Masks

I've been asked a few times if I, "wear one of those masks." "Those masks" is a reference to the masks that many Asian people wear on their motorbikes...and sometimes when walking on the street...and sometimes on airplanes...and on buses...and in restaurants...and...

I can recall a few times in America seeing an Asian person wearing a mask and thinking, "They must be sick." Well, that's not why they wear them. They wear them to keep the dust out of their mouths and noses and to protect their skin from the sun.

And the answer to the question is, "Yes." In fact, I've got a ton of masks. See if you can guess which of the masks in the above photos aren't mine.

Mad Libs

I have a fun writing exercise that I do with some of my more advanced classes. It was inspired by both Mad Libs...although is really quite different than Mad Libs. Yes, I want full credit for this genius idea.

Basically I write a sentence on the top of a piece of paper. i.e. "Jeremy met the girl of his dreams..." or "Brett joined the circus...." or "Jennifer had really big feet...".

In my classes I use all Vietnamese names except for my own name. I have enough pieces of paper for everyone in the class and tell the students they have thirty seconds to write the next sentence in the story. After thirty seconds I yell "switch" and everyone rotates their paper. The students then read the first two lines and then write the third. We do this over and over until everyone gets back their original paper. While the students are doing this I'm correcting the grammar (yes, it's still ironic to me, Mom, that I'm correcting grammar) and writing sentences on the board that we fix together as a class.

The students all like this game and then get to practice talking when they tell the class their story. Well, on my last day at school I did this with my Intermediate II class and got a great story. In case you can't read the picture above, here's the translation:

Ben died and went to heaven...
His girlfriend cried a lot.
After that, she had a new boyfriend immediately.
That guy was so handsome.
Especially the new boyfriend of Ben's girlfriend was much healtheir than Ben..
He loved her very much.
So Ben's ex girlfriend felt happier than when she fell in love with Ben.
One day she died and went to heaven too.
She met Ben there.
At first, Ben was so angry and complained her a lot.
Then he said he was healtheir than he was in the past.
After dying, Ben went to the gym everyday.
He had a nice body.
Another beautiful girl felt in love with him.

My Driver's License

(PICTURE: Bam! My new license!)

(Picture: A closer look. Don't I look strange in my photo? Yes, Dad stranger than usual.)

Great news! I can officially drive in Vietnam. Yes, I know what you're saying: "Ben, you've been driving in Vietnam for 9 months." Well, yes, that's true. I've been driving/riding a motorbike since the first week I arrived in Hanoi. However, this license allows me to drive a car! I can now rent a car and drive it to my heart's content. That said, I haven't seen any car rental places in Hanoi.

As far as my motorbike license goes...well, I still don't have that one. When I get back from my vacation I have to take a police physical and then take the road test (which I will drive to without a license).

The Opera House

(PICTURE: Huyen outside the Opera House)

The Hanoi Opera House was the last place in Hanoi I've been wanting to see. Well, check it off the list. I bought Huyen and I tickets for the Opera House to see a highly acclaimed Russian pianist perform with the Hanoi Symphony Orchestra.

After taking a bus, a boat, a van, a bus and a taxi, Huyen and I arrived back in Hanoi with an hour to spare before the show. We quickly showered and jumped on my bike to go to the Opera House.

The Opera House, according to Wikipedia was: erected by French colonists between 1901 and 1911. The Hanoi Opera House is considered to be a typical French colonial architectural monument in Vietnam and is also a small-scale replica of the Palais Garnier, the older of Paris's two opera houses.

The place was beautiful and the acoustics were tremendous. The concert was also magnificent. Besides the music, the highlight was when a baby started to cry...in the second row...in the middle of the piano solo.

Yeah, who brings an infant to a symphony concert? And how did the baby have better seats than me!

Cat Ba Day 2: The Cave

While riding around the island on our rented motorbike, Huyen and I saw this sign along the side of a road:

We decided to take a look and pulled onto a skinny path. Literally three seconds after parking our bike this man pulled up behind us on his own bike:

The man told us he was the tour guide for the cave and told us it would cost 15,000 VND each to see the cave. At first I was skeptical that this guy was just ripping us off but soon realized he was legit. We followed him to the entrance of a cave where there was a padlocked door built into the stone. The man pulled out a key and opened the door.

We followed the tour guide into the darkness where he searched and found two flashlights. He handed Huyen a light and kept one for himself. He then began to walk through the cave which was an intricate three story building built by the Chinese during the American-Vietnamese War.

It turns out the building was a secret hospital to treat wounded Vietnamese soldiers. The only thing to compare the cave system to would be the Cu Chi tunnels in the south (you can search my blog for my entry about those). However, this place was very different since it was a legitimate building built inside a mountain and not underground.


Huyen and I hadn't been expected to see what we saw but that's always the best part of just jumping on/in a bike/car/etc. and exploring a city/island/etc. without an itinerary.

The Boys Are Back In Town

(PICTURE: Hien, the best damn Xe Om in HCMC).

On Wednesday afternoon Hien picked me up at the airport...just like she did nearly 9 months ago on March 15th. The only difference between now and then is that I can speak about twenty words of Vietnamese AND I can drive a motorbike. I put the second difference immediately to use and drove Hien, on her motorbike, to the Language Corps office.



(PICTURE: Three of the loveliest ladies in HCMC.)

When we got to the office, waiting there was Ryan...juts like he was nearly nine months ago. Ryan happens to also be in town prior to his vacation to Cambodia and Laos. In case you haven't figured it out, that is why the title of this post is "The Boys Are Back In Town."...although one could argue we're now men. Almost a year in 'Nam can do that to you.

Yesterday, we went fishing with Hien, Linh a large group of recent Language Corps graduates who are living and teaching in Saigon. A few of the teachers are ahoyhanoi fans including Genessa, who I became email friends with back in July prior to her coming to Vietnam. One thing Genessa didn't tell me about herself over email though is that she makes a hell of a brownie. Genessa claims she baked the brownies for her friend Katy's (spelling?) birthday but I think we all know she really baked them in honor of her favorite blogger coming south.
(PICTURE: Genessa, master brownie maker.)

For those of you who are curious, we caught exactly ZERO fish. Not even a tug.

(PICTURE: Ryan showing the locals how to fish.)

Cat Ba Night: The Fire

Huyen and I ended up staying at the hotel of the man who rented us our motorbike. As we strolled into the hotel after the beach, he asked us if we would like to have an extremely fresh seafood dinner. He told Huyen there was a good floating restaurant that he recommended. We thanked him for his suggestion but said we just wanted to walk around and find a place to eat for ourselves.

After strolling along the main strip we decided to eat in one of the hundred seafood restaurants. We feasted on crabs and sea mantises (not sure of the plural spelling). Yes, sea mantis. What is a sea mantis? Well, I'm assuming it's a distant cousin of the preying mantis. I had never seen one before so I took a picture to share with everyone:


They sort of look like giant shrimp but actually taste a lot like lobster. The beauty of them is that they're really easy to eat. If you're wondering why they are in a plastic bag in the picture it's because the restaurant owner had just scooped them out of a tank, along with our crabs, to prepare our dinner.

On our way back to the hotel I saw smoke in the distance. We walked towards the water and joined a large crowd watching a giant fire on the water. Turns out a floating restaurant -- perhaps the one that was suggested to us -- had caught on fire.


Luckily nobody was hurt in the fire. The scariest moment was when a dog appeared on the dock and started to bark wildly. After a few minutes the dog, scared out of its mind, jumped into the water and started to swim. Immediately some fishermen sped over to the dog and pulled it into their boats. It was the happiest ending possible considering the situation.