a capitol tour!

We got up a little early today and began a city tour of Hanoi. We saw Ho Chi Mihn's mausoleum where they apparently still keep his body, which is perfectly preserved. Every year, they send him to Russia for maintenance. We didn't get to see the body this trip, but we plan to go back.

We then went to see the Presidential Palace area. It's been preserved and is clearly in the French style. The bright yellow is a fantastic contrast to the green all around it. The big yellow palace was used by French governors and the Vietnamese presidents. Uncle Ho refused to live in the palace because it was too grand, so they built him this house on stilts where he lived while he was in power. There was one road in the palace area called Mango Road that is lined with mango trees.

Then we went to the Temple of Literature, which was the most prestigious university there was in Vietnam back in the day. We followed that with this huge lunch that was absolutely delicious. It came out in waves. There was a tiny bowl of pho, lemon fried chicken, beef with lemongrass, fresh spring rolls and fish with this peanut and dill sauce. Amazing! The afternoon was spent walking around the Old Quarter and went to the Museum of Ethnology. The museum documents all the ethnic minorities in Vietnam. We only had an hour there, and I ended up spending my hour in an exhibit on HIV/AIDS, which may or may not have had anything to do with ethnic minorities, but was interesting nonetheless. The good news is, I live here, so I can go back whenever I want.

After dinner at the school's canteen, I walked over to the same room we had our first orientation in to see the Full Moon Festival party. Every year, the students here put on a party for the kids of the faculty for the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was so adorable! There were so many kids with their parents running around, dancing, singing and eating delicious snacks (I know they were delicious because I ate them, too). Allison and I got called up to announce the fashion show and to hand out gifts to the winners. I was pretty much in heaven. There were babies everywhere and lots of snacks. Who could ask for anything more? I am so sad that I didn't have my camera with me to document more of it. Four students did a dance with dragon looking costumes (two guys to each creature) just like the dragon dance in Mulan. I was told that this creature, much shorter than a dragon, is a mythical lion from Chinese culture. It was so impressive! One was green and one was blue and both were very vibrant. There was a table at the middle of the room with loads of fruit and snacks stacked on it. At the end of the party, everyone rushed the table and snatched up as many snacks as he or she could. It was like a pinata got busted open. It was such a great evening!

the sweat monster

The picture below is of the moon cake I ate. I have no idea how they get the top to bake in such a perfect form.

Yesterday, we didn't do much of anything big because we had the day off. I went to check in at the embassy and see what it was like and where it is. The US embassy in Hanoi is in two different buildings. As Burcu commented yesterday, United We Stand. The embassy does have a library with books, movies and magazines that isopen to US citizens and the public. We can't check things out, but anyone living in Hanoi for more than six months can, so we could go get movies with our roommates! Also, we all went out as a group to get cell phones, which was a big ordeal, but worked out in the end. I am now the proud owner of a seriously old school flat phone. But hey, it works!

I found yesterday's lunch on the streets and ordered it before realizing that it was a Donner Kebab, which is a really popular street food in Europe (I believe it originated in Turkey, but don't quote me on that). It's a big, rotating hock of meat (lamb and beef) with cabbage, cucumbers, creamy sauces and chili sauce. I didn't see the sign for what it was until it was already in my hand at which point I realized that it wasn't even close to Vietnamese food, but it was exactly what I wanted and what I needed. What a satisfying sandwich!

This morning, I got up a little early to go for a jog with some of my classmates. I'm pretty sure we looked like crazy people because people don't really run in the streets in the city, but we were only on the streets for a little bit and then got to a small lake that we can run around. One has to run horseshoes around this lake because park of the rim is underwater, but it's a great little place, and it's so nice to be moving. I am a sweat monster all the time, but particularly this morning during my run. It's not that it was excessively hot, but just that the humidity of the air meant that all the sweat stayed on me. Anyway, it was a super short run but a good start to much more running. 

We had our first Vietnamese language class today. To say that understanding a tonal language is difficult would be a gross understatement. We spent an hour and a half repeating back tones to our Vietnamese professor. It was grueling. Thankfully, I have my roommate Ngan to practice with me.

I ate a Bahn My today. It's this crazy sandwich that is sold all over the streets. I would tell you what's in it, but I have no idea. There was definitely pate, cucumbers and chili sauce, but then there was also some mystery meat and this gelatinous, pink substance. I don't think I want to know what that was. It was a very tasty sandwich!

We had another orientation after lunch to talk about our classes and get some course overviews. I was geeking out the whole time. We are taking trips into the field and learning about things that fascinate me like NGOs and INGOs and HIV/AIDS and so many other things. I'll be able to say more when I am actually in those classes, which will begin next week. Just know that I am totally jazzed about my classes.

We looked in the English version of the newspaper after class and found a free performance in town for this evening. We went to see a contemporary dance performance that featured both Vietnamese and European dancers. The theme of the first piece was Fireflies. It began totally dark and one by one they turned on little flashlights and danced around. It was so amazing! I love that moment in dance where there are only two dancers on stage and everything seems to slow to a crawl until the dancers touch. As soon as they touch, it's like they come alive again. So amazing.

souped out

This morning for breakfast, I had duck with bamboo and rice noodle soup. I a little souped out considering that that was three meals of soup in a row. Soup has never been my favorite, but I like to eat it in the winter when it's cold outside. Experiencing the sweat flowing down my back, soup is pretty much the last thing I want to eat.

Almost everyone of the U.S. students went with our roommates to this large supermarket where I was able to get a towel, soap dish, shower caddie, and some snack crackers and cookies and peanut butter. I got some jack fruit chips. I don't know how to explain what jack fruit is like, so you can look it up. I also got some paper so that I can write some letters, but I don't know my own address yet, so I'll have to figure that out.

For lunch, I walked with some students (US and Vietnamese) to another street food/alleyway vendor. One of the Vietnamese students ordered all the food for us, so I don't know what most of it was. There were fried pork sticks, a shredded papaya salad with peanuts, something called "che" (like a smoothie but not necessarily with fruit and I think one of them had tapioca bubbles in it), and then I had a fried egg sandwich on white bread and french fries. I don't know why we got french fries, and I thought that the sandwich was going to have lots of stuff on it, but I wonder if they just brought me what they thought I could handle.

We had orientation at 2 this afternoon followed by a brief tour of the important parts of campus. The tour was  super short because campus is super small, but really pretty (I promise to put up pictures soon!). After the orientation and whatnot, I went to dinner with some people at the campus canteen. I got fish, boiled peanuts, some cucumber-esque vegetable, and, of course, rice. It was really good!

For the Autumn Festival, there are moon cakes everywhere. I'll have to figure out the story behind moon cakes later, but, for now, I know that they are tasty. I ate a baked one filled like lotus seed filler which also contained a solid egg yoke. I wasn't feeling the egg yoke, but the cake and the filler were great. A bunch of us sat on the steps of the main building on campus happily munching our moon cakes and chatting about summers and getting to know one another. I eventually joined in a volleyball game. We have a sand court on campus and people seem to play there every evening. The men playing seem older than students, but they are very welcoming and let us join in. The evenings here are cooler, but the humidity never slackens.

I've found myself smiling a lot. It's a good find.

feel the crunch

This morning, we took a car from Hoi An to Da Nang to get a flight to Hanoi. We got in just fine and took a taxi back to the Hanoi School of Public Health. I moved into my dorm and immediately recognized the desperate need for laundry detergent. Our roommates took us to get notebooks and pens, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and laundry detergent. Once we finished shopping, the downpour started. We ran from the last shop to an alleyway to get lunch. We ate something that sounded like it was called "nuc mum." It was a sweet broth with papaya bits in it with pork and pork meatballs and, of course, rice noodles. It was delicious.

After running back to school through the crazy downpour, I did some laundry and hung it outside to dry. Thankfully, the rain had stopped, though I wonder if anything will every dry in this oppressive humidity. By the time I squaredaway my dresser and had everything unpacked, I realized that I didn't have much. It's kind of nice to not have a lot of stuff with me.

My roommate, Ngan, is very sweet. She and I understand the majority of what the other says. Sometimes I ask her to repeat what she's said and sometimes I have to rephrase things for her, but overall we communicate pretty well. I got Pho for dinner with some of my American classmates and came back to the room where my roommate was watching Glee on her laptop. She told me that her mother had stopped by to drop off food for us. I want then offered pigs' ear salad. There are various greens and shredded pigs' ear. It tasted good, but I don't know if I can handle the cartiledge crunch.

Everyone is so accommodating and friendly. Every one of the Vietnamese students that I've met is excited and engaged. They offer to help with whatever I could need.

I have a really great feeling about this semester. I'm definitely ready to start my classes. I'll try to post pictures of the school and more details of my classes soon!

buy something!

I picked up my shoes today. They are delightful!

Hoi An has a really neat system for touring the city. You can buy a ticket that has five tabs on it and walk around to see five different things. This streamlines the whole business rather than having to pay individually at every place. The funds raised go to restoring the old houses and keeping the sites in good repair. I can't remember the names of all the places we went, but I know that we saw two old houses, a temple, an assembly hall, and a family chapel. It was wonderful to experience all the architecture and the beautiful colors used to decorate. One of the houses was over 200 years old and the family is still living there. Apparently, Hoi An floods every year, so they take the furniture upstairs and wait it out. Having lived through one too many floods, I assumed that the wood would just rot away or the furniture would be damaged, but there was no rot and no mold and everything was just fine. One of the houses marked the lines to where the flood has risen. Just saying, I would be out of there so fast.

Other than the flooding, the buildings are amazing. such ornate decorating and structures. They are all built with an open courtyard to increase airflow and house many shrines to past family members. Everything was so beautiful.

Lunch today was street food. Both the things I ate were little fried pockets made with a sweet dough. The more square one was filled with a savory, spiced chicken and rice filler. The half-moon one was filled with a sweet black bean paste. Both were delicious, and I want to eat them again. Then we stepped into a cafe where I cooled down with a drink that was pineapple, orange, and lemon juice with grenadine. 

For dinner, we went to a restaurant where we got some shrimps, some tofu, and a special Hoi An pancake, which is like an egg tortilla filled with bean sprouts, tofu and corn and probably some other stuff I didn't know was in there. You took some rice paper and put some lettuce and some of the pancake into the rice paper and rolled it up and then dipped it into a chili sauce. It was super delicious! After dinner, we switched venues, and I got a passion fruit lassie. I'm already lamenting the lack of passion fruit in the States upon my return.

On the way to mu passion fruit lassie, we saw an open shop where a group of little kids were singing with two men on guitar and keyboard. The sign outside the room said that they were learning folk songs. They were endlessly cute. Then we kept walking a little and happened upon an outdoor performance of traditional music and dances. The one dance we saw was a story involving a fisherman and two girls. They pretty much just danced around. There may not have been a whole lot of plot. It was a neat find! 

There are a lot of dogs and chickens everywhere here. They aren't tagged or collared or even kept behind fences. I haven't figured out if they are communal property or just wild animals, but they all seem to be really nice. Some of the chickens the other day had some patches of missing feathers, but everything else has looked healthy. I haven't seen any dog on the streets to eat, which is good.

how to sleep

We got on a bus last night at 7pm for a 12-hour, overnight trip from Nha Trang to Hoi An. This bus, same layout  as the first, was much nicer than the first sleeper bus we took to Nha Trang. I fell asleep almost immediately as we took off from Nha Trang and woke up when we stopped for a short walk around/bathroom break around 1130. When we got back on the bus, I took a benedryl and was then asleep until 6am. All in all, I slept a pretty decent amount that night (I woke up for a few seconds a couple times) considering that I was on a bus for an entire night.

We ate breakfast at our hotel when we arrived around 8am and then hit the streets. I really love walking around Hoi An. It's quiet, just like Da Lat, only there's even less traffic in Hoi An. There are so many tailor shops and shoe shops here. I wish I had an occasion for which I needed a dress because there are so many beautiful things here. Unfortunately, I'm gathering a pile of dress-for-my-next-big-occasion dresses, so I will have to pass. I did, however, stop in a shop and order a pair of cute sandals. All three of us did actually. The lady there was so nice and not pushy at all like some of the other store owners. It was pretty much Build-a-Bear with shoes. I got to pick out the style and the color, and she is going to have them ready to fit my feet tomorrow. How neat is that?! I'm pumped. I'll post a picture of them once I pick them up.

We happened upon a silk weaving/embroidery/tailor factory and got a tour of the facility and everything! It's the best when you stumble upon something great. We saw the silk worms in various stages of worm life and in their cocoons. We saw they thread being spun from the cocoons and the lady showing us around told us that we could eat the silk worms out of the cocoons, so we did (in the picture below: she grabbed the cocoons out of the hot water, broke them open and gave us the silk worms to eat). It pretty much had the same flavor and texture as a cooked soy bean (edamame). We saw ladies embroidering pictures onto pieces of cloth. These are masterful pieces of artwork. Sometimes, you have to get super close to be able to tell that it's all stitch-work. 

For dinner, we went to a restaurant near the city center where we had been walking and got some delicious food. To start, fried wontons with crabmeat. Then garlic sauteed morning glory, noodles with seafood, and crispy tofu with a sweet chili sauce. AMAZING. 

We then scoured the streets for the Vietnamese doughnuts we'd seen street venders selling earlier in the day. We didn't see them for a while, and then, when all hope was almost lost, we found a lady selling the doughnuts! She also had meat pies and bean pies and these buns filled with shredded coconut in it. I was craving the doughnut though, so I got the cinnamon sugar coated doughnut, which was delicious and really hit the spot.

time spent at the beach

The bus from Da Lat to Nha Trang only took about five hours, but I thought that the bus might fall apart at any moment during those five hours. I hadn't ever seen a sleeper bus, but they have these reclining chairs that line the bus and one set down the middle at two levels. The chairs lean all the way back so that you can go to sleep. This trip was during the day, but that didn't stop me from dozing off for a bit there. We traveled through the mountainous roads with lovely scenes of the countryside. The roads were a little broken down, but we were safe the whole time.

Nha Trang is a beautiful beach town. The sad thing is that it has become excessively touristy and there is a good amount of garbage in the water. We spent one morning at the beach where we met a guy from Holland who was traveling alone. It seems to be a trend that young Europeans take long vacations to travel on their own. We got lunch with him and then parted ways for the afternoon. The three of us walked along the beach and eventually turned off to go to the Yersin Museum. Yersis was a young scientist who worked with Pasteur and discovered the bacterium that causes the bubonic plague. After having walked through his museum, I can confidently assert that Yersin was the man. He studied anything and everything he wanted from physics to electricity to sailing. He spent a lot of time in Nha Trang, which is why his museum is there. He is a fascinating man, and I'm hoping to find a book on him so that I can learn more of his story.

While walking back from the museum, we came across this rather large mall. Walking into it was like taking a step out of Vietnam and back to Southpoint. Also, it was air conditioned, which was a huge plus. There were several floors of clothing, jewelry and other stuff all like we have (the same brands and everything), a floor with a convenience/grocery store, a floor of fast food and a giant arcade, and the top floor (according to a mall directory) was entirely karaoke. It was a surreal find.

We went to the photography gallery of Long Thanh. It was so neat because he was in there talking with us about the pictures, about his process, and his really old analog camera. He had some absolutely beautiful photographs. I was blown away by some of the moments he captured. If you want to see some of them, here's his website: www.longthanhart.com

My favorite thing I ate in Nha Trang was blackened Nha Trang sea bass over a bed of wasabi mashed potatoes. It was absolutely delicious, and that restaurant was so pretty. The one funny thing about that place is that there was an excessive number of things on the table. Water bottles were brought out in canvas sleeves, every canned beverage had a coaster and the glass in which to pour the beverage had a coaster as well to the point where there were too many coasters to keep track of.

Something I've noticed about advertising: Most picture advertisements and manquins for glasses, clothes, motorbikes, just about anything depict happy white people. The only visual advertising that is never white people are wedding dress tailor shops and wedding photo shops. It is really strange.