G7 Reunion!

(PICTURE: G7...minus one.)

G7 is the name Huyen's group of friends from university call themselves. I think it stands for Girls Seven...or something like that. Like most group of friends, the girls don't get to see each other that often because they're spread out all over the world. Hang (far left in the picture) has been studying in England the last couple of years and Tu (second from the left) has been studying in Australia. Both of those girls are leaving Vietnam again to get their PhD's.

Besides the future doctors, My (who isn't in the picture) now lives a couple of hours away with her in-laws and baby. Now that Huyen is moving to America, that means four out of seven girls live decently far from Hanoi. All that is to say that it's a special occasion when G7 gets to hang out.

Twice recently the gang got together for some feasts. First we went to Hang's house where her family had prepared a gigantic meal with literally the largest fish I've ever eaten. I'm not sure what the fish was, but it seemed like it could be a baby tuna! A couple of nights later we went to Tu's house where we once again gorged ourselves on a home cooked meal.

At Tu's we watched an amazing video of G7 doing a dance performance at university. I need to get my hands on this video as it was absolutely priceless. Seeing all of the girl dancing was very very very very funny. Even funnier were the pictures of the girls putting on make-up for the show. They clearly had no idea what they were doing and looked like deranged clowns.

Seeing all of the girls together definitely sparked a little jealousy inside of me; it's been a long time since I've gotten to hang out with all my friends at one time. I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm counting down the days till Huyen gets to be a witness to my group rehashing our old memories.

Viet Hoang's Birthday!

(PICTURE: Birthday boy with his friend, father and cousin.)

Every once in a while something happens where I'm like, "Holy cow, I've been here a long time." One of those somethings happened again the other day -- Viet Hoang turned five. Him being five isn't that big of a deal -- it's the fact that I've celebrated his third, fourth and five birthdays at his house. This birthday really felt like deja vu to me since it was at the same place as the past two with nearly the exact same party guests.

I have a video on my blog from three years ago in which I was driving around Viet Hoang on my motorbike. The kid is now three years older than when he was falling asleep on my back in the mean streets of Hanoi. Time sure flies...

Cooking Oil Made From Sewage And Trash

(PICTURE: A Vietnamese officer investigating dirty cooking oil -- maybe those canisters is the first sign that the oil ain't so clean.)

I get sent links all the time to crazy news stories. However, Jessica recently sent me the most disgusting news story I've read in a long time. Basically, authorities have cracked down on some illegal production of cooking oil in China and Vietnam. What are they using? Well, shit and trash. So sometimes when I'm eating on the street and I say, "Oh, that tastes like shit," it really might have been shit that I was tasting.

Here's the article: Cooking Oil Made From Sewage And Trash

Looking Into The Future: The U.S. Citizenship Test

A few years from now, Huyen might decide that she wants to be a U.S. Citizen. If this ends up being the case, she'll have to take The U.S. Citizenship Test. My friend Mary Politi sent me a great article from Slate about the test and why so many of the answers on it are wrong. If you have a couple of minutes, this is an entertaining article and a great example of how ridiculous the U.S. immigration process is.

This Is Why Vietnam Is Covered In Garbage

I love Vietnam but it is by far the dirtiest place I have ever been to in my life. Here's a perfect example of why there is trash everywhere. While waiting for Huyen at a shop, I observed this xe om driver:

(PICTURE: Notice the white piece of trash on the ground to the right of the can.)

I took this picture moments after he threw that piece of white trash on the ground next to the garbage container. The guy made an attempt at getting the trash in the container but made zero attempt at picking up the garbage when he missed. In his defense, the effort he would have to take to walk two feet away sounds excruciating.

I took the above picture because I thought the moment was blog worthy. However, less than a minute later he made it extra blog worthy. The dude took out a piece of paper from his pocket, read it over, crumpled it and dropped it on the ground.
(PICTURE: See the trash in front of the bike. That's the one I'm talking about.)

The guy then got up and walked away, leaving both pieces of trash for someone else to deal with. Am I wrong to say, WHAT THE FUCK!!! The guy was right next to a fucking trash can. Put the garbage in the can you fucking asshole! Sorry had to get that off my chest.

What I don't understand is this: Vietnamese people have so much pride in being Vietnamese. However, where's the pride in keeping their country clean?

Adventures with my mother-in-law!!! PART 3

(PICTURE: My mother-in-law looking at a tiger in Saigon.)

Upon returning to Hanoi, I took Huyen, my mother-in-law and Su out to dinner. We had a good meal with about four dishes and some special clay pot rice. The total cost of the bill came out to about 300,000 VND or $15. To me, I'm more than happy to pay for four people if the total cost is under twenty bucks. Hell, you can barely order an appetizer and a drink FOR ONE in America without it costing more than $15. However, to my mother-in-law this cost an arm and a leg. When she saw the bill her eyes lit up as if the waitress was holding me up at gun point. She was so shocked in fact that she kept the receipt to show my father-in-law. In their defense, they could probably eat breakfast, lunch and dinner for five days for 300,000 VND. However, we're talking about a restaurant in the city! I keep giggling to myself, imagining how Huyen's parents would deal with visiting us in America. I'm pretty sure this is what would go through their minds: "$12 for a piece of chicken! Not even the whole chicken? A piece? And it doesn't even have bones!!!"

Adventures with my mother-in-law!!! PART 2

(PICTURE: Huyen and my mother-in-law enter the fourth dimension.)

After going through the haunted house, Huyen and my mother-in-law went to see a 4-D movie. This alone is funny to me since Huyen's mom has never been to the movies. Instead of starting off with a conventional 2-D film or even jumping on the overrated 3-D bandwagon that has hit the world as of late, she went right in for a 4-D movie. If you've never been to a 4-D movie, the fourth dimension is the sense of touch. I saw a 4-D movie about ten years ago when I worked at Disney World in Orlando. The special 4-D element then was that something moved in the seats which felt like we were all sitting on bugs. Well, apparently they haven't figured out more way to add the fourth dimension -- or they boxed up and shipped the Disney theater here -- because that was exactly what happened in the film Huyen and her mom saw. Her mom jumped up when the "bug" in the seat started moving around. She also ducked when objects were shot at her in the movie. At some point she told Huyen that they should move to the side of the theater so everything wouldn't fly at them. Clearly she hadn't quite understood how 3-D works...but then again, I don't really understand how it works either.