Off to the village...

(PICTURE: It's the year of the OX.)

Today Huyen and I are driving to her village to spend Tet with her family. There is a big celebration in Hanoi for Tet tonight but from what I've been told, it's more traditional to spend Tet in the country with relatives. In my head I've compared it to this: spending Thanksgiving in NYC watching the Macy's Day Parade or spending Thanksgiving at my home in Livingston watching the parade on TV while eating my mom's cooking. The latter will always win...even though Huyen's house might not have a TV.

The best part -- blog wise -- about going to Huyen's house is that I have to share a twin size bed with her seventeen-year-old brother. Today I'm going to practice a few new Vietnamese phrases including:

1. Please don't cuddle with me.

2. Roll over, please.

3. Don't worry about it, I went through puberty once too.

After Huyen's house I'm going to be going on a five day motorbike trip with some friends. Because Huyen's village doesn't have internet -- and I'm assuming wherever I go on my bike -- over the next week I'm going to post some belated entries from my trip with Hannah. Happy Tet everyone!!!

(PICTURE: The only Ox I'm really familiar with.)

Vietnamese Christmas Trees

(PICTURE: A vendor selling the Tet trees in a park.)

Tet Holiday, the Chinese New Year, starts in Vietnam this weekend. As a casual observer, you would have thought the holiday started weeks ago because the traffic and overall level of madness has doubled around the city.

One sign that Tet is approaching is that the streets are lined with small orange tree/bush things. Although the fruit looks like oranges they're actually more in the lime family. Every family basically buys one of these trees and puts it in their house. Yeah, it's basically the Vietnamese equivalent of the Christmas Tree. Or perhaps the Christmas tree is the Christian equivalent of the Vietnamese/Chinese new year tree since I'm pretty sure China was celebrating New Years way before Jesus was born.

Last night as I was tutoring my next door neighbor, I commented that his orange-tree thingermerbob was quite nice. He told me that he and his father drove 10K to a farm to get their tree. He told me many people have the same tree every year and they keep it on a farm for basically 51 weeks out of the year and just pick it up for Tet. It's kind of like a distant relative you only see on Thanksgiving.

Book Review: They Marched Into Sunlight

Turning 30

As I blogged about ages ago, everyone in Vietnam turns a year older during Tet Holiday regardless of when their actual birthday is. This means that I'm about to turn thirty next week in the eyes of 84 million people.

Even though I personally don't subscribe to this birthday rule, it does bring up the issue that I will be turning 30 at some point this year. In fact, nearly all of my best friends will be thirty by the end of 2009.

This past week, was one of my best bud's birthday bashes. Tom Tancred -- who I describe to people as "The coolest guy I know" and my sister describes as "Ben's man crush" -- turned the thirty corner in memorable fashion. Tom rented out a warehouse in Los Angeles and threw a "Greasers vs. Socs" theme party. Here's the poster for the throw down:

(PHOTO: Tom through the years.)




















(PICTURE: Tom and Maggie at Tom's 30th)











Perhaps the most memorable part of "The Outsiders" is Pony Boy reciting Robert Frost's poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay":

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
so dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.


Well, Robert Frost was right. Tom, I hope you enjoy being thirty...because on January 26th, the first day of Tet, you're 31 in Vietnam.

Speaking of gold, check out the golden tan Tom got when we were on the beaches of Greece a few years ago:

Times Are A'changing...

Forget the first 100 days of office. Obama has been President for less than twelve hours and already the world is changing. The proof? I can blog again!

Yesterday my local IT guy came over (he climbed one floor up) and showed me how to blog. I'm not gonna reveal the secret of how I'm avoiding the new anti-blogging laws but lets just say my server is no longer in Vietnam.

We're beating the system!!!
(PHOTO: My IT guy -- Ryan "Yes We Can" Tharp.)

As everyone knows, last night (or this afternoon for those in America) Obama was inaugurated. Ryan, my boss Jim and I watched the swearing in at 12:30 AM here (that's with the half hour Vietnam news delay). I was filled with emotion last night and despite the gigantic obstacles our country has to overcome, I think Obama can do it. Hell, if I can blog again we can do anything!

A few things I found interesting about the ceremony:

1. Ryan said it best about Cheney being in a wheelchair: "It's symbolic of how he left our country."

2. It's fitting that a Bush appointee, Chief Justice Roberts, fumbled over his lines.

3. Uh, how big was Joe Biden's bible?

4. My friend Jennifer in LA emailed me a question that I'd like to know the answer to: "Do you think Michelle had to write her kids a note to skip school?"

5. Lots of talk was about Obama seeing Bush off in the chopper. However, I thought the best part was that Bush's Dad and Mom were in the chopper. It was like the kid had finished playing president with his buddies and his parents picked him up to take him home.

6. I thought the most touching part of the whole ceremony was the benediction. I had never heard any parts of the "Negro National Anthem" before and thought it was really touching. Here's the lyrics to the full anthem:

Lift every voice and sing,

'Til earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast'ning rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

'Til now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand,

True to our God,

True to our native land.

I'm glad to be blogging again. I've got A LOT to catch up on: Laos, Tet, Vietnamese roller skating.... Stay Tuned!

Important Ahoy Hanoi Info

Ben has told me that Blogspot is not working in Vietnam, possibly due to the Tet Holiday. Ben will continue to check the website every day and if the site still doesn't work after Tet he'll switch to a new blog host. Stay tuned, and Happy Tet everyone!
Hannah

New Friends

(PICTURE: Hannah, in her famous sideways pose, standing in the "bat cave.")

Although our three day jungle "trek" was a lot of fun, it was also quite falsely advertised. On the first day we were supposed to go to a "Bat Cave." We went to the cave, which was pretty cool, but there were definitely no bats.

On the first night we were supposed to stay in an ethnic village. However where we stayed strangely had no villagers. The next day was our big trekking day and I think we only actually walked for about three hours. This to me was the big disappointment of the trip. For a "trekking" trip there was a big absense of "trekking." Overall I would say we hiked no more than 8 miles in three days. I was hoping to hike at least 8 miles a day.

Despite the lack of exercise we still saw a couple gorgeous waterfalls and more importantly made a bunch of new friends. Hannah and I met a really nice couple from France named Pascal and Raki. We met a great kid from California named Riley who was taking a year off from college. And lastly, we met Cathal and Lucy, a really cool couple from Ireland. Here's some pictures of our new friends:

(PICTURE: The Irish couple with some puppies)

(PICTURE: Pascal and Raki. This is really a video. They were frozen with fear)

(PICTURE: Riley is in the back left. Hannah has a lot more pictures of him on her camera. I guess I'm not as interested in taking pictures of single dudes as she is...)

Oh, and we had a pretty good tour guide too. Although like most of the trip, he was falsely advertised. He didn't exactly speak English. However, he spoke the universal language: MAGIC. He taught us a handful of sweet magic tricks. All I need is a string and I can blow your mind!


(PICTURE: Our tour guide/traveling magician.)