Thursday, July 30, 2009

Monsoons

One thing that New York and Hanoi has in common is monsoon-like torrential downpours. Yesterday for the second time since I've been home, I've gotten caught outside in the middle of a ridiculous thundershower. There are a few differences in getting caught in the rain in Vietnam and in "The Big Apple" though:

1) In Vietnam everyone and their brother will try to sell you a poncho as soon as it starts to rain. In New York, every other store will sell you umbrellas.

2) In New York you can duck into the subway to stay dry and get where you need to go. In Hanoi, You've got to throw on your poncho, roll up your pants and drive your motorbike.

3) In New York you're pretty sure lightning will hit a tall building with a lightning rod. In Hanoi, well, you might be that tall building.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Congratulations Dave and Abby!

(PICTURE: Dave and Abby.)

I'm getting closer and closer to earning the title of "Last Man Standing."

David Levinson, one of my oldest friends, recently got engaged to his girlfriend Abby. I've known Dave for as long as I can remember. When we were little kids we lived around the corner from each other. I always loved to sleep over Dave's house because he had a real tent that we used to attach to his bed. There's little doubt in my mind that my love of camping started by sleeping over Dave's house.

When we got a little older, Dave and I invented a modern form of Gladiator combat called "Sock Wrestling." Basically Dave and I would each wear tube socks on our feet and have to maneuver to step on the other's feet in order to pull off the other person's sock. It sounds ridiculous but was actually a lot of fun...until Dave tripped me and I hit my head on the edge of his door and got probably the first concussion of my life (Dave later went on to be one of the best high school wrestlers in the state...or at least the county. I can't remember but want to say state since it makes me look better that a kid half my weight could take me down so easily.).

Dave was also the person who I always talked ice hockey with. Dave was a hard-core New York Rangers fan while I was idiotically a Boston Bruins fan. Up until 1994 I could win any argument with Dave by simply saying "1940." Now, I've got nothing to brag about when it comes to hockey.

I've only met Abby a couple of times but can easily see why the two of them get along so well. Abby is a ton of fun and really feisty -- something a girl needs to be in order to put up with Dave. In fact, I have no doubt that Abby could kick Dave's butt in sock wrestling.

Congrats to Dave and Abby!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Vietnam Science Might Be Right

(PICTURE: A common chart at a Vietnamese Hospital.)

On Saturday August 8, 2008 I wrote a blog called "Vietnamese Science." Basically in the blog I made fun of Huyen for some of the crazy things Vietnamese think. One of the scientific things Huyen had told me and that I pointed out in that post was:

Dr. Huyen: "Married couples must have a lot of sex to get rid of bad genes. It's science."

Well, my brother sent me a link to a medical article the other day entitled, "Daily Sex Helps To Reduce Sperm DNA Damage And Improve Fertility."

I guess I owe Vietnamese Science an apology because this study basically confirms Dr. Huyen's statement. As Huyen would say, "I told you. That's science!"

Monday, July 27, 2009

Ahoy Hanoi Turns 500!

This weekend Ahoy Hanoi had it's 500th post. That's right, 500. It is pretty surreal to me that I've written 500 blogs over the last year and a half. Sure, I know some of you are saying to yourself, "If you didn't count your monthly anniversaries with Huyen and your blogs about family and friends birthdays/weddings/engagements and blogs about how many blogs Ahoy Hanoi has had (like this one) then you'd only have like 400 blogs."

There are lots of cool things about having a blog. One of my favorite things is when I randomly see an old friend who I don't keep in regular touch with and they say, "Ben, I love reading your blog." And then I say, "You read my blog?" And they say, "Yup. Almost every day." This actually happened yesterday when I saw my friend Jeff from high school. I haven't seen Jeff since I've been back and the first thing he said to me was, "I owe you a big thank you. Your blog has been a great way to waste time over the last year." To me, it was quite a compliment especially since I had absolutely no idea Jeff had ever read even one entry.

The other great thing about having a blog is that it's the best journal I've ever kept. While cleaning out my room I've found a few old journals of mine. Rereading old entries are hilarious but unfortunately I would usually only write entries for a few weeks or less before quitting. The blog has been a great way to write down all the important things that have happened to me since February 2008.

So, on behalf of my 500th entry here are the latest stats (Note: I have only kept stats since August 26th of last year):
- Ahoy Hanoi has had 29,915 visits to the page and 49,604 Pageviews.
- Ahoy Hanoi has had 6,716 Absolute Unique Visitors (77.55% return to the site).
- The average time spent on Ahoy Hanoi is 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
- The day Ahoy Hanoi was read the most was Monday, November 3rd -- the day before the election.
- Ahoy Hanoi is currently read in 97 countries. Some interesting places: Iran, Yemen, Kazakhstan (yeah, Borat!), Nigeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Namibia and Nepal!
- Ahoy Hanoi is read in every United States state except South Dakota. What the F, South Dakota! Honestly, has the internet not arrived there yet?
- The first two google searches to find my blog are "ahoy hanoi" and "ahoyhanoi." The third is "Hanoi massage." Why do so many people want massages in Hanoi?

Thanks for reading everyone! Here's to the next five hundred....

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Skype

(PICTURE: Huyen in her traditional Vietnamese pajamas skyping with me.)

One night in Wildwood my father let out a frustrated plea: "Why don't you come home already?"

As great as my parents have been about me living abroad, they obviously wish I was closer to home. I have no doubt it is tough on them but I also know they want me to do what makes me happy.

Last night -- in an attempt to make things slightly easier on them this year -- I downloaded Skype and installed a digital camera on their computer. I know it's not the same as me being home, but being able to see me in their home whenever they want, will definitely make things a little easier.
Hearing someone's voice is comforting but seeing their face is a thousand times better.

Friday, July 24, 2009

My Summer Reading List

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been on a reading tear. Here's the books I finished the last ten days:

The books:
The Nuclear Age by Tim O'Brien. O'Brien is my favorite author who writes about Vietnam.
To A God Unknown by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is my favorite author.
After Dark and Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is perhaps the most well known modern Japanese writer. These were my 2nd and 3rd books I've read of his.
King, Queen, Knave by Nabokov. I've always wanted to read Nabokov and this one had the catchiest title.
Burr by Gore Vidal. My buddy Seth lent me this book and it was pretty great.

That said, I've now got no books left on my reading list. Does anyone have any suggestions? LH, if you're still reading I'm hoping for some picks from you. You had suggested some a while ago but I can't seem to find the blogs were you made those comments. I'd love to read more books on Vietnam and Japan.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wildwood

You may have noticed that I slightly slacked off on my blog last week. I have a good excuse though -- I was spending quality family time in Wildwood, New Jersey.

As a child, my family would go down to Wildwood, New Jersey seemingly every summer. A few years ago -- for my Dad's 60th birthday -- we took our first trip back there after probably a decade. We had such a good time that we decided to do it again this year.

My brother found an amazing condo for rent and we booked it from Sunday to Sunday. It was great spending so much time with my family especially since I'm leaving for Asia again in a couple of weeks. I've seen my niece Lilah a bunch of times since I've been home but the two of us didn't really bond until this weekend. After a week of playing with her she definitely recognizes me now and smiles when she sees me. In fact, one morning I went for a bike ride with Hannah and happened to bump into my parents, Zev, Kathy and Lilah on the boardwalk. When I was about ten feet away Lilah saw me and started to smile and wave. It made me feel pretty good...I just hope she recognizes me next year!

Some highlights from the week included:
1. Destroying my father in backgammon! The student has become the master.
2. Getting my first ever Bingo (using all seven letters) in Scrabble. My mother won 2 games and my sister and I each won one (although I think my sister cheated when she won).
3. Giving Lilah "victory laps" whenever I would win in any game. Basically I would lift her up and run her around the apartment. She loved it!
4. Tons of beach time with Hannah.
5. Lots of R&R. After running around this country for nearly two months it felt good to do nothing. In fact, I read 4 1/2 books in 7 days. I can't remember the last time I was able to read so much.
6. Great meals every night. The majority were grilled by my mom.
7. Eating more ice cream than I have in a year and a half. If you go to Wildwood get a Duffers small ice cream. It's gigantic.
8. Seeing my family for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day...


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Japan

(PICTURE: Inside that envelope is my contract to work in Japan.)

It's official -- I'm going to Japan. After a long application process, I was recently accepted into the Westgate University Program. I will be spending three months in Japan teaching at a university. I won't know exactly where I'll be placed until a month before I start but I have requested to be placed in the countryside or a small city. As exciting as I'm sure Tokyo is, the thought of being somewhere a little off the beaten path is more alluring to me.

Everyone keeps asking me if Huyen will be coming with me. Sadly, she will not be. However, hopefully she'll be able to come visit at some point. As much as I would love for her to come with me, I realize she has her career in Vietnam to think about. After this stint though, I'll be going back to Hanoi for six months before I head to South Africa for the World Cup. Yup, it's gonna be another crazy year!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Last Week To Donate

This is the last week to donate for Habitat For Humanity! Next Tuesday I'm transferring all the money to Habitat Vietnam. So far I've collected $2,254 from about seventy different people!

I've been in touch with the Habitat people in Ho Chi Minh City and will be joining a home build on September 14th. I'm hoping Huyen will be able to come with me but it depends on her work schedule.

Thanks again to everyone who has donated! If you'd still like to donate you can do it on paypal by putting in my email address: [REDACTED]

Friday, July 17, 2009

Beaches

(PICTURE: Cat Ba beach in Vietnam. Notice how narrow the beach is.)

For the past few days I've been down in Wildwood, New Jersey enjoying beach and family time. One thing that struck me in LA and now in New Jersey is the difference between American and Vietnamese beaches. Here's just a couple of differences:

1. The beaches in America are much deeper than Vietnamese beaches. To go from the boardwalk to the water is probably 100 yards in both Santa Monica and Wildwood. In Vietnam the narrowest beach I ever went to was about 2 yards in Mui Ne. In Hoi An and Da Nang -- the deepest beaches I went to -- it was about 40 yards.

2. Sunbathers. Vietnamese people don't sunbathe. In fact, you're lucky to find Vietnamese people outside during the strongest hours of the sun. In America people worship the sun.

3. Bathing suits. Vietnamese people, in general, are much more conservative than Americans. 90% of women in Vietnam wouldn't be caught dead wearing a bikini in public. In fact, whenever I would teach the word bikini all the adults in my classes would always laugh.

4. Boardwalks/Piers. In America it seems that at every big beach there is a boardwalk or pier. In 'Nam there's no equivalent.

Happy Friday! I hope everyone gets to enjoy some sand and ocean this weekend!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Blast From The Past

(PICTURE: Huyen and her friend Trang, the girl who passed out fliers with her at Hanoi Airport.)

If you recall, the first day I met Huyen is the day that my house was robbed by ninjas. Unfortunately my camera was stolen that night with pictures I had of Huyen. I've regretted for a while that I lost pictures of Huyen from the first day I ever knew her...well, yesterday my friend Steve sent me pictures he had taken that day. Here they are:



(PICTURE: Huyen, her sister and Trang. Huyen brought along her sister to my party for added protection from the scary foreigners.)


(PICTURE: Huyen with my friend Devin. I met Huyen because I went to the airport to pick up Devin.)














I really cherish these pictures. I think it's pretty cool to have photos girlfriend/fiance/wife from the first day you met them. I also think it's pretty hilarious that Huyen is wearing a little make-up. In the year+ I was with her in Hanoi she only wore make-up three times -- this being one of them.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

California

I love California. As an outdoorsy person, how can you possibly beat mountains and beaches? Well, you can't. My lack of blogging (and picture taking) this past week meant one thing -- I was having a great time.

I left Santa Monica 1 year, 6 months and 7 days ago. The one thing people kept saying is, "I can't believe it's been that long." It has truly felt like five or six months. While in LA I got to catch up with nearly all my friends, while also experiencing LA the way one always should -- with bike rides, hikes, swims and plenty of beach time.

Here's a little photo montage of my ten days out west...

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Can I Take Your Temperature?

Two friends of mine (names withheld in case the Chinese government reads my blog) were hired to work at an English summer camp in China. They arrived in Shanghai the other day and were greeted by this:

Chinese health inspectors came on to their flight wearing HAZMAT-ish suits and took everyone's temperature to check for swine flu. What you can't see is the "thermometer." I was told by my friend that the thermometers were shaped like guns and that they were placed on their foreheads. Nothing like having a gun held up to your head by men in HAZMAT suits after a 10+ hour flight.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Reverse Culture Shock #8

Spending time in Los Angeles this week has me realizing the difference in air quality between America and Vietnam. Brace yourself for this: Los Angeles' air is exponentially cleaner than Hanoi's air. Yup, I said it. America's most famous smog city has waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cleaner air than Hanoi.

I love Vietnam (and Asia in general) but the country needs to do something about the air pollution ASAP.

Monday, July 6, 2009

McNamara

(CNN) -- Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a key architect of the U.S. war in Vietnam under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, has died at age 93, according to his family.

Robert McNamara took a lead role in managing the U.S. military commitment in Vietnam.

Robert McNamara took a lead role in managing the U.S. military commitment in Vietnam.

McNamara was a member of Kennedy's inner circle during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war.

But he became a public lightning rod for his management of the war in Vietnam, overseeing the U.S. military commitment there as it grew from fewer than 1,000 advisers to more than half a million troops.

Though the increasingly unpopular conflict was sometimes dubbed "McNamara's War," he later said both administrations were "terribly wrong" to have pursued military action beyond 1963.

"External military force cannot reconstruct a failed state, and Vietnam, during much of that period, was a failed state politically," he told CNN in a 1996 interview for the "Cold War" documentary series. "We didn't recognize it as such."

A native of San Francisco, McNamara studied economics at the University of California and earned a master's degree in business from Harvard. He was a staff officer in the Army Air Corps during World War II, when he studied the results of American bombing raids on Germany and Japan in search of ways to improve their accuracy and efficiency.

After the war, he joined the Ford Motor Company and became its president in November 1960 -- the first person to lead the company from outside its founding family. A month later, the newly elected Kennedy asked him to become secretary of defense, making him one of the "whiz kids" who joined the young president's administration.

In October 1962, after the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, McNamara was one of Kennedy's top advisers in the standoff that followed. The United States imposed a naval "quarantine" on Cuba, a Soviet ally, and prepared for possible airstrikes or an invasion. The Soviets withdrew the missiles in exchange for a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba, a step that allowed Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev to present the pullback as a success to his own people.

In the 2003 documentary "The Fog of War," McNamara told filmmaker Errol Morris that the experience taught American policymakers to "put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes." But he added, "In the end, we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war."

McNamara is credited with using the management techniques he mastered as a corporate executive to streamline the Pentagon, computerizing and smoothing out much of the U.S. military's vast purchasing and personnel system. And in Vietnam, he attempted to use those techniques to measure the progress of the war.

Metrics such as use of "body counts" and scientific solutions such as using the herbicide Agent Orange to defoliate jungles in which communist guerrillas hid became trademarks of the conflict. McNamara made several trips to South Vietnam to study the situation firsthand.

He, Johnson and other U.S. officials portrayed the war as a necessary battle in the Cold War, a proxy struggle to prevent communism from taking control of all of Southeast Asia. But while they saw the conflict as another front in the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, which backed communist North Vietnam, McNamara acknowledged later that they underestimated Vietnamese nationalism and opposition to the U.S.-backed government in Saigon.

"The conflict within South Vietnam itself had all of the characteristics of a civil war, and we didn't look upon it as largely a civil war, and we weren't measuring our progress as one would have in what was largely a civil war," he told CNN.

Casualties mounted, as did domestic opposition to the war. In 1965, a Quaker anti-war protester, Norman Morrison, set himself on fire outside McNamara's office window. In 1967, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on the Pentagon, which was ringed with troops.

By November 1967, McNamara told Johnson that there was "no reasonable way" to end the war quickly, and that the United States needed to reduce its forces in Vietnam and turn the fighting over to the American-backed government in Saigon. By the end of that month, Johnson announced he was replacing McNamara at the Pentagon and moving him to the World Bank. But by March 1968, Johnson had reached virtually the same conclusion as McNamara. He issued a call for peace talks and announced he would not seek re-election.

After leaving the Pentagon in early 1968, McNamara spent 12 years leading the World Bank. He said little publicly about Vietnam until the publication of a 1995 memoir, "In Retrospect."

"You don't know what I know about how inflammatory my words can appear," he told Morris. "A lot of people misunderstand the war, misunderstand me. A lot of people think I'm a son of a bitch."

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Independence Day

Something occurred to me last night when Huyen wished me a happy fourth of July. The last time I celebrated an "Independence Day" it was in Vietnam, where they were celebrating -- more or less -- independence from us (and the French). Everyone needs someone to be independent from. Happy 4th of July!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Fourteen Months


Fourteen months ago I met Huyen. I still smile every time I think of her...especially when she sends me funny pictures of her hanging out in trees: