The Guessing Game

What do you think this is:



A) Brownies.

B) Shit in a bowl.

C) Congealed blood.

D) One of my father-in-law's favorite foods.

Think it over...

Give it another second....

Okay, the answer is...

C & D. Yeah, it was a trick question. That is congealed blood that my father-in-law loves to eat. I swear I almost popped one into my mouth when I first saw it because I was sure it was brownies.

Visiting Graves

(PICTURE: Visiting my father-in-law's family tombstones.)

During Tet we always visit the graves of Huyen's relatives. This was my third time visiting the graves and I've been touched each and every time. A few thoughts about this:
1. We visit each cemetery for five to ten minutes. This might seem like a short time but how many of us are guilty of never visiting our relatives tombs?

2. While at the cemetery, we clean the tombstones and remove weeds. In America, this is usually done by the cemetery where people are buried. In Vietnam it is the family's responsibility.

3. This is the only time I ever see Huyen pray. She isn't religious at all but merely puts her hands together, bows and says a few words to her deceased relatives. I like being there to see this.

4. Huyen's family likes when I take pictures of them at the cemetery. I learned my lesson a long time ago that Vietnamese like to have these moments of showing respect documented.

5. I'm always especially taken back when we go to the military cemetery to visit the empty grave of Huyen's uncle. Huyen's uncle was killed in the war with America and his body has never been recovered. This saddens me deeply.


(PICTURE: Visiting Huyen's uncle's grave at the military cemetery.)

Japan Disaster

The Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster is happening in Fukashima, the prefecture I lived in last year while I was teaching in Japan. I've received a lot of emails from people asking how my friends are, especially Masumi and Kensuke who came to my wedding a few months ago. With all the bad news, I'm happy to report that Masumi and Kensuke are both okay and so are their families. It took two days for them to get in touch with Kensuke's sister in Sendai but she is thankfully okay.

Masumi says that as of today they have water at their house as well as power. The building Masumi and Kensuke work in is damaged and not safe to go to. Today Masumi helped at the evacuation center.

I was quite scared for a couple of days about my coworker Katie who lives by the beach with her husband. I couldn't sign into facebook so I had a few friends send her messages. Today, Katie emailed me and she and her husband are doing okay. They had to evacuate their home though because it is too close to one of the nuclear reactors that is having problems.

We're glued to the TV/internet here and wishing we could do more. Thanks for all the emails about my friends and I'll keep you posted!

Ben

Food For The Ancestors

(PICTURE: Huyen's neighbor's midnight dinner.)

At midnight on the lunar new year, everyone puts out food for their deceased ancestors. This food is usually put on the family altar. However, Huyen's neighbor put their food out in the middle of their yard which I've been told is quite common. Once the food sits for a little bit, the family then eats it. I've always found this practice to be a great way to remember the dead. This ritual makes sure that we think of our passed loved ones during happy times and honor them by putting them first.

Fireworks

(PICTURE: I was a little late for this photo...and for some inexplicable reason I'm sticking out my tongue like Michael Jordan.)

Apparently there are huge firework displays in Hanoi during Tet. I can't confirm this though since I've spent all three of my Tet Holidays in Ha Nam. I can confirm that the fireworks there are not so huge and usually consist of a few random houses launching a single firework or some kids lighting streamers. Unlike the past couple years, this year we partook in the fun. At midnight on the lunar new year, we lit some sparklers on the roof of Huyen's house. The sparklers were absolute crap and sometimes lit up beautifully and other times burnt to a crisp in a flash as if they had been doused in kerosene. Here's a couple of pictures I like from that night:


(PICTURE: Su and his sparkler.)


(PICTURE: Huyen with her sparkler.)

Blueprints

Pretend that you didn't look at the title of this post. Great, thanks. Now, look at this picture:



What do you think it is?
A) Random children's drawings on a wall

B) Ancient hieroglyphics left on Earth by visiting aliens

C) The blueprints for Huyen's parents' new house

I know you cheated and look at the title of this post so yes, the answer is C.

Ever time I entered Huyen's parents' house I got a slight chuckle looking at the "blueprints" on the neighbor's side wall. The guys who built the house literally drew up the plans on the side of the neighbor's house!!!! Sure, they've probably built dozens of the same style house but at least you'd hope they would use a ruler when making chalk blue prints!

As I said, I would laugh when entering the house. However, when laying in bed on the second floor I would suddenly have a scary epiphany: "This house was built using blueprints on the side of a wall!!!!".

Chicken - Finger

(PICTURE: Hello chickens!)

On the second day of the holiday, Huyen's sister brought three chickens to the house. I was told that these chickens would be our meals that week and that I would be the one killing them. As you can imagine, I was slightly less excited about that second piece of news.

While preparing lunch that day, I moronically cut my left thumb while slicing vegetables. The cut was pretty deep and very bloody. It was by far the deepest cut I've ever had and resulted in me screaming, "OWWWWW" and instinctively tossing the knife into the air. Thank god the knife didn't hit Huyen who was making spring rolls next to me. As much as it sucked to have a large, painful cut on my hand and to be made fun of for a week by neighbors and family members, it did have the added benefit of getting me out of killing chickens. However, instead of being the butcher that week, I became the farmer. It was my job to feed the chickens every morning and to give them water. Naturally this meant I bonded a little bit with the birds...which made it that much harder to watch Huyen and Su kill the chickens. I swear, I shed a tear when I ate those delicious chicken legs.