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