Worm Noodles

The other night Huyen took me out for one of her favorite dishes: Worm Noodles. Yeah, it is just like it sounds. It's noodle soup with worms. Or if you're a pessimist, it's worms with noodle soup. Being the fearless adventurer I am, I had to try it.

Vietnam's Funniest Home Videos

I caught this little comedic nugget on film the other day. I'm submitting it to Vietnam's Funniest Home Videos:




What's funnier than the kids falling is the fact that there are a bunch of upper age teens competing against kids who are clearly under ten.

Belated Thank You

You'd think after seven years in "the industry" I'd be pretty good at putting together videos. Yeah, not the case at all. However, after a few months in Hanoi I've finally figured it out! Check out the movie: "A BELATED THANK YOU"

Circle Painting

On Sunday Anna and I had an hour to kill before meeting Ryan's class at the bowling alley so I suggested a walk around Lenin Park. Immediately upon entering the park I knew something was different. Usually the park entrance fee is 2,000 Dong (roughly fourteen cents) but on Sunday it was 10,000 Dong. At first I thought the park cashier was trying to rip me off , but in the end it was worth every damn dong.

Anna and I happened to stroll into an event called "Circle Painting." (http://www.circlepainting.com -- Dad, take notes. This could be a great event in Livingston). Basically tons of people paint on a canvas together and then the art is auctioned and donated to "poor children." After further investigation it turns out the poor children are kids who are born with a cleft lip and the money is given to operation smile -- a very worthy cause. (http://www.operationsmile.org)


(PICTURE: A circle painting done by children. The adult ones were about six times larger than this.)

Anna and I decided to participate and were given a number. Because we were American and totally awesome they decided to give us #23, like Michael Jordan. The only problme with #23 was that we had to wait about an hour or so before it was our turn to paint. However, waiting an hour was no problem since all the workers kept grabbing us to participate in different events. Basically we became free white models. We were escorted back and forth to different games/events going on and were followed by a camera crew and our own papparazzi. Okay, that's not totally true. Anna was followed around while I just stood to the side and giggled. Supposedly she was on the Vietnam News that night.

My favorite part of the day though was when one overly eager worker insisted Anna and I join a painting contest. We obliged and walked over to the contest...which consisted of a dozen or so Elementary school children painting with water colors. We entered the contest and began to paint as well. Three hilarious things then happened:

1. A gang of little girls came up to me and said, "Your painting is so ugly. So ugly!!!"

2. The "MC" came up to me with a microphone to interview me. The problem was the microphone wasn't connected to anything. Literally she was just holding a microphone and asking questions.

3. After we finished our paintings the "MC" told us to come back in half an hour for our prizes. I asked her, "You're going to give us the prizes instead of the children?" She looked at me and said, "Maybe." My initial reaction was, "AWESOME! First the blog award and now a painting award. I really do rock."...but then I said, "I think you should give the kids the prizes."

Salter Sisters Part II

Those long time ahoyhanoi fans might recall my journey through Australia back in February. Those were the days before the awards and the glitz and glamor so I know it's kind of a blur.

Well, if you recall, I stayed at the house of my friend Lily Salter in Perth. While there I quickly befriended the whole Salter family including Lily's sister Ana (we talked every morning when I woke up freakishly early and she was preparing to go to University) and her heart-breaking/finger biting dog Reuben. Here's the link to that posting:

http://ahoyhanoi.blogspot.com/2008/02/perth-land-of-sun-love.html?showComment=1203974340000

Well this past week the Salter Sisters dropped into Hanoi to spend some time with me. Some highlights included:
1. A ridiculous amount of eating.
2. Full body massages. The Salters had two in 72 hours.
3. Huyen getting her first massage ever along with us and declaring after, "I feel like I have new legs."
4. Seeing the maturation of Lily. In one week I only saw her eat one booger versus the one per hour in Australia.
5. Becoming a full on Xe-On driver. I drove Anna all over the city while recruiting Ryan and Huyen to drive Lily. At one point though I had no back-up driver and drove both of them on my bike....which I later found out is illegal....despite everyone doing it all the time in the city.
6. Getting two flat tires. Coincidence or was this directly related to #5.
7. Drinking more coffee than I have since I first arrived. Lily would average about 5 Vietnamese coffees with condenced milk per day.
8. Karaoking with my Pre Int. 1 class. The boys were in 7th heaven hanging out with the Aussies.

Yesterday Lily took off to meet a friend in Thailand to go trekking. This to me is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard since Lily is the most notorious lazy person on the planet. Once again you long time blog readers may recall me bitching about renting a tandem bike with Lily in Rottnest Island, Australia. (http://ahoyhanoi.blogspot.com/2008/02/rottnest-island.html)
She literally pedaled for about five minutes over a five hour period. Anyway, here's us at a cafe talking about Lily's upcoming trip. I've put 3:1 odds down that Lily will quit the trek by day three.

Where Them Chickens At?

Last week Huyen excitedly told me, "I've got two new roommates. They are chickens." Naturally I was very confused until she explained to me that she and her roommate(s) (they have an extra girl staying in the apartment for a few weeks) bought chickens so they could have fresh eggs every morning. Yeah, that's right. Her 4x10 apartment is now also a farm.

Well, I noticed when I went to pick her up the other day to take her to the hospital that the chicken were nowhere to be seen. Turns out, the extra roommate left them outside while she wasn't home and they were promptly stolen. That's right, someone stole their chickens! My guess is that the person who stole my laptop, cameras, ipod and cell phone also go their fresh egg layers.

All this lead to me saying something on Thursday night that I never thought I'd say. I was at a dinner with some teachers and someone was talking about how their roommate had his motorbike stolen. The conversation turned to robberies in Hanoi and I promptly said, "Yeah you've got to keep everything locked down here. My girlfriend just had her chickens stolen."

It's Official: I'm The Best!!!!!

That's right, confirming what most of us have assumed for twenty nine years, I'm officially THE BEST!

www.expat-blog.com -- the foremost authority on expat blogs on the web -- just named me Blog Of The Month. This is an Oscar, an Espy, a Grammy, an Emmy, A WGA award thing, and a swell pat on the back all wrapped into one. When I started blogging at the gate at JFK airport back on February 2nd, nobody thought this would ever be possible. We proved them wrong, didn't we?

There are a few people I'd like to thank for this award. Firstly, I couldn't have done it without you God. Thank you and god bless you, God. You're the man, God. For those of you who don't know, God has been talking to me directly about my blog over the last few months. He's a busy man between talking to George W. and the other things he does so I appreciate his candor and honesty whenever we get on the phone. Secondly, I've got to thank my parents. I remember when I was blogging on my Apple IIe as a pre-teen and my father said to me, "Son, nobody knows what blogging is right now but one day they'll know. And they'll know your name. But until then go cut the grass." And I remember when my mother said to me, "You should have a blog like Hannah's marathon blog." You were right, Ma. I'd also like to thank my brother and my sister for being so gracious over the years despite knowing that I was the best. I'd like to thank my friends for reading my blog...or at least pretending to. Yeah, especially you, Shronald! I'd like to thank Olivier at expat-blog of the month for his extreme wisdom in realizing the pure genius of www.ahoyhanoi.blogspot.com. I'd also like to thank Ryan for being there for me the last few months even when the blog entries weren't flowing. I'd like to thank Steve for leaving me his camera which has allowed the blog to be what it is. I'd like to thank the robbers who stole all my stuff, yeah you guys too, for being part of the story. I'd like to thank the guy across the street who never wears a shirt and always looks at me with crazy eyes when I leave my apartment. I'd also like to thank my literary managers who literally don't read my blog but have stuck with my script writing over the years. The Timberwolves, my LA ice hockey team. The Williams family. Grahame Fraser and his better half JC. My college friends' coworkers. The people in many nations who I've met along my journey. Man, I knew I'd forget some names so I wrote a few more people down. Hold on, hold on.... I'd also like to thank the man who serves ice tea on the street in the alley by my house who always yells at me, "Me Vietnam! Me Vietnam!" He's helped keep me rooted. I'd like to thank the cockroaches and the rats and the spiders and my landlord who spies on me. I'd also like to thank my students who have taught me as much as I've taught them. I'd also like to thank America for being you. And finally, since I hear the music playing, I'd like to thank Huyen. Huyen, without you this award couldn't be possible. This blog is as much about you as Hanoi. Sometimes ex-pats get sucked into an ex-pat community but spending time with you has allowed me to feel like I'm not actually just living in Korea Town in LA. So thank you.

I RULE!!!!