Happy Mother's Day!!!

(PICTURE: Mom and I at Zev's Rehearsal Dinner. NOTE: The problem with having all your stuff stolen is that pictures are hard to come by and snapfish only allows you to steal tiny ones from your albums like this one)

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I tell you every single year, and I'll tell you again (this time for the whole world, AKA ten friends, to read): I could not imagine a more wonderful, caring, loving mother in the world than you. You're not just an amazing mother but an amazing person too. I love you!

I know you wish I could be home to have dinner with you tonight but instead think on the positive side: The great thing about having a child in Vietnam is that you get to celebrate Mother's Day for an extra day since we live in the future over here!

Please send my love to Grandma and Nanny too. Hannah/Zev, give them both a big hug and kiss for me.

Learning The Language II

Learning a new language isn't just hard for us Americans. Tonight I went to dinner with Huyen, a great girl Steve and I met at the airport when we picked up Devin. Huyen is literally the person who welcomes foreigners to Vietnam as she stands outside the arrival gate, wearing a traditional dress and passing out literature about Halong Bay.

Huyen is in her final few months at the University of Hanoi and is an extremely smart person. Besides her native tongue, she also speaks Russian fluently, English well enough to work part time as a tutor, French and a little Japanese.

But it's the English I want to talk about. This is just a little side anecdote that I found hilarious. Huyen and I walked into the movie theater and I, having a small bladder, asked where the toilet was. Huyen asked, "You have to go make water?" I wasn't exactly sure what she said so I asked, "What?" "You have to go make water?"

Yes, this English tutor was seriously asking me if I had to piss by saying, "You have to make water?"

Learning The Language

(VIDEO FLASHBACK: My favorite Vietnamese teacher, Linh, teaching me the vowels)

It's been six weeks in 'Nam and the language isn't getting any easier. I'm decent in restaurants and asking for directions but the rest of the time I'm useless. Frankly, I've never been good at learning foreign languages. And by "never been good" I mean that I suck at learning other languages. Here's me in class, back in HCMC, attempting to just say the vowels...

My Boyfriend's Back And He's Better Than Before...

(PICTURE: Enjoying a late night coffee)

...Hey now, Hey now...Ryan's back!

They say that distance makes the heart grown fonder. Well, Ryan flew to Ho Chi Minh City last week to begin his teaching career. We had a heartfelt goodbye here in Hanoi, parted with a hug, and accentuated with a blog entry.

Well, 72 hours later I got an extremely long email from Ryan. Here are the first three sentences: "So I am moving to Hanoi. I'll probably fly to Hanoi on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. I have been utterly bored in Saigon..."

He went on to make a whole bunch of excuses as to why Hanoi is better for him than HCMC. But come on, I can read between the lines as well as anyone and he was clearly saying, "I miss you and I know that you need me right now. It's too much for you to lose all of your stuff and have your heart broken in the same week." So, Ryan came to my rescue. Even more so, we've decided to take the next logical step...

We're moving in together. I can already hear all of you ahoyhanoi fans gasping: "The shame! They're going to live in sin!" Well, rest assured that we've decided after much debate to get two bedrooms (even if it is just for appearances). I'll keep you posted on our new apartment but Dad, don't be surprised if Ryan shows up at work one day asking for my hand in marriage.

Halong Bay

(NOTE: This is not a good video of me. Because I don't have my own camera any more I can't exactly direct. That said, some British kid I met on the boat has a better video which I will post when/if he emails it to me)

In the movies -- and possibly in real life -- whenever someone gets raped they always end up crouching down in a shower and just having the water wash over their body. Well, I finally understand that scene. After having my personal space completely violated on Saturday and all my possessions stolen from me, there was no better antidote than a shower/baptism in the famed Halong Bay.

This is a video of David (Miriam's friend from Spain who is visiting), Song, Devin and I jumping into the water from the roof of our junk boat. You can see me for a split second at the end. I'm the one who looks like a jumping swimsuit model.

Exciting News: I've decided to get a new laptop, camera, cell phone and ipod...

(PICTURE: There is no picture because, well, read the blog)

One of my worst memories from my time at Syracuse University was the afternoon I strolled into my apartment after class, walked into my room and sat down at my desk to check email. I plopped down into my seat and noticed something strange, my laptop wasn't there. It took about a half a second for the math to process in my head: this is where I keep my laptop, there is where my laptop was before class, there is where my laptop should be now but isn't = I was robbed.

Turns out I was a victim of this thief who ended up robbing about thirty apartments. His technique was quite original: He would stroll up to apartments, test the door to see if it was unlocked and if it was, walked in. Had their been someone home he would say, "I'm sorry, I'm looking for Winston Churchill" and then leave. On the day I was robbed both my roommates were home. Shankles was in his room (probably watching pornography) and Alex was in the shower. The thief had even gone upstairs where they were, into Alex's room and went through his change container. Clearly I had gotten the worst of it, my computer (and hiking backpack) were gone forever.

FLASH FORWARD EIGHT YEARS:

Saturday night my house had a party to celebrate Miriam's birthday (and supposedly my arrival too). We had about thirty people show up including a few local Vietnamese girls we've befriended along the way during our first week in Ha Noi (by "we" I of course mean Song. He's the master of approaching anyone. I just try to reap the benefits after). Devin, a friend from college who is visiting for a few days (yes ANOTHER visitor already), couldn't take the humidity of the house and passed out around 10PM. Song quickly followed him to my bedroom and retired around 11PM. I stayed up for a couple more hours, whipped out my really expensive camera, and took lots of pictures/talked photography with Pallavi's visiting friend Bridgette who was also snapping away on her really expensive camera. At around 1:30 the party decided to go to a club and I decided it was time to go to bed. I brushed my teeth and tip-toed into my room. However, I wasn't tired so I whipped out my laptop and checked my email (and to see if anyone had posted a comment on ahoy hanoi). I typed away for a minute or two and then plugged my laptop into the wall to charge. I also plugged my cell phone into another outlet since I hadn't charged it in four days.

The next morning I woke up at 6AM and decided to be a good roommate and go clean up from the party (and because the people who live in this house are --what's the nicest words to use here-- basically content on living in filth and would wait days for the cleaning lady to come before picking up a piece of trash or washing one of their own dishes). While cleaning up I found a 10,000 DONG note on the ground (roughly sixty six cents or 3/4 of a bowl of pho and a coke)and thought, "my lucky day." I proceeded to walk back upstairs to grab my laptop and blog about the party and my finding money when I noticed something odd in my room: my laptop wasn't on the floor. The familiar feeling from senior year hit me as I did the math: this is where I put my laptop last night, this is where my laptop should be, my laptop isn't here: I was robbed. History was repeating itself.

The math though in this case was a little fuzzier since:
1. I had gone to sleep at 2AM and woken up at 6AM. A small window of time for a robber.
2. Three people were sleeping in my tiny room and surely one of us would have woken up had somebody entered.

However, reality struck me hard when I opened my closet and saw that my camera wasn't in there. Then reality struck me again when I looked across the room and my cell phone wasn't there either. And then reality struck me again when Steve asked me if I knew where my other camera was (the one that I had FedExed home from Australia, had my mom get fixed by Nikon since it was under warranty, FedExed to Devin in Buffalo and had him deliver to me in Ha Noi). That camera was gone too. And then reality hit me again when Steve asked, "where is your ipod?" Yup, that was gone too. That's when I told Steve, "Stop asking me if I lost stuff!"

Long really f-ing depressing story short: I WAS ROBBED BY NINJAS!

Turns out that the front gate wasn't locked when people went out to the club at 1:30AM. Sometime after I had gone to bed, people broke into our house and stole:
1. All my stuff that I listed.
2. Bridgette's expensive camera and two additional expensive lenses, everything except her credit cards from her wallet and her cell phone.
3. Miriam's computer and camera.
4. Lindsay's phone.

Do the math, I lost the most again. If you add up all the stuff that I lost it comes to roughly $2,600 dollars or in Vietnamese language, about 3,000 bowls of pho.

I took the realization of being completely f-ed over pretty well. I think my experience in 2000 taught me that life goes on and that objects are well, just objects. Also, there is SOME good news: two weeks ago I bought an external hard drive and backed-up everything on my computer so I still have all my scripts and 99% of the photos I've taken thus far.

So I was taking it pretty well until I started taking inventory of what was lost around the house and asked Bridgette if Pallavi had a computer that might have been stolen (Pallavi was basically comatose until noon. Seriously, we tried waking her and told her we had been robbed but nothing registered) and Bridgette told me, "No Pallavi doesn't have a computer. It was stolen a few months ago when the house was robbed and all the French people had their stuff stolen." "Excuse me" I said. "You know when the house was robbed a few months ago in the middle of the night and the French people had their stuff stolen." No, I definitely did not know this. Pallavi failed to share this tidbit of information with me when I was looking into the house. She also failed to share this tidbit of information with me when I moved in and said, "the lock on my door doesn't work." Turns out, well, just like I was told: The house was robbed in the middle of the night when people were sleeping just a few months ago. Clearly this house is cased out and some thief just checks the front gate every night to see if it was left open. Not cool. And yes, I'm moving ASAP. And no, I have no insurance that covers any of my stuff.

Off to Halong Bay today with Steve and Devin where I'll rely on them to take pictures for me.

Charlie wins again.

Ben

My Cousin Justin

My cousin Justin literally doesn't know what "on time" means. This has been the case his whole life. One quick example was when I was in New York City about six months ago and he was supposed to meet up with my friends and I since he was coming in from Boston. He called me and said, "I'll see you in about a half hour." A half hour was already about two hours later then we had originally planned. Well, four hours later at 2:30AM he strolled into the bar my friends and I were waiting at. He had some excuse, but really who can remember it. I'm not complaining about Justin since, well, I love the kid for who he is. The whole point of this is that I awoke this morning with a happy birthday email from him that contained a video. Here's the video. It's ridiculous.