12/16/2009

So I am in Singapore and today we went with Nancy Crater to the Botanical Gardens and looked at their Orchid collection, which was amazing!! After that we ate a fabulous lunch which my uncle Teddy would have died over and then went down to little India. Little India was a fantastic it had colorful temples and a beautiful mosque. We walked for hours and hours and saw so much of Singapore it was amazing. So many cultures and so many colors. After little India we checked out this really interesting Feng Shui conundrum in down town Singapore. There was this architect I. M. Pei who made the pyramid in front of the Louvre and he made these office buildings in Singapore and they are shaped like Swords and they in a very specific direction. At first no one wanted to buy the lot that they pointed ta because it was bad Feng Shui and then finally this man bought the lot and build this huge building with the help of a Feng Shui and life has been good ever since. Anyway we went to see the building and it is huge and gorgeous they claim that it is the most beautiful building in Singapore and I believe. There we sculptures of famous philosophers. They also have the most AMAZING Christmas decorations! Anyway tomorrow we are spending the morning in Singapore and then off to Bali I have no idea if I will get to write again before then, but I love you all!

12/10/2009

The holiday season is upon us. I know most of my friends are either finishing up school or already home. It feels weird to know that I am going home soon. I have 13 day left in Southeast Asia. I don't even remember what is feels like to be in America. We keep talking about what going home is going to be like and I am excited and terrified. I can't even judge how much I've changed, but I feel the same. All of you who know me will have to be the judges. I do make on request that you are all gentle with me the first few days re-assimilation can be harsh.

Anyway in 5 days I head to Singapore for some quality time with the Craters and then off to Bali for a few days of culture and a few days of beach lounging. Its like 90 degrees in Bali right now. Those of you in Colorado can't even imagine how odd it feels to be in shorts in December. It feels like late September here.

We had a good bye party last Tuesday with my Professors wife who is now gone and a few of our contacts in HCMC and Hanoi. Its odd to think that the trip is almost over. I feel like I could stay here for so much longer and still never experience everything. We went and sang karaoke. It was an experience. I am not the biggest karaoke fan, but it was fun and two of the guys on the trip put on a few amazing performances. I haven't laughed that hard in ages.

Today was also my last day of internship with the Vietnam Green Building Council. I rebuilt there entire website with the help of Lauren and Hoa (a Union student and an employee). There is now a fully functional English web site. If you saw if before you would be amazed. It was a lot of work, but I feel like I was able to contribute which was great. I am going to miss it.

On the other hand I am going HOME!!! People will be able to understand me and I will be able to listen to new music, and see my friends and my family and study engineering again. Holy crap I am so excited. Well that's all to report I will try to post from Singapore and Bali, but we'll see. I now have to go write a paper. Wish me luck!! XOXO

11/30/2009

Cambodia

I spent my Thanksgiving Holiday in Cambodia with three of my friends from my class (Maggie, Eliza and Alaina). It was an amazing four days. We flew out on Thursday and had a huge Khmer feast in honor of the holiday full of Amok, Khmer Curry and Luc Lac, three traditional Khmer dishes. It was amazing and then we went to bed and woke up the next morning at 4:30am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It was amazing. The colors were beautiful and I even made a stop motion picture movie of the sun rising, which I will share with all of you. We then went all over Ankor Thom and Angkor Wat. I have always wanted to see the temples and they were even more amazing it person. The detail of the carvings and the size of the structures is really truly amazing. I even went in search of the elusive 5 headed horse and found it carved into a hidden wall on the Elephant Terrace. One of the coolest parts of our day was that we got to see the Temple that they shot Laura Croft Tomb Raider at which, had all of these amazing trees growing all over the temple and the feeling of the place was as if it were still in the jungle or still wild and it was really different and amazing. The second day we went to the temples we got a chance to see Banteay Srei which had a different architecture than the other places we went to, but it also had the most ornate carvings of any of the temples we saw. Angkor had some huge beautiful cravings, but the ones at Banteay Srei were better preserved and unique. I feel like I always had all these expectations about what seeing famous ancient structures like these would feel like. I always assumed that just by seeing these places I would feel enlightened or experienced, but for the most part I feel the same maybe a little improved, but the same. I have a lot more patience here, which will hopefully transfer to the the states and maybe I will also have more appreciation for my amazing life.

Also while we were in Siem Reap we were able to see a few graduates students from Union. Two of which I had never met before and one guy I had known briefly at Union. All of them work at a school in Cambodia called the Global Child. The school has a relationship with Union and every year Union sponsors a few graduates to go over to Cambodia for a year and teach at this school and one of the people we hung out with Jon Hill spent one year after graduation there sponsored by Union, but now he has been hired on for three years to help with the school. The concept is to take kids who work with and for their families and give them an education. The problem is that these kids have to work to support their families so the school pays them a salary to attend school. It is a great program that has 20 something students, some of which who were street children some of which just come from poor families and it takes the children who want to learn and are smart enough to learn, but can no longer continue school because there families need them. It is an amazing idea and hearing the amazing success that the school has had with some of these students warms my heart and I was thrilled to get to see what they do. The program is really giving these kids a fighting chance and several of the original group of kids have even received scholarships and gone on to the best universities in Cambodia. It was all really impressive. If anyone wants to learn more check out the website or email me. Anyway I hope to post pictures soon.

So I have 16 days left in Vietnam and then I am headed to Singapore, Bali and then get to take the most ridiculous journey home. On the 22nd I am flying from Bali to Singapore, then Singapore to Hanoi, then I have a 16 hour lay over in Hanoi before I fly to Hong Kong, then Los Angeles, then Denver and then finally on the 23rd of December I should arrive in Aspen at like 10pm. I think I worked it out to be something like 48 hours of traveling or something crazy like that. It should be fun. Anyway I love you all and I will see most of you pretty soon!!

11/19/2009

Sorry I haven't written in forever. I have been a very busy bee here in Vietnam.

First there was the whole love with a Vietnamese boyfriend debacle, which for the record was a joke. Please my dear friends and family do not take facebook too seriously. It is the internet not real life and although it is a great means of communication it also requires no truth. If I wanted to I could change my facebook name to Bob and become a man, while in real life that we be a bit complicated. Sorry if I shocked any of you.

On a different note I have made a lot of new friends in Hanoi and have been going out on the town regularly. I had a great friend take me all around Hanoi on his motorbike and he showed me all of these amazing pagodas that people who don't live here rarely get to see because they are very difficult to find or to locate. I also got the opportunity to try a hot pot, which is this big pot of boiling soup that you share with friends. It is a really interesting tradition when people want to get together and share a meal with friends they usually suggest a hot pot because it is delicious and communal. The coolest part of a hot pot is that the meat and noodles and vegetables are all raw and you have to cook them in the boiling soup yourself. At first I thought that the experience would be weird, but it was actually a ton of fun and it helped break the ice with my new Vietnamese friends. I have to say that when embracing the culture my age is my biggest asset, I feel like I can try anything and that because I am so young people react to me with a lot of genuine interest and this amazing desire to share their culture. Since the hot pot I have hung out with a bunch of other people and everyone has different stories and experiences I seriously spend hours every day just sitting down and talking to people about their lives. It has to be one of the most liberating feelings to know that I have all the time in the world to just delve into someone elses life for a few hours. I love the freedom of this experience.

Also last Wednesday I went with my group to Sapa, which is in Northwestern part Vietnam right on the border with China. Sapa is the mountainous region of Vietnam and it is where a lot of ethnic groups live, specifially the Dao or Yao (pronounced Zao) and the Hmong (pronounced Mung). We took a night train to Lao Cai first class, it was pretty sweet (I love whoever invented sleeping pills). We arrived in Lao Cai Thursday morning and then drove 1 hour to Sapa. In Sapa we hiked to a small ethnic village called Cat Cat which had beautiful mountain views and a nice waterfall. Friday morning is when the real fun began. Being the great mountain woman that I am I, and the 15 other people in my group, decided to climb Mt. Fansipan, the highest mountain in Vietnam. Mt Fansipan is 3,143m (10,309 ft) high. So Friday morning we began out accent of the mountain and climbed two thirds of the way up to the base camp where we spent the night. Two important things to note about climbing Mt. Fansipan the first third of the mountain is pretty flat, but the second third of the mountain is REALLY steep. There are sections with ladder, and parts where you are literally climbing the mountain on all fours. The place where we spent the night was very high up and very cold and we were not well equipped (ie bad sleeping bags and sleeping in a small open hut on bamboo planks) so, we were all pretty cold and uncomfortable all night. Saturday morning we awoke to a cold wet day and most of the 15 people that had started up the mountain decided to go down instead of summiting. In the end only 6 of us made it to the top and we were the first people on top of Fansipan that day and we drank champagne and huddled together in the cold until we would take the cloudy top no longer and we headed down. Now I know that anyone who has read this far into my terrible story is either really bored of really loves me but HERE is where it gets good. Now from the top of mount Fansipan we couldn't see anything. It was cloudy and gross, but as we began out decent at some point a little more than a third of the way down we got out of the clouds and the world opened up. It was this moment that made the entire hike completely worth while. From where my good friend Maggie and I stood you could see the entire Sapa Valley, as well as the valleys on both sides of us and begin up you could see the cloud that was covering the top of Mt. Fansipan. If you have ever seen pictures or movies of Vietnam they could never in a million years do this scene justice. You could see these steep beautiful mountains covered in green foliage and at the top of each mountain clouds raced from peak to peak. In the distance you would see for miles these mountains, valleys and clouds, and they were the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. I could literally ramble on forever trying to describe this moment out there on that ridge staring into what had to be the most beautiful view I could ever imagine. In the end for as hard and cold and terrible the hike to the top was I would do it again for another moment like that. I have always loved the great outdoors and this was just one more wonderful day in the mountains where I was reminded just how beautiful the natural world is. That's all I have to write today. I love you all and I hope you all are doing well.

Hanoi Pictures

A statue in Hanoi (left)
Perfume Pagoda (right)

Perfume Pagoda Cave (right)

West Lake Pagoda (left)

Hanoi Catherdral (right)

One Pillar Pagoda Hanoi (left)

Monk Statue (right)

11/2/2009

This is my second post of the day and tonight was so amazing I truly feel it warrants the second post. Tonight I went to dinner with our RA Ruby and a few of her friends it was amazing. She took us to get hot pots in down town and we talked and hung out and for the first time I felt so fully immersed in the culture. We talked about movies and we shared traditions and superstitions and beliefs. In Vietnam they have all these odd things that they believe are lucky and unlucky. Like pregnant woman are bad luck for business men and using chopsticks that are uneven lengths is bad luck and if you write down the numbers of a crashed car and use them to get a lotto ticket you will win the lotto. They also put different animal body parts in wine for your health and they eat live squids. We just ate and talked and ate more. We ate with successful Vietnamese people that were our age and eager to talk about everything from movies to parental expectations. The two guys we were with were both engineers (which makes them cooler) and they had traveled all over Asia. One of the guys had even been to Russia and they told the best stories and I can't even get over how much fun we had. We went to west lake and had ice cream and I saw parts of the city I had never seen before. It was just the most amazing feeling just being young and exploring Hanoi, the world was our oyster and you better believe that we were living in the now and living well. I just wanted to share that with all of you.

PS sorry I never post pictures...

11/2/2009

The 3rd Asian Indoor Games is currently being held in Vietnam. Most of the events are in HCMC, but they had the official opening ceremony in Hanoi and we got tickets and went and sat in the second row. If you got a chance to watch them on TV we were on TV several times in our red Vietnam t-shirts. This event was a life experience I will never forget. We watched as the athletes entered the stadium. Even better we watched all the opening dances. There were so many colors and so much movement and Vietnamese pride. The coolest part for me was the fact that there were several dances on Vietnamese culture and I was able to pick out each individual dance and I knew what region it was from and I had been there. There was a dance with spears that represented the elephant cultures in the middle of Vietnam and a dance from the imperial city. There was even a water puppet dance, which a Vietnamese cultural nuance. Where they have these puppets that tell famous Vietnamese stories with puppets and music. Being there was so cool. It was a great mixture of culture and fun.

10/26/2009

I spent my weekend in Halong Bay. It was a vacation from my vacation in Vietnam. Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Friday we took a boat over to Cat Ba Island and spent the entire day at the beach and the pool. I only got sunburn in two small places, which I am pretty proud of. It was so beautiful and so peaceful. Then Saturday we chartered a boat that took us around Cat Ba Island. We stopped and kayaked, we jumped off the boat, we swam around and then we ate a delicious lunch of fresh fish, shrimp and calamari. Sunday just got better, we went hiking to the top of this big mountain that had this surreal view of these huge Limestone peaks breaking out of the fog. Friday and Saturday were sunny and beautiful while Sunday was overcast. We also on Sunday got to go into this old hospital that was built during the war and it was built inside of a mountain. It had three floors and used a combination of digging and the natural cave system to build. It was really impressive, built by the Chinese and the Vietnamese so the engineering of the place was pretty ingenious.

Once when I was in high school on this Canyoneering Trip in Long Canyon I had this realization one night that I wrote down in my Wilderness Journal. For those of you who didn't go to CRMS a wilderness journal is this small green weather proof notebook that each student takes on every outdoor excursion and we write in it along the way and when we graduate we get to take it with us as a record of the changes we made in high school. Anyway most of the stuff I wrote in there was less than insightful, but I always go back and read this one part that I am now going to share with you. Tonight I feel this supreme calm coming over me. I am pretty sure that today was the worst day of my life, not only did I almost drown, but then I nearly got hypothermia. After a day like today you would think that all I would want to do is get in the fetal position and cry, but I feel no need. I feel supremely calm. Moments like these make me wonder if this is the kinda calm that runs all the way down to my soul. Or if maybe this is the kind of calm that helps put my soul back together. What if my soul has been broken into lots of tiny pieces say 82 pieces to be exact? I have spent my whole life looking to find those pieces and reunite them, and every once in a while I get this feeling. Its a wave of calm that washes over me and I am pretty sure that that calm is my self realizing that I have found a piece of my soul and reunited it with the soul I carry around from day to day. I wrote this in my journal, little Sophomoric Lily had this one great passing thought and I wrote it down and now every time I get that feeling I think about that journal entry. I wish I could show other people what that feeling feels like, but all I can say is that it feels right and calm and like a really good hug where you feel surrounded by love and safety and you wish you could just crawl inside that hug and stay there forever. Anyway I was floating in Halong Bay just after I had jumped off the boat into the most amazing water and my heart was racing from the rush of the jump and as I was floating there the water blocked out all the sound around me and my heart began to slow down to a normal pace and I began to feel that feeling. The reuniting feeling and I just floated there and felt the calm overcome me. It was an amazing moment in my life and I can say with good intelligence that by my Sophomore description I found a piece of my soul in Halong Bay. I have been having these moments all throughout my high school career and even in college and I wish that they changed me, but all they seem to do is make me feel great for a few days and then they fade back into the memories of my life. So there you go a little tit bit into the mind of Lily. On another note entirely...

CLIMBING
Halong Bay happens to be the best climbing spot in Vietnam so of coarse I had to check that out. I talked to this buy Eric Ferjentsik who wrote the book on climbing in Vietnam about Cat Ba and there is a combination of on land sport climbing and a bit of mixed trad on some of the islands and some established deep water solo routes. In reality all of the islands are huge limestone blocks with great potential. I of coarse couldn't help myself and played around on a few rocks and the rock feels really solid. I have decided that one day I will return to south east Asia with the sole purpose of climbing and Trekking around, but for the moment I just want to take it all in and wait to recover from my knee injury, which for the record is doing pretty well. Hiking to the top of the peak in Cat Ba was a combination of climbing and hiking, there were defiantly sections where you were climbing up on all fours and some sections with ladders that you have to ascend and my knee is and was fine. (YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY)

10/19/2009

Today we went to the Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi. It was generally interesting and if you ask anyone who knows me very well I love a good museum. The coolest part of the museum in fact was these really interesting lacquer sculptures. The technique of lacquer painting originates in China and it is a very old technique in Vietnam they have found lacquer paintings that date back almost 2,300 years. Vietnam is in fact known for its modern lacquer techniques, but its the really old lacquer work that is really amazing. See in order to make a lacquer painting the artists must think 10 steps ahead in the painting process. Each applied layer of lacquer has to sanded down after its applied and another coat then must of over it. This means that each layer builds in one another and seeing as you can only paint on lacquer of one color at a time that makes it really complicated. So after they paint the entire canvas the artists then polishes the work and they literally rub off the color that they don't want in certain places and leave it in other places. It seems to me to be one of the most labor intensive art forms, but on the other hand the more labor put in the more unique the outcome, in my opinion. Anyway at the Hanoi art museum they have the most interesting sculptures of Buddhist monks that are wood sculptures with lacquer on them and they date back to the 1700's. The fact that wood can last that long in this climate is amazing, but these sculptures are even more amazing. They are all monks in various posses with great symbolism, but what makes them unique is the life you feel in them. Some of the monks are smiling, some are praying, but they feel comical. Like they represent people who lived real lives instead of holy men. They were a breath of fresh air and so interesting to see that religion could laugh at itself. The artists of these sculptures must have been a character. To be given the task of carving these monk statues in an incredibly labor intensive process. He had to have put so much thought into it because its not as if he could repeat the process of he did it wrong it would take too long. I will try and take post pictures, but one of the monks was picking his ear and his facial expression was just like, “wow that feels good”. Who would think of that as the way to remember this man? Clearly he did more than pick his ear in his life, yet the only sculpted remnant of him is that sculpture of him picking his ear. If you think about as long as that sculpture survives he will be known as the guy who picked his ear and really liked it. It such and odd thought the things that go through artists minds. I wish you could have seen these things I mean they were life sized and just amazing. That's really all I can say is that they were amazing.

Anyway all is well. I had a great weekend, saw the Rebound which was cute. I have officially settled in. I have found a favorite coffee shop and as it turns out I live only a 10 minute walk from the mall and I may actually get to play ULTIMATE tomorrow. I love you all, you know I do and I hope that this post finds you well and happy. XOXO

10/13/2009

I am finally in Hanoi. After Hue we took an overnight train to Hanoi which arrived Sunday at 4 am. The overnight train was luxurious by Vietnamese standards, but a bit gross by American Standards. There were beds that you could lay down on which was nice, but the bathrooms were foul and that is all I will say about that.

Hanoi at first was overwhelming. We arrived on Sunday, but we didn't have orientation until Monday so we had one full day of not knowing where anything was and it made the city feel a bit intimidating. On Monday they walked us around and showed us where are classes are and where we could get cheap food and such. After that I felt way more comfortable here. My roommate and I have decorated the room and I can officially say that I am moved in and the academic portion of my term abroad has begun. We start classes tomorrow and today I started my internship. I am interning at Vietnam Green Building Counsel (VGNC), which is a non profit organization looking to make green building standards in Vietnam and trying to raise awareness about green house gas emissions. The organization is fairly new so there is a lot of work to be done and I couldn't be more excited. I feel like I will really get to work on real projects that will not only use my skills, but directly benefit THE WORLD (lol)! I have officially discovered the joys of eating for less than one dollar a meal and I am loving life. I also bought my ticket to CAMBODIA! Anyway I will have more to report on Hanoi soon and hopefully some pictures. I love you all thanks for reading!

Picture link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124951&id=502001064&l=60225be796

10/10/2009

We finished the 10 day trip with a visit to Hue. Hue was the old capitol of Vietnam before the French took over so there are still remnants of the Vietnamese Dynasty. Including the largest Imperial City in Vietnam called the Citadel, which is in the middle of a huge restoration process because most of the original Citadel was destroyed in the French War and then the American War. Before we went to the Citadel we went to dinner at the house of the former princess of Vietnam. The residents of the house today are relatives of the former princess and the man that we met with is a Hue history buff who used to be a history professor before the Vietnam War, but was unable to be a professor after the war. He has written 10 books on the History of Hue and Vietnam Dynasty. He was the cutest old man I have ever seen in my life and he had all of these treasures that he shared with us. Documents from the King of Vietnam and even a bowl that dates back from the 1500's that was given to his family by the royal family. Also amongst his treasures was a snow globe from San Francisco that he got in 2006 when he went on a grand tour of the United States. He loved that snow globe.
The next day we went to the Citadel and saw a very interesting remnant of Vietnamese history. The Vietnamese Dynasty had a lot of Mandarin influences so there was a Emperor and a queen and a lot of concubines and unics and such. I even got to dress up like a Vietnamese Princess which was cool. (Pictures to follow of coarse). Two interesting things about the Citadel in the main entrance to the Citadel you could see bullet holes in the wall from supposedly American guns and they have chosen not to repair these holes. They are a reminder of how the legacy of Vietnam was damaged by a the war. The other interesting thing is that around the Citadel is a huge wall and a mote, which at first seems medieval, but if you think about it before the french invasion of Vietnam in 1861 Vietnam had never seen artillery. All wars were fought on horseback or on foot, so you could stand on top of you wall and see the enemy approach and the wall you built would actually protect you because large amounts of troops couldn't really breach the wall all at the same time. Then with invention of cannons, you could blast a whole in the side of the wall and troops could enter the Citadel from any location they wanted, which made taking over much easier. Within a year of the French attacking Vietnam they had taken over the entire country and within a few years they had taken over most of Cambodia as well.

10/8/2009

Today we went to Marble Mountain, which is a series of five huge marble mountains that come up rather suddenly in Da Nang. Da Nang is the port town that was built to replace Hoi An. We hiked to the top of Marble Mountain which is about 170 steps so not that tall. It actually reminded my a lot of Rifle, Colorado, with all the limestone, just a bit more jungle. On the top of marble mountain is a great view of the ocean, but it was cloudy so we couldn't see very well, but there are also all these great little temples and these huge naturally forming caves. In side the caves are various Buddhist statues that have been carved I the limestone. The most interesting statue is the statue of Lady Buddha. Lady Buddha is a unique icon only known in Vietnamese Buddhism although some Chinese Buddhism has a similar figure, but a very different story as to why she is worshiped. She is worshiped for her kindness and mercy, but her story is kind of tragic. After the caves we walked around a bit more and then went down to a museum that was full of statues from various ruins all over Vietnam. There were a lot of statues here from My Son which was really cool because we had already seen the ruins. After looking at the statues and some of the original pictures of My Son I had an even better mental picture of what My Son looked like before.

The Story of Lady Buddha
She was married to this man and one night she was trying to cut a hair on his chin (odd) while he was sleeping (more odd) and he woke up and saw her with scissors on her hand and though that she was trying to kill him (logical conclusion). So he banned her from his home and so she became a Buddhist monk, but monks had to be men so she disguised herself as a man and began worshiping. Then one day a woman fell in love with a monk, but he couldn't be with her so she tried to seduce him and somehow ended up pregnant (wonder how that happened). She was convinced it was his baby, but he denied it. Once the baby was born she left it at the monastery and the woman who was pretending to be a man at the monastery ended up taking care of the baby and once it was old enough she gave it back to the girls family. After the baby was safe she burned herself alive and as she was burning the other monks realized she was a woman. After she was dead they learned her story and named her a most holly person and began to worship her for her kindness and mercy.

10/7/2009

Today we went to the My Son (pronounced me) ruins. These Hindu ruins are left over from the Cham people who built the ruins somewhere between the 4th and 14th centuries. They are Hindu temples with lots of large structures and pillars. Walking around the ruins was unreal. It was like a scene from Laura Croft Tomb Radar. You see these red bricks popping up out of the jungle and they are covered in jungle growth. The closer you get to them the bigger they appear until finally you are standing right next to the ruins and they are huge, but more importantly they are intricately constructed with little statues and figures all over the buildings. I have always wanted to see ruins like these. I have dreamed of what it would feel like to stand next to them, to view the only remains of a society that was once great, but now has all but disappeared. I like to imagine all the houses that would have been in these jungles next to these stone buildings. What went through these peoples minds on a daily basis. Did they live happy lives or did they spend all day worrying about the current state of the economy or global warming. I am fascinated by the unknowns that surround this place. There are ruins all over My Son and you can see what appears to be the center of town, but then there are all these more obscure structures scattered about, some clearly for worship, but others the purpose is less transparent. A building has to be pretty important to build it of stone, stone is a lot of work, so you have to really want this building to last, but what makes a building that important. A trading center perhaps or maybe town hall. These are questions I can't really answer and some people may think they know, but do they really. These are the thoughts that run through my head while I walk around the My Son ruins.

After My Son we went to lunch at a restaurant/ school in Hoi An. The restaurant was called the Street Restaurant and it is a NGO that trains street children, in service jobs so they will have some form of a career in the future. Street children in Vietnam are essentially just kids who have no parents or guardians for various reasons and there either isn't room in an orphanage for them or they don't want to be in one so they live on the streets and tend to get into trouble, so this program provides them with a clean place to live, food, education and a set of job skills. Some children are trained as cooks, others as servers. It is great program, the food was fantastic and I was thrilled to help support these great students.

10/6/2009

Today we are in Hoi An which is were the typhoon just hit. The streets are littered with garbage, the trees have been stripped of there leaves, but the worst damage was from the flooding and the mud. The water level was about as tall as I am 1.5 meters in most places. The hotel we are staying at had to dig mud out of the pool. The cool part about the storm is that these people are so familial and all about helping one another. They get little to no government aid so family members will come from other places and help them clean up and each person will help their neighbors. We went for a walk around the city today. The city is so interesting it was a huge port back in the 16th century and was a huge port up until the 19th century when the river silted up and became to shallow for large boats to maneuver into. It was used as a port by both the Chinese and the Japanese, which mean that there are architectural and cultural influences from both societies. We saw a beautiful Japanese covered bridge as well as a Chinese gathering center (similar to a Chinese town hall, but more temple like). After the walking tour we stopped off at a cooking school and learned how to cook some Vietnamese food. Vietnam is a culture thoroughly intertwined in its food. They eat almost everything, but each delicacy is created with great care. They have a million herbs that are used to flavor very specific dishes. Not only does each region have specific food, but within those regions different town have specialties. When we were in Saigon, My our Vietnamese student friend would take us to various restaurants and she would always describe whatever we were eating as some form of traditional Vietnamese food. At first I though this was just a classification you put on all Vietnamese food, but in truth Vietnamese people are very tied to their food and they have so many different cultures and regions that all have different food that you could each traditional Vietnamese food every night for a month and try something new every night. It is fascinating, especially because I come from such a food oriented family. So I really enjoyed cooking Vietnamese food, I also got some great recipes to take home and a few new kitchen tools that I have never seen before, but they do really cool things. I was stuffed by the end of the meal, but thrilled at all of the great things I got to eat.

After eating all of that food we went shopping!! Hoi An is well known for its taylors who will make you anything to fit. Prof. Jones told us to be wary because you get what you pay for and somethings may not fit as well as you want them to, but I had a great time. I got another great dress, as well as a nice wool jacket, a pair of magical shorts and knee high boots made to fit that are gorgeous. I will post pictures, but man am I excited!!

On a personal note, I am doing very well, but this ten day trip is starting to ware on me. It is so nice to be spending more than one night in the same bed tonight. I look back on this trip and it feels like to long ago that I was in Saigon. I feel like I have gotten this delightful little taste of Vietnam, but I am ready to head to Hanoi and get settled in.

10/5/2009

WARNING THIS POST IS REALLY DEPRESSING

My Lai is by far the most sobering place that we have been. It officially tops the War Remnants Museum which was also intense. The Museum seemed like a museum, it was for me separate from the actual events, partly because there was so much propaganda and partly because everything in that museum was put there with the specific purpose of shock and awe. The design of that museum was telling a very specific communist side of the story. My Lai was not like that at all. There was no separation for me mentally between the people that died here and the reports of their death. I couldn't just write this off as a common act of war, which is was, but what could ever go through someone's mind to allow them to take life unnecessarily. Somethings I will never understand. Instead of dwelling on the tragedy I would instead like to reflect on the heroism. There were 10 survivors at My Lai and 8 of them survived because two men decided to do the right thing. A helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson saw villagers running for their lives and dropped down and tried to convince the soldiers to stop, when they didn't he took 8 villagers including 6 small children to a near by village for safety. While he was flying the villagers to safety he saw movement in a pile of dead bodies and went down to the pile and dug through to find a wounded infant and took that little boy to the hospital and saved his life. Thompson did all of this with the support of this gun man. Those to men are heroes in Vietnam as they should be. They risked their own lives to save people because it was the right thing to do. They didn't just follow orders as so many had done before them. It is much easier to follow a Shepard, than to act on your own morals and beliefs. My Lai is just one of these massacres that occurred in many wars. The movie the Patriot also depicts act like this one that happened during the Revolutionary War and although the movie is one of fiction, there is some truth to the events that occur. How do you teach someone right and wrong, and more importantly how do you teach someone to have the courage to go act against a friend in order to do the right thing? I cannot answer this question, but I can say that we should spend more care when teaching the people who lead this country in the matters of life and death. I truly believe that life is the most important gift that we are given in this world and I don't think that you get a second chance.

10/04/2009

We had a free morning this morning, which we spent in Nha Trang. I went swimming in the ocean with lots of other kids from the trip. The water was incredibly nice and clear. After the free morning we went to a Hindu temple that was changed to a Buddhist type temple when the Vietnamese people took over the area. In the temple was a woman who was supposed to represent fertility. We even witnessed a pregnant woman praying for the health of her baby. It was a beautiful temple with interesting architecture.

Picture link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123210&id=502001064&l=a8cf81bcd2

10/3/2009

Today we rode elephants and explored an ethnic village. Riding elephants was such a life experience. I was so happy to ride them, they were such cool creatures. This was for sure a once in a lifetime experience. The village that we went to to ride the elephants is a traditional elephant hunting village. There are several tribes in the area, but Ede and Laotian seem to be the most prevalent. The people here have been hunting elephants for hundreds of years. Hunting elephants is not what one would expect, they don't kill the elephants they catch them and then train them to do labor in the village. They also sell the tamed elephants to other villages. The training of the elephants is pretty brutal so I won't explain it, but I would not consider it cruel its just kind of a necessary method when you are working with such a huge animal. Even when they are first training the elephants they give them lots of treats just like you when you train a dog. These elephants were impressive creatures, but in all honesty the village was just as interesting.

This village like many in rural Vietnam is a matriarchal society. This means that women are the head of the family. All of the land is owned by women and woman are to be respected. Traditionally people lived in these long houses that the oldest female owned and her sisters and daughters and unmarried sons would live with her. The houses are all built in stilts and there are two sets of stairs one set with 7 stairs for women to walk up and another set with five stairs for the men to walk up. These numbers have importance, but I can't remember the significance. In the house there would be on living room that would be used to honor the ancestors and entertain guests. In the living room there were special seats for married women guests and unmarried women guests where as men either stood or sat on the ground. Then there were rooms for people to live in and each woman got a room, and if she had an open window she was married and a closed window to represent an unmarried girl. The houses had a specific width, but they could be made longer to accommodate more women and there husbands. In this society men could form friendships with women, but women would have to go to that mans family if they wanted to marry their son. Once the couple was married he would take the woman's name and move into the woman's families house and he worked for that family from then on. An interesting side note men would never refuse and offer of marriage instead if you didn't like a girl you would ask for a huge dowry that she would be unable to afford so she wouldn't marry you and if you did like her you would ask for a small dowry to ensure the marriage. Due to the fact that our group of 16 people has only 3 boys this whole matriarchal society discussion went over well. Maggie and I started to discuss the governmental aspects of this society and supposedly because of the Matriarchal society there were far fewer wars amongst tribes. The reason for this being most men were from other tribes and it was women who would decide to fight, but the men would do the actual fighting. So if you fought a near by village the men might be fighting there brother or father so men didn't like fighting so they had very few tribal wars. It was really interesting to see this society and also this village. Even just spending a few hours looking at the world from a different perspective makes me feel so connected to the landscape and the country. I hate walking around not knowing what things mean or why the houses have two sets of stairs. We are doing a lot of driving, but the stops along the way make it worthwhile. I would hate to just fly to Hanoi and never see the Vietnamese countryside. More than half of the Vietnamese population lives in the rural areas and if I never got a chance to see these areas I would feel like I didn't really go to Vietnam.

Tomorrow we are headed to the beach...yay!

Love and Kisses, Lily.

10/02/09

I am currently in the beginning of my 10 day trip north and due to the increase in exciting things that I am going to see I am going to try and post more often so that all of you will be able to experience these things with me. I may just write about each day an post them when I get good internet. There is currently a political problem with blogging right now in Vietnam because blogs have become a location for voicing negative opinions about the government and several people have been arrested for blogging so I may lose access to my blog if this happens I will find a new way to keep in contact so just keep that in mind. Also for some reason it is really hard to post pictures to my blog so I am going to put them on facebook at put the links on my blog which should work. If it doesn't just tell me and I will try another method. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122630&id=502001064&l=c501f91be2 (mom just click the link or copy everything from the http to the 91be2 and put in into the address bar which is the one at the top of the screen to see the pictures if you can't figure it out ask Hilary)

Yesterday and this morning we were in Da Lat, which is the honeymoon city of Vietnam. It is this beautiful little city that has a a lot of french architecture and could easily be an slightly run down European city. Da Lat is located at about 5,000ft and it is in the midst of this huge beautiful pine forest. It was kind of a strange difference from the busy city life of Saigon. Also it was much cooler in Da Lat. The weather was in the 70's and maybe mid 60's at night and people were wearing down jackets it was odd. The city is supposed to be the most romantic city in Vietnam lots of people go there for their honey moons and it is a very touristy city. There was even a miniature Eiffel tower and a huge lake in the center of town. Da Lat is also a big farming area, they grow lots of cabbage and coffee beans and flowers. We went to this flower market it was gorgeous, with flowers everywhere. Supposedly a lot of daisy's and carnations are grown in Da Lat and then sent to the states for Valentines Day. We started our day in Da Lat at this beautiful Zen Buddhist monastery that was so peaceful. They had these nice monks and these beautiful flower gardens. It is so nice to be out of Saigon. Saigon is fun, but its so busy and the air is so dirty. Out here I feel like I can breath. We have been driving through the jungle and the forest on all of these windy roads for hours, it is so interesting. Sometimes we go up a mountain pass and on the other side there will be a beautiful lake or a valley of rice patties, or maybe a little village. It is like a new little adventure around every turn. We make frequent stops at little road side attractions. We stopped at a floating village, which is right near the boarder of Cambodia and the people in the village have no Nationality. They lost everything in the wars and when life began to settle they had no original documents so there is no way to determine whether they are Cambodian or Vietnamese and neither government wants to issue them passports so they are the floating nomads, a village of undefined people. We also stopped at a silk factory (did you know that you can eat silk worms, I didn't but people do). I should use the word factory pretty liberally because there were only maybe 24 people working there and they would spin the silk into raw silk, then they would re-spin it into fine silk string and then they would weave this beautiful intricate silk cloth. It was cool watching them spin the silk from the little cocoons.

Weasel Coffee Story
Vietnam is very well known for its delicious and strong coffee. There are many types of coffee in Vietnam, but the most famous type is Weasel Bean Coffee. The story goes like this after the coffee harvest farmers would begin pruning there coffee trees and at the base of the trees they began to notice that there was weasel poop with coffee beans in it littering the bottom of the trees, so they decided to pick up the poop. They then washed the beans and roasted them and made coffee from them and as it turns out the weasel bean coffee was the best coffee they had ever tasted and has since become a delicacy in Vietnam. Recently they discovered that the reason that this coffee was so good was because weasels only eat the ripest coffee beans so if you collect only the beans they eat you are collecting the best beans. So farmers today have started collecting the ripest beans and they separate them out and roast them separately to create this delicious coffee. In honor of the origins of this type of coffee they call it weasel bean coffee although it is no longer actually from the weasel, or at least that's what they tell me.

The Elephant Story
Tomorrow we are going to ride an elephant so they told us this Vietnamese fable about elephants. Originally god gave the elephant 6 legs. The elephant only really used four of the legs, but he was very proud of his extra legs because they made him powerful and strong. At the same time God had only given the duck one leg and the dog three legs. Life was very difficult for the dog and the duck so they asked God to give them more legs like the elephant. God realized his mistake, but instead of making new legs he asked the elephant to share his extra legs with the duck and the dog. The generous elephant agreed to share his legs, but only if the duck and the dog took really good care of them. That is why when the duck sleeps it keeps its legs under its wings to protect them and the dog lifts its leg when it pees so it doesn't get the elephant's leg dirty. That is just one of many Vietnamese Fables.

My foot is healing up nicely, I may take a picture of the hole and post it cause its kinda a sweet battle wound. I am doing really well and I am happy. They claim when you travel abroad that there is a cycle, first you are in aw, then you are in the honeymoon stage then you hit the pits then t hings level out. Stepping on a nail sent me into the pits, but I am recovering and now have reached a normality with life here. I like that life in Vietnam is flexible. People don't really stick to strict schedules or specific times, if you are late no one cares, if your early no one expects you. People always seem to be very accommodating and I really like that freedom. I love you all and I hope that all is well. Feel free to shoot me and e-mail sometime if you want to keep me posted on your life my e-mail is saffordl@union.edu. Love and kisses!!

9/28/2009

Wow sorry I haven't written in awhile let me catch you all up. Thursday I went bowling with my teachers from the language school and on the walk home I stepped on a nail, that went through my shoe and into my foot. It went about a quarter of an inch into my foot and I immediately pulled it out and we went to the hospital. The hospital was actually really nice and the doctor spoke great English. They cleaned the wound and sent me home. My foot pretty bad for about 6 hours and then I was fine. I have been taking very good care of it, so far so good. This nail was actually pretty clean, but unfortunately that means that it was REALLY sharp. If you are my facebook friend you probably saw my update where I stated that I wanted to go home, the primary reason for that was my foot injury, but now that my foot is getting better I am enjoying Vietnam more.

On an entirely different note...I spent this past weekend in the Mekong Delta (or Delter as my guide liked to call it). This was by far the most amazing thing we have done on this trip so far. It was like a 6 hour bus ride, but it was worth it. We were able to go to the Region Biodiversity Lab that is doing research into natural re-vegetation, which essentially means they are trying to bring back native species after they were decimated by dioxin and napalm during the Vietnam war. This guy has been doing research for over 15 years now and has managed to get native species to grow again. It was actually really amazing to see the natural forests. We went on a walk in the woods and it was really beautiful. Although, there were a lot of leeches, which are pretty much harmless, but the idea of them is really creepy. I was bit by a few and I lived. These are considered slow leeches, so they are not a big deal. We also saw some yellow ants, that bite and if you kill one they have familial instincts (as in family loyalty), so they will all attack you. Luckily no one had any direct issues with the yellow ants. We also went to another Pagoda, which was beautiful and I met a really nice monk who I became friends with (I will post pictures soon).

The next day we went to a floating market, which was amazing. Essentially what happens is people go up river and buy goods from the farmers and then they come to this market and trade the goods. Then go back up the river and resell the newly traded goods. It is a really cool system that means that most people live on the Mekong River, so there was a lot of cool things to see. We also got to go on a Vietnamese row boat and we wore conical hats while on the row boats, which made us look really cool. The row boats took us to a sweet little restaurant where we drank wine that had a dead snake in it, which was supposed to be medicinal, but really it just tastes like tequila. For the record in Vietnam they call all alcohol wine so in fairness it could have been some other kind of alcohol and we wouldn't have known. We also got to hold/play with an anaconda. This guy eats like one duck a week and he was heavy. After that we returned to the bus and drove another 4 or 5 hours back to HCMC. We are going to be in HCMC until Thursday. Thursday the road trip to the north begins. We are planning on spending 10 days driving from HCMC to Hanoi. Our first stop is going to be Da Lat and then on Friday we head to Buon Me Thuot, where were are going to ride an elephant. I am so excited!!!

I love you all and I hope that you guys read this and know that life is not always easy, but that doesn't mean that life isn't great. Remember to avoid stepping on nails, I will tell you from personal experience that it is incredibly painful.

9/21/2009

Saturday we visited the Chu Chu tunnels and the Cao Dai temple. Chu Chi was pretty interesting. The people there were pretty determined, carving out all those tunnels and living underground. There are these huge bomb craters everywhere. We went crawling through some of the tunnels and I of course scratched myself and bled all over the place. I also shot and M16 which was incredibly loud. Especially when there are a bunch of them being fired off at once or in sequence. My ears were ringing for a few minutes afterward. War is an ugly beast and it makes desperate people do odd and desperate things.

Mark asked us to ponder the idea that is commonly said about travelers, which is the saying that no matter where you go you always bring yourself with you. That is an odd idea for me right now because as of this moment I feel transient and without a concrete goal or purpose which is an odd feeling for me. I have always felt so determined and focused and right now I can't remember the why, I can only feel the now. I find myself asking the age old question "who am I" (while making the Zoolander face).

As of this moment the only part of myself that I can definitively say I have brought with me is love. I hold in my heart the love of my family and my friends and that I carry around with me everyday. So, ponder and love and live and such and have a nice day from Lily in Vietnam.

8/19/2009

Finally I have made it to an internet cafe so I can upload some pictures to my blog.

These pictures to the right and below is of a Cao Đài temple we went to today it was described to me as the Vatican of the Cao Đài religion. It was really beautiful very comfortable. Cao Đài is a kind of new age religion started in the 1920's or 30's. If you want to learn more google it.

To the left is a picture of Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City. This was kind of a new technique I am trying in my photo class, it is a really long like 20 second exposure. I really like it I hope you do to.








This picture is a flower in front of the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City. That is the palace in the background.

9/18/2009

During Vietnamese class today I went out on the town to the zoo and talked to local people in Vietnamese. As it turns out my Vietnamese is bad, but not too bad, they had trouble understanding my accent, but they were able to figure it out after I said my questions a few times. I really liked this exercise because I was able to meet some locals and I survived actually speaking Vietnamese, although to be honest I have to idea what people are saying back to me. It is so hard to understand Vietnamese. It is raining again this afternoon, and we are going to a Vietnamese art museum today to learn more about the culture here, which should be fun although its raining again.

Sadly one of the girls in the group left today. She was not enjoying Vietnam. It seems so weird to me to see someone leave, I am enjoying myself immensely. The more I learn about Vietnam the more I enjoy the city. I see the Vietnamese people as a very strong people, they have overcome so much and they have come out of it all like champions. I have never seen such hard working people, that are still so willing to take the time to smile are you or talk to you. At the guest house where we are staying lots of Vietnamese business men stay here for a few nights during the week then go other places. When they are home these man love to talk to us. They practice their English and we practice our Vietnamese. They tell us stories and ask us questions it is so nice. They even recommend food for us to try. One of them even has a son learning in America, at some school in Wisconsin that I can't remember the name of. It seems to me that no matter how busy you are or how hard you work they always make time for the people around them. Another example, we were in a restaurant today and this woman stopped cooking to great us and talk to us in Vietnamese for a minute and then she went back to cooking away. The way people treat us is just so friendly. I am hoping to take some good pictures today and tomorrow and then post them soon. I love you all and I miss you, but not in the homesick kind of way in the happy where I am but wish you could all experience this with me kind of way.

9/15/09

It is Tuesday here in Saigon and we had a beautiful morning, but the rainy season is taking over this afternoon. It is hard to complain about the rain because it cools the whole city off, but makes walking around less fun. Language classes started yesterday and they are overwhelming. Vietnamese is a difficult language and on top of that learning it for four hours straight is brutal. On the bright side the teachers are incredibly nice.

We went to the beach this past Sunday and I have to say it was one of the most amazing days of my life. The beach was beautiful the weather was nice. The water was really warm and I was in great company. We were able to bring a few Vietnamese students to the beach with us, which was just so much fun. Also the food in Vietnam has been spectacular. I love eating lots of rice and noodles all the time. I am in carbohydrate heaven!!

Saigon is an amazing city, very modern and alive. You wouldn't believe the traffic sometimes if feels like all these people do is ride motorbikes around all day. The coolest part of the city is the streets they are alive with people and vendors. The downtown part of Saigon is very tourist oriented and intimidating, but once you get to where we live life is more normal. I feel like it is nice to go to the little coffee shop down the street and get coffee with random Vietnamese people or eat lunch in a restaurant where we are the only white people. It for some odd reason makes me feel like less of a spectacle when life is not centered around trying to sell me something. Anyway I am loving Vietnam so far and I am happy to be here. This weekend we are going to the art museum and the Chu chi tunnels which should be fun. I will write a full report sometime soon.

Posting pictures is not really working out the internet where I am staying is flaky, but I am going to go to one of the wi-fi hot spots one day and post a bunch so stay tuned. I send my love home to my family and friends and I hope that everything is going well for all of you.

9/10/09

I have arrived in Vietnam safely and am enjoying some coffee and down time before I head to dinner and orientation with the group. My roommate is nice and the room we are living in is shockingly nice. The buildings here are so beautiful and colorful and the people are very nice. We met a bunch of other international students who have promised to show us around. I even met someone from Colorado.

For the record so far I have seen two motor bike crashes and managed to cross the street twice, which seems like a pretty great accomplishment to me.

The plane flight went well, I took a sleeping pill for the second time in my life and slept for almost 10 hours. I also sat next to the nicest guy who saved food for me due to the fact that I slept through two out of three meals on the plane. I am so excited and I wil keep you all posted. Love and kisses.

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

9/2/09

I am in California, currently hanging out at my Dad's house. I spent the last few days in San Diego with my cousins and their kids, which I think makes them my second cousins? I have five second cousins the oldest is two, the youngest is almost 1 month old. My mom and I went to the beach with a few of my cousins and their kids, we made sand castles and went swimming. The water was so warm much warmer than the water in Colorado. We also went to the San Diego Zoo with two of my cousins and all five second cousins, which was fun. That many kids is crazy, but fun. I got some good pictures, but I can't upload any yet. Stay tuned. I am headed to LA today and then Santa Barbra.

This is Lily saying I love you all and "Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts" (Anonymous).

8/26/09

The shot went ok my arm was sore for a few days, but I lived. I am so crazy busy right now. I spend all my time either doing homework or packing or working. Although I am getting really excited to see my family especially all the new babies.

My mom and I went to the Tetons last weekend it was amazing they are so beautiful I can't even believe it. I now officially want to climb the Grand Teton it looks like such a nice piece of rock. I will have to wait until my knee is better before I do anything crazy like that. My knee is doing well by the way my mother and i hiked all over the Tetons. Anyway thanks for tuning in and I will keep you all posted. Love and kisses to all that want them!

The Beginning

So, here it is. My blog so that anyone who wants to can check out what I'm doing in Vietnam. As of this moment I am moving out of my moms house and organizing. I have borrowed a backpack from Coken which will go to Nam with me and I am getting excited. I am leaving for California on the 28th of August and I am leaving for Nam on the 9th of September at 1:50am.

Tomorrow I go and get my last shots, then all I need is Malaria pills and I am good to go.