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"Vietnam"

2009-06-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

I went to Vietnam to make peace with a part of my father's memory. I went there because I'd heard the word "Vietnam" all my life and I knew it as a horrible place and time that people didn't really know how to talk about. It was a story that I would catch random parts of now and then that never had a happy ending. It was the reason that Dad screamed in his sleep.

I went there to bury that and to pay tribute to my Dad, who came back from that place and had a family and a career where he served his fellow man, protected the innocent and saved lives. I went to heal my own heart and to help some of the people of that country in whatever way I could.

There is a tradition there of burning gifts for ancestors. It's often fake paper money but sometimes it's cars or other kinds of property. These gifts are raised to heaven on the smoke which occupies the place between the material and the immaterial world. If there is any need of money in heaven, I think Dad's probably ok. He never had any trouble finding gainful employment and he liked to work for what he got. But I learned how to make origami lotus flowers by watching the kids at Blue Dragon. So I sent up about a half dozen of those the night before I left.

"Vietnam" is no longer a war for me. It's a country full of people that struggle under a corrupt government, but with endless energy, curiosity, ingenuity, and optimism. A place where shy, smiling children say hello to you just for walking down the street - full of friendly, young, amateur tour guides, and people who quickly become like family.

"Vietnam" was my home for a while, and It's a place where a part of my father's memory came to rest.

Where the Blog Ends

2009-03-21T21:51:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm back in the States for about 3 weeks now. My brother was in a serious accident at the end of last month, so I packed up and came back to be with he and the family. This is also why I haven't had any posts here in a while. Just thought I'd mention that here because a few people were curious. I plan to have one more wrap-up post soon.

chuc mung nam moi

2009-02-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Chuc mung nam moi means happy new year. Well, literally, it's something like "good/advantageous/lucky year new". And don't even try to say it if you don't speak Vietnamese because I can't put the accent marks that tell you the tones, and even if I could you wouldn't know what they mean. I've actually come to believe that it would be easier for me to teach everyone here English than to learn Vietnamese myself.

Anyway, Tet is by far the biggest holiday of the year. Preparations, and the actual celebration, seem to go on for about 2 months. First, the decorations start to go up. Tet predates communism by centuries, but the party isn't about to miss an opportunity for self promotion.
There are 2 kinds of Tet trees. One with little citrus fruit, and another with pink blossoms. I think someone told me that the ones in the south have yellow blossoms. In any case, it seems like every other motorbike had a tree on it.
The kids get ready for the Tet pageants, which involve flowers, and singing, and dancing (and nose picking if you look closely).
Blue Dragon helps a bunch of kids out in the countryside and goes out a few times a year for big assemblies. The Tet extravaganza had a dancing dragon, Tet gifts, and contests... This one involved blindfolded participants trying to feed each other yogurt. The kids loved it.
And I got invited to a Tet party at the house where I lived when I first arrived. Hot pot seems to be the standard celebratory meal. One or two pots of boiling water are put in the center of the table and bunches of plates with things ready to be boiled. It honestly seems to be much more about the communal experience than the food itself. I didn't try the fetal duck. It didn't look so good. But the conversation was excellent.
Along with the trees, vendors sell a lot of Tet gifts. People spend the first few days of the new year visiting family and friends. The clean their houses, get haircuts, cook special food, and buy gifts to hand out on their visits. These gift baskets have everything you need to make someone's day - including booze and a pack of marlboros.Any important celebration in Hanoi seems to involve balloons. This is the year of the ox (or cow, or buffalo depending on who's telling it) and so there were plenty of ox balloons on new year's eve. And fireworks. Even the cops stopped to turn their heads skyward in awe. Maybe this is why pickpockets are so fond of these celebrations.And just after midnight, the ancestors are paid tribute. People burn fake paper money among other things, and they are conducted by smoke to the next world. So I imagine that the ancestors enjoy tet too. After that, you go to Thailand because everything is closed for a week.

Thailand

2009-02-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

Tet is Vietnam's version of the Chinese new year. It's lunar new year's eve and the few days around it. I'll have a post about that later. What it meant for me was that everything was shut down and it was a good time to get out of town.

I signed up for a ten-day silent meditation retreat in Thailand. Unfortunately, it was full, so I went on the waiting list. I signed up for another one, but that one was full too, and I'd already bought plane tickets. I wanted to see Thailand anyway, and I'd always wanted to try scuba diving, so I decided just go and see what I could see.

At the Hanoi airport, I had a chance to buy some souvenirs from Tahiti. So I could have just bought one of those, told everyone I went to Tahiti, and called it a day. But I decided to go through with it anyway. I was happy to get to Bangkok before I left the airport. Mainly because it was warm. I got a sim card for my phone, saw a Starbuck's, got 3 free maps, and saw a lady-boy before I even left the airport. Ah, yes. Civilization...

This was the first 7-11 that I saw. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that I think I went into a dozen 7-11's that day. Not to buy anything, just to soak up a little A/C, look at all the stuff I COULD buy, and remember my childhood. I practically grew up in convenience stores, so this was a heartwarming homecoming for me.

Eventually I made my way to Khao San Road, the touristiest of touristy areas in Bangkok. I found a scuba diving shop, booked a trip to Koh Tao and wandered around for a couple of hours until it was time to get my bus. Not this bus...
The bus I was on wasn't quite as quite as pimped out. No unicorns.

But I did get on this boat...And about 27 hours after I left the house in Hanoi, I was here. I found a place to stay and took a 4 hour nap. The little bungalow was dirty but only about $15 a night, and about 100 yards from the beach.

I had to share it with this little guy, but he mostly just kept to himself behind the mirror in the bathroom.
Koh Tao island is about 7 kilometers long and it's a big destination for scuba divers. I did 2 dives on Wednesday. It was a good time, but dealing with the pressure changes from the depth was a real hassle. I had some trouble getting my ears to pop, but eventually did, and got down to 10-12 meters (35 feet or so). We saw some cool corals, colorful fish, and various crazy looking sea cucumbers.

But the coolest stuff I saw was on a snorkeling trip around the island the next day. It was on a long boat (bigger than this one)...And we stopped and snorkeled at a bunch of little bays and reefs and did a complete loop around the island. The first stop was by shark island. I was the first one in the water and I practically landed on top of one of these guys.
I didn't have a waterproof camera, so this isn't my shot, but it's a black tip reef shark. The ones that we were swimming with were probably only 3-4 feet long, but everything looks bigger under water, so they seemed like 5-6 feet long. Big enough that I was glad it wasn't dinner time. Our guide told us that they feed at night. There was definitely something counterintuitive about swimming toward sharks when I saw them instead of away, but it was really cool. Definitely the highlight of the trip.

I was going to go back to Bangkok, but I couldn't think of a good reason not to stay on the island another night. There was plenty of exploring to do. For instance, I got to try salaberry fanta from the 7-11. It tasted a little like crushed hopes and dreams strained through a bandana that's been sitting in the bottom of an old tackle box.
All together I was there for 4 days and 3 nights. I left relaxed, with some great memories, and the sunburn of a lifetime.The next morning I arrived in Bangkok at about 4AM. I wandered down the the temple complex with the famous reclining Buddha and dozed on a bench outside until they opened. The reclining Buddha was just like in picures and on TV, but bigger. The temple school is sponsored by - you guessed it - 7-11. They're everywhere! Which reminds me, I also got to try "Pepsi Green". It tasted the way I imagine fairy pee must taste like after the fairy's been on antibiotics for a week or so. And speaking of anti-biotics, I realized while I was in Bangkok that my scuba diving injury needed a little medical attention. I scratched my toe on a bench when we were waiting to get into the boat, and after 4 days I could tell that it was infected in a pretty nasty way.

Luckily there were plenty of pharmacies to chose from, soI skipped this one for obvious reasons. I found a place with a pharmacist that spoke excellent English, and hooked me up with a whole sack of toe dressing supplies and a 5-day course of antibiotics for about $15. That's what I would pay back in the states just to get the paper that says I can pay someone else for the pills. And that's with insurance. I stopped at the local Starbuck's while I waited for the flop houses to clear out so I could get a room for the night. With a frappaccino and a muffin, I felt like I was in Ohio. Which some tourists would whine about , but I was lapping it up like a slurpee. After all, I wasn't on vacation from Akron, I was on vacation from Hanoi, a sadly slurpee-less land, and I was loving it.

Khao San Road is the main hub of the banana pancake trail, trustafarian set. It's like that street with all the bars in any college town, but on an international level.
T-shirts and black market cd shops line the streets along with all sorts of random gift shops and restaurants. There was one vendor that was selling nothing but plastic lizards and fake poo. They knew their demographic.Elephants too.
It was a great place to spend a day, but afterward I was ready to get back to Hanoi.

More Motorbikes

2009-01-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but Blogger wouldn't let me use it for a while. And I don't know why I can use it again now. But I'm behind in my posts. So have a look at this. More motorbikes!

I'm still surprised by what people will do/put on a motorbike here.

Trees...
AK-47's...And an entire bathroom, one piece at a time. Toilet......glass cabinets......bathtub......and the door...This guy seems to have worked out some kind of airbag system for himself.This guy looks like he's taking his dogs to the vet. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it didn't look like they were going to make it.
But there were four guys in a row, all with pigs on their bikes. They looked healthy as could be. Don't worry guys, I'm sure they're just taking you in for a regular check up.Aren't they cute?

Vietnam Vo Dich!!!

2008-12-28T08:46:00.001-08:00

New Year's was fun. It's a bigger deal than Christmas around here. There aren't as many decorations, but there are a lot more closed businesses.

But what's even bigger is when Vietnam wins Thailand for the AFF Cup. It's hard to desribe what a big deal this is. I watched the game in a restaurant with a friend of mine who tried to explain it to me several times. I didn't really get it until the last goal when the waiters, customers, and staff all started yelling, jumping, and running around for joy.

As soon as we had seen the team receive the cup on TV, we went outside to watch the mayhem. All of the streets were filling up with traffic heading toward the lake at the center of town. The intersection in front of the opera house was just starting to fill up.

People were honking even more than usual. The preferred technique for motorbikes seemed to be one person driving and one person waving the biggest flag they could find. Of course, flag vendors magically appeared in the intersections as well.

Apparently, this was the biggest football win in 39 years, so some of the young ones needed some training in proper Vietnamese style celebration. Here is a family of 4 on a motorbike. Come on, baby. Wave that flag!
Some lucky revelers had trucks.
Vietnam Vo Dich! Means Vietnam is the Champion! And when they heard a foreigner saying it they went even crazier. It was like having magic words that made people go insane with joy whenever I wanted them to. I tried to use my power responsibly, but I did use it to get a good shot of these guys.

We didn't stay out long because my friend was worried that all of the streets would be jammed. We had to turn around a couple of times, but ended up getting home ok. I drifted off to sleep, rocked gently by a lullaby of honking and screaming.

Karaoke

2008-12-28T02:59:00.000-08:00

No time for a real blog entry this week, so I'll leave you with this little gem...

Happy Holidays!

BRING US A FIGGY PUDDING!!!

2008-12-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas cheer has spread around the world, and Hanoi is no exception.

I've been busy sending Christmas cards. Well, postcards actually. I haven't seen any Christmas cards, so I got some postcards and did a little cut-and-paste on them to make them a little more Christmassy.And the kids have been learning Christmas carols at the kindergarten. Here's there version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas that I recorded during class...

As you can see, they were a little distracted by the camera, and just a little distracted in general. So for take 2, the teacher told them that the video would be taken to the police after class, so that the authorities could see who was singing and who wasn't. It worked like a charm.

Who knew that fear and cheer were interchangeable?

So remember, if you know someone who is a bit of a grinch and you want to cheer them up during this holiday season, you can always threaten to report them to the authorities.

Merry Christmas!

Ninh Binh

2008-12-14T23:10:00.000-08:00

I got to go to a town called Ninh Binh with some friends during the weekend. They have wifi, and ox carts...
...and a lot of ancient pagodas and nice scenery. We took a bus out of Hanoi and rode for about 2 hours, checked into a hotel, and rented some bicycles.One of the major local attractions is Tam Coc, where there are goats (that I heard are delicious)......and boats with elderly people to paddle them. They're actually paddling right through that big rock cliff in the middle of this shot......through a few little caves.When they get tired of paddling with their arms they use their feet.We also checked out some really cool pagodas, and met the nicest guy in southeast Asia. Who showed us around one of the pagodas, told us about the history with a little Vietnamese, a little French, and a lot of hand gestures, played a couple of tunes for us, and even gave some music lessons.
With all of that and some stops for food, it was a pretty full day. When we got back to the hotel, I was out like a light.
On Sunday, I followed Glitter, and Veggies (not their real names) out to Bich Dong. At least, I'm pretty sure it was called Bich Dong. I had some trouble keeping the names of all of the scenic locations around the area straight. They all seemed to be either obscene or unpronounceable.

This was a temple built into a cave...Shot from inside the cave...And, inside the cave there was a passage up through another cave with a couple more altars, that led to another shrine, that had a rocky "path" behind it, that led to this... The view was absolutely amazing. And worth the whole trip by itself.

I snapped a few other random pics during the weekend that I'll post because... well why not? I'm not paying by the picture here.

Incense pot graveyard...
Bird delivery...
Can't get that in the States can you?

And this little fella was our waiter. He helped us pick something from the menu...

Attitude Adjustment

2008-12-07T00:35:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately, my motorbike has been giving me trouble from the day I bought it. I got a flat tire within the first few days of getting it. As long as that needed to be fixed, I decided to have the tires replaced. They were due. I also bought the bike without working turn signals and wanted to get those fixed. It turned out that the signals didn't have sockets for bulbs, and the bike didn't have a decent battery in it. All of the wiring needed to be replaced too. I had the wiring done at the same place that put on the new tires. I figured they did a decent job with the tires, so I'd give them some more business. They put in a new horn, battery, and turn signals. But they lost the air filter cover. In the picture above, it's the blue thing just below and behind the handle bars. They replaced it with one that they "custom made" from a can of coolant.
Of course, the lights and horn went out not long after they were installed. Then, on the way home from teaching one day. I ran out of gas. Which was odd, because I was sure I had plenty in the tank. Luckily, (I thought) there were some corner mechanics right there to help me out. There are guys on every other block that just sort of hang out on the sidewalk and wait for someone to break down. It seems like anybody with a handful of tools can call themselves a mechanic and go into the business. So they put some gas in the tank from a jug that they had on hand. It immediately drained out of the bottom of the tank through the fuel line that had come loose. They stuck the line back onto the tank and poured in a little more gas, but the bike still wouldn't start. In hindsight, that's when I should have gotten my bike away from them. But I let them try to fix it. They pulled out the spark plug, destroyed it with a wire brush, and put it back in. Then tried without success to push start it. After some negotiating over their fee (shouting) I paid them for the gas and their work, and pushed the bike home.

Luckily, (for real this time) I got in touch with Andrew at VIP Bikes, and he fit me in there. VIP Bikes was set up by Blue Dragon to provide vocational training for Blue Dragon kids who want to become mechanics. The apprentices at VIP bikes are the best mechanics I've come across in town. They got my bike running again, replaced the spark plug, fuel line, and ignition switch that was ruined by the dumped gas, and Andrew actually gave me a small set of hand tools. So I can open my own sidewalk shop I guess.

Unfortunately, they gave her a look over and she could use a lot of work. It hasn't been idling since then either. I found the choke (I think) that is now being held by a wire.
And it explains why there is no choke cable connected to the controls.So I could get a cable and attach it, or adjust the choke at the carburetor in the mean time, but I'm not going to. The fact that it dies whenever I let go of the throttle has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because the ignition broke and letting the bike die is the only way I have to shut it off.

The bolts that held my back seat to the rack worked themselves loose from vibration a few weeks ago, and I lost the back seat somewhere between a couple of evening lessons on Thursday night.

So I was looking her over and thinking about getting rid of her and just renting a bike for the rest of my time in Hanoi. Or maybe buying something else.

The white plastic fairing is cracked too.

So I decided to do what I could to fix what I could the other day. I washed the bike, took off the fairing and taped it up, took the back rack off completely (To cut weight. It's really more of a racing bike anyway), and reconnected the loose wire from the horn.

At some point, I remembered working on my BMW back in Chicago. I had to do everything out on the street, which was a huge hassle. If I needed to go in to grab another tool or something, I had to take everything with me because I couldn't leave anything out on the sidewalk. I remember wishing that I lived in a ground floor place that I could ride my bike into so that I could work on it inside. And that's when I realized two things. First, that my dream home is a garage. And secondly, that I actually have what I wanted back in Chicago. I have a great place to work on my bike...And a bike that is constantly falling apart. It's a dream come true!

When I buttoned everything back up the horn worked again, and as if by a miracle, so did the turn signals. So I've added a couple of items to my little tool kit......(the switchblade and tootsie pop don't come standard), and I've just decided to enjoy the ride.
She still cleans up nice don't she?

Self Improvement

2008-11-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

The place where I teach in the evenings has a deal with a gym down the block. We teach English to 5 of their employees, and we get 5 memberships. I went 3 times last week. I really like running on the treadmill because I don't have to dodge motorbikes. It would be nice if I could stand up straight in the locker room, but it doesn't cost me anything so I'm not complaining.
With the help of Ambassador Iroquois Dandelion , I've finally found a place to go for services. I've been going to a few different churches on Sundays and checking out this and that. I've liked a couple of the churches, but I've really been interested in practicing and learning more about Buddhism while I'm here. Unfortunately, most of the pagodas are really touristy, and local Buddhists don't have Sunday morning services. Everything revolves around the lunar calendar. Without speaking Vietnamese, and without even having a lunar calendar, I can't do much more than go to pagodas, take pictures, and be hassled about buying postcards like the other westerners.

But last week I started going to morning meditation at a zen place that has everything in English. They don't have anything going on on the weekends, and I can't go to any of the evening stuff because I'm teaching in the evenings, but I'm free on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 6:30 (who isn't, right?), so I can do that. There is also a reading group that's been on a break, but I plan to attend that when it starts up again.

It's in a neighborhood with some of the nicest architecture...
...and the biggest dead rat I've ever seen.I really wish there were something in that shot for scale. That thing was huge.

This is a good example of some of the different cultural norms here that still baffle me. The neighborhood is beautiful, but there is garbage in the streets, and there are tangled masses of wires overhead that don't seem to go anywhere. People will often hand me my change with both hands instead of just one, in order to be polite. But then they'll stick a finger into their nose up to the knuckle and root around like Bill Murray on a gopher hunt. Practical strangers strike up conversations and offer to show me around the city, but people will bump into you on their motorbikes and not even bother making eye contact, let alone saying "xin loi" (sorry). Still very odd to me. And I'm sure I'm doing weird and offensive things all the time too. I just don't know what they are yet.

Getting up so early for meditation has shown me a part of the city that I didn't know existed until now. There are probably a couple of hundred people in front of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum before dawn each morning, getting their morning exercise. I think I only saw 2 runners in Hanoi before this last week, and now I know why. They're all done with their daily exercise before 7.

Through the house room mates, I got an invite to a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.

There was eating......simulated dancing......and simulated napping...
Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. But I already had a great Thanksgiving in June, which included all of my favorite folks and food, thanks to Don and Jen. I even got to bite a toddler. So I wouldn't have felt like I was missing out, but it was still good to have a proper Thanksgiving closer to the actual day.

It did seem a little odd though. It's December now, and the forecast high today was 80˚ F.

Teacher's Day

2008-11-22T01:36:00.000-08:00

There are some things about Hanoi that I just don't like and I'll never get used to. For example, the traffic. How bad is it? It's bad enough that sometimes I have time to take my camera out of my pocket and take pictures while I'm slowly working my way through an intersection.
The only thing that I've come across so far that's really frightened me was this. Notice anything strange?... All that tape and NONE OF IT IS DUCT TAPE! Dear sweet Lord, what kind of godless heathens don't have duct tape?! If duct tape isn't holding their society together WHAT IS!?!?!

Not as scary, but twice as funny is the fact that Vietnamese people get cold when temps drop below 75˚ F. This is one of the students at the language center where I teach in the evenings. She's all bundled up and ready to head home after class. I checked the temp online just before I took this and it was 70˚.Though, she does have snacks in both hands. Which is kind of nice.

Another nice thing they have here is Teacher's Day. It's a pretty serious holiday for these folks. They give gifts to teachers and some people even visit old teachers to pay their respects. I got a couple of plates from two of my favorite students at Blue Dragon.(I made the aluminum foil candle holder myself. If you like it, make me an offer.)

And I got flowers from a couple of my other students. Which was pretty nice.The whole thing reminded me of one of the teachers that made a big difference in my life back in the day, so I decided to get into the spirit of the holiday and send her a little thank you email.

So just when I get annoyed with some of the less attractive elements of life in Hanoi, something like teacher's day comes along and makes me really appreciate the place and the people.

And the food's pretty good too.

Into the Jungle

2008-11-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I went to Cuc Phuong National Forest with a dozen other nice folks. We rented a bus and were headed for a stilt house in the forest.
The stilt house wasn't exactly what I expected. The "stilts" were concrete, and there was a restaurant in the base. There were also around a hundred young college kids. Hanging out on the garbage-strewn grounds.Some of them asked me if I could speak Vietnamese, and when I managed to say, "I'm an American." in Vietnamese they actually cheered. They couldn't have been sweeter. Which made it all the easier for me to scoop them up and carry them off to my cave, where I gobbled them up like popcorn. We went on a 7k walk around the forest, saw some beautiful scenery...
and got to act like Tarzan.That night there were not one, but two bonfires. At some point a girl from the school group grabbed me and brought me to a coconut or something that was lying on the ground full of straws and who knows what else. I put my lips on one of the straws to mime a drink and thanked her. The next day we saw a cave, a monkey sanctuary, a turtlearium (I just made that word up) a pagoda, and a church. There was a tight spot in the cave that was a kind of exciting.At the turtletory (probably not a real word either), we came across one of these really cool walking sticks. and then accidentally stepped on it.Kind of brings a new meaning to that whole "Leave nothing but footprints" thing.

We found a secret lair where we could take a break for lunch, make evil plans,...get a Flintstones style workout...and watch a preying mantis have a post-coital snack.The last stop before sunset was a 17th century Catholic pagoda/cathedral.Seeing the temple dogs replaced with saints, and the dragons replaced with crosses was pretty fascinating. The buildings and grounds were beautiful and they knew how to draw a crowd too. The evening mass was standing room only.

Shopping

2008-11-09T00:08:00.000-08:00

The flood waters have receded, I'm back to a normal schedule, and we finally got to have Halloween in my English class at Blue Dragon. Thanks to some construction paper and several pounds of candy that mom sent from the States, a good time was had by all.
I've also been able to go out and do a little bit of shopping. Shopping is kind of a big deal here. Tourists love to shop in the Old Quarter for bargains and souvineers. Vietnamese people love to ask people how much they paid for everything. And expats like to exchange info on where to get the stuff they miss from back home. I got to fill someone in today on where to get full-sized stick deodorant, and I got a good lead on where to get tortillas.

My dress shoes were soaked in the floods, and I tried to clean them up a couple of times, but they kept getting all moldy. I eventually tossed them because I didn't want to get some kind of foot rot. So I went shopping for some new ones. My friend Paul took me to a place where he got some shoes and hooked me up.
They were 350,000 Dong. Which is pretty good considering they were designed by Italy.
I mean, if an entire country put everything on hold to design a pair of shoes, they gotta be worth $21.58. Plus they're slip-ons, which is handy around here.

There are all sorts of bargains to be had in Hanoi if you know where to look, and there are lots of interesting products too. For example, hygene products named after America's fattest president.
And you know how people like to point out that "Evian" is "naive" spelled backward? Well here they spell it right.
You can get women's beauty drink...
...young rice, green tea, and peanut ice cream......American ginseng drink......Batman 5......and moon cakes with "Chinese sausage", "fin of fish", and "gac oil" on the list of ingredients among a lot of other things. I still haven't found any Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It's probably not going to happen. But this week I have found contact solution, my favorite hot sauce, and a can of cranberry sauce that I'm saving for Thanksgiving.
So, it was a good week for shopping.

Floods

2008-11-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

It rained all night Thursday night, and it was still raining Friday when I got up to go teach my first class. On the way there, I got to a main intersection that was flooding pretty badly. The streets to the right and left were flooded out too, so I eventually decided to just go through the water. It was over the tailpipe, but I managed to get through.

I like this shot because you can see the traffic cop, in the raincoat and helmet, in the center of all the mayhem just waving everyone into the water.
Two brave students came to class, so I didn't go all the way down there for nothing. The trouble was getting back. It hadn't let up at all during class, and when I got back to that intersection again the water was up to the seats of most motorbikes.
I stopped for a while and just watched as person after person rode their bike into the water...
...looked surprised when the engine died in the water, and pushed their bike out the other side.
Cars and trucks were having the same problem by now because the water was above hood level. There were dozens of bikes on either side of the water with people waiting for one of the "mechanics" (any guy with some hand tools) to dry off their spark plug and help them out.
I actually saw a couple of guys with their bikes up on the center stand on the curbs and tilting them back to pour the water out of the tailpipe. As it turns out, engines won't run under water. A lot of people seemed to think that their engine would be the exception, but I wasn't one of these people. I went back to the school, waited a few hours, and tried again - still flooded. I eventually parked at the school and walked home, wading through mid-thigh deep water, along the way.
And the rain kept coming. Classes were cancelled. The office staff in the house where I'm staying had trouble getting home and one person stayed overnight. It rained more-or-less all weekend. the office didn't open Saturday morning. A friend of mine had her house flood and advised me to buy food, which I did. According to news reports 18 people in the city died. Even this morning I had to walk and wade again, but I managed to find a way to ride back and I've got my bike home. The worst of it seems to be over and I shoudn't have to do anymore wading.

On the plus side it's nice and cool here now. It should be getting down into the 60's at night. The locals have started talking about how cold it is, which makes me chuckle every time I hear it.

Postcard Exchange

2008-10-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

One of the lessons that I have coming up with my group at Blue Dragon has writing a postcard as an exercise. And I figure I might as well have them write real postcards to real people that can send real postcards back. So I'm looking for volunteers. If you have time to answer a postcard from Vietnam, let me know. You could have a beauty like this all the way from Southeast Asia decorating your cubicle wall.
Send me an email if you're up for it. fishercommaseth("atcom" -that's what they call it here)gmail.com

T-shirts

2008-10-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

I've started collecting pictures of shirts with weird things written on them in English. It started when I saw a guy walking along the lake in my neighborhood wearing an orange t-shirt with big block letters that said "PINK GAL". That's when I knew I had to start documenting this phenomenon.

English is often used as a design element without regard to what it actually says. Kind of like the random "Chinese" you might see on a sports bike or a poorly thought out tattoo, where the owner isn't necessarily sure what it actually means, or if it means anything at all.

This shirt was in one of my classes today.
"Popular Chemical Element Loneliness" So there are how many elements now? It seems like they're always discovering new ones. I can't keep track.

This one is a little hard to read, but it says, "SPORT- UPPER BOY LIKE". Not quite sure what to make of that.

I've seen a few shirts that have pretty clear suggestions."We suggest the premium sporting". But of course. I would have no other kind.

The front of this one is pretty straight forward. "Kid's Nature" could be a brand I guess. Though, it also mysteriously says "KLW" in the corner.On the back it says, "Let's walk in a hurry like me!"This poor kid is going to grow up paranoid that people are chasing him.

I like PowerPoint as much as the next guy, so I was excited to see that they're releasing a new version called "Super Storm". I guess they've finally figured out how to incorporate police dogs into the software, which will be a big improvement. This one goes into the generally confusing category. It says, "Never tasted, Pop Up, Cutie Friends, Bow! Wow!" I'm not sure exactly what it's all supposed to mean, but it makes me want toaster pastries.This one makes perfect sense.

Changes

2008-10-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

I quit volunteering at Hanoi Children's Palace this week. Can't say I'm going to miss it. I just couldn't take the lack of organization and the unaddressed behavior problems any more. And when I found out that they hadn't been paying for the food and housing that they were supposed to be covering for me, I decided that I could better spend my volunteer hours somewhere else. Though I will miss some of the kids.

I won't miss trying to teach with this outside the door.

Seriously. I took that standing in front of the classroom door. Yeeesh.

I picked up a class at a language center that's M-F at 8:00 AM. I'm not really enjoying the early alarm clock, but it's a good place and it'll help cover expenses until I can find a few more hours. Once I do I'll be able to spend more time volunteering at Blue Dragon Children's Foundation.

So it was kind of a weird week and I was glad to get to the weekend. And, today I got to ride all over Hanoi with my new friend Ambassador Iroquois Dandelion (not her real name) on our Honda Super Cubs and check out some art galleries.

One place had a photo...

...that reminded me of one I took in Florida a while back.

Though, I went a little crazy with the negative space in mine.

Some of the best stuff was at a gallery where they didn't want people taking pics, but I didn't have that problem at Hanoi Future Art, where I saw this neon sign...
...and made friends with Pip. Whose facebook page was one of the pieces in the exhibit.
We ended our tour by hanging out at a neighborhood bar and trying to solve the world's problems. Her parents are both die hard Communists and their lives were profoundly affected by the American War. We both admitted to feeling some impact from the war on our own lives, even a generation later. Over the past couple of months I keep thinking about the fact that good and noble, self sacrificing people, with pure hearts and the best of intentions, can do horrible things. And I, as a person of faith, can fit that into my worldview. It's a big, hard, ugly truth to wrestle with, and I'm not quite sure how to do it.

But just the fact that the two of us could spend a day together, checking out art galleries and hanging out tells me that even when the wounds of war are deep enough to affect the next generation, there is hope for healing.

Museum of Ethnology

2008-10-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Today, I was treated to a trip to the Museum of Ethnology by a student of my house mate Paul. Ha, and her friend, (also named Ha), showed up at 10:00. Ha, Ha, Paul, and I hopped on a couple of motorbikes, and we fought our way through the crazy Hanoi traffic to the museum that chronicles the history of the 54 distinct indigenous peoples of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese are a fairly slight people in general, especially by my super-sized American standards, but I guess they used to be even smaller. Apparently, they lived in these tiny houses...

And fished from these tiny boats...They were probably around 1 or 2 inches tall. But of course, they use centimeters here, so that's just a rough estimate.

The most formal people of Vietnam are the White Thai people.
The White Thai have a reputation for being a little snobbish, but very, very dapper - especially when donning their traditional top hats and tails.

You may recall from earlier blog entries that they tend to load up motorbikes and bicycles like pack mules here. They really have a talent for it. It's about half art and half sport. This bicycle loaded with baskets was so well stacked that it actually made it into the museum.
(If there are any young children in the room, you may want to cover their eyes for this next part.)

As we walked the grounds we came upon some sort of statue orgy.This one noticed me staring and looked like he wanted to beat me up, or worse. So we moved on pretty quickly. It was a little shocking and uncomfortable.I was also shocked that there were so many things in the museum that you could handle as you walked around. There were full sized stilt houses on the grounds that you could walk through, and displays with artifacts lying out in the open.
Someone's getting an ancient artifact for Christmas...

Motorbike Shopping/Playoffs

2008-10-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for a different teaching gig for the evenings, checking out apartments, and meeting people that I want to hang out with. The time has come that I need more than a bicycle, so I started looking at used motorbikes. The first one that I checked out was this...

It's a Minsk. A 125cc, 2-stroke, Soviet made, kick starting, black smoke spewing, little monster. I loved it right away. But I didn't get it. This city is thick with smog already, and this bike gets about the same mileage as my BMW in the States, even though it's about 1/5 the engine size and half the weight. And because it's a 2-stroke, you have to pour oil into the tank each time you get gas, to be burned off as the engine runs. It just seemed like a little more fuel cost, hassle, and environmental damage than necessary.

So I got this...It's a vintage Honda Super Cub. A 50cc "step through". It's taking a little bit of getting used to for me. It's not a regular motorcycle, but it's not an automatic scooter either. It's a 3-speed, and you change gears without a clutch. From neutral, they're all down. You can come to a stop in any gear and leave it running and the engine will just idle. Very weird for me, but it's the way 95% percent of the bikes around here are built.

Even though it's been repainted this nice royal blue, all the locals think it's ugly. To westerners, it looks cool and retro, to Vietnamese people it looks like a pinto. This is the Hyundai motorbikes. (But, if you drove a Hyundai here, you'd be some kind of big shot. Go figure.) There are still a bunch of them on the streets, Honda has actually cranked out over 60 million Cubs since they started making them a half-century ago. But now Vietnamese folks are into newer bikes that have paint jobs taken directly from the spandex pants of 80's hair band lead guitarists, and pseudo-futuristic designs with way too much plastic. Bikes that I would be a little embarrassed to ride. It's funny how culture affects something like this.

In addition to being pretty, it gets great mileage. Unfortunately, like a lot of things here, it makes me look like a giant. It's just fast enough that so I've been able to evade all the pitchfork and torch wielding villagers who fear that I might swallow their pigs and children. And probably the best feature is that it's a nice Cubby blue. Just in time for the playoffs. I found a matching helmet that's made in the USA, with a flag sticker and all. It's nice to see the home country exporting something in this day and age. And it's probably the best commercially available helmet in the country.
I took the cubs sticker from my laptop and turned it into a batting helmet. With the way they're playing, they could call me up at any time.I've been getting up at 4:30 or 6:00 or whatever ridiculous time to watch the Cubs play on ESPN Star, which is carried by VTV here. But the schedule on the website is a mess. Yesterday it said that they were showing 2 American League games live. I don't know how they were planning to do that when there was only one American League game being played. The games start on the hour, but the network has them scheduled for the half-hour. The schedule is for Vietnam, but seems to be on Bejing time...

I know I'm really only complaining because the Cubs aren't winning. I even started watching the White Sox in the hopes of seeing a Chicago win, but that just made it worse. But I'm pretty sure the Cubs will win the next three and go on to win the Series. Yeah. Pretty sure...

Snake Village

2008-09-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some friends, I finally got a chance to get out of town for a little while on Sunday. I was ready to go check out a new church, the same one I didn't go to last week, when my housemate, Paul, asked if I wanted to go to Snake Village. Well, of course I want to go to Snake Village - whatever that is.

We met up with Paul's friend from work, Ben, his room mate, and one of his students. This was our ride for the day...
Snake Village turned out to not really be a village, so much as a part of town on the other side of the Red River that has restaurants that specialize in snake. This guy helped us pick out a nice cobra.
They weigh it, then they slit it open and pour it's blood into a beaker with vodka.
The bile from the liver is also squirted into a bottle of vodka to make a refreshing green aperitif.
After that it seemed like the snake dishes just kept coming. There was snake soup, fried snake meat, snake organs with star fruit, snake skin fried like pork rinds, snake bones mixed with seeds and served on crispy flat bread, more snake soup... It was really amazing. I was very surprised not to see the snake's head again.A good time was had by all.Someone ordered french fries for me. After my seafood diner experience, I was more than happy with my fries and a coke.Now, when you eat snake like this, it's customary for someone to swallow the snake's heart. While it's still beating...

Paul gave it a try...

And he did manage to get it in...

He tried again, but never actually swallowed it. He swears that he's really going to do it next time.

And then we all went for a little ride around the countryside. I even got a new hat, and Paul took care of everything as a late birthday present. He may not be much for swallowing snake hearts, but he's a really nice guy.

Trees

2008-09-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

You hear all over the place that Vietnam's economy is rapidly growing. People here seem very interested in working hard and getting ahead. Some people work two or three jobs. And, even some of the trees here have jobs.

This one has a gig as a shrine of some sort...
This tree earns its keep by helping out with the laundry.
This one has a full-time job as a barber shop. There are actually quite a few of these. I hesitate to get my hair cut at one of them, because I can clearly see that they have no means of sanitation. I don't want to get lice, or something from a razor that's been dragged across a few hundred faces and carried a little DNA from each one. But there's something so Winnie the Pooh about it that it's kind of tempting.
And this one is probably the most successful of all. It has an interest in this Bun Cha stand. It's wired with an electrical outlet so that it can keep the customers cool with that fan you see there, and it moonlights as a photography studio backdrop. What a work ethic!

Random Observations

2008-09-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

- A lot of the toilets are made so that you stand with your feet on either side of the bowl and squat. I haven't had the pleasure of using one yet. Should be a treat.

- I just realized yesterday that there are none of those stupid chirping nextel walkie-talkies in Hanoi. That alone makes moving here worth consideration.

- This country is full of beautiful women... beautiful women that I can't talk to.

- I've learned to love bats and lizards. Every night they come out and start eating the mosquitoes that would otherwise give me malaria, or ebola, or the croup or whatever, and I say, "Go get 'em little guys!"

- The ice cream here sucks. Granted, I haven't eaten it all yet, but so far - bleh.

- The coke is great. Real sugar instead of corn syrup. Delicious.

- The coke floats? They're ok.

- You know why Asian people are thin? Because they don't eat so damn much.

- In the US, little kids have shoes that light up with flashing red lights. Here, they have something similar, but instead of flashing lights they squeek like little dog toys with each step. If you put a jack russell terrier in the right preschool playground, you might actual get to watch its brain melt and dribble out its ears.

- But, there aren't any crazy, annoying, wound-up little dogs here. There are little dogs, but they are all very mellow and sweet. I guess they know that there is a direct correlation between how annoying they are and how tasty they look. (Actually, I think the people make a distinction between pet dogs and edible dogs, but I'm not sure how that works.)

-The Vietnamese wear helmets when riding motorbikes, but I see someone crash about once a week, and none of them manage to keep their helmets on. In fact, I've seen them fly off in the wind.

- We have the idea in the west that capitalism means freedom, and communism means the opposite. True, you don't get to vote for your leaders here unless you're a party member, and the government can spy on you (Actually, since Bush that's true in the US too.) but you can smoke a Cuban cigar in a bar, you can skateboard in the park (Go ahead, do a sick kick-flip. Comrade Lenin doesn't mind!)...

...and you can eat french fries with chopsticks.

And you can do this...

Ist Day of School

2008-09-06T02:16:00.001-07:00

The first day of school is kind of a big thing in the US, but in Vietnam, the first day of school is a HUGE FREAKIN' DEAL! The school that's situated right behind the building I live in has been practicing their first day of school performances for weeks. I wake up every morning to either a drum squad or some kind of singing and/or marching. They do this at schools all over the city and country, along with hanging banners and building stages and setting up sound systems.

I was invited to be one of the guests for an opening ceremony at a brand new school in a district just west of me. It was at 7:00 AM, and I almost begged off, but I was glad I didn't. There was singing and dancing and drumming and marching and speeches... I was actually told that they wanted me to give a speech just after I arrived. They had written something for me. Then I was told that they had forgotten to bring it and I should make something up. The teacher who invited me had to leave a little early, so I was handed over to another teacher who would be my interpreter. Here's a little clip of the show...

Ok. So the kinds look a little bored in this clip. But for the most part they were pretty excited. I was sitting and watching and making a couple of comments to my new interpreter/friend and writing my speech in my head while I waited. But, it turns out we went a little long. And I got bumped by the local supermarket chain that donated a bunch of supplies and scholarships for kids that needed it. The poor kids were paraded onto the stage and each given a sack of supplies. More speeches, a final musical number, and there was nothing left but to wait for the reviews.

I was actually a little disappointed that I didn't get to give my little speech. Even though I'd only been told about it a couple of hours earlier. But then we visited one of the classrooms and the kids practiced saying hello, and asking me how old I was, and then they all wanted to have their pictures taken with me.

Yesterday was the opening ceremony at the kindergarten where I teach a couple of days a week. It was a much smaller production, but just as much fun. Here are the ten little Indians about to go on in their meticulously true-to-period traditional construction paper skirts...
I had been helping work on the big ABC number for a couple of weeks. Here's a shot of that...

Unfortunately, the timing was all off and let's face it, some of these kids don't take direction well. I didn't want to say anything in front of the parents, but little heads will roll when I get back on Tuesday. Oh yes they will...

And last night I was invited to dinner by the schools director along with all of the other teachers. Now, as a general rule, I don't eat meat of any kind. But, I hadn't told them I was a vegetarian because I wouldn't want them to make any special arrangements for me and there is almost always something I can eat even if it's just a bowl of rice. But it turns out that there was no rice and the only non-meat items were french fries and some sort of vegetable that I don't know. So I never would have gotten away with just eating the garnish. Also, you don't really just order or take what you want. The stuff sort of gets portioned out. On top of it all, I'm like a toddler in this situation and I had to have someone show me how to eat this stuff. For example, when you get a great big prawn, you eat it's head but not it's legs. Oh heaven's no. That would be gross.

So I had 2 kinds of muscles (I think), something that was deep fried (which was the easiest thing to eat because even deep fried hair would probably taste ok), a few big shrimp faces...

The final course was eel. It was served dead and sliced from head to tail like a loaf of bread. You put it in the boiling water, and 5 minutes later, out comes bowls full of eely goodness.
They also served what looks to me like some kind of packing material, and it all gets washed down with red bull. This was the first time I actually enjoyed the taste of red bull. So today I feel like I've got a sack of wet cement in my gut.

Now, all that said, I'm still not going to turn down any dinner invitations. It's not like this stuff is going to kill me (I hope) and these people went out of their way to make sure that I was included in what was for them a special, delicious dinner. It's so easy to feel like an outsider when you're new in town and you don't speak the language and don't know what's going on half the time. And a lot of time I feel like I'm just there to fulfill some requirement, like a contractor or something - not really part of the operation. But this meal was for staff. It was for the people who are really part of the school, and even though I've been there less than a month they decided that that included me. They served me a 5 or 6 course meal and probably would have chewed it for me if I needed it. So my stomach is feeling a little taxed, but it did my heart good.

The One Month Mark

2008-09-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

A lot of people like to say that they are "spiritual, but not religious." It's usually meant to express the mistrust of organized religion while still allowing for the understanding that there is something larger than any one of us that lives in all of us. Generally, I think this is a pretty healthy attitude. It takes a person's spiritual life out of the hands of institutions and places it firmly within each individual's grasp. And I think that's healthy. Spirituality should be about a personal journey. Between you and God.

But, especially as a minister, I'm a bit of an anomaly. I like to say that I'm religious and not spiritual. I'm more of the "We make our own destiny" school of thinking. I believe in the importance of ritual and community as a way to remind us of what's important and keep us on the right path, and I don't have a whole lot of belief in the magic side of things. My current brand of faith has more to do with the faith that I can go out into the world and try to make a difference and then let go of it. The faith that we have the power to change the world if we try. The faith that it will mean something and it will have an impact, even if I never live to see it. That said, I always try to leave the door cracked for that "experience of other" that seems to be the difference between philosophy and religion. It's the thing that seems to breath life into ideology.

I like to have my tarot cards read every once in a while. I don't really think that they connect me to some other world or that they hold any mystical power. I think that people can see what they need to in the cards. Kind of like a spiritual Rorschach test. And for many years now, whenever I find a playing card face-down on the sidewalk, I pick it up, flip it over, and look up the divinatory meaning when I get home. At worst it's a silly little thing to pass the time - like a fortune cookie fortune. At best it's a reminder of something that I might need to think about at the moment. I get red Jacks much more often that should be probable.

About a week ago, I was out with some new friends and I found a card on the ground. It was a Jack of Hearts. I told one of my housemates that I seem to get them a lot. When I looked up the meaning online and it said that someone who cares about me was thinking of me. "That's nice," I thought. Staying in contact with family and friends since my trip started, I also knew that it was true. I found another card a few nights ago. All by itself, face-down. When I picked it up and flipped it over it was another Jack of Hearts. Those are pretty long odds, and it sent a little shiver down my spine. The next day, and the day after that, I found cards on the ground face-down, and I just kept walking. It seemed a little too spooky to pick them up. And come to think of it, it was a pretty decent analogy for the spiritual journey. Sometimes you learn things that you might not feel ready to know. If you're doing it right, it's a little scary.

Today marks exactly one month that I've been in Vietnam and all that time I've been looking for a good Cuban cigar. I envisioned women walking around with huge bundles of Cohiba Robustos balanced on their heads and selling for a buck piece. But they turned out to be a lot harder to find than I expected. I got some information about a part of town that should have some, but I went there and asked around and they didn't. I got the address of the only licensed distributor of Habanos in the country, and found that it was only an office or some kind of storage facility with guards that didn't speak English, didn't know anything about any cigars, and weren't about to let me wander around the building. I went looking for a hotel that supposedly had a nice bar and a good selection of cigars, only to find it wasn't where it was supposed to be on my map, and the entrance was boarded up and they were in the middle of remodeling. (You can't see the plywood in the picture, but trust me, it was a dead end.) And, I got a cold so and gave up the search for a while. No point in a good cigar if you can't really taste it.

So today, I finally found the first good Cubans I've seen here. They turned out to be at a really pricey hotel that I've walked past a few times. But they had a selection of exactly 2 different cigars, the humidor wasn't properly kept, and they wanted almost $40 US per smoke. I'm not a heavy cigar smoker by any means, but I've had quite a few of the best over the years from all over the world and not one came anywhere near being worth $40. I moved on, and after dinner tonight I decided to canvass every luxury hotel I could find and get a decent cigar or give up for good. I walked quite a few miles today (cigars are only bad for you if you forget to factor in all the walking) and finally, I found a really nice hotel bar just south of downtown with a good selection of reasonably priced cigars. I selected a Montecristo #3, got it cut, took a couple of boxes of matches from the bar, and went out to take my new cigar for a nice long walk.

Tomorrow is Vietnam's National Day. Sept. 2nd is their version of Independence Day. There were six kids in my class today that usually has about 25, and if the day didn't seem different than usual, the night sure did. On my walk back with my cigar, I found this..
Why are all of the audience members for the hoola-hoop girls on scooters? Because the stage is set up on a traffic island in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in town. The entertainment is something nice for people to stop and watch and honk at as they rush home to make last minute Independence Day preparations. There were cars and bikes all over the streets and the sidewalks with vendors and pedestrians climbing over and around them any way they could. The streets were Bedlam. I stopped to enjoy the show and I had a woman that sold me some really overpriced postcards once before tug on my arm and give me another pitch. Her kid wanted to try my cigar. Another guy wanted to sell me some "marijuana" (people have tried to sell me "pot", or "weed", or "smoke" before, but this was my first "marijuana" salesman). I didn't buy anything but as an English teacher I appreciated that he used the proper terminology, and I talked and joked with the postcard lady, and I encouraged her son not to smoke, and for the first time I was comfortable in all of this mayhem.

I saw a car go by that was flying an American flag and I saluted. I bought Vietnamese flag t-shirts for everyone in the house on the way home to celebrate the second of September tomorrow. The red Vietnamese flag t-shirt with the gold star is the obligatory souvenir around here. I've been thinking that it would feel weird for me to wear that shirt, but I decided to do it anyway. After all, I saw a local just yesterday with an American flag on his shirt. I talked the t-shirt lady down to just over $2 apiece for 4 shirts partly, I think, because I was able to negotiate the sale in Vietnamese. I strolled toward home, and I felt at-home for the first time in this city.

Along the way I found a playing card, all by itself, face down. I was in such a good mood that I picked it up and turned it over. It was the Jack of Diamonds. "Jack of Diamonds" is an old Tex Ritter song that my Dad used to sing every once in a while when I was a kid and we were riding around in his truck. I was in my twenties before I knew that he didn't make it up himself. In my mind it's always been Dad's song. I felt like the first two cards were telling me something, and that the last one was telling me that I got it.

I still don't necessarily believe in cards as a way of communicating with the beyond or anything like that. But sometimes along the way, when you keep your eyes open, you find just what you need to find, just when you need to find it.

School

2008-08-29T01:58:00.000-07:00

I love this picture. The commie-tubbies...

It's one of the many murals on the walls of the courtyard at the kindergarten where I teach a couple of days a week. I took over for my former room mate Ollie, who's in this next pic.

It's pretty fun because it's easy to give into the mayhem. I help teach the ABC's and names of fruits, vehicles, and family members etc. And then sometimes I just let them climb on me.

5 nights a week I'm at Children's Palace. This is kind of my bread-and-butter volunteer gig because they take care of my housing. The way they run the place is taking some getting used to. Sometimes there is a Vietnamese teacher in the room to tell me what material they're working on. Sometimes there is no other teacher and I just ask the kids what I should teach them. Sometimes I start teaching and a Vietnamese teacher comes in 15 minutes into the class and asks me to go to another classroom where there are a bunch of 14 and 15 year olds who have no text or lesson plan and are playing video games. There is a schedule, but I don't know if there has been a day yet when I taught in all the classes that I was scheduled to teach in. So, I'm getting better at coming up with lesson plans on the fly and just going with it. Last night I had a group of young teens with no other teacher, no lesson plan, no book. So we just "rapped" "Welcome Back, Kotter" style for the first half of class. And wrote a group story and played a vocabulary-building game for the last half. I think the most important thing is to get them speaking in English and keep them using English with a native English speaker as long as I can. And it ended up being a lot of fun. Here's a hallway to one of the classrooms where I have to duck to keep form hitting my head on the ceiling...

I'm not one to use marijuana myself even though I think it should be legalized. However, I do support the school's strict bong ban. These kids are just too young for that.

This is probably my favorite classroom. The others all have dry-erase boards and, I don't know if it's the climate or what, but a dry erase marker lasts about as long as an accidentally dropped dollar bill around here. The low-tech chalk is much better.

The real attraction at the school is the courtyard area. There are always kids playing badminton or doing martial arts. And there is a carnival going on every day with bumper cars and other rides. One of them uses the exact same recording that we use for car alarms in the US. So basically, there is a car alarm going off all night, every night when I teach there. I thought I was going to snap and start teaching the kids pig latin the first week, but I don't even really hear it anymore. It's kind of like living in Roger's Park again.

And sometimes the courtyard is full of fabulous, twirling, sparkly, balerina-princesses that swirl round their parents like sea water around dock posts as they get ready for their big performance.

I got a chance to stop by Blue Dragon Children's Foundation this week and get a little tour and meet the director. I seems like a really amazing place and I'm looking forward to whatever I end up doing there. I might be teaching English. I might be doing something with theatre. I'm going to start by just showing up and hanging out with the kids in the drop-in center and seeing what's up. http://www.bdcf.org/

And Friday I got to drop by Hope Center, which is a school for kids with developmental disabilities. The staff were really good, and I was struck by how nice and well-behaved all of the kids were. They were so patient and happy. This little guy was psyched about the clay pig we made together.

I think all kids should be retarded. They're so much nicer than those "normal" kids.

Streets

2008-08-21T23:13:00.001-07:00

There are more scooters on the streets of Hanoi than all other modes of transportation combined. There are quite a few bicycles...

But everyone wants a car. When I think about staying in hanoi long-term, that's the main reason I wouldn't want to be here in 10 years. This is a big intersection at rush hour...

Can you imagine if all of these motorbikes were replaced with cars?

Or the parking lot at the supermarket?

They don't seem to have any real concern about pollution here.

(That's right, he's peeing into the lake.)

I live right by this lake. There are always people fishing in it, but there are also always dead fish floating in it. I sort of wonder why they don't just grab the ones floating at the top and call it a day. It's the same lake that McCain crashed into during the Vietnam war. I actually have a little more respect for the man now, knowing that he survived that water. But it's still pretty at night.

Air pollution is pretty thick here, and some people wear masks to filter the fumes. Thousands of idling cars are not going to improve the situation. I don't even think the streets would be passable with cars parked along both sides. I see people ride up on the sidewalk to get around traffic as it is. But it seems like a lesson that they're going to have to learn the hard way.

It seems funny to me that they don't see the problems we have in the US and want to avoid them. But 4 wheels means success here. I think it's just human nature. In the states, we knew that burning gas was causing problems and that it was running out, but people still seem surprised that gas prices are so high. I think it's ironic that they want cars to imitate western culture, while we're all trying to downsize. So if you can't find a place to trade in your SUV, you might try Hanoi.

Food

2008-08-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

I've decided to try and focus on one topic per blog entry for a while, in order to make some sense of things. The whole world is brand new to me, but talking about everything all at once seems like a bad idea. I'm also going to try and post something at least once a week. So, this week it's food.

These were my first food purchases on the day I arrived. I wanted something that I could just have on hand for whenever I got hungry, because I didn't know what the meal situation was yet. So I stopped at the supermarket and picked up some Nut House brand nuts and some sort of preserved fruit called Omai, and pronounced,"Oh, my."

The nuts were just ordinary cashews. The Omai was a little bit more of a gamble. They turned out to be little apricots (or something) sprinkled with chili powder. On their own they're not so good, but they happen to be good with cashews.

Other things from the Fivi-Mart...

Pumpkin chips...

Canned Iced coffee. Which was also one of my favorite things in the US. These have some sort of recycling like logo on them, but I'm not sure what it means. I havn't seen any evidence of a recycling program anywhere yet. And, their little triangle is a little different. So I'm thinking it signifies recycling in a more esoteric sense. These cans will be "returned to the land."

And I've always been a big fan of animals that enjoy being eaten. These ones come right out and say it. They are so happy have their throats slit, be sliced up and formed into tube shape, and be tossed into your child's backpack to be consumed or traded for something better later, that they just want to say thank you.

How's that for an attitude of gratitude, huh?

I'm sure I'm missing the stuff at the supermarket that would seem the strangest to me because I just don't know what half of the stuff there is.

But at least once or twice a day I've been eating real homemade Vietnamese food prepared by the woman who does everything around the house. It's all fresh. It's all delicious. And, there's always more than I can eat. You can tell these eggs came from real chickens.

I've always liked bananas, but I swear they taste even more banana-ey here. My room mate thinks it's because they pick them ripe. But my new favorite fruit is Dragon fruit. Especially if it's been in the fridge for a while. I could plow through pounds of this stuff.

Of course, there's a reason we don't have such fresh fruit in the states. I had an apple tonight, and while I was eating it, this little critter came crawling out...

As soon as I saw him I spit everthing that was in my mouth on the floor, and then laughed at myself for over reacting. Until I cleaned it up and there was a worm on the floor that had apparently just been in my mouth. I guess that's why Mom always said, "Don't forget to irradiate your food!"

Still, I'm really liking all the fresh food for the most part. And, it didn't dampen my sense of culinary adventure. I went right out and got an avocado shake at a bakery/restaurant down the street.

Mmmmm... Smooth creamy weirdness.

First Impressions

2008-08-07T20:51:00.001-07:00

So this is a shot of my 'hood from across Ho Truc Bach. "Ho" means lake. So roughly translated "Ho Truc Bach" means "Lake Truc Bach". Yeah, I know. I pick things up pretty quick huh? The house is under the tallest radio tower somewhere. More about this lake later...

I heard that scooters and motorcycles were big in Vietnam, but I've only seen a handful of motorcycles. The scooter reigns supreme here. It's a mod's paradise.
They talk about how quickly the economy is growing in Vietnam and they've made a believer out of me. I became a millionaire within hours of arriving. $100 USD comes out to about 1,660,000 VND or "Vietnamese Dong". As a currency, it's great. It not only makes you feel rich, "Dong" roughly translates to "set up for 1,000 jokes".
The school has arranged for the woman who takes care of the house here to feed me twice a day. Which is pretty great. It took a while to communicate that I was a vegetarian, but everything she makes is great. The meat is for my room mate, Kickflip (not his real name).
Here is the school. It's about a 15 minute bike ride or 30 minute walk from the house. It's not in great shape, but the kids are curious and generally well behaved. The teachers are really nice and they make you feel a little like a celebrity just for showing up.

I got a lead on where I can find good cigars, and I plan on celebrating the end of my first week tonight with a nice Cuban, and a real Coke made with sugar. Delicious Communist sugar...

Pics!

2008-08-02T20:39:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my new friend and housemate Kapow! (not his real name) I can now post pics.

I got to the airport Wednesday night (thanks to my supercool cousins) and flew out at 2:00 AM Thursday morning. I arrived inTaipei on Friday morning, which was about 14 hours later, and the sun never came up on Thursday.

Taipei is in Taiwan, which is in China, I think. I'm still a little confused about whether it's a country in it's own right, or a territory of China, or what. It's part of China somehow, and I found that China is a very nice country, with an ample supply of fire extinguishers...

I met an American woman on the plane who was returning to Thailand. We hung out for most of the layover. It was really comforting to have someone around who seemed to know what was going on.

I was really thirsty and wanted some water, but I was advised not to drink it from the taps or fountains. There were vending machines with bottled water. They cost 25 each. 25 what? I don't know. We did find a free wireless connection really easily though. I thought it was funny that I had no trouble at all getting a wifi connection, but that I couldn't figure out how to get water. Eventually a little restaurant opened up that took visa and we got a little something to eat and drink.

The gift shop had a bunch of familiar magazines with unfamiliar writing that I couldn't make any sense of. I also had a headache from sleeping in a weird position, or dehydration, or caffeine withdrawal, or all three. If you've ever had a concussion, this is exactly what the whole experience was like. General disorientation, no sense of time, and nice strangers taking care of you. (Everyone is a stranger when you've just had a concussion.)

I caught my next flight and got in to Hanoi 3 or 4 hours later.

I made it through customs, which was a big relief because when I checked in for the flight they told me that I might not be let into the country without a return flight and made me sign a waiver that said they weren't responsible if I was rejected. They let me in though, and after waiting for about an hour, I got my bag and met my coordinator, who took me to the house where I'm staying.

Shot from the balcony...

So I've been settling in since then. I've seen the school, met most of my housemates, seen the local grocery store, bank etc. So far so good.

So far so good and bad...

2008-08-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'm having some trouble figuring out the computer situation here. There is a computer in the house (which I'm obviously using now), but I can't figure out how to hook my laptop up to the internet. And, when I put things on a flash drive, I can't get the computer here to recognize that there is anything in the USBport. So for now, I'm stuck with just typing and no pictures, which is really really boring.

So for now, I don't have a whole lot to show. But I have learned 2 things about Vietnam so far.

#1 Hanoi Sucks: The traffic is absolutely insane, it's noisy, everything seems to be in some state of decay, I can barely find my way through the tangle of street and alleys, and I can't get my computer hooked up at the house.

#2 Hanoi is Awesome: It's vibrant and colorful, the food is great, the people are friendly, things are really inexpensive, and there are a thousand of years of history under your feet wherever you go.

So far I'm mesmerized by what a fascinating place this is.

Greetings from Hanoi

2008-07-31T23:51:00.000-07:00

I made it!

I'm tired and a little disoriented because the sun never came up on Thursday and it's about 36 hours past my bed time, but it's a lovely Friday afternoon here in Hanoi, a nice lady just put a mosquito net on my bed for me, and I can't wait to use it tonight. I'll have pics and more soon. Just wanted to let anyone that's wondering know that I made it safe and sound.

Last road trip post

2008-07-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I finally finished the Mexico-to-Canada leg of my trip. Oh Canada...
I really just wanted to cross the border to say I did, so I got in, stopped at a gas station, topped off the tank, and headed back. Gas was only $1.38.

I took this as I was waiting in line to get back into the US. 5,112.2 miles total for the whole trip. And there was a much longer line to get into the US than into Canada. Obviously, our country is better. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!...
At the border, they looked at my passport and asked me about my trip. I told them that I was really just crossing the border because I'd worked my way up the coast and wanted to go all the way from Mexico to Canada, so I just stopped for gas and turned around. The officer said "You bought gas in Canada?" and handed me a slip of paper. He told me to park and take it inside with my passport. I looked at the paper on the way in. He had horrible hand writing, but across the top it said "*Bought gas in Canada?*". Apparently this was cause for suspicion. Now, I know that gas in Canada isn't really $1.38 a gallon. Their $1.38 might not be the same as ours, and it's not in gallons. I knew it was probably more expensive, but when you're only putting in a gallon or so it doesn't seem like a big deal. Well I guess that's just what terrorists think too, because it got me stopped.

When I went inside, there were 8 officers milling around behind the desk. Some of them were laughing at something one of them found online. There were 2 at the desk, but only one was actually helping people. When I finally talked to someone, I handed him the piece of paper and he said, "How the hell am I supposed to read this?" (TERRORISTS - DON'T READ THIS PART) He asked me a couple of questions about my trip, told me that the computers were down, and drew a big letter "A" on the back of my piece of paper. I showed it to the guys outside and I was on my way. I could have saved a lot of time by writing an "A" on the paper myself, but I didn't know their super secret code beforehand. Man, those guys are clever.

After that I headed down to Burlington for lunch with my Aunt and Uncle and their two pugs. Such majestic creatures...

There is such a thing as free lunch. And I got some good stories too. One about my dad breaking some poor girl's arm on his first motorcycle. probably not the best move. If there is one thing I know about the ladies, it's that they don't like getting their arms broken.

After that I was done with interstate for the day, and I took hwy 20 over to Whidbey Island. This is the bridge at Deception Pass.
I took a couple of little gravel roads looking for some dirt to play in, and I found these guys...
Then a few bucks...
And then these!
This kind of equipment can only mean fun. So I turned off and found an area where they were putting in a new housing development, which means unpaved roads. Someday I want to build a clubhouse here and put a sign on it that says "No girls or Harleys allowed (except for the girls part)."
I explored a little, got dirty, dropped the bike trying to get over a little tree, messed up my back, and rode the rest of the island down to the ferry. It was great.

I got right on the next ferry with my motorcycles-are-cool pass, and crossed over to Everett. There was a HUGE line of people coming the other way when I got off. A lot of people head up north for the weekend and it was about rush hour on Friday, so the line to get on the ferry was probably about a mile long.

When I got to Seatte, I found Karla's place and we waited around a little for Jay to come home (I was early). Then they bought me dinner. I found a free parking spot too. And they had a couple of nice dogs for me to pet. Pretty sweet deal.
After that I went back to Mom's for the night.

So, here are the final numbers:

Total Miles: 5,112 (I snuck over to Wenatchee, WA somewhere in there too)

Animals Spotted:
13 Deer
4 Sea Lions
4 Rabbits
3 Elk
2 Prairie Dogs
2 Road Runners
1 Skunk (Non-rabid)

New Stickers: 7

Altogether it was a great trip, and a great way to see a bunch of this country and the people that I love before I leave for a while. People took me into their homes, fed me, and flashed their high beams at me when there was a deer around the corner. I saw desert, ocean, mountains and cities. I made amends with Iowa. I had frybread, vegemite, pho, and saladitos. I evaded attacks from dinosaurs, deer, pugs and slugs. I got a new hat. And, rode the best roads I've ever seen, in 12 states, and from border-to-border. This is a pretty great country.

Road Trip post for Saturday 7/19

2008-07-20T22:24:00.001-07:00

So Saturday morning I got over to my cousin Kyle's and we headed down to the Mariner's game. We were planning on getting there for batting practice, but there was a lot going on in the city. We spent some time sitting in traffic. We were sitting a while, and I could feel other people getting retro 80's baseball baps while we sat there. Every second was one less chance of me getting my hat.
When we got off the interstate he wanted to look around for parking. After years seeing people spend $50 to park at Cubs games, $15 for parking across the street from Safeco Field seemed like a joke, and I wasn't going to miss getting my hat to save a couple of bucks, so I convinced him to park in the lot.

And we got our hats...A dream come true. So it is possible sometimes to go back and set things straight. And we look just as awkward and goofy as the pre-teens we would have been if we would have made it to the original game in the 80's, so it's perfect.

We took our seats right under the jumbotron, and got to see what it would be like to be famous everytime they showed something on it. It seemed like the whole place was looking at us.
With the Mariners loosing at the top of the 9th, some thoughtful fellow decided to take it upon himself to provide some entertainment, and ran out on the field. When security got close, he was smart enough to lay down, so they wouldn't clothesline him. They hauled him off and we went back to the game.

We stuck around for the last out, and got to see a couple of more runs, but final score was Mariners 6, Indians 9. I didn't care. I got my hat.

After that, was the annual block party in Kyle's neighborhood. And good time was had by all.The only thing left in my big trip was to cross the Canadian border.

road trip post for Friday 7/18

2008-07-20T22:10:00.001-07:00

Friday I got up like someone with a job and I followed Maureen to her workplace, the Portland Japanese Garden. I got a private tour before it was open to the public. Maureen walked me through it and it was absolutely beautiful. Another one of the places on my trip that I couldn't really capture in pictures. But of course I tried...
Then I went back to the Conservatory and followed Chris home, where I got to hang out with him, Beth, and Akito. Akito looks like a pug, but is probably really some kind of space-aged , cold-fusion-powered, gyroscopic, robot. She vibrated like a jack hammer and I would have sworn there was 4 of her when she attacked me. I had a really hard time getting her off of me because she had paralyzed me with laughter - probably with some sort of hypno-ray. The only time she stopped buzzing was when she sat on my bike. There was a moment of profound silence while she whistfully looked into the distance as if to say, "That's my home, friend... the horizon..."
She was a noble creature indeed.

Before I left town I stopped at Pearl District Tattoo to get a little ink. I wanted to get something in the northwest corner of my compass rose tattoo. The northwest is where I'm from, and Portland had a lot of important firsts for me. I thought about a couple of different designs but then decided that filling it in with a nice cloud-grey would be the most appropriate. It seemed a little darker than I wanted at first, but then, that seemed pretty appropriate too.And yeah, I'm wearing a bandana around my neck. What about it? I'm a cowboy. "On a steel horse I ride..."

I headed up toward mom's, but stopped for lunch just over the Washington border. People who aren't from around here think I'm joking when I talk about Marion Berries. A Marion Berry isn't a crack smoking DC Mayor, it's an actual berry. It's a kind of blackberry, sometimes sold out of SUVs in parking lots, it was developed in Marion County, Oregon, and it's delicious.
So I slowly made my way north through rush hour traffic (which was just as bad as Chicago or LA), and finally made it to mom's place.
(I actually washed the helmet liner before we took this pic. It was getting a little funky.)

road trip post for Thursday 7/17

2008-07-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning I had breakfast with Lark and her friend Lisa and then started toward Salem and Portland.There is beautiful scenery all the way up the coast.
I got my Oregon sticker at this surf shop. For free!
I made it to Salem and got a charger for my phone. She also gave me a new cover for it, because she was going to throw it away. I guess they aren't making it any more. Which kind of explains why it won't charge up and I can't use it without the ear bud. But it's got patriotic swagger!

I hung out in Salem for a few hours. The Barista at the coffee shop talked about getting out of Salem and I tried to assure her that it really was possible.Found my way up to Portland to the Portland Actors Conservatory for the graduation showcase. I was part of the first graduating class there back when acting was first invented.

I met Maureen and her husband Philip there and they put me up for the night. It was pretty great to roll into the rose city and feel at home after being gone for so many years.

road trip post for Wednesday 7/16

2008-07-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning, this little fella was trying to sneak into my tent...
That'll put you off breakfast.

I only had about 200 miles to go today, so I had time to stop for pictures of motorcycle-attacking dinosaurs.

I got to Florence and met my stepmom Lark. We ran some errands and had dinner. She's moving to central Oregon, so she's in the middle of a lot of packing and coordinating. I can sympathize. But I didn't have to figure out how to pack up any horses or dogs.
This one reminds me of the 3 stooges. Hello, hello... helloooooo... Hello! The house was partly packed, so she put us up at a hotel, and she fed me too. As I understand it, some people have a very hard time being homeless. For me, it's working out great so far.

Lark gave me a few things that were my Dad's. Including some loose Vietnamese coins that he'd had for all these years. I counted them up, 65 Dong, and looked up the exchange rate. 65 Dong comes out to about .oo3 dollars. Not quite half a cent. 1 Dong coins might have more conversational value than monetary value. It'll be interesting to see what the Vietnamese folks think of the 1 Dong coins. Do they collect them like we collect pennies? Instead of empty water cooler jugs, do they keep them in empty grain silos or tanker trucks until they've collected enough go to the movies? Am I going to need a dump truck to carry around my loose change? I'll find out. She also gave me some US currency to help me along. It was much more compact.

Before bed, I walked down to the beach. The Oregon coast is my favorite place on this planet. It felt good to get my feet wet, even though it was cold, and think about going to the other side of that ocean.

road trip post for Tuesday 7/15

2008-07-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, I made my way up to Redwood National Forest. Heading up I-5 was one long, flat, boring stretch of interstate. I was going to cut over to 101 on CA 20, but I missed the turn. My next chance was CA 36. As I got close there was a flashing advisory sign, so I pulled over and got out my crappy little wind up radio to see what it said. I was worried that it would be closed from forest fires, but the advisory just said to look out for crews and equipment, but it was open. When I got on CA 36 I saw a sign that said curves “next 170 miles”. If I ride long enough to have a top 10 list of motorcycle roads, this will be on it. Beautiful twisties, and nice little rises, and long curves... I had a great time in Hollywood, and San Francisco, and Sacramento, but now I felt like I was on a motorcycle trip again. Absolutely beautiful. And there were a lot of other bikes. Apparently there is a rally or race or something coming up called the GT or GP something.

There was a some visible aftermath of the fire, and it's going to take a while for the scenery to grow back, but the road was awesome.

When I got over to 101 I headed up to the redwoods. They are really impossible to get in a picture, but they are big, beautiful trees, just as you would expect. Made me feel like a hobbit - in a good way (nothing against hobbits).

This day was a highlight of the trip. I was worried that I'd wear the center of my tires totally flat, but I finally got a chance to round out the tread wear a little.

At the camp (which was almost full on a Tuesday) I was greeted by the unofficial mascot of the northwest even though I was still in California.

Cute little fella, huh?

I set up camp and enjoyed what will be my last campfire for a while.

road trip post for Monday 7/14

2008-07-16T21:58:00.001-07:00

Monday morning, Tim and me wandered around the Castro looking for a California sticker for my bike.

We went to a little Vietnamese coffee shop and I got some pho. It's a Vietnamese noodle dish that Americans tend to call “foh” - like “oh”, but I've heard differently. So I asked the guy how to pronounce it and he said it a lot more like “fuh” - as in “uh”. So that's what I'm going with. Apparently Vietnamese people eat it for breakfast or any old time. I got it vegetarian style, with tofu, but they guy told me that beef is big in Hanoi. My pronunciation question launched a 10 minute conversation and I was worried that it was going to get cold before I ever had a chance to taste it. Really nice guy.

I found my new sticker at the HRC store, let Tripp the dog inspect it for me...

and got on the road. I wanted to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, and Tim tipped me off to a good place to get a good shot of it. I would up the hill and found the spot. I had climbed quite a bit but I still had to look up to see the top of the bridge. It was a little foggy, but you could still see the city beyond the bridge.

It wasn't too far to Sacramento, where Saffron found me after her rehearsal.

We spent the evening taking in the sites of Sacramento. There's the capitol...

And a big mall with things like, a place to purchase jeans...

...enjoy a meal in the food court...
...and teach your children to kill aliens and/or zombies...
We saw Hancock in the movie theater (which was really lame) and called it a night.

road trip post for Sunday

2008-07-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the day of the daschund. At about 6, Ivory's friend came over with her dog. They were getting a ride to the airport and catching a flight, so he was already on doggie downers.
I headed for San Francisco. I took 101 most of the way. I'd been on US 1 before, and it was pretty cold on the coast. Also, going up the coast all the way would have taken something like 13 hours, so I decided on 101 instead. It was a little hazy in spots, but I haven't run into any detours due to fires yet.
I made it to my friend Tim's place around 5 or so, where he, his husband, and their dog were putting me up for the night.
They have a beautiful place on a hill. (I guess everything in San Francisco is on a hill.) And, they had a nice guest room with a big, soft bed.
It was a pretty long ride up from LA, so I slept like a baby. A dead baby on heavy tranquilizers.

road trip post for saturday - Tijuana

2008-07-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

With my passport safely in hand, my buddy Mark and me were free to take a quick trip from LA down to Tijuana - as soon as he was done with rehearsal. I met him at about 1:30, and he let me take his Kawasaki KZ 1000 for a spin around the block before we headed south.
The KZ is a really cool bike. Totally different from what I'm used to. It's wider, lower, bigger, and it's what the blues brothers would ride if they had motorcycles. It's an old police bike and still has the switches for the lights and sirens.

Mark led the way in lane-splitting LA style, and we made it across the border in a little over 2 hours. In spite of the google map directions, which didn't take a big wall that separates our two countries into account.

I think this shot is funny and also a little sad.
This might be even sadder. Spiderman is now shilling for some Tijuana club. Oh Spidey, why? (That's an actual person in that costume crawling around on a little scaffold 3 floors above the street.)
They had boxing in the street, and donkeys painted to look like zebras. One guy told us they had everything we wanted. There was another guy that highly recommended a massage parlor. Some sort of walk-in massage therapy clinic I suppose. I sure could have used a massage after that ride, but we had too much to see, and not enough time.

We got some really great tacos. I had a coke that reminded me of summers at Grandma and Grandpa's place when I was a kid. That must have been before they started sweetening it with corn in the US. And, I had a real Cuban cigar (after turning down a dozen "real" Cuban cigars).
And, a great new sticker for the collection. Really ties the whole thing together don't you think?

Being on motorcycles probably saved us at least a couple of hours. We got to sneak up to the front of the line on the way out of Tijuana, while dodging people selling everything from food to ceramic turtles to puppies, and it only took about 15 min to get through the line and back to the US of A.

road trip post for friday

2008-07-13T00:07:00.000-07:00

Friday the coyotes woke me up and I got a chance to watch the sunrise, and get an early start to LA.
Bugs get up early too. This is a shot from inside my helmet:

I had to get on the interstate, which I was trying to avoid, but I made it to Jim and Ivory's place.

I got over to the post office and picked up my package from the Vietnamese Embassy. It was supposed to have my passport and work visa. When I opened it, all I saw was my passport and my heart sank. But, it turns out that the work visa is actually pasted into the passport, so all is well. Huge relief.

Jim and me went to Venice beach. They were shutting down for the night by that time, but we walked around, got a slice of pizza, and called it a night.

road trip post for thursday

2008-07-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

So I got up Thursday morning at the Grand Canyon and headed for Joshua Tree. The most interesting thing I spotted that day was the General Lee. Heading north on (I think) AZ 64. Straightenin' the curves... flattenin' the hills...

After Prescott, AZ 89 turns into a really great motorcycle road. Awesome views and all:

Then there's a lat stretch with a lot of cactus...

And then, between the AZ/CA border and 29 Palms there's nothing for almost 100 miles. The rotting carcass of an abandoned gas station...

Not a single building...

...for miles.

I was really glad I gassed up before I hit that stretch, and I did finally make it to Joshua Tree.

Which was really beautiful.

road trip post for wednesday

2008-07-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday in Mesa Verde I noticed this deer sneeking around the campsites just after dawn. She was probably just getting ready to pounce as I woke up.

Bear trap at the campsite. I couldn't decide if this was comforting or not.

Mesa Verde has a bunch of cliff dwellings and ruins from the indigenous people that used to live there. The biggest ancient housing development overlooks this valley. One of these rooms would go for $500,000 in Chicago.

After Mesa Verde I went through 4 Corners. It's the spot where the borders of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico meet.

Which bike is prettiest and obviously doesn't belong in the hog pen?

I asked the Navajo woman what to put on the frybread. She said that the tourists like to put stuff on it, but they eat it plain. So I had it plain. It was good. Silly tourists.

After my dry spell on the sticker hunt in Missouri and Kansas, this was a great day for stickers. I found the dear and Mesa Verde stickers in the morning, and 4 states in one sticker at 4 corners.

The grand canyon was grand indeed. It's a little weird because it's hard to know what to do. you know this thing is big and amazing, but it's hard to take in. It actually made me a little dizzy just looking into it. So what do you do when you see a really, really big hole in the ground? You have somebody take your picture in front of it.

This was the best part of the Grand Canyon was spotting the elk. He was right next to the road and didn't care who took his picture. I guess when you're that big you don't get spooked very easily. You can tell his antlers are brand new. He hasn't even unwrapped them yet.

road trip post for tuesday

2008-07-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

My homemade coffee maker.:
Friendly dinosaur with an internet connection:

Rockies. Every time you take a picture it looks like a postcard, and postcards don't do it justice.

And the ride was amazing. Probably the nicest twisties I've ever been on.

Telluride was ridiculously beautiful. It was hard to believe. I wanted to say, "There just happens to be a beautiful thousand-foot high waterfall at the end of main street? Oh come on!"

They say that the altitude can get to people, and I think they're right. I caught a pretty serious buzz from the ginger ale I had.

I didn't make it to Mesa Verde before dark, so it was a slow, tense, ride to the campsite. I saw a couple of deer on the way. Last summer I saw a couple of bears, but they didn't scare me as much as deer do. You never hear about motorcyclists being killed by bears, but deer do it all the time. Deer and cabbies are a my worst nightmares. In fact, I can't imagine anything more terrifying than a deer, talking on a cell phone, and driving a cab. The deer alone are bad enough. So I was glad when I got in to the park, set up my tent by my headlight, and crawled into my sleeping bag.

road trip post 2

2008-07-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

I found a visitor's center in Cañon City that has wifi.

The pics from yesterday were 3rd of July fireworks at my girlfriend's family's house in Munster, IN, Flood debris in Iowa City, The convenience store where all of my discretionary income went when I was at the Univerity of Iowa, and the camping spot in Lovewell State Park in Kansas.

I wrote this last night:

I'm writing this in a tent just outside Pueblo, CO at about 9:00 PM on Monday. I'll have to upload it whenever I get a chance.

So here's a recap of the trip so far.

Saturday:
In spite of 4 detours I managed to get to Iowa City a little early. The funniest thing that happened on the way, was that I pulled into a gas station and got some gas and water to have with the lunch I packed. I was a little worried about leaving all my gear on the bike while I was inside because I didn't want anything to get stolen. So I was watching it like a hawk. Of course, everything was fine when I came back out. And, while I was sitting there, some guy on a chromed out Harley pulled up and went inside. Not only did he leave the keys in the ignition, he left the bike running. Apparently, people aren't worried much about theft around there.

The detours were due to flooding:When I got into Iowa City I met Cecilia, who I was staying with, dropped off my stuff, and we wandered around town for a while. When I left the University, it wasn't under the best circumstances. They basically screwed me over and stuck me with a bill for $5,000. This is why I took a leak on the Old Capitol building before I left over a decade ago, and vowed never to go back. But a lot has happened since then. I've found ways to resolve things without peeing. I managed to get myself squared away financially and finish school at Eastern Illinois, and since I only made that vow to myself I figure I could let it go. And I'm glad I did. It was a nice little visit.

Cece rider modeling her helmet-and-evening-gown ensemble (*Edited* I accidentally wrote "night gown" the first time. A very important difference, and a good reason to know your gowns better than I do. I apologize.):

My first sticker of the trip from the Iowa City Co-op:

Sunday:
Not a lot to report on Sunday. I left Iowa City at 9:30 and was busting my butt to make it to the campsite and set up by nightfall. Missouri was hot. It was over 100 during the hottest part of the ride. I used the old wet bandana trick, which helped, but the hot air dried it out pretty quick.

Monday:
I stopped at a bunch of places today. I didn't get a sticker in Missouri because I was in too big of a hurry, so I wanted to try extra hard to get one out of Kansas today. I asked in at least 4 places and looked in even more, but no dice. I found Kansas bells, Kansas magnets, Kansas pencils, Kansas Christmas tree ornaments... but no sticker. But looking was fun.

I found a statue commemorating buffalo hunting

Personally, if I hunted an animal to near extinction it's not something I'd be bragging about. I guess people used to actually shoot them from trains just for fun. There aren't a lot of places to hide on the plains. But one of them did manage to get away and survive. I found him hiding in plain sight in a local museum.

He just acts like part of the display and they don't shoot him. Very clever. Eventually he'll find a mate and they'll breed a race of super-intelligent buffalo. Beware my friends. Payback time is coming.

I ate meat for the first time in about 2 ½ years tonight. When I got into camp I had a couple of other campers chat me up. They were impressed that I was in a tent instead of an RV. I told one guy about my trip out west. Later, as I was setting up the tent. He walked over with a plate of food. He said that they thought it was neat what I was doing and that I should have a good meal. Some of it was grilled pork, and I ate some of it. Most of the reasons I don't eat meat didn't apply because it was already slaughtered and cooked etc, and there was no way I was going to give it back and say no thank you. So I ate some of it, and thanked them. And it was pretty good.

One more thing I found today. A road that goes right into the sky...

First Road Trip Post

2008-07-07T09:30:00.001-07:00

Map at:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&dirflg=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108089249157435559216.000451249d5c0e7916efd

I left Saturday morning. Right now I'm at a diner in some little town in NW Kansas that has wifi. So far I'm on schedule, but it's pretty grueling, and I might think twice about trying to make my Mariner's game in Seattle on the 19th. That would probably mean missing the performance at Portland Actors Conservatory on the 17th too... I don't want to miss either one, but it seems like I might have to chose between that and missing everything else in between.

I'll write more tonight if my campsite has electric, and post when I can.

For now, some pics...

No. Seriously?

2008-06-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

When I tell people I'm going to Vietnam I get either, "Wow, that's really cool." or "Why?" My answer is that I've been fascinated with Asia for a long time, and I want to visit Vietnam in particular because my Dad was there for the war. (Several of the elderly folks I know seem to think the war is still going on and are concerned about me getting shot, but I try to assure them that I'm much more likely to get shot in Chicago.)

My Dad was in the war for one year. He did a tour on a river boat, and I don't know much else, other than that it affected him deeply. He didn't talk about it much, but he screamed in his sleep. I think the weight of holding all of that inside for so long played a large part in cutting his life short.

In an odd way I think that the war, which was officially over by the time I was 2 played a big role in my life too. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for by going there. Maybe going there and seeing a country with a quickly growing economy that has rebuilt and moved on will give me some kind of "closure". Kind of like the sense of relief that comes from seeing an old girlfriend with a new boyfriend. But I don't really feel any guilt about the war, even though I know Dad did. Before he died, I told him that I wanted to go there and do some volunteer work, and he really liked the idea of his son going back there to do some good. Maybe I'll learn something about my relationship with my Dad while I'm there. Maybe I won't. Either way, I don't think teaching and helping kids with developmental disabilities will be a waste of my time, and I hope that in some way my work there will be a fitting tribute to my father.

Holy Crap!

2008-06-07T14:25:00.001-07:00

I just bought a one-way ticket to Hanoi!

I've been doing research, and getting rid of stuff, and taking classes, and talking to people about this for months, but now it seems real. I've really been looking forward to this for a long time, but now I'm actually really excited.

As I've been doing research, I've come to the conclusion that I would rather find a volunteer position in Vietnam than a regular teaching job. It seems like it would be a better fit for me, and I'm hoping to do some more volunteer work in the future, so why not now?

I found a guy through idealist.org that is connecting me with a volunteer position in a school in or near Hanoi that would take care of my lodging for me. After I booked the flight I could let him know when I'll be arriving so we can get the ball rolling on work papers and that sort of thing. It's a relief to move from just thinking and talking about this trip to actually making it happen.

And on the other hand, it's also a little scary. Mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing. For instance, I have a lay over in Taipei. Where's Taipei? I've gotten pretty comfortable being a competent and confident person, and this whole things just blows all of that out of the water. This is good. I think this is just what I need right now.

Now, I'm going to look up Taipei...

New Camera

2008-05-16T19:52:00.001-07:00

I got a new camera so I can get some good pics on the trip.

The bean...

Campfire cigar...

Nightgame at Wrigley...

Swapping glasses...

I'm also using the camera to take pics of stuff and post it on Craig's list.

Blender...

So, you want a blender? $2.

Minister/Teacher?

2008-05-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

Since I started planning my trip to Vietnam, I've been thinking about what this means in terms of ministry. I quit my corporate-type job for ministry work in 2004, and I don't want to quit ministry to be a teacher. Instead, I want to find the ministry in my teaching.

I got to have a conversation last night with a minster and friend who has been teaching for years. I told him that I was worried that going from working with isolated elderly people, people on hospice, people in need, etc., to teaching, almost seems like a step backward. I know it's not, and I know that ministry is more than pastoring a church and can definitely include teaching. And, I know that there is a rich history of education as ministry. But on the other hand, I've never quite been one of those people that can think of anything as ministry and I wanted to talk to someone who has real experience as a teaching minister. He talked about working with students who would be the first in their families to get degrees, who didn't have a lot of economic privilege, who needed guidance, ("People like me", I thought to myself.) and the ministry of helping them navigate this process.

Earlier that morning I read something about the "This I Believe" project and the value of writing a faith statement. One of the things that I thought should go in mine is the idea that faith is as necessary to human life as air and water. We need something to believe in, to draw from, and to be inspired by. That's what I want to do with my students. Help them see a future where their world is bigger, and all of us have a place in it together.

I've also bee thinking a lot lately about Tangtong Gyalpo.

Tangtong Gyalpo(I just call him "Tang") is a sort of saint in certain Buddhist traditions. He was known as a bridgebuilder because, get this, he built bridges. Actual bridges. Not figurative bridges between communities and blah blah blah, but actual bridges. Because that's what people needed. I love that.

It reminds me that in order for people to see their similarities and share respect for each other's cultures and all that high-minded stuff, they first have to be able to talk to each other. They have to be able to ask where the bathroom is. So maybe teaching English is the best way for me to be a "Bridgebuilder"right now.

"Teacher"

2008-04-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

I got two more shots on Wednesday. One in each cheek. Rabies and something else. I can't even keep track. (No pics of my punctured and band-aided buttocks - sorry ladies.) I've got more in three weeks.

I also started my volunteer tutoring gig at a center for southeast Asian folks in town. So I spent two hours tutoring Ruth Weissman today (Not her real name - not even remotely close). I was a little nervous because I had absolutely no idea what to do. All of the studying and lesson planning that I've done has been for groups, and I hate not having a plan. But when I got there, the Coordinator, Lord Groz (Again, not really anything like her real name at all) set me up with some books and we ended up mostly going through those. I was relieved to find that I really liked it. She even called me "teacher". It's definitely the kind of thing I could do all day, hopefully with a large group. Which is good. I didn't want to find out I hated teaching and end up working at the Da Nang TGI Fridays instead.

Blog Post One

2008-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

4/16/08 (Moved from another blog)

So, I’m planning on moving to Vietnam for a while, and a blog seems like the best way to keep people posted on what I’ve got going on. And here it is. The blog. (Yeah, I know. Hold on to your seat.)

I received my first series of shots today. 2 in each arm, and one in each butt cheek. 1/2 a dozen shots and a lecture about using protection with the women and not petting the dogs (Or vice versa, I might not have been listening very well). The doc was talking about dengue and yellow fever, rabies and typhoid and encephalitis and hepatitis and malaria and… I was thinking of investing in one of those boy-in-the-bubble type space suits. It makes me wonder at what point I would prefer death over more shots and living in fear of water, the sun, and skunks (Seriously, he told me to watch out for skunks). But, I go back for more shots in a week, and more in a month, and more in 6 months (though I’m not sure how that’s going to work because I plan on being on the other side of the world). This thing is turning out to be an adventure already.