle means seeing a lot more of my foreigner friends. Speaking of, Anneliese and Carlo officially left Ha Noi on Tuesday to go visit Egypt and then back to the states. Son and I decided to take a break from bit tet and do a different sort of street meat for their goodbye dinner. A bunch of us met up on Cau Giang road and sat down to some pans of hot oil atop a coal burner. Next, we proceeded to marinate our beef in a deliciously spicy sauce, then went on to fry the beef, along with eggplant, onions, and french fries. It was by far one of the best meals I've had on the street so far, and I will definitely be returning soon. Obviously, there is a trend developing here involving my love of street meat...Yesterday, I joined my friends Flip and Ryan for some lunch (something I was usually never able to do given my job at SIS). We met up around the corner from St. Joesph's Cathedral at the fried food lady. Here, we were taken into the "VIP room" (I think because Ryan was still in his teacher clothes) where we were able to dine with the big shots. Well, big shots were men on lunch break from some nearby financial office. You actually had to walk through the fried food lady's house to get to this room, which was slightly strange, but very typical. We had some banh goi (meat samosas), nem chua ran (friend meat rolls), nem ran (spring rolls), and bun noodles. After eating way too much fried stuff, we settled down to play some Phom, the traditional Vietnamese card game that I have mentioned in earlier posts. It is really quite addicting and I've found myself playing it at every opportunity. After I managed to win a little over 10,000 Dong, we decided to switch venues. We walked down to the corner and sat on little stools that are in the shade of St. Joseph's Cathedral. Since this is also directly next to a school, this "cafe" is called Sinh Vien Cafe (or Student Cafe, very creative, I know). Here we had some tea, played some more Phom, and watched Flip pass out tour package information to tourists. I was very much enjoying sitting next to such a lovely example of religious Architecture on a beautiful day, and thinking how cool it was that all these 8th graders have such a great after-school hangout. Honestly, I would hang out by the Drug-Fair, or Super Stop and Shop after school. These kids get to sit on the steps of one of the oldest and most famous buildings in Ha Noi... lucky.

Mai Chau and the 1,000 Step Stairway

My buddy Flip recently started working for a tour company that offers tours of the ethnic minority village Mai Chau, about 3 hours outside of Ha Noi. His business partner recently purchased a communal stilt house in the heart of Mai Chau, so all of his friends were invited up to do the initial tour and take some pictures to use in the brochure. It cost us each around 400,000 Dong (equivalent to 20 USD), and this included transportation to and from, one night in the communal house, four meals, an ethnic dancer performance, and 2 walking tours around the village. Obviously this is an incredible deal, and one of the main reasons I plan on staying in Viet Nam so long! Honestly, what could you get for 20 bucks in NYC, a taxi ride around the block?

Anyway- I had been to Mai Chau on a Connecticut College excursion almost 3 years ago, and the place looks exactly the same. The only difference is the incredible influx of the dog population. There were AT LEAST 3 dogs to each house, and all the female dogs we saw were either nursing or pregnant. I am a huge street dog lover, but it's really just ridiculous! The village is doing absolutely nothing to control dog reproduction, and I can't even begin to imagine it being any worse than it already is. I got very little sleep, since any sound in the night started a cacophony of dog barking that would sweep from street to street. The communal houses were made of bamboo and therefore functioned as a very poor sound barrier. It sounded like the dogs were barking directly into my ears, and all the other people sleeping in the stilt house agreed with me. Despite the dog issues, I had a wonderful time and now that I got the dog rant out of the way, can go on about the rest of the the trip.

The village consists of stilt houses clustered in the middle of rice paddies. Walking in any direction for 3 minutes will put you out into a field with fish/duck ponds, vegetable gardens, or rice paddies (mostly the latter). Each house has an assortment of scarves, blankets, or other little trinkets for sale. I ended up picking out a very cool-looking stitched bag, then had the woman tailor it to fit my cell phone, all for a whopping 1 dollar. The first day, we walked out of the actual village and around the outskirts, running into the kids, cows, poultry, and other typical countryside things. These people definitely live with the bare minimum, and it's always interesting to experience such a lifestyle (although our hut had newly renovated bathrooms, which was an absolute blessing). Everyone sleeps together in one big room underneath mosquito net "tents". We ended up being short a couple beds, and ended up sleeping 3 to a mattress pad for 2, which definitely didn't help in addition to the dog barking. Roosters (which there was also a very large number of) started going off around 5, and didn't stop until 9am, so that was yet another reminder of my being in the countryside.

The next morning, running on an almost empty battery, we walked through the main market (which was as equally smelly, jam-packed, and interesting as all the markets I've seen in Viet Nam thus far) and then made our way to the 1,000 Step Cave. This is actually not quite accurate, since there are in fact 1,270 steps, and by the end of the trek up, those 270 extra steps made a huge difference. It was incredibly sunny and we were all drenched in sweat by the time we reached the top, but the cave was definitely worth it. I had made the journey up before, and once I hit around 500 steps, remembered that I had told myself that I would never do something like this again. Yet, here I was, climbing up a ridiculous number of crumbling stone steps to get to a cave. We sat around enjoying the coolness of the cave before we headed down and back to the stilt house for lunch. The way down was a lot more enjoyable, as we could actually appreciate the view of the village from above, since the way up was mostly spent panting, sweating, occasionally cursing, and ignoring the inner dialogue telling you to quit. My legs are still feeling it today, and walking up and down the stairs to get to my classroom didn't help my case. Either way, I'm happy I did it again.

Below are some pictures for ya'll to enjoy.

Teacher's Day

This past Friday, we celebrated Teacher's Day at my school. They take this "holiday" very seriously here; every school throws the teachers a celebration party and gives them all gifts. My school was no exception, and we spent almost 2 hours being handed bouquets of flowers, watching students sing songs and dance, and even enjoying a faculty party complete with catered Vietnamese food and wine. The bouquets of flowers are packed full of colored paper and other little trinkets, so they end up being as a big as a garbage can. Since I received 5 of these, I had to enlist the help of Son and his motorbike to help me get them home (can you even imagine me and 5 gigantic bouquets on my tiny motorbike?). I was also given a huge assortment of gifts (a majority of it being perfume or beauty supplies) and was really impressed that the families spent so much money on the gifts. A majority of my gifts came from high-end designer labels (i.e. Chanel perfume, Ferragamo wallet), and it felt like some absurd form of Christmas. Son insisted that Vietnamese families believe that the nicer the gift, the better the grade. If that really is the case, all my students will be getting A's. I also was given a bunch of material with which to make an Ao Dai (the Vietnamese traditional dress) and I am currently debating whether I should actually use the material for that purpose, since I'm not sure how often I would wear an Ao Dai. My best gift was a big, hardcover book that is called "Traces of Old Ha Noi". It is full of pictures of Ha Noi from a hundred years ago, and it's so interesting to see all my familiar hangouts in these pictures. I'm excited to bring it home to show everyone.

In addition to the presents and flowers, I got a great many cards. A majority of these are incredibly funny, given my students (and their parents') limited English. Some examples are below:

"I wish you are beautiful, have some good children, you live happily. -Cam Le"

"I very love you because you is very beautiful. Love, Phuong Linh"

"I hope you will more pretty and you are helps me in Term 1. You help me everythink of I learn and everythink too. I wish you are my teacher. -Thu Trang"

"I wish you beautiful and a good teacher for a year with children and strong. From, Son Ha"

"I wanted you to live forever. Love, Tuan Duc" (my favorite)

I'm not sure why, but all the cards I have received as of yet (and this includes Woman's Day cards) have something to do with staying beautiful and healthy. I think America could use a bit more of this mentality.

A Movie and some Frog

This past Thursday I got together with a bunch of my Vietnamese friends to go see the new movie "Mastermind". Apparently it is quite the big hit back in the states, but I had heard nothing about it and went along as it was something to do. Per usual, I was the only white person in the audience, and most certainly the only American. This made a big difference because (as some of you may already know) this movie is absolutely hysterical. I spent almost the entire 2 hours laughing out loud at all the jokes, which was a very nice dose of American humor. Due to this cultural comedy, a lot of the time I was the only one laughing. There were multiple Obama references, and other things that really only someone raised in the USA would get, which resulted in a lot of head turning and people wondering just what the heck was so funny. As annoying as I may have been to all the other audience members, I had a great time listening to the voices of some of my favorite comedians (Will Ferril, Tina Fey, and David Cross just to name a few...) and didn't care that I seemed slightly crazy. Just another day as an American in Viet Nam. :)

Afterwards, I got to experience some straight-up Vietnamese cuisine, which was a nice contrast to my previous experience at the movie theatre. We all got on our bikes and drove to a place that's specialty is frog. From there, we went on to enjoy grilled frog with chili, fried frog skin with lemongrass, and a frog hot pot accompanied with mushrooms and bamboo. I have a particular fondness for boiled bamboo, so that last bit was my favorite part of the meal. Frog is actually really tasty, and even the skin was (mostly) enjoyable. I'm wondering if it's possible to get bamboo for cooking back in the states... anybody know? I would love to make some traditional bamboo soup for everyone!

On a side note, I was thinking about some ridiculous encounter I had when Luke was here that totally slipped my mind. It was so interesting that I need to get it down in my blog before I forget- Luke, Son, Flip, and myself were sitting on this roof top cafe admiring the view of the lake when this older Vietnamese man next to us whips out a giant poster of a Vietnamese boy band and starts pointing at one of the musicians, smiling. We all had no idea what was going on until Son did a bit of translating for us. As it turns out, this group is considered the most famous "rock band" in Ha Noi, and the man sitting next to us was the father of the guitarist. This group, called "The Wall" in English, was putting together a reunion tour (apparently they hit it quite big in the 90's) and they had just printed out posters from a recent photo shoot. Naturally, the photo was a bit hokey (cowboy hats and tight pants...) but it was really pretty funny that we just came across this guy in a cafe. Son went on to explain that this music group is a big deal in Ha Noi, and that we were all very lucky to come in contact with someone who's son is "sooooo famous!" I tend to meet a lot of interesting people at cafes, ranging from old opera singers to people working for National Geographic. Well, now that I have got that down and I will no longer be forgetting it, I'm off to cook to some rice.

Kickin' it in the countryside

This weekend my good friend Lien invited a bunch of her highschool friends and myself to her house in the countryside. Although I knew I would be the only English speaker, I jumped on the opportunity (although this fact made understanding fireside stories virtually impossible). So we got on Ha Noi's only form of public transport, and headed to a bus depot station on the outskirts of the city. Even though there were 13 of us, we still managed to get off the bus at the wrong place, then had to hop back on another one. We finally got to the bus depot around 9:30 AM, and from there got into a little bus that would take us an additional hour into the countryside. This van stopped and picked up random Vietnamese people on the side of the street on numerous occasions, until we were beyond capacity. We were dropped off at a market where we picked up a whole bunch of cooking supplies (this was yet another market not accustomed to white people, and I got quite a few stares). From there we made our way down some dirt roads until we reached Lien's compound. The compound has two houses, two lakes, numerous gardens growing all sorts of vegetables, a sugarcane field, and various fruit trees. It was incredibly beautiful, and I could definitely understand why her parents come here every weekend to escape the bustle of Ha Noi. They had hand-pump wells to get water, and I was told that they are also used for showering.

It was really interesting to spend some time with a large group of Vietnamese people, and to see how Hanoian's my own age do the whole "bbq party" thing. Most of the day was the boys playing cards, and the girls preparing food or sleeping. I took the opportunity to leave the compound and walk down the street to snap a couple photos. I came across this one guy carrying a bunch of recently captured tiny birds in a cage. We followed him along, with my friend asking him what he intended to do with them. Either her Hanoian accent was too thick, or this guy just didn't feel like listening, because we never got an answer. My friend guessed

that they would be fried, and I agreed since I have seen whole fried swallows on numerous occasions.

Upon return, we ate a really small lunch of pate', bread, and salad, which left me thinking how hungry I was, until the real preparations began.

We all walked around the compound collecting vegetables, tea leaves, sugar cane, and fruit. Then, we set up some grills and everyone began to help (in the picture on the right, I am fanning some pork over the grill).

The cooking started around 5pm, and we started with grilled pork, grilled chicken, an incredibly spicy salad of sorts, and some cold bun noodles. Once the grilling was done, we spread all the meat over banana tree leaves and went to town. I was quite full by 6:30, and was a little confused, since a typical Vietnamese meal tends to cover all parts of the food pyramid. By the time we sat down in front of the fire, the second part of dinner appeared. Skewers of mushrooms and sweet potatoes were held over the fire (a nice break from your typical American hotdog or marshmallow) and sugar cane was placed in the embers to grill.

Everything was quite delicious, and I really liked how the whole evening was based around a long, drawn-out dinner. When I have get togethers with my friends, dinner usually begins and ends in an hour or two, and the rest of the night is spent lazing about, but we spent over 4 hours eating, which left me very satisfied and sleepy by the end of it. Once the food was all gone, a guitar came out and everyone joined in singing some traditional Vietnamese songs (with the exception of myself of course). Then, talk turned to high school memories, none of which I could understand, so I walked further into the compound to get a better view of the stars for a bit. As the night drew to a close, people drifted into the house, eventually with everyone squished together on mattresses on the floor. It was all quite cozy, but the lack of sufficient blankets left everyone feeling the oncoming winter chill.

The next morning brought a gorgeous day. We took this opportunity to collect some water lillies, so a couple of us took turns paddling out in a tiny, tiny boat and picking them out of the water... which is a lot easier than it sounds. Trying to yank these flowers out and not topple over the side was quite a challenge, and I retired after 2 flowers, fearing that I would get my only set of clothes soaked. Oh, and the "paddles" were just little boards of wood, which made steering a bit of an issue...

As the boys sat down to play cards, again, the girls got together to do a little karaoke. Keeping me in mind (which was very nice of them) we sang mostly English songs. It was pretty ridiculous, but enjoyable nonetheless. There was a lot of Spice Girls, Whitney Houston, and Backstreet Boys, but I made sure to get some Beatles on there as well. It left me questioning why Americans don't have mid-afternoon karaoke parties on a regular basis, because, really, it was a great way to kill some time. I think I will start this trend upon return...

The bus back towards Ha Noi had us packed like sardines. Naturally I was the only foreigner, and once again was gawked at, considering the fact that there wasn't much to look at since everyone was so squished together. When I finally got back to Ha Noi I was really excited to get into my big, oversized bed with a huge blanket. Despite the language barrier, it was an awesome experience and I hope to do something like it again before I leave.

Hoi An: Monsoon Season

So term 1 came to an end and with it, paid vacation time. I decided I had to take full advantage of my week off and got myself a plane ticket to Hoi An, considering how close it is to Ha Noi and how wonderful the city and beach are. If you recall from an earlier blog post, I had visited three months ago but had to cut my vacation short due to a pretty intense flu. This time, I left Ha Noi in good health on a nice sunny day, and arrived to a very rainy, cold Hoi An on November 1st. Let me preface this little anecdote with the fact that my Hanoian Halloween was very low key. So low key, in fact, that it didn't actually exist. I came down with a bit of food poisoning (at least that's my guess) and spent my Saturday night in bed. According to friends, most people don't get involved in the Halloween bit, so I "hadn't missed much". Either way, I was a bit bummed, and really missing the fanatic frenzy of an American Halloween, but figured I would just enjoy it all next year. Little did I know, I had my own spooky Halloween experience coming my way...

Son and I got to Hoi An around 5pm, but the sky was already dark with a very heavy wind stirring up. We had booked a room at what we thought was "Cua Dai Hotel", but upon arrival at such hotel, found out our room was at "Cua Dai Beach Hotel". I figured this wouldn't make much of a difference, so we jumped back in the taxi to head to our new destination. After driving down a very dark road with wild waves almost splashing into the street, we pull up to a giant hotel that seemed almost completely abandoned. The wind was howling as we crept towards a locked gate (now this got me very worried, who would lock a hotel gate at 5:30 pm?) and hung around a bit until some dejected Vietnamese worker came and pushed it aside for us. He lead us up a very dark walkway into the hotel that had all the lights off, with the exception of the lobby. Upon entering, I couldn't shake the image of the hotel in "The Shining", with the intense storm outside and the eerie emptiness inside. I was quite sure that some sort of creature from the netherworld would come knocking on my door that night, and Son and myself started backing away from the hotel desk, slinking away from a very eager woman saying "Stay just one night, just one! Please, stay!" It sounded like she hadn't had many guests recently, and from the 100's of dark, empty rooms, I think it was safe to assume that there currently were none. Her intensity in trying to get us to stay made it all the more scary, and I decided that I couldn't handle even a single night at this place, so we hightailed it out of there, leaving behind shouts of "No! Please stay! Don't go!" I figured that was a creepy enough experience to satisfy my hunger for a proper Halloween...

The rest of the trip was mostly enjoyable, despite the terrible weather for all 5 days. The beach was destroyed from a recent/current monsoon, garbage from people's houses and palm trees had washed up all over a beach that is usually quite pristine (see photos from my earlier Hoi An post). It rained non-stop almost the entire time, and I got very accustomed to enjoying the ancient town in the rain. We got one afternoon that was suitable for biking, so Son and I rented some bicycles and went around town, exploring little alleys and ultimately ending up on a lovely path beside the river

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The "ancient city" of Hoi An was still charming, even though one of my favorite streets had water up to the front door of the shops/restaurants. Now I know, don't go to Hoi An during monsoon season, lesson learned.

Ha Long Bay and then some

Well, turns out Luke was too lazy to write a blog entry when he was here, or even take any pictures for that matter; he made me carry the camera and snap the shots on our weekend trip out to Ha Long Bay. I consider him the laziest tourist ever, but I think he's kind of proud of it, so I'll let him hold on to that title for a bit. Anywho- the lazy tourist and myself met up with a bunch of friends, boarded a bus at 8AM on a Saturday, and began the 4 hour journey out to the city of Ha Long. Typhoon Megi (and yes, I know it sounds just like my name) was supposed to run smack dab into Ha Long Bay on the day of our arrival, but as luck would have it, the winds changed and blew it towards China. We faced a gorgeously sunny day with only a bit of haze that obstructed some of the views. We had a whole boat to ourselves, with 8 cabins that easily fit all 14 of us. We arrived to lunch on the boat, then sailed out to a pretty major cave that was quite the tourist trap, but interesting nonetheless. After the cave, we enjoyed some swimming, with ample opportunity to jump off the top of the boat into the water. Anneliese and myself boarded a kayak to get some pictures of the sunset (see below) and after some local Ha Long fish and squid for dinner, the weather cooled down to a perfect 75 degrees. The night flaunted a huge, orange moon, and we spent the evening enjoying the views and each other's company. I was glad that Luke got the chance to see the countryside, even if it was from the inside of a bus, and enjoy one of Viet Nam's most famous destinations.

Luke departed with the inspiration to return with friends, so I guess I did a pretty good job of selling him Ha Noi. It's been about 24 hours since he left, so I think he should be arriving back in Phili momentarily. My one relief at his departure is the fact that I don't have to blast my air conditioner anymore. The weather has really cooled down here with the arrival of fall, and the air conditioner is almost useless... to someone who is accustomed to the incredible Hanoian heat. So Luke and I had a bit of an air-con war going on; I would return home from work and instantly turn it off, he would switch it back on 5 minutes later, and so on and so forth. In exchange for his company I will be happy to pay my heavily inflated electric bill, which is usually a cool 25 dollars a month.

This evening, I joined Son and my new Art Club assistant Hong for some duck hot pot. It's the first time I got to enjoy some "street duck", and even though a lot of time was devoted to getting it off the bone, it was incredibly tasty. Half of the duck arrived already cooked and prepared in a honey/soy glaze, while the rest of the duck came in a pot full of bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, tofu, and a bit of curry. I'm always on the lookout for my next Vietnamese food obsession (still can't seem to shake bit tet), and this is definitely up there. Sometimes as I'm sitting there eating this amazing food, I contemplate the best ways to get it back to the USA for those at home to enjoy. Sadly enough, I don't think any street food here can be recreated in an American kitchen, but at least I can bring home my traditional Vietnamese sauce recipe, so that's better than nothing.

Here's a few pictures that I managed to snap of Ha Long Bay when I played the tourist card in lieu of my brother...

Two Marchies in Ha Noi

So, my brother Luke arrived in Ha Noi late Wednesday night. I figured I would give him a proper Ha Noi welcome by picking him up from the airport on my motorbike. The airport is a bit removed from Ha Noi, so it takes about 45 minutes to get there from my house. The amount of little bugs attracted to my headlight was dreadful, and I found a good many in my shirt once I got home to shower. Riding a motorbike here can be a dirty business especially on construction roads, which happen to be most of them, but once again, it's all part of the experience. Luckily, all the lights from the 1,000 Year Celebrations are still up, so we were able to take Luke down some decorated streets. He got to meet a lot of my friends over the weekend, despite his jet-lag induced early evening naps (the term "nap" is a bit of an understatement here). But, I recall the intensity of my jet-lag upon arrival (Ha Noi and NYC have a 12 hour difference), and the body literally needs to reverse its sleep cycle, which is no easy feat.

This past Saturday, Luke, Son, and I all went to Hoa Lo prison, located a few blocks away from my house. It was a rainy afternoon, which made the experience all the more sombre. The American pilots who stayed here as P.O.W.s referred to the place as the Ha Noi Hilton Hotel (maybe some of you from home have heard of the prison in this regard). The treatment of Vietnamese prisoners was absolutely atrocious by the French, but once the Vietnamese took over they apparently did a better job of keeping the prisoners comfortable (if that can be possible). There are multiple images of the American pilots playing basketball, carving Christmas turkeys, putting up Christmas decorations, playing billiards, playing guitar, etc. It painted a very rosy picture of the whole ordeal, but given my ignorance concerning the actualities of their stay at "The Hilton", I wasn't sure what to believe. Either way, the preserved prison was very interesting, and despite all the hardships associated with the place, ironically beautiful. Constructed by the French at the time of their arrival to house political prisoners, it resembles a sprawling French mansion from the outside (but upon entering, the scene obviously turns a bit grisly).

In the evening a bunch of my friends all got together to go to snake street, since I wanted Luke to experience something tooootally different. I already posted about my snake village experience so I will spare giving the details yet again, but a very authentic experience was had by all. We left the village to go to my friend Nico's house, as he was having a bunch of people over. We were there until midnight, when the police showed up and tried to get everyone to leave. Given the midnight curfew, this happens all the time and at almost every venue, be it a bar, a house, or even the street. So for the most part, people headed outside, pretended to leave, and came right back in again once the police boarded their truck and were off. Sure enough, about an hour later, they were back again. This time they were serious, and would not depart until we were all dispersing on our motorbikes. I took this opportunity to drive Luke around and head to a local watering hole that tends to disregard police curfew (or pay them off...) and stays open late. Due to his jet lag, I was the more tired between the two Marchies, but it was fun nonetheless. Luke is getting to know a bunch of my Ha Noi crowd, which he agrees are pretty neat people. After hearing from all my friends the ridiculous amount of money people get paid to teach English, I think he is considering what it would be like to live here.

On Sunday, I insisted that Luke come with me to the market, despite the fact he was begging me to sleep off his jet lag. Instead of relenting, I forced him out of his makeshift bed and off we went into the Sunday market craziness. Although he was in a bit of a stupor, I was able to show him around one of the oldest and most famous markets in Ha Noi. We grabbed some spring roll supplies (no surprise here) and headed back to my house to cook them. Well, I cooked them... Luke got a bit bored after rolling his second spring roll. We met a couple friends for Bit Tet (which I know I constantly talk about but I have definitely developed a bit of an obsession) and got to bed around 8:30 PM, in the hopes that his jet lag would be cured by Monday.

Now that it's Monday, he seems a bit on the mend. Tonight I am taking him to another favorite cuisine of mine, seafood noodles. This is only a block away so we don't have to cope with any rush hour traffic since we can just walk it. Luke has been very lazy about using a camera, but I am forcing him not only to get out and take pictures, but to write a blog entry too, so everyone can hear about Viet Nam from his perspective. Expect something written by Luke in the next few days. :)

10/10/10, SIS 10 Year Anniversary

This weekend had a lot going on for me, and I only now have time to write about it-
Saturday night was the Singapore International 10 Year Anniversary. The snazzy event was held in the Melia Hotel Ballroom (a gigantic, vastly decorated venue) in the theme of "Oscar Night". Everyone showed up in gowns with glitzy shoes and styled hair, and it was definitely really fun to see my coworkers all done-up. I made the effort by getting a dress tailored (styled after a cute Alexander Wang dress) and paid an incredibly low amount for a really high-quality tailoring job. A lot of the foreigner teachers went out to get dresses made, and it was really interesting to see what everyone was wearing. Obviously, many pictures were snapped in the ballroom, which was covered in giant movie posters, red carpet backdrops, and ice sculptures. I had a great time bonding with coworkers that I, as of yet, hadn't had the time to get to know very well, since when we are at school, mostly everything we talk about is, well, shchool-related. The company handed out a large amount of raffle prizes (blenders, toasters, other household items), and considering what was being given out, I wasn't paying much attention to the names being called, as I was not too keen on winning a large collection of pots. But sure enough, someone nudged me on the arm asking, "Is your name Meghan McLane Marchie?" Completely shocked that someone knew my full name, I inquired to why they wanted to know. "They're calling your name on stage...". At this I jumped up and headed up onto the stage, in front of 400+ SIS employees (I believe about 7 schools were represented at the party). As it turns out, I was the only white person to win something, and it just so happened to be a brand new "Smart Phone" worth over 450 USD! I'm not much into cell phone technology, refusing to update from my flip phone from four years ago, so I was not too excited about the prize. By the time I got home and opened it up, I couldn't believe what these phones are capable of doing! I'm already addicted to LG's version of the iphone, and was not sure how I've been living without one. My mom had tried to get me to invest in an iphone in the past, but I kept saying how I never wanted to upgrade. Funny that it took a raffle win to get me hooked on smart phone technology. :)
Sunday rolled around, and with it, the culmination of the 10 days of the 1,000 Year Celebration. The city had been preparing for a massive parade all throughout the week, but at 8:30 AM after a big Saturday night, the closest I was willing to get was to my rooftop. The crowds of people lining the streets was unbelievable, and I regret not having my camera to snap a photo of all the heads from above. I went up to my roof in my pjs, expecting to take in thew view alone, but sure enough, my extremely Japanese neighbor was up there enjoying the spectacle as well. Since his English is extremely limited, our conversation suffered, but I managed to get some information out of Tando Nakimoto. He even left and returned 10 minutes later weilding a bunch of egg-salad finger sandwhiches for the two of us. It was incredibly cute, so I did my best to convey to him that I had in fact lived in Tokyo as a child and was now currently a teacher. As I've been told, my Japanese name was "Mechan". Tando got a kick out of the fact that I was technically "Mechan Teacher" which rhymes nicely with a heavy Japanese accent. A lot of laughing ensued, and I was really happy that I got to spend that moment getting to know someone from another country, and almost effectively getting to converse about the excitement of the parade.
Although fireworks had been planned in 29 locations throughout the city for the evening, and I had even made an attempt at throwing a roof party so my friends and I could watch them away from the throngs of people in the street, they were cancelled at the last moment. A freak firework explosion ended up killing 20+ people a couple days before (although the government only reported the death of 4 people) and the fireworks were all moved to one location, the one location impossible to see from my house! Everything about the fireworks cancellation was very fishy, with the government making claims that it needed to donate money to flood victims in central Viet Nam, or that the spirits of the dead wouldn't appreciate such a big show. None of it really made any sense, and all my Vietnamese friends claimed something else was going on, like maybe the government didn't want to admit that a majority of the fireworks had been destroyed. There were a few mentions of fireworks sabotage, but who knows. I was just upset that my roof party couldn't happen, and that I wouldn't get a chance to see the fireworks. But given how much fun I've had the past week with the celebrations, all was well. I spent the night at a Bia Hoi down the street, meeting some locals and some Veterans (who came over specifically for the 1,000 Year Parties). Overall, I am so happy that I was here to experience this important event, and surely won't be forgetting about it any time soon.

Celebrating the city

The streets were a bit less hectic on Sunday; armed with perfect weather and my camera, Son and I went out to photograph the city during this amazing time. We drove all around West Lake, which is the biggest (and most posh) area in Ha Noi. The houses are all very large, very beautiful, and (mostly) very old. We drove down a street lined with trees, bordering the lake. We stopped lakeside to get a few drinks, recline in some chairs, and take in the view. We sat underneath a tree behind a small plastic table, with our legs dangling precariously close to the lake edge. It gave me some time to reflect on what an incredible city I am living in, and how lucky I am to be experiencing it right now. Being able to sit in chairs along the lake and chill out is a very Vietnamese thing to do, and I was very satisfied that I was able to take part in such a seemingly simple, yet culturally significant past time. Granted, I was drinking a bottle of Bia Ha Noi rather than a coconut filled with jelly (which is a typical Vietnamese favorite), but the experience seemed authentic nonetheless. After spending an hour or two photographing some of my favorite streets, Son and I decided to end the day with our favorite Vietnamese street food, Bit Tet. By the time I got home, I did some laundry, hung my sheets up to dry, and eagerly loaded pictures onto my computer. Getting into bed with the scent of air-dried sheets and clean pillowcases was a wonderful way to top-off my own little version of the 1,000 Year Celebration.

The 1,000 Year Anniversary of Ha Noi begins

The city has been preparing for this celebration for years. When I was here during college, I used to look at this big sign counting down the days, thinking about how cool it would be if I could make it back to see that sign hit zero. After about 3 years, I'm here again, during one of the most important events in the modern history of Ha Noi.

I am currently living on what most Hanoians are calling the most beautiful street in Ha Noi, and I feel so lucky that I come home to such a view every night. The city has made an incredible effort to beautify the city streets, making this lovely city even more charming.

Last night we had tickets to go to a couple shows being held around Hoan Kiem Lake. By the time we got there, the crowds were so intense that we weren't able to move, let alone reach the seating area. I actually started getting a little scared when crowds of people all started pushing and heaving. I was convinced some child was going to get trampled. I high-tailed it out of there when things got too intense, and opted to hang around my usual place, Ta Hien Street. A lot of friends came out, so I was happy that I got to celebrate the first night with so many great people.

This evening, Son and I left my house to go to our favorite Bit Tet place for dinner. Unfortunately, they closed my street all the way up to the mausoleum, along with other streets closer to the lake. The city has been practicing for the parade, closing down numerous streets, all in my area. This obviously is making it very hard to get around. Son and I hit so much stand still traffic that after an hour of covering barely any distance, we gave up and got some noodles down the street. This upcoming week has even more road closures coming. School is cancelled on Thursday since the street will be closed. It's going to be really tough for me to get out of my area to get to work on Friday, and I have a looming suspicion that I will be sitting on a motorbike in steamy weather during an incredibly intense rush hour. But the incredible cultural outpour of this city right now makes up for all my gripes with the traffic. The streets are filled with people (even more so than before), everyone is celebrating, and the pride of being Hanoian can be seen everywhere. I feel rather proud to be living here, almost to the point where I'm considering myself a Hanoian of sorts. Most of the people flocking to Ha Noi to witness the celebrations are from the countryside, so a lot of Hanoians are getting kind of mad that their territory is being overrun. I definitely see the frustration, as people from the countryside usually get lost, and then drive bewildered around the streets, causing even more traffic jams. I'm getting to the point where I can pick out those from the countryside in seconds. A nice skill but probably won't prove so useful upon return to the states. Anyway, enjoy these ridiculous pictures taken at the top of Hoan Kiem Lake!

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-

Rainy Season

Just as it sounds, it has been raining ALL the time. Before, it was your occasional heavy rain for 20 minutes then the rest of the day would be overcast. But now, it rains non-stop for hours. Granted, the rain fluctuates from heavy to light, from monsoon to blowing sideways, but either way, it's rain all the time. If I had a car to drive to work, this wouldn't be such an issue. Due to the fact that I use my motorbike to get everywhere, all this rain is a huge pain in the butt. I have a rather large heavy-duty poncho that I have been getting a lot of use out of lately. Driving in a downpour with a poncho still manages to crack me up every time, honestly, if people from back home could see me doing this, I would never live it down; I laugh at myself during a rainy commute just because I know how absurd I look. But then again, everyone else on the street looks identical to me- there's no such thing as looking cool in a poncho. Even after a rain when the streets are still wet, sometimes a poncho is necessary. The kick-back of water from the rear wheel of a motorbike can be brutal. The streets of Ha Noi are not the cleanest I've ever seen, and when street water flies into my face when driving behind someone else, I always make sure not to open my mouth for any reason. Plus, if I'm sleepy in the morning and don't feel like working, putting on my poncho and getting out in the rain (and traffic) is a sure-fire way to wake the hell up!

Back in action

The new school year has officially begun... mostly. Our school is currently under construction which makes everything twice as messy, twice as loud, and twice as confusing. When I arrived for the few days of teacher in-service, there wasn't even a working bathroom. Now we have one, to share between 100 staff members, since the children's bathrooms are not the most pleasant place. I lucked out and got one of the best classrooms in the old building. It's three times as large as the cramped space I was working in before, and it has huge windows spanning three of the four walls. Better yet, the sun doesn't shine in through the windows (which was a big problem last term) and turn the room into an oven. We have 2oo+ kids more than last term, so the playground is getting a bit hairy. I was walking around during snack duty yesterday and there was a line for the slide that rivaled those at Disney World. Kids were literally piling on top of each other at the bottom. Despite the comic relief, I feel bad that the play space is so seriously affected. It is supposed to expand once construction is done, but no one knows how long that will be. For now, us teachers have to be extra careful when walking around during playground duty.
I dropped a level and am now teaching grade 2, and they are all pretty adorable. I got flowers on the first day from a student named Son Ha, who I later found out is one of the biggest problem students, so I think his parents were making an effort to form a good impression. All of the girls are absolutely adorable, and most of the boys too. There are a few boys that are completely out of control, but that's the be expected. We were told not to oficially start teaching from the curriculum during the first week, so I've just been playing games and coloring with the students for the past two days. I have two classes, each with 22 students, and the names are definitely proving dificult. I don't know how I memorized them all last term, but since I was successful once, I think I can do it again. Should probably take me two weeks, since I'm memorizing two or three names per child instead of one.
It's definitely tough being back in the daily grind again, waking up at 6:30am and getting home at 5:30. It's a looooong day and I usually can't stay up past 10pm, but once the weekend hits I will be quite relieved. Well, students will be here any minute, got to get ready for some hot potato...

After Hoi An, back to work

Alas, my one month break has finally come to an end. I had a pretty fun-filled final week hanging out with close friends, eating great food, and basically just kickin' it around Ha Noi. I had to run a bunch of errands for the SIS HR department in order to get my work visa complete. In addition to getting to the American Consulate to authenticate my diploma, I had to go to the French-Vietnam hospital for a full medical check. I expected the whole process to take an incredibly long time, considering my previous experiences at the place, but I was essentially ferried from doctor to doctor and had everything checked in under 30 minutes. This included chest x-rays, eye tests, a full body physical, etc. I get my results back tomorrow, but all 7 doctor I ran across say I'm healthy! This is always good news for those at home, so thought I'd share it with you all to ease your mind after my snake village trip.

Yesterday looked like it was going to be a very beautiful day so a couple of uswent to our favorite hang-out spot, the Thang Loi Hotel pool. I've mentioned it before, but for those who don't remember it is located right along one of the biggest lakes in Ha Noi (West Lake) and has sweeping views of the whole city... in addition to immaculate gardens and hanging flowers. We took a hot motorbike trip over in the sun and huge clouds swept over immediately after our arrival. Then, it proceeded to monsoon for 30 minutes. Since we were getting wet anyway, it seemed the perfect opportunity to get into the pool. Once the rain stopped, the sun came out for a bit which was rather enjoyable, until the cloud cover returned for a second heavy rain lasting over 30 minutes. It was actually pretty enjoyable swimming in the rain as the droplets were cooler than the water. As I'm sure you can imagine, the water in most of the pools in Ha Noi gets very hot by 10am, as it tends to sit and cook in the sun. Basically, this means that you have to swim either before 10am or after 6pm if you don't enjoy swimming in water that is warmer than your average bathtub. Pools tend to get very crazy with the locals after 5, so a lot of foreigners get to the pools in the middle of the afternoon since Vietnamese people are afraid of the sun.

I was recently at a beach in Hoi An, on the central coast of Vietnam. I would head out to the beach in the morning and laze about all afternoon, then as the sun started to wane, floods of Vietnamese tourists would rush to the beach to swim... in all of their clothes. The beach was literally deserted during the day except for your occasional foreigner soaking up the rays (which Vietnamese people consider absurd). So, for anyone looking for a pristine beach devoid of people during prime sun hours, get over to Vietnam! Hoi An is also famous for tailors, so I couldn't help but get some nice shorts for work made. The city is is referred to as the "Ancient City" since nothing was touched during the war and all the buildings are extremely old. Many other cities in Vietnam were heavily bombed so a city with all perfectly preserved buildings is hard to come by. Even with the rest of Vietnamese cities modernizing incredibly fast, Hoi An still doesn't have any skyscrapers, so the whole feel of the place is very dated and authentic. The restaurants are incredible, and it was great way to spend some of my last days of freedom... until I came down with bronchitis and had to cut the vacation short to return to Ha Noi. Despite being sick I managed to get a bit of a tan and swim in the crystal clear ocean everyday. Here's a couple pictures from the beach and the city itself:

Snake Village

So I'm down to my last week of vacation and have been making an effort to do some interesting things before I become a slave to work. Today, I went with 2 friends about 30 minutes east of Ha Noi into Le Mat snake village. Calling it an actual "village" is a bit misleading, since it is more just specialty restaurants all in a row. It was Son's idea to get there very early, so we were literally the only ones at this place when we arrived around 10am. Doing the whole "snake thing" is more of a dinner phenomenon, but we had the day to kill so we decided that snake for breakfast wasn't too bad. We got to the main floor where there were a bunch of cages housing all different kinds of snakes. At this point we were told to pick out our snake. The wrangler/owner took out a pretty formidable spitting cobra and jostled with it on the ground for a bit. He then proceeded to show us his missing finger, claiming that if a snake bites your finger, it's better to cut it off immediately rather than let the venom get into your bloodstream. I decided to take his word on it and back away from the cobra, and then we requested something a bit smaller and not so poisonous. We were shown a couple snakes and we settled on one of the smallest. Once we gave the nod, these guys went right to work. They cut out the heart and drained some blood, then ushered us upstairs to this very fancy dining room. There, my friend Dan proceeded to take a shot of snake blood vodka with the beating heart. Apparently this is a very manly thing to do, and I've heard of many Vietnamese men making the trip to snake village on the first day of the lunar month to test their level of manliness. Since I am not so much of a man, I was fine with my little bit of snake blood and vodka. After that part was over, the waiters started bringing up all different sorts of food prepared from our snake. Varying from snake spring rolls, to grilled snake, to dumplings, to snake porridge, and even rice cooked in snake fat, the whole thing was a feast of snake. It was actually pretty good, but I decided to pass on the ground-up snake ribs because I couldn't really deal with the crunch. In total, the whole ordeal cost us around 30 dollars, which is considered a bit of a luxury meal in Vietnam, but well worth it for the experience.

Now, I'm sure there are a lot of you thinking how terrible a thing it is to kill snakes, but a trip to the snake village is a very popular thing for Vietnamese businessmen so I was simply participating in the local culture.... don't judge! And in an effort not to gross out all my family and friends, this entry is very edited and very short. :)

A week at Chen La

Mom and I spent our final days in Viet Nam living in the lap of luxury. Chen La Resort and Spa is located on the island of Phu Quoc down a long, orange dirt road. The rest of the island is barely developed other than the occasional resort, so when we came up to Chen La, seeing the lush greenery and stilt-house villas along the beach was truly a fantastic sight. I had done a bit of research in finding the place, and found that it was a very small resort with an excellent spa. Since my mother was hoping to find both of these things on our final vacation before her return to America, I booked us the nicest villa the place had to offer, and we were both quite
happy with that decision upon walking into our house. The villa was made from salvaged wood from a traditional Vietnamese stilt-house, and decorated in the same manner. Our platform bed looked out over the ocean through a wall spanned with glass. The bathroom was enormous, boasting a sunken tub, hanging orchids, and both an indoor and outdoor shower. Out on the patio we had a nice lounge corner with cushioned benches and a freshwater jacuzzi of cool water. I really had never stayed anywhere so nice in my life, and couldn't expect the place to get any better, but after a couple trips to the spa and some time spent at the pool, was convinced that the entire place mirrored the luxury of our villa. We really enjoyed taking it easy for the next couple days, and made one excursion to the other side of the island to visit the famous waterfall and Sao Beach. The beach was your typical Vietnamese hang-out, with thatched roof huts housing tables for giant feasts, and wild dogs taking over the place. My mom felt pretty bad for them and attempted to feed a couple, but they were so well fed from successful begging, that they didn't even want out handouts. She felt better after they ignored our crackers, sure that these dogs were really "living the life".

Since we went to Phu Quoc during storm season, the resort was mostly empty, with the exception of the occasional honeymooners or Japanese family. This fact means we got some pretty heavy rain on a daily basis, but it always cleared up with enough time to spend by the pool or the beach and get some sun. Since I spoke enough Vietnamese to communicate that I was an English teacher, I got offered a job teaching English at what my mother came to call "Shangri La". I'm definitely considering it, but would have to spend 6 months on an island

with nothing to do other than sit on a beach and read. Also, I would be the only white person in the place, so I'm still considering if I can handle the job. While I'm waiting on that, enjoy the pictures!