Transformers

(PICTURE: A desk that turns into a bed.)

I've mentioned before that naps are part of the Vietnamese culture. Most workers take naps for an hour or so everyday around midday. This is also true at school. Students from K-8 take naps in the middle of the day at school. On a couple of occasions I substituted at public schools and was pretty surprised to see the layouts of the classrooms. Most classes had either one of two things to take naps:

1. Bunk beds in the back of the class.

2. Desks that transformed into beds.

The desks that turned into beds don't look anything like the picture above (and the students definitely don't look like the girl in the picture). The desks look like normal desks, the only difference being that the desktop flips open to form a hard wood cot of sorts. It's pretty simple but it's genius.

Happy Birthday, Big Bro!

Every day my brother Zev sends me baby pictures of Lilah. Now it's my turn to show everyone baby/childhood pictures of Zev. Happy birthday, big bro!

Pittsburgh Pirates

(PICTURE: Roberto Clemente, my dad's favorite baseball player ever.)

In 1956 my dad and his best friend Mark decided to stop rooting for the Yankees -- apparently they were too good -- and each picked a terrible team. My dad picked the Pirates and his friend Mark picked the Orioles.

Although the Pirates haven't had a winning season in fifteen years, my dad had lots of great years with the Pirates in the 60s and the 70s. My dad's favorite player was Roberto Clemente and when I was a kid I collected Clemente cards at baseball card conventions to show off to my dad. In turn, Clemente became my favorite legendary player.

Despite being a huge Pirates fan, my dad had never been to Pittsburgh. While living in Vietnam, I told my dad that I was going to take him to a Pirates home game when I came home. I asked my brother if he wanted to come along and well, I'm in Pittsburgh this weekend with my dad and brother.

Last night we went to PNC field -- a gorgeous stadium overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline -- and saw the Pirates lose 3-1.

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.