Why Vietnam?

I often get asked the question, "Why did you choose Vietnam?" That's a tough question to answer but I'm pretty sure it's because as a little kid I was abnormally obsessed with The Wonder Years. The Wonder Years -- which was set in America during the '60s -- premiered in 1988 when I was nine years old. In the pilot episode Winnie Cooper's brother is killed in the Vietnam War. That episode has always stuck with me.

As I got older I started to read both fictional and non-fictional books about the Vietnam war. In high school I took an elective class specifically about Vietnam. It's always just been something I think about. In fact, while I was cleaning my room on Tuesday I found an "Extra Cedit" essay I had written on the Vietnam War. Unfortunately there is no date on the essay but I'm pretty sure it was from 5th grade because it was written on perforated paper. Yes, perforated paper. The last time we had perforated paper in my house was when we had an Apple 2E....which was a long long time ago.

(PICTURE: The essay I found. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to make it big enough to read.)

Spring Cleaning

I'm living at home which means one thing: My mom is on my back to clean my room.

Yesterday I spent the WHOLE DAY cleaning my room. When all was said and done, I had 3 1/2 giant bags of paper recycling, two giant bags of garbage and a bag of old electronics. On top of all that, I had three bags of clothing and other goods for the Vietnam Veterans.

I've written a couple of blogs about reverse culture shock. This isn't reverse culture shock, but I can say that over the last fifteen months I've learned to live with a lot less. I basically spent the last year plus living a life that filled just two suitcases. Sitting in my room, looking at all my stuff, makes me feel good that I can give a whole bunch of things away to people who need them more than me.

That said, the coolest part of cleaning my room is that now I can ask my mom for my allowance on Friday!!!!

The Good And Bad Of Blogging

THE GOOD: When you're at a wedding and someone comes up to you and says, "My brother was traveling in Southeast Asia and told me about a blog he was using for advice. It turned out to be your blog."

THE BAD: When the day after you blog about a wedding you get an email from your sister, "Who is the Jeremy in your pics from Jed's wedding?....he's cuuuuuute."

Wedding Differences

This past weekend was my friend Jed's wedding in Cape May, New Jersey. The whole wedding weekend was fantastic and got me thinking about some difference between Vietnamese weddings and American weddings. Here's a few obvious differences:

1. There are no destination weddings in Vietnam. Weddings are always at the house or in the city of one of (or both) the people getting married. Nobody just chooses a spot because it's beautiful.

(PICTURE: Cape May, NJ)










2. There is no rehearsal dinner.

(PICTURE: My friend Jeremy and I at the rehearsal dinner.)






3. My Vietnamese isn't exactly that good, but I'm 99% sure there are no "roasting" style speeches at Vietnamese weddings.

(PICTURE: Jeremy, Brett and Alex doing their best Three Stooges impersonation.)

4. There is no dancing, let alone a couple's first dance.

(PICTURE: Jed and Lena's first dance.)














5. There is no cocktail hour.

6. There is no band.

7. There is no open bar. There's just all you can drink beer and vodka.

8. There is no after party at a bar after the wedding.













9. There is no brunch the next day.
(PICTURE: One guy didn't get the memo to wear a blue shirt.)








10. And finally, there's definitely no NY Times Wedding announcement.

Reverse Culture Shock #3

(PICTURE: It is a rarity to eat a meal or a snack out of a can or a box in Vietnam.)

As I just finished my cold bowl of cereal, I find myself reflecting back to my daily morning breakfasts in Vietnam. I miss my hot bowl of pho and my warm sticky rice. I miss Banh Gio and my tofu with bun noodles. I even miss eating the half developed duck eggs in broth.

In fact, I'm really missing Vietnamese food in general. For one, I love the taste and variety of Vietnamese food. Secondly, everything in Vietnam (minus the globs of fat on pork) just feels healthier. So many things we eat in America are processed or grown with pesticides. I'm pretty sure in the month I've been home I've eaten more things out of cans than I did in 15 months abroad. Also produce is just so much bigger here. Every piece of fruit I eat in America is about twice as big as its Vietnamese cousin. I'm not a farmer (although I do love gardening) but I'm pretty sure fruits and vegetables aren't bigger here just because mother nature wants it that way.

All of that said, perhaps I just miss the food in Vietnam because I've gained a couple of pounds since I came home. In fact, Huyen called me fat the other night on skype! But on the other hand, perhaps I've only gained a few pounds because of a cuisine in America that Vietnam can't compete with -- my mom's home cooking.

Television

One of the things that I liked most about Vietnam is that I basically didn't watch television for a year. I can literally count the few times I watched TV:

1. The Presidential/Vice Presidential Debates
2. Election day
3. Syracuse in the Big East tournament
4. The Super Bowl
5. The Boston Bruins during the playoffs

I should also include in this list the DVDs sets of "The Wire" and "Twin Peaks."

The great thing about not having television is you can spend your time doing other things. You know, like reading or writing a blog. The bad thing about not watching television for a year is that upon returning home you have to constantly tell people to not talk about the last season of "Lost."

Bear Bile

I've told a story a few times recently that I'll finally post about. Right at the end of my time in Vietnam, someone told me about a strange and cruel business -- extracting bile from bears' gallbladders. The bile is used as a traditional medicine and is sold for a lot of money.

I personally haven't seen any bear farms but found this article someone wrote about the horrifying process in China:

The cruelty of sucking gallbladder juice (bile) from live bears in China

World Journal, Wednesday, April 15, 1998
(By Youn Show Lee; translated by Vicky Ho Lynn from the Chinese)

---

"The cruelty of sucking gallbladder juice from live bears in China"

A few months ago while on a business trip, I had a chance to visit Angel Bridge at the foot of Long Day Mountain in China. At that time, we also went to explore a large bear farm which is surrounded by forest and beautiful scenery --- it is truly an isolated paradise. All of sudden I saw about fifteen large cages with bears in them. The farm owner told me this is a gallbladder farm, the purpose of which is to continuously extract fluid from the bears' gallbladders. Because of the high demand, it is an extremely profitable business.

When we arrived at the farm, the bears and the caretaker seemed to be getting along very well, all was calm. Suddenly four huge men showed up and the bears suddenly started screaming fearfully and rocking their cages hard as if they saw a ghost. The caretaker told me every morning at eight o'clock liquid is drawn from their gallbladders. Around seven-forty-five, the bears become agitated and have no appetite to eat and they start screaming and crying desperately for help.

In white uniforms, and without any emotion on their faces, the four men went into one of the cages. They quickly used a steel wire to snatch the bear by the neck, at which point the bear's eyes bulged out and it started gnashing its teeth and crying. They are so scared to death and this trauma causes them to defecate at the same time.

In the bear's stomach, there is a hole with a steel tube inserted directly into the gallbladder. Outside the area there is a plastic tube connected to the steel tube for drawing the liquid. The area is covered tightly with surgical tape. When the time comes, the tape and cover are removed and a syringe is used to withdraw the green liquid from the gallbladder. Three big men went in and pressed bear's 4 legs with force and inserted a syringe into plastic tube. When the dark green gallbladder juice was sucked from bear's body, the poor bear opened her mouth so big, her two eyes were bulging and her entire body was trembling so hard throughout the whole procedure.

This kind of severe torturing went on for about two hours until all the bears had been subjected to the same torture. The crying and screaming was so hard and loud and echoed the entire mountain and valley. It frightened me so much, my heart ached and my head started spinning.

After this unthinkable torture, the bears used their paws to hold their stomachs. They curled up and shivered and I could see tears in their bright little eyes...

Around 10:30, someone cried out that there had been an accident in cage number 5. We followed the owner to rush into the bear farm and were shocked at what we saw. A brown bear had managed to pull out his own intestines and was holding them up in the air, roaring and screaming, as if he were madly "protesting" the cruelty and insanity of the humans. There was blood all over the cage. It was so difficult to watch such a suicidal scene. Never in my life had I been in such shock or so devastated. At that time, someone rang the security alarm, immediately people rushed into the bear farm and waving the sharp ax and big steel hook. The owner shouted :"Hurry to 'rescue' the bear paws!" The man in the cage was reluctant to continue to go forward. But the owner stamped his feet and kept yelling: "You have to cut them off while the bear is alive. That is the only way they are saleable!" Right after that, I saw the sharp ax swung and the number 5 bear's paws were immediately chopped off with blood gushing out.....

Perhaps the killing smell filled in the cage number 5. The other bears then suddenly started to cry and scream sadly and desperately again and had the tendency to be violent. It shook the whole island. The farm owner had a butcher background. When the bears appeared ready to act violently and workers were panicking and running away, the owner stopped them and ordered them to put "steel jackets" on five of the most aggressive bears and give them a shot of morphine. As soon as the bears saw the "steel jackets", they immediately became quiet. It seemed the bears all got the painful lessons from the "steel jackets", otherwise they would not calm down so quickly.

This whole unbelievable incident affected me so deeply that their sad and innocent faces haunted me day and night and will continue to haunt me until the day I die. I felt a strong need to expose this incident to the world. Please widely distribute this true story and hope that everyone who reads this will do something to stop this kind of insanity from Chinese bear farms and to help these desperate poor creatures. Definitely, the Chinese Animals protection law needs to be improved, urgently.