My 31 Birthdays...

Six days before my actual birthday, I was given a surprise party by the Level 1 students at Apex. The five girls in the class bought me 31 roses and a chocolate cake. Needless to say, I was quite surprised at the gesture since we had one more class before my actual real birthday.

My second 31st Surprise Birthday party came two days later during my Level 2 class at Apex. On this occasion I wasn't very surprised because, well, almost all of my students showed up on time which is a rarity. Generally people trickle in for about ten minutes once class time is scheduled to start. On this day most of the class was seated at their desks with mischievous grins on their faces. Huyen told me that she needed my help downstairs in dealing with the landlord for the school. Immediately I knew something strange was brewing because Huyen is a terrible liar. Eventually Huyen got me to go downstairs with her and then almost right away said we could go back upstairs. As we approached my classroom door I saw that the lights were out on the inside and made a joke to Huyen about the oddity of the power having gone off when we left the room. After teasing Huyen for another couple of seconds, I went inside and was greeted to my second surprise 31st birthday party.



This was a great way to spend my pre-birthday. However the icing on the cake was to be the motorbike trip over the next few days...

Dorms

Everyday before class at Apex, I grab a cup of coffee at a cafe. I always sit at a table on the sidewalk and read a book. The periphery of my vision always sees this:

That's a picture of the dormitory for the Vietnam Trade Union University. Seeing the dorm always reminds me of my freshman year in college at Syracuse University. From what I can tell, there are a few differences between my dorm (Day Hall on The Mount at Syracuse) and this typical Vietnamese dormitory. Here's a couple that come to mind:
1. I had a split double which meant there was just myself and my great frosh roommate Bill Bunting. These dorms have at least eight people per room.
2. We did our laundry in the basement of Day Hall. As you can see, they do their laundry in their room.
3. We had a food court in Day Hall and a cafeteria between our dorm and the one that housed future-Emmy-Award-winner Alex Bertsche next to it. Here, they do the cooking in the room and/or eat at cheap places on the street.
4. Our parents paid good money for us to live in dorms. From what I've been told, usually the poorer students in Vietnam live in dorms. The students have to prove they come from a poor family to live in the buildings.
5. Day Hall was coed on every floor. I'm pretty sure this dorm is all female.

I'm gonna end this post right now before I start to get depressed because of the fact that I lived in Day Hall 13 years ago!

Emmy

Yesterday I checked my email in the teachers' room at a school I'm working at part-time. I had an email from my buddy Alex with a picture attached to it. Immediately upon seeing the picture I started to laugh and said out loud, "No way!" Everyone in the room at the time happened to be Vietnamese and looked at me oddly so I blurted out, "My best friend from college just won an Emmy." Apparently I was the only person impressed. My guess is they didn't know what an Emmy is.

Congratulations to Alex for winning an Emmy at the 31st Annual Sports Emmy Awards. I already knew that I was not the most successful person out of my high school friends and I'm now I'm certain I'm not even close to being the most successful out of my college friends. Way to go!

Check out Alex and his golden trophy:

Click It Or Ticket

Two new laws have been passed in Vietnam:

Law 1: If you run a red light -- and get caught -- the fine is now 500,000 VND. I believe this about double from what it was in the past.

Law 2: If you don't buckle your helmet, you will be fined 200,000 VND.

I'm actually really proud of Vietnam for passing this second law. I've commented to Huyen many times how silly people are for wearing helmets but failing to buckle them. In fact, I've seen many helmets that don't even have buckles. This is basically equivelant to the "Click It Or Ticket" campaign in America. If you don't buckle your seat belt -- and get caught -- you will get fined. Here it's now the same deal but with helmets.

My Famous Girlfriend

Last week I got an email from Yen, a long time Ahoy Hanoi reader/frequent commentor, that said: "Your blog made Huyen so famous, I recognized her in my friend's photo in her laptop last weekend."

Yen sent me this picture of her friend from Thailand and Huyen at a Thai party from last summer:


I told Huyen about the coincidence when she came home from work and she thought it was really funny. She said, "Hanoi feels really small to me now. I feel like I know people everywhere I go."

I lived in LA for seven years but I had to move to Hanoi to date a famous person!

Bumper Cars

Twice this week I've gently bumped motorbikes in front of me at red lights. I've also been bumped about three or four times over the last couple of days. To me, this is just another big difference between Vietnamese traffic and American traffic. If someone gets bumped in America, you can be sure they will get out of the car, inspect the possible damage and perhaps exchange insurance information. On top of that, you can bet that many Americans will suffer a slight bit of anger if there car gets bumped. And, furthermore, most likely the person doing the bumping will feel some kind of regret or embarrassment. In Vietnam, not so much. The first time I bumped someone this week, they didn't even turn around. The second time I bumped someone, they turned around, saw that I was a foreigner, and smiled. As far as all the people who bumped me, well, they just sort of acted like I was a pothole.

With the roads becoming increasingly narrower here because of all the cars, I find that more people are bumping into each other while stopping at traffic lights. Sometimes all the bumping and jostling for position feels like a giant game of bumper cars...

Happy Birthday To Me!!!!

(PICTURE: In case you are wondering, I'm now 31.)

Happy Birthday To Me! Happy Birthday To Me! Happy Birthday Dear Me...Happy Birthday To Me!

To celebrate my 31st birthday, Huyen and I are taking a three day motorbike trip to Mai Chau and Ba Khan Islands. I think this will be the first time in my life that I don't have phone (most likely) or internet access on my birthday. So, this is a little head's up that:
A) I might not call or email you back on my birthday.
B) You should still email me so that I can feel good about my old self when I come back from this trip.

On a side note, I find it almost inconceivable that a year has passed since my bowling fundraiser for Habitat For Humanity. I swear it feels like less than six months ago...such is life. Enjoy my birthday, everyone!