Thesis

The other night Huyen and I went to a concert with my friend Quynh from Language Link and some other people from work. At some point Quynh introduced me to a friend of hers -- whose name I can't remember -- who promptly said to me in broken English, "It is nice to meet you. Thank you for editing our paper." I turned to Quynh, confused, and she informed me that "her" paper that I edited a few months ago was really "their" paper. I had no problem with this since I was happy to help out Quynh since she has helped me countless times at Language Link (including once tracking down a visiting friends lost luggage from the airline).

Well, what I did have a problem with was what Quynh's friend said to me next: "Can you help me edit my thesis?" I looked at her and asked, "Isn't a thesis really long?" She looked back and said "Yes."

Quynh and her friend go to Foreign Trade University, the same school that Huyen went to. Like Huyen they have to write a thesis to graduate. Huyen's thesis was 100 pages long. If this random friend of a friend's was even half that, it would be a tedious task to say the least (it took me about 30 minutes to edit their group project paper which was only two pages long). Well, I told the girl I'd be happy to help her out if I have time...so now I'm really hoping my schedule gets jam packed this next month.

11 Months

I know everyone must be confused that there wasn't a cheesy montage video yesterday about Huyen and I celebrating our 11 month anniversary. I thought I would take a month off and then throw together a big, over-the-top video for our one year anniversary. However, once you've put monthiversaries into action they can't just stop themselves.

At 6:58AM yesterday my cell phone rang. It was Huyen: "Can you come open the front door?" I was shocked that Huyen was at my house for many reasons:

1. Huyen had slept the night before at her sister's house which is about 25 minutes away from my house.

2. 99% of Vietnamese people wake up at 5AM and do morning exercises. Huyen is in the 1% of Vietnamese who sleep till the very last minute possible, hit snooze anyway one time and then rush off to work. 6:58 is 17 minutes before Huyen ever wakes up. AND since she was at her sister's that meant she woke up even earlier!

3. It was pouring rain outside.

When I went downstairs, Huyen was standing outside with an assortment of bags attached to her motorbike. She greeted me with a giant smiling, "HAPPY 11 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!", gave me a kiss and handed me 11 red roses. She then told me that she bought my "favorite eleven things from Vietnam." Huyen had gone to the market and bought an assortment of my favorite breakfast foods and fruits including my two favorite types of sticky rice, banh gio (a pork dumpling type thing), pineapple, na (my favorite new fruit), passion fruit, oranges, grapefruit, watermelon, and a fruit I've never seen (she assured me it'll be one of my new favorite things in Vietnam).

Yeah, I'm gonna say it: Best. Girlfriend. Ever.
(PICTURE: That's not a peace sign. That's two ones next to each other -- 11!!!)

April Fool's Day

(PICTURE: Hien, my April's Fools Day target.)

The Vietnamese love April's Fools Day. Today, I will be on full guard against any tricks against me. Last year, while taking my TOESL course in HCMC, Hien got pranked by her from Nha Trang. Her friend called up Hien and said she was arriving at the train station and asked if Hien could pick her up. Hien, being the angel that she is, jumped on her motorbike and drove across town to the train station. Once she got there she waited for her friend...and waited...and waited...finally she called her friend who said "April Fools."

Today I will be texting Hien to pick me up at the airport...

Battle Of The MCs

(PICTURE: Sebastian and I with the bride.)

In America, on a girl's wedding day, she's supposed to feel like the center of the universe. Everyone should be focused on the bride -- no ifs ands or buts. Well, it's slightly different here...at least when a foreigner shows up to the wedding.

Sebastian, Huyen and I arrived at Huyen's cousins house at 11 o'clock. As we pulled up to the alley where Huyen's cousin lives, a girl came out and pointed to us where to park our motorbikes. After parking our bikes, Huyen introduced me to the girl -- the bride. That's right, just a couple of hours before her wedding she was directing traffic. The three of us were then escorted into the house where we mingled with Huyen's father's side of the family. Huyen quickly admitted to Sebastian and I that she had no idea who half the people there were. At least the Vietnamese and Jews have that in common; I could have probably pointed out and named 25% of my relatives at my Bar Mitzvah.

Once Huyen's immediate family arrived we sat down for a delicious meal. The way weddings work here is that you begin to eat when you fill a table. If you show up by yourself, you can't eat till there's enough people to eat all the food. I couldn't have been happier that Sebastian was with me because it meant that I wouldn't be the only person being force fed/obliged to drink ever thirty seconds. The expression on Sebastian's face quickly turned from hunger and excitement to pain. I told Sebastian it was rude in Vietnam not to finish ones food so he crammed down the scraps of chicken and rice still in his bowl. If I was a betting man I would have said there was a 50% chance he was going to puke. He pulled through though and just complained for the next 24 hours that he was stuffed.

Here is how the traditional small town wedding takes place:

11AM-2PM: The family of the brides and grooms gather at their respective houses and eat and drink.
(PICTURE: Huyen's father and I eating and drinking.)

2 PM: The grooms family, in a parade procession, appears at the bride's house. The bride's family services the groom's family sweets. i.e. sucking candies. While the groom's family enjoys breath mints, an MC talks over the microphone. Huyen's father, always full of energy, served as the MC. He basically said over and over in Vietnamese the names of all the family members and how happy of a day it was for everyone.


(PICTURE: Huyen's Dad freestyling on the right)

3 PM: The family's all gather together and go to a local statue and take wedding pictures.

(PICTURE: Huyen's cousin's family in front of a concrete war hero. Huyen's mother is on the far left wearing a traditional dress.)

3:30 PM: The families get back on their motorbikes or in their cars and drive to the groom's house.
(PICTURE: The families marching through the alley to the groom's house.)

At the groom's house another MC takes over the ceremony and continues the wedding. While at the groom's house the bride's family enjoys sweets. i.e. More sucking candies. The bride and groom exchange rings and then BAM it's over.
(PICTURE: The groom's MC doing his thang while Huyen's family enjoys candies)

After the wedding we drove back to Huyen's house for dinner...where they proceeded to feed Sebastian and I a lot more food. Again, Sebastian was on the verge of puking and had a look of disdain in his eyes for Huyen's sister who kept placing chicken in his bowl.

When we finished dinner we headed back to Hanoi on our bikes. I try not to drive at night since well, it's scary as hell. We took a side road, with less traffic, most of the way. However our hearts still skipped a beat a few times when:
1. A truck full of hundreds of dogs (I don't want to think about where they were going) nearly ran me off the road.
2. A giant truck almost ran me off the road while driving in my line...yet going in the opposite direction.
3. I almost ran about a half dozen people wearing all black and walking in the middle of the street off the road...

While we were driving back Huyen's phone rang. She had a conversation for a few minutes and then said to me, "My cousin wants to thank you and Sebastian for coming to her wedding. You two made it very special and nobody will ever forget it." I turned to Huyen (as much as one turns backwards on a motorbike) and said, "Shouldn't your cousin have better things to do on her wedding night then call her wedding guests?"

Tam Coc

(PICTURE: Sebastian with our rower as we left the dock.)

Last weekend, before Huyen's cousins wedding, we crammed in a quick trip to Tam Coc. Tam Coc is often referred to as the "inland Halong Bay." My cousin Justin and I went there six months ago and I thought it was decent enough for a return trip. It's quite a beatiful place, but like Halong Bay it is over run with tourists.
(PICTURE: Huyen and I on our way to the limestone formations.)

Basically when you go to Tam Coc you hire a small boat and go for an hour and a half cruise along flooded rice paddies. The rowers sometimes paddle with their feet:

The trip takes you underneath three caves and to an eventual dead end. At the dead end are a bunch of vendors on boats trying to sell you food and souveniers. If you have the time, and its on your way, I would suggest Tam Coc.

Unfortunately we were pressed for time and didn't get a chance to go to a couple really cool pagodas near Tam Coc (I had gone to some with Justin).

Bai Dingh Pagoda

(PICTURE: My cousin Justin at the pagoda in October)

Back in October, on my road trip with my cousin Justin, we met a local in Nimh Binh who took us to Bai Dinh Pagoda. Bai Dinh pagoda is the largest pagoda in Southeast Asia. If you've been to Vietnam before and haven't heard of it, don't feel bad since it probably didn't exist -- the pagoda won't be finished until 2010.

This past weekend, Huyen, Sebastian (my friend visiting from LA) and I headed for a weekend away from Hanoi. Huyen's cousin was getting married and it gave us a good excuse to take in some sites. I told Huyen about the pagoda (she had never heard of it either) and we got there right around sunset. When Justin and I went we took a dirt road that connected to a large, empty, brand new road. This time the road was finished and there were even tour groups traveling to the pagoda.

(PICTURE: Huyen and I approaching the highest pagoda.)




(PICTURE: Sebastian in front of two of the Buddahs. Each Buddha weighs 11 tons. Yeah, those are pretty fat Buddhas.)

(PICTURE: Huyen and I in front of the pagoda after the sunset.)

Besides the nearly finished roads and the tour groups, a lot has changed in the six months since Justin and I visited Bai Dinh. One obvious change can be seen if you look at the first picture with Justin and the newest picture with Sebastian -- the Buddhas have mysteriously turned golden.

New Roommates

(PICTURE: Ryan's last time leaving our house.)

Within hours of Ryan leaving last week, my new roommates moved in. The new roommates are two couples who have been in Hanoi for quite a long time. There is a Polish couple who have been studying Vietnamese here for the last year and a half and a Polish/Korean couple who have been here for four years. In case you're wondering, the girl is Polish and the boy is Korean.

The new roommates are extremely nice and friendly but are making me really nervous. Why? Because four times in a week they've left the second floor balcony opened or unlocked. I am starting to feel extremely paranoid that I'm going to be robbed by ninjas my first and last months in Hanoi. That's the bad news.

The good news though is that the other day I took out the laundry of the Korean kid and hung his stuff on the clothesline. The first article of clothing I pulled out from the washing machine was a t-shirt that said: "Sex Instructor. First Lesson Free." I just hope he doesn't work from home. The second article of clothing I pulled out though was some kind of karate uniform. There wasn't a belt in the washing machine but I can only hope his rank is high enough to fight off the ninjas who he will soon be letting into my house.

Huyen and I miss you, Ryan!

(PICTURE: Our final goodbye with Ryan before he got into a taxi with Jessica.)