The Farm

Last weekend Huyen and I visited her Grandfather. On our way to his house we picked up the other member of our carpool -- Huyen's nephew Viet Hoang. For some reason Viet Hoang likes my driving style and asked to ride with me and Huyen. By asked, I mean he just climbed on to my bike. Despite having lived in Vietnam for over a year, driving around a three year old still makes me really nervous. Huyen insisted though that it is safer for him to drive with two of us than just with his mother. I succumbed to Vietnam logic and let Viet Hoang ride with me. Basically how it works is that he is sandwiched between Huyen and I as I drive. I must be a good driver because after just a few minutes Viet Hoang was passed out and slept the whole ride.

Eventually we got to the ceramic village where I bought some souvenirs for my family. When we were leaving Viet Hoang climbed on to the front of my bike. I told Huyen that it definitely wasn't safe for Viet Hoang to ride there but she said -- and this is my favorite quote of the month and maybe year -- "It is okay. Viet Hoang wants to ride there." I said, "He's three. We're supposed to make those decisions!" Huyen and her sister laughed and then climbed on to our bikes. And yeah, I let him ride in front:

(PICTURE: Viet Hoang riding shotgun)


(PICTURE: This is the type of ride I'm comfortable giving little kids.)


After our visit to Huyen's grandfather's house, Huyen's sister invited me to her farm. Yes, her farm. Apparently Huyen's brother-in-law, much to the chagrin of Huyen's sister, bought a duck and pig farm a few miles from their house. I'm not exactly sure what he was doing before this but he put all his eggs so to speak into this farm basket. Personally, I love farms so this was really exciting for me to visit. Here's some pictures:

(PICTURE: Huyen'brother-in-law's duck and pig farm)



(PICTURE: Me and the pigs)



(PICTURE: Huyen in front of the neighbor's rice farm)



Ironically after leaving the farm, we stopped at a local market and bought some BBQ-ed duck. Apparently the 5,000 ducks on Huyen's brother's farm weren't ready to eat.

Cool Pictures

One of the great things about having friends visit is that you get to get copies of their pictures. Recently my friend Sebastian visited and he took some amazing pictures. It doesn't hurt that he's a cameraman in LA. Oh, and he used a non digital camera. It uses that plastic paper stuff. What's it called? Film? Check out these pictures:

There Aren't Many Black People In Vietnam

When my buddy PJ visited last year, he was the first black person Huyen had ever met. The fact is, there just aren't that many black people in Vietnam. Don't get me wrong, there are black people in Hanoi but they're just few and far between. Because of this, I was asked a really funny question by a few of my students the other day when we were talking about how to greet people. My students asked me: "Do you shake hands with black people or do you do this (they motioned making a fist and doing a three step fist bump thing)?"

I told them to shake hands.

Vietnamese People Are Built Differently

About two months ago Ryan and Jessica told me they saw an accident. They said that a man was driving fast on his motorbike and was hit by a car (or ran into a car or something with a car...right Ryan, Jess?). They said the guy flew off his motorbike and hit a tree in the median. Seconds later they said the man popped up, got back on his crashed bike and rode off. I took this story with a grain of salt...until yesterday.

Yesterday I was resting in the pool, trying to catch my breath, while surveying the insane sea of people. At the time there must have been at least sixty people in and around the not-so-big pool. As I was watching everyone, I saw a teen -- probably around 18 -- sprint out of the locker room towards a group of his friends. Generally in the states we have signs around pools that say "No Running" because well, the tile can be really slippery. Well the tile at this pool is definitely slippery. The teen ran about fifteen feet and then WIPED OUT HARDER THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN ANYONE WIPE OUT. The kid was probably two feet off the ground with his body almost completely parallel with the floor. His head came crashing down first and from thirty feet away I could hear the THUD. My heart skipped a beat and I literally felt nauseous. I was about to jump out of the pool when the kid jumped to his feet, quickly rubbed his head, and then continued to run to his friends. His friends laughed at him, hit him on the head, and then ran across the tile back towards the locker room with him.

I have never seen anyone bounce up from anything so obviously painful. If that was me, well, I would have gone to the hospital. Yeah, Vietnamese people are built differently.

Happy Birthday Russ and Noah!

The 30th Birthday train continues to roll in April. Happy birthday to Russ and Noah!

Russ turning thirty isn't a big deal. We all honestly thought he was thirty in middle school since he was the only kid who had a goatee. Here's a picture of Russ and the future mother of his children:




Noah has been one of my best friends since my family moved across the tracks in Livingston. There is nobody in this world who can beat Noah when it comes to a combination of having a good heart and a smart brain. The guy is just awesome...and for a guy who we used to call "Noah-nerd", he's surprisingly really great at sports too. That said, for Noah's 30th birthday this year I'm going to beat him in tennis. I'm not exactly sure how, but it is going to happen. So, ah, Noah, can you make a reservation at your club this summer? And do I need to pre-order a BLT sandwich? Here's Noah with the future mother of his children:



Happy Birthday, guys!!!

Oh and yes, at 30 nearly everyone has pictures of the future mother of their children.

The Best Teacher Ever

It's official: I'm the best teacher ever. Every teacher, after three weeks of a new class, gets reviewed by their students. I've always gotten good marks but this week I got great marks. In fact, according to the teacher coordinator at the school who analyzes all of the reviews, I got the best scores ever.

You don't believe me? Well, read the reviews for yourself:



Those who know me know that I don't really like to brag or gloat (yeah, right!). So after getting this review I did what any humble teacher would do -- I walked around the office shaking hands with the Language Link staff and taped my review above the front desk. Oh, and then I demanded my own bathroom.

Chicken Feet

I've eaten some weird food out here but one thing I won't get used to is this:



Vietnamese people love chicken feet. There is so little meet on the feet that I just don't get it. It's one of those things that you have to chalk up as a cultural difference. The other night my frisbee friends bought a few kilos of feet and we went to town. After cutting the inside of my lip on a claw, I asked if anyone had nail clippers. The answer was no so I called it quits after three feet.