Post 17 - Tuesday

Yesterday was a pretty good day for the most part.  In the morning I went to pick up my Ao Dai (pictures to come. eventually).  In the afternoon I met Josh at the Art Museum.  I enjoyed it very much.  The first floor was mostly artifacts, but the top two floors were paintings.  I like the artifacts more, but it was still interesting to note how the European art movements affected the Vietnamese art styles.

After the art museum, we had coffee, and then I took a 25 minute walk over the Cimas house for dinner.  It was about then that my day caught up with me.  I didn't realized how much walking I had done until I sat down.  I also had not had nearly enough water to drink that day and went to bed with a horrible headache.  I learned my lesson, though, and I have been drinking a lot of water today.

Post 16 (since the 30 day thing isn't working as well as I hoped.)

I have gotten sick again.  No fun.  But I am excited about Easter on Sunday.

I have a good story to tell, but I also have a headache from the pressure in my sinuses so I will wait until I can think clearly so I can write coherently.

Day 14/15

I have gotten behind a little in my post, but that is because I have been busy doing awesome stuff.  Like looking forward to EASTER on Sunday, going to be measured for an Ao Dai and enjoying the awesome weather before it gets too hot.

 

Day 13

I missed posting yesterday, so I guess that means two posts today.

Yesterday was a very productive day. In the morning, I got up and talked to a friend on Skype. Then I put together my lesson plan (I had planned to do that over the weekend, but it didn't quite work out that way...), tidied my room and made lunch.

In the afternoon, I successfully implemented the above lesson plan, then practiced my guitar for an hour before having dinner and a walk in the park with a student. And on top of all my productiveness, the weather was gorgeous!

Conclusion: Good Day!

Day 12

Bad News: I am having troubles with my phone again...

Good News: I led Bible study today, and it went very well.  I attribute most of my success to my fellow Bible study attendees and a small amount on my preparation.

Day 11

Today was another day of chance meetings.  It always amazes me when a decision or unexpected event results in getting you exactly where you need to be at the exact right time, and that happened to me twice today.

The first time I was wondering around the Old Quarter looking for a place to eat breakfast when I made a decision to look for some new DVDs (which I did not end up getting).  If I hadn't decided to go look at DVDs, I would not have run into Pastor Scott (one of the Cats from Los Gatos) who was enjoying a Xích Lô ride. Because I ran into him, I was able to meet up with the rest of the group at their hotel right as they were about to leave to visit Hoa Lo Prison.

We got lost on the way there (because our taxi driver did not know where we wanted to go) but I pulled out my map and got us to the right place just in time to see Ted walking by! Turns out he had not gotten the memo that said the meeting place for lunch had changed from Hoa Lo Prison to the hotel.  Had we gotten to the Prison earlier, we wouldn't have run into him to tell him about the updated plans.

Pretty cool how that stuff works out.

Day 10

I am posting!  Details on the day later...

Day 9

Today was a mediocre day.  I taught in the afternoon, but I was super tired so it didn't go as well as it could have.

On the plus side, I did have a very nice dinner with Sarah in the Old Quarter.

Day 8 - The Past Couple of Days

On Monday and Tuesday I went with the Cimas, the Cats from Los Gatos, Sarah and four of our students to Mai Chau.  The trip was great.  I loved walking through the green rice fields and having a chance to relax outside without the ever-present noise of traffic that plagues Hanoi.

While I was walking through the town where we stayed, I was surprised by how similar Mai Chau was to Kuna Yala (the island nation I visited during my study abroad trip to Panama last year). Both Mai Chau and Kuna Yala seem to have fallen into the tourist trap. What is being saved of their cultures is being determined by what tourists decide is interesting about it. Going to these places makes me wonder if that is an effective way of preserving history or if it is preventing the culture from evolving naturally.

Day Seven – A short trip down memory lane

For those who do not know me well, I would like to come clean. I am an internet junkie.  My low numbers of blog posts up to this point aside, I am addicted to the internet (a point reiterated by the quiz I took in our text book.  We are talking about internet this week. (At least while we are not taking a midterm.)). I spend hours each week day on perusing my friends’ pictures on facebook, reading new blog posts (though not writing them…), talking on Skype or otherwise being unproductive. (In my defense I have yet to fall into online gaming (though I have watched The Guild which I’ll admit has tempted me to start). I have a feeling if I ever start, I will never emerge from the digital world. But then, I could be like JEFF BRIDGES!). I also follow several of my friends and acquaintances (and several complete strangers) on Twitter, which brings me to (one of) today’s: Happy Moments! My friend had a tweet today which mentioned a teacher giving her a sticker on a homework assignment which reminded me of Latin. Short story told below.

Once upon a time I was a college senior who needed 9 more credit hours to graduate but a minimum of 24 hours to fill. After pondering which superfluous classes I should use to fill my schedule, I decided to take Latin. Being the nerd that I am, not only did I do the homework (which I didn’t need to do since I was taking this class credit/no credit), but I also put stickers on each assignment I turned in as an encouragement to myself (plus I had have an abundance of shiny, star stickers (which I didn’t think to bring to Vietnam with me.)). I also put them on my quizzes. One day, however, I forgot to bring my stickers with me to class on a day we had a quiz. I was saddened but still managed to finish the quiz with my usual bout of excellence. After class, I promptly forgot about the lack of sticker on my quiz and went about my day. I was pleasantly surprised the next class period when Prof. Awesome Voice Tetlak returned my quiz to me with a sticker on it!

I would like to end this post with a shout out to Dr. Patricia Burton who put stickers on all exceptional tests she returns to her students. Zayıflama hapları

Day 6 - 5 Thoughts inspired by a Saturday Boat Ride and a Sunday Morning Sermon –

1. Some of the clearest moments of truth come when we are at our lowest.


2. I want a stronger faith.


3. God is too big for me to handle.


4. It is really impressive when someone can preach in a language other than his native one.


5. It is hard for me to feel God’s presence in a city.

On a slightly related note (which I won't explain right now), check out this guy's website: Marc Riboud

 

Day 5 - Sunday Morning

The sermon at church this morning was very thought provoking for me. I wanted to write a post on my reaction to it, but writer’s block is getting the better of me.  I will work it for a while and hopefully be able to organize my thoughts into a coherent post for later this week.

For today, however, I will tell you about Sunday lunch.  Every Sunday after church, we go out for lunch together alternating between an Indian and Vietnamese restaurant.  This week we went to the Indian restaurant because we had such a large group (we had the group from Los Gatos join us, as well as other LCMS workers.  Our group is usually about 8-10 people, but today we had about 25).

I could end this with a picture of us at the restaurant if I had thought to take one while I was there.  Instead, enjoy this awesome picture of Celeste and Bella on the boat from yesterday.

Day 4 - Nina

Today I went to Ha Long Bay with the Cimas and a visiting LCMS group from Los Gatos, CA (who I refer to in my head as the Cats from Los Gatos...cue groan).  Today was also the second time I have seen Bella since she learned how to (sorta) say my name. What she says for Hanna comes out sounding like "Nina" so about every five minutes I would hear, "Nina, Nina, Nina!" or "Nina đâu? (where is Hanna?)"  It was pretty adorable.

Blog Challenge, Day 3 – A Series of Fortunate Events

Today was an excellent day.  I started of my morning with class and office hours (I managed to chat with Chris for a few minutes over his lunch break which was nice). Afterward I had an early lunch and returned to my room for a short nap. When I woke up, I spent a few minutes wondering how I was going to spend my afternoon. It was a beautiful day, and I had no plans until 2:45 when I was to meet Sarah (it was 12:15 at this point). I did not have to wonder long, however, because my phone rang; it was Michael asking me if I wanted to join him for lunch.  I wasn’t hungry since I had just eaten, but I was definitely interested in being outside. I went to meet him and upon arriving remembered that he is babysitting Drew’s bike while Drew is away in Bangkok.  So I spent the remainder of the day puttering around town with a tall, lanky German on an old Minsk motorcycle. I am proud to say that even though Michael had not driven a motorbike in Hanoi before today, we are both alive and well. And he only killed the engine about 5-6 times. And we were only laughed at once (that I noticed).

Drew's Minsk

The first part of the afternoon, we went to my favorite Hanoi Café overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake. At first we thought we would not be able to get seats on the top level because it was too crowded, but lo and behold, one of the groups taking up so much space was J.P. and the visiting LCMS group.  We were able to join them at their tables and enjoy the view.

We went to meet Sarah at the appointed time (another ride on the Minsk!) and went to the park to play Frisbee for a while. Then we went to Sarah’s to watch Tron, and then returned to Hoan Kiem Lake for Chicken Pho with Josh.  Finally, Josh took us to a ice cream place he knew that had an excellent view of the lake, and I ended my day with a lovely glass of Strawberry Ice Cream.

Me, Michael, Josh

Josh, Sarah, Me

 

Day 2: An Essay

Yesterday and today I proctored the K55 midterm exam. There were three parts to this exam: listening, Reading and Writing.  For the writing part of the exam, the students were given two topics to choose between: Write a story about the biggest lie you have ever told and its consequences or Compare vacationing at the beach to vacationing in the mountain[s]. Proctoring is very boring so between glaring at students so they don’t talk to each other, I think I will also choose a topic to write on.

The topic I would like to write about is: the biggest lie I have ever told and its consequences.

Once upon a time I was a kindergartener. I was a very energetic and talkative kindergartener who liked to share my opinions on anything and everything as often as I could. Unfortunately, my teacher did not have the time to listen to all of my opinions and preferred that I stay quiet. I did not want to stay quiet, so we had a little bit of friction and since she had all of the authority, she won any time we had a difference about the appropriate time for me to voice all of my ideas. And I spent a lot of time in trouble.

Back in the day, when kindergarteners at Trinity were in trouble, they would have their names written on the board. Each day, your first infraction would result in your name on the board and you would get a check mark for each subsequent rule violation (a check mark usually resulted in missing recess time.)  If you got to three checkmarks…well let’s just say, you didn’t want to get to three.

During Kindergarten (and first and second and third grade) I was a master of reaching 2 check marks but never rarely ever pushing so far as to get third (though I never did get much recess time). However, for about 2-3 months during kindergarten, at the end of the day when my mother asked me if I got my name on the board that day, I would tell her no.

How my now overly sensitive conscious managed to hold up under that kind of a lie for so long, I am not really sure.  I guess it never occurred to me that perhaps my teacher might actually talk to my mother and clue her into what was going on. Lucky for me that never happened. I am sure my punishment would have been much worse if I hadn’t decided to come clean on my own.

Eventually I did figure out that continually lying to my mother was a bad idea. I decided to tell her during the middle of a large family function at my aunt and uncle’s house in the Kansas City area. (Perhaps I thought I would get a lighter punishment if I told her when other people were around.  She wouldn’t spank me in front of other people would she? (Not usually, but she is very patient woman, my mother.  She could wait until we got home.)) In any case, when I finally told her, I did not get a spanking. Instead I had to take a nap! In the middle of all the fun! My cousin Matt was younger than me, and he didn’t have to take a nap! Kindergartener Hanna was appalled. I would waaaay rather have a spanking and be done with it, Thank You. 23 year old Hanna thinks BEST PUNISHMENT EVER! I wish I could take a nap.

The End.

30 Day Challenge - Day One

I have been having troubles with my phone ever since I arrived in Vietnam. The first time I tried to buy a phone card, I spent 100.000 VND ($5) only to discover I had bought from the wrong company. My charger also broke (one of the prongs is still stuck in the outlet.  I should probably tell my landlord…), and I spent 2 days with an uncharged phone before finding a replacement. But my biggest problem has been plaguing me since shortly after I arrived in Vietnam and was not solved until today.

From what I can gather, it seems that most people use pay as you go phones here (similar to Panama), and my phone is no exception. My phone plan, however, was set so that my money would expire two weeks after I put more money on it. I was getting very frustrated with this because I did not enjoy spending 50.000 VND($2.50) on phone cards every fourteen days.

I asked other expats about this problem, but none of them had a solution for me. I asked some of my students only to be told that the only way to fix the problem was to buy a new SIM card, but that I would lose all the money I had on my account (plus I wasn’t sure if my contacts would transfer over to a new card and I didn’t want to lose all of those). I put off figuring out a permanent solution until today, the last day before my account would reach its deadline.

I was contemplating this problem today as I was proctoring my students’ midterm exam and finally had the good sense to pray (why it took me so long to figure that one out, I don’t know.). I asked God to please send me someone with the time and Vietnamese ability to help me get the problem fixed. Then I proceeded to continue worrying about it for the next hour.

When the exam was over, I returned to the teachers’ office to give the exam papers to the teacher in charge. While we were waiting for the exams from the other classes, she asked me what my plans for the rest of the day were. I told her I was done with classes for the day, but I was going to try to get my phone fixed. She asked me what the problem was, so I explained it to her. Then she offered to go with me to get the problem straightened out! We ended up having to go to two different stores (the first was not a mobifone store), but we finally went to the right place. It took about 5 minutes for her to explain the problem and for them to change the deadline from every 2 weeks to every 2 months. I even got to keep most of the money I had on my account!

 

30 Day Challenge

Over the past couple of months weeks days, I have become addicted to reading blogs.  A couple of my favorites are Running on Happiness, Living on Love and most recently (yesterday) I discovered Pioneer Woman.  I spent 1 2 3 several hours yesterday perusing posts about people I don’t even know.

After realizing the insane amount of time I spent reading online yesterday, I asked myself, what draws me to these blogs?  Maybe it is because I am far from home and I love reading descriptions of ordinary living in the United States (especially on a ranch.  Oh God, what I wouldn’t give for 10 minutes in open space).  Perhaps it is (especially in the case of Pioneer Woman) that I love the engaging writing style.  I think though, that the biggest reason I love the stories these women tell is that they are content and happy with their lives and the choices they have made. They find the wonder and the beauty and the love in everyday life and are so awed by it that they feel compelled to share it with the world.

I want my blog/life to be like that.  So here is my attempt to make a better blog and to find/make/appropriate verb contentment and joy in my life.  For the next 30 days my goal will be to post one picture and/or one good moment from the day.  It takes 3 weeks to make a habit so hopefully this will continue after my 30 day challenge.  There are plenty of good things around, so I am hoping the hardest part will be remembering to post everyday.