Blasphemy

Last week I was shocked twice by things Vietnamese teenagers said to me in regards to Ho Chi Minh. The first came after I gave a private student an essay with the topic: "If you could meet any dead person from history, who would you want to meet?" The student immediately said to me, "Ho Chi Minh." I was expecting this because 90% of my students in Vietnam have always given that answer. What I wasn't expecting was his follow reason: "I would want to meet Ho Chi Minh so I could stop him from winning the war." I was shocked and said, "Really?" He nodded and said, "Yes, if America won we could have Harvard in Vietnam." The student began to explain to me how he wished Vietnam had become part of America (most Vietnamese I have met think that America was trying to colonize Vietnam) and had they been successful would have built up Vietnam in America's own image. Needless to say, this was pretty blasphemous for a Vietnamese person to say.

However, less than 48 hours later another teenager said this to me, "I don't think Ho Chi Minh is a good role model. He lived very poorly. As the head of the country he should have lived a richer life." Again, blasphemous.

I don't think these two kids' opinions are in anyway indicative of people's thinking as a whole. However, it was still shocking to hear and in some respects, refreshing. It's nice to know that the younger generation isn't afraid to speak their mind. Perhaps the future of Vietnam will have true Freedom of Speech.

The craziest part of this is that both these remarks were made the day before and the day after Ho Chi Minh's birthday!

800TH Post!

800! 800! 800! 800! I don't know why I keep typing 800 except to wrap my head around the fact that I've sat in front of my computer 800 times to write posts!!!

I'm doing the rough calculations in my head and it seems that my 1000th post will be pretty close to my wedding...which sort of makes this 800th post totally insignificant. That said, it at least deserves a video montage...

It sure has been a good ride...and it's only gonna get better!

Random Things I See In Traffic

I often find myself laughing at random things I see in traffic that I know nobody else in the vicinity gives two thoughts about. Today I was riding my motorbike and this guy blazed by me. On the back of his shirt in big letters it said, "NEW YORK." Underneath those words in slightly smaller letters was written, "GARDEN STATE."

I'm pretty sure this t-shirt falls under the category of: "Misprinted T-shirts Shipped Across The World."

Walking On Water

This may sound crazy, but I've seen a prophet in Hanoi. On more than one occasion I've seen a man walk on water...

...and apparently the guy now has some disciples:



It turns out that Hoy Tay (West Lake), the largest lake in the city of Hanoi, is very shallow even about 100 feet or so from shore. I've done more than my fair share of head turns as I've seen men seemingly walking on water...

Animal Noises

One thing that sort of blows my mind is that people around the world impersonate animal noises totally differently. If you try to teach a kid the word D-O-G by saying, "Roof Roof" he'll have no idea what you're talking about. Apparently our animals in America make different noises than animals here in Vietnam.

Sometimes when Huyen or I see an animal we'll do our own animal call. Huyen and I always laugh at each other's impersonations which sound ludicrous. Well, in Mai Chau we were walking along a rice paddy when we encountered a rooster. The rooster wouldn't shut up...until I took out my camera to film it. Well, loyal viewers, watch this video and tell us whose animal call is correct:

Long time reader...

(PICTURE: Putting a face with a name...)

Huyen and I recently had the pleasure of meeting a long time reader of Ahoy Hanoi -- Marcus!

Marcus has been a frequent commenter on the blog for quite a long time. A couple of weeks ago Marcus let me know he was gonna be in Hanoi so we made plans to meet up. Marcus, like me, is an expat. Marcus has been living in Europe for I think around a decade (correct me if I'm wrong Marcus). He has lived in both Paris and currently in Germany. Marcus has an unbelievable skill for language and speaks four languages fluently. He also is a jack-of-all-trades and besides his career in Germany, finds the time to run film festivals. He was actually running a German film festival in Hanoi the week we met up with him.

One of the cool things about meeting blog readers is that I can finally put a face with their name. When Huyen and I arrived at the bar to meet Marcus, I started to write him a text message letting him know we were there. Well, just as I hit send, a friendly voice beamed out, "Huyen!" Sure enough, Marcus recognized us (or at least Huyen)!

One interesting anecdote from that night: Marcus told Huyen and I that he is becoming a German citizen. In order to do this, he has to give up his Vietnamese passport. Upon hearing this, I could sense some anxiety in Huyen. Marcus quickly calmed her down though and said something to the affect that, "Even though I won't have a Vietnamese passport anymore, I'll always feel Vietnamese."

Of course Huyen and I have talked a hundred times about moving to America but the idea of her having to drop her Vietnamese citizenship never crossed our minds. I'm not 100% sure how this works with America. I'm assuming if you just have a green card then you never have to get rid of your country's passport. However, if and when Huyen becomes a citizen, I'm fairly certain she will have to declare herself to be only American. I can imagine that that is very tough psychologically.

Anyway, it was great to meet Marcus and hopefully we'll see him again in the not to distant future.

Eat your greens...

I've been working part time at a private school recently and was quite entertained when I saw this:


(PICTURE: That's water spinach in a urinal.)

I guess some kids everywhere in the world don't like to eat their veggies.