Adoption Plane

(PICTURE: A random chart that came up when I googled adoption.)

While waiting in line to check in for my flight on Friday, Huyen and I quickly noticed something -- we were surrounded by newborn babies. Usually being on a plane with lots of infant children is a flying nightmare. However, this plane was the opposite -- it was a dream flight for about 20 families. You see, we were surrounded by European couples all with their newly adopted Vietnamese babies.

Seeing the new families was quite an interesting experience. You could see a range of emotions on all of the parents' faces. I know the process of adopting is a long and frustrating one. However, the end result is obviously priceless for the families. For Huyen, adopting is a strange concept. In Vietnam, people don't usually adopt children...let alone foreign children.

Do any readers know if American can adopt from Vietnam anymore? Last year I received an email from a woman who had adopted a Vietnamese baby in the past and was saddened that the US had stopped allowing Vietnamese adoptions.

Motorbike Injury Hospital

(PICTURE: Just a random picture to get the point across.)

Motorbikes are dangerous. Yes, I know you all know that because I've mentioned it a hundred times on my blog. However, recently I had a chance to see exactly how dangerous bikes can be.

I mentioned the other day that Huyen's grandmother was recently in the hospital because she had foot surgery. You may recall that I've talked in the past about how the hospitals in Hanoi are organized by specialties. There’s the eye hospital, the heart hospital, the nose/ear/throat hospital, etc. Well, Huyen's mother was at the Orthopedics hospital specializing in foot/leg/arm injuries. Upon entering the hospital for the first time (I went three times to see her), I immediately realized that the place should be called the Motorbike Injury Hospital. Nearly everyone in the place had been in some kind of traffic accident.

Frankly, the place was gruesome. Nine out of twelve people in Huyen's grandmother's room were wearing some kind of archaic looking cast on their surgically repaired legs. The worst case in the room -- STOP READING HERE IF YOU GET NAUSOUS EASILY -- was a twenty-something-year-old boy who had his leg run over my an automobile. The car or truck (I'm not sure which) had ripped off all of the skin from the boy's calf area and presumably broken his bones there too. The surgeons had had to take off the skin from the boy's thigh to replace the skin from his calf.

As horrible as that story is, it doesn't compare to a patient in the other room who everyone was whispering about on my second visit to the hospital. In the other room was another twenty-something-year-old boy who had gotten into a motorbike accident with a car. I'm not sure what exactly happened but the boy had to have both his legs amputated.

I think I'm writing this blog because I'm clearly a little spooked out after going to the hospital. I've felt awful for the second boy for a week now. On my third visit to the hospital I saw the boy laying in bed and could literally feel my heart sinking for him. Later that night, Huyen and I had dinner with our friends David and Elissa. David has been trying to work-over Elissa for a few months to allow him to get a motorbike. Elissa, rightfully so, is nervous because David had a minor motorbike accident last summer which resulted in some knee surgery. Having come right from the hospital, I basically shot David's chances of getting a bike to hell by talking about all of the motorbike injuries. Elissa had a brilliant idea upon hearing of the hospital. She said that all high schools should have to take a field trip to the hospital to meet patients and hear/see their stories.

Now, Mom, I'm sure you're gonna be a little worried after reading this post. However, the vast majority of people who drive safely on motorbikes don't get into accidents. That said, I'll be just as happy as you are once I give up motor biking for good...

Experiment Over

(PICTURE: These are the temporary walls the city put up at major intersections.)

Last August I wrote a blog post on how Hanoi had changed many of the traffic intersections during the three months that I was away visiting my family. You can read about the genius city planning efforts in my August 10th, 2009 blog post titled, "Cha Cha Cha Changes." Basically the city had decided to get rid of many major intersections by putting up barriers to force people who wanted to go East/West into turning North/South and then making a u-turn. I thought this solution was, well, not so smart. It did more or less decrease traffic jams but also probably led to a lot more accidents as motorbikes/cars/bikes/buses had to now u-turn into faster traffic.

Well, after a little less than a year, the city has seen the error of its ways and officially re-opened the intersections. However, there's one small problem I've noticed so far with the "new" intersections: they forgot to install traffic lights in some. Yeah, I'm serious.

Success!

(PICTURE: Me with my Level 2 class and a few special guests.)

Last week we finished the first cycle of Apex English. Overall, the past three months were quite a success. I can honestly say that almost every single student improved their English skills. There were a couple of students who vastly improved with their speaking, listening and writing. It feels good to see big results in such a short period of time.

I learned a lot over the last three months and I can hopefully apply my new knowledge during the next cycle of the school. Most of the students have expressed interest in taking another class with Apex and ideally we'll be able to recruit more students. I've already decided to lower the cost of classes almost a $1 per class. Apex was already the cheapest language school with a native speaker and will be even more so with the new price tag.

To celebrate the end of our semester, I took both of my classes out to dinner. Here's some pictures from our farewell parties:



(PICTURE: Me with my Level 1 class and freeloading Huyen!)

(PICTURE: I dressed down while everyone else dressed up.)


(Picture: The girls in pink. Huyen and Jamie...who will be doing a guest blog soon!)

World Cup

(PICTURE: Two things I packed -- my safari shirt and USA jersey!)

Four years ago I went to the World Cup in Germany with my buddy Devin. The World Cup was such an amazing experience that we promised each other that we'd make it a tradition to go to every World Cup. Well, four years have passed and today I'm flying to South Africa!!!

I have always wanted to go to Africa and what better opportunity than this? However, as excited as I am, I feel terrible that I can't bring Huyen along. The price tag on the World Cup is ridiculous and frankly I can't afford it myself. If it wasn't for my very generous sugar daddy (Devin) this trip would never have happened. To rationalize going solo, I've decided that this is going to be my three week bachelor party. What could be a better bachelor party than watching sports for a month?

Here I come South Africa!!!


(PICTURE: My buddy Nicky bought me an inflatable giraffe to prepare me for the real thing.)

Things That Really Piss Me Off: PART 2

Here is the second installment of "Things That Really Piss Me Off."

I get it: People run red lights in Vietnam. This happens at every single intersection every single time a light goes from yellow to red. I came to grips with this a long time ago and am now as guilty as millions of other for speeding up at a yellow despite knowing I have no chance of being through the intersection until after the light has turned red. I blame my law breaking on the realization that I had a much better chance of getting into an accident by stopping at a red light than by going through it. When I used to be a good law abiding citizen I had a few close calls of people nearly slamming into me because the last thing they expected was for someone to stop at a red light. I call this type of infraction a LEVEL 1 RED RUN.

A LEVEL 2 RED RUN is much more dangerous and frankly idiotic. A Level 2 Red Run is when people just grow impatient while waiting at a red light and randomly take off into the sea of criss-crossing traffic. I would say that a Level 2 Red Run happens probably 50% of the time at every major intersection in Hanoi. Guys (rarely ever girls) will just dart into oncoming traffic because they're in such a rush to get wherever they are going. Usually the red-light-runner will get across the intersection just a few seconds before everyone else who waited for the light to turn green. It's insane. It's obnoxious. It's dangerous and frankly it frustrates me. However, only the LEVEL 3 RED RUNNERS really piss me off.

A LEVEL 3 RED RUNNER is someone who goes through a red light with a baby on board their bike. The other day I was going home and nearly slammed into a guy and his baby who were running a red light. I slowed down and gave the guy a hard confused stare. I was hoping the guy would be able to interpret my body language which was meant to convey this message: "Hey you fucking idiot! It's one thing to do something stupid to kill yourself and maybe me. It's another thing to kill your few month old baby."

Okay, I feel much better. I'm glad I got these two things off my chest. I promise no more angry ramblings for at least a couple of months.

Things That Really Piss Me Off: PART 1

Every once in a while I need to use the blog as a way to vent. Well, today and tomorrow seem like a good time to let off some steam since I don't have my computer to upload pictures with.

There are plenty of things in Hanoi that piss me off but recently two things have taken the cake. Today I want to ramble about smoking.

One of my claims to fame in life is that I've never smoked a cigarette. I'm pretty damn proud of this; admittedly probably more so than I should be. When I moved to California I couldn't have been happier when the state changed the public smoking laws. No longer did I need to come home from a bar and shower because I smelled like an ashtray. No longer did I need to excuse myself from a group conversation because one of the people was blowing smoke in my face. No longer did I need to break close friends' cigarettes and obnoxiously tell them that "smoking isn't good for your health."

In Vietnam you can smoke everywhere. Seriously everywhere. That's a fact. Think of a place that you think you can't smoke in...go ahead, think of the one place you would think nobody in their right mind would smoke in...go on...keep thinking...


...Okay, hopefully you said, "A HOSPITAL!". Nobody would smoke in a hospital, right? Well, in Vietnam they do. Last week I went to a hospital two times to see Huyen's grandmother who just had foot surgery. In her room -- which had eleven total patients -- there was one fifty something year old guy and his friends who kept on smoking cigarettes. The first time they lit up I think I said out loud, "Are you fucking kidding me?!" But no, they weren't kidding. They were smoking away despite a few "No Smoking" signs in the room.

The only thing that makes me madder than people smoking in a communal hospital room is when I see fathers smoking while holding their babies. This is a regular sight around Hanoi and always makes me shake my head. I mean, sure, you smoke. But can't you put down your baby first and then enjoy a cigarette?

On a final smoking note, I am always a little surprised when I see the personal trainers at my gym standing outside puffing away on cigarettes.

So this blog goes out to all the men in Vietnam: Stop Smoking!...especially around elderly women in hospitals and while holding your babies.