Tri's Birthday Party

Last night, I was invited to Tri's birthday party at his house. We had a swell time, and they even had a lì xì tree! Lì xì is "lucky money" and is passed around to people in red envelopes during the Chinese New Year. So, I was very happy to see that tree!

After the party was over, I went home and fell fast asleep.

This morning, Mr. Mark and I met for pho. Our usual place was closed as most people will be celebrating the new year until Monday. It's not like America where you celebrate for one day. Here in South Vietnam, the celebrations last a week and even the entire month up in Hanoi!

Ti and his cousin, Binh, and I ventured off in search for M&Ms as I had a craving for them. The neighborhood store was closed, Coopmart was closed, so we went to Vinatex near our house. I had never been there before, and it was a nice supermarket complete with Lotteria! I surely did eat a hamburger and fries with a big Pepsi! Diet tomorrow! ha! Afterward, we met up with Phong and his friends at Andi's coffee shop. I did manage to buy two bags of M&Ms, but after the burger, fries, and coffee I just wasn't hungry for them. I exercised for thirty minutes, and here I am now writing in my blog.

Tonight, Martin and I are going to Saigon to book our tour for the Mekong Delta tomorrow. I'm very excited about that because I've wanted to go for some time. My old roommate from Korea, Tom, is in town so we're gonna all meet up tonight and do the tour together tomorrow with his friends. I haven't seen him, obviously, siince I left Korea. I'm happy to meet up with him.

Time to get ready to go to Saigon. Will post pics of the trip tomorrow night when I get home! Byeeee.....

Fat Ass Tumbling

This is a video of me tumbling for the monks at a Buddhist temple. Seriously.. when am I going to realize I'm just too big and too old to continue doing this!?!? Meh - the standing back was good, though...


...until the end. At least all those years of training taught me how to fall correctly. (Looking for the positives... ha!) Not bad for a 35 year old, eh?

Starting today, I'm monitoring my weight. I'm 97 kg. I want to be 88kg when I visit the states in September. Not too far to go.

Inspired

I traveled with Co Mai, Mr. Phuong, and Ti to Phat Quang Temple to celebrate the New Year. I ended up staying the night, hence why I didn't write in my blog yesterday. I made so many new friends with the monks and nuns, and I had such an amazing time. My em trai, Tien, and I got to spend a lot of time together so I'm happy about that. I gained so much knowledge from one of the head monks and my great friend, Mr. Ban. I'm just so overwhelmed with emotion and spirituality right now. No, I'm not Buddhist, but do I really need to be to have an amazing spiritual experience? My life... is blessed. I'll post a few pics below and then tell you how and where I spent the night sleeping :) Enjoy!

My new friends.

Some of the monks and me in their room.

The wonderful Mr. Ban.

The American girls and me.

A wonderful, new friend.

Handsome Tien modeling his coat.

Brothers.

So Tien was working the lift, which is the cable car contraption that transports people and things up and down the mountain. It was a chilly night, and we spent the night sleeping on a top bunk under a mosquito net in the chilly night air. Truthfully, it was wonderful!

Our bunk.

Tien setting up the mosquito net.

Under the mosquito net.

Happy Chinese New Year

Not much to say. Had breakfast with Mr Mark, had a party with Trust (Nick and Mark attended), came home to another party that Uy was having, Pictures below Enjoy!




P.S. I'm going to the temple tomorrow with Co Mai to see Ban, Nhi, and Tien.

A Wonderful, Wonderful Trip

What a wonderful trip! Martin and I left for Vung Tau Beach yesterday afternoon about 4:30. We drove on our motorbikes, and I must say that Martin is an excellent driver. He made sure not to go too fast and that I was able to keep up with him. I'd take more trips with him for that reason alone.

On the way to Vung Tau, we stopped at his grandparents' house. They don't speak English, and I don't speak Vietnamese.. so I just kinda played with the dogs. After Martin ate and visited, we headed to the beach! It was wonderful as we'd arrived about 8pm so the weather was fantastic. We checked into a very nice hotel on the beach for only $30 including breakfast! I love this country! After checking in, we ate, grabbed an alcoholic beverage, and went back to the hotel to sleep.

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, climbed a mountain (kind of) to see some statues, and went to Phat Quang Temple. I had been there before, and this is the temple that Co Mai attends. It's a little less than two hours from Bien Hoa on bike. But.. on the way there, Martin got a flat tire. Sad times.

Might I also add that while venturing down the road just before the climb up the mountain to the temple, there was surely a herd of goats galavanting toward me! Random... and sooo Vietnam!

So, I was excited to go to the temple because I met some friends there last time. There's a girl, Nhi, who is staying there for a year. She's from Maryland, and she is wonderful. She was having a difficult time adjusting to Vietnam the last time I saw her as she had only been there a month at that time. I, also, have another friend (who reads my blog, by the way - hi, Ban!). He's a lovely man and one of the higher ranking monks at the temple. His English is very good. I was anxiously anticipating seeing him again.

After arriving, we ate and talked to a lot of the monks. They LOVE to speak English so we had a great time. There was one funnnny monk named Tien. We really took to one another, and I've officially adopted him as my little brother (em trai). We all took some pics together before Tien took us on a tour of the surrounding mountains. More about that later, but here is a pic of some of us at the temple. The first picture is Banh, Martin, me, Nhi, and her sister (I forgot her name). The second and third are of my little brother and me.

Tien was so wonderful to Martin and me and took us walking 5 km up the mountain and around the area to show us some beautiful views. We saw waterfalls and pools of clean, fresh, blue water that we washed our faces with. Spectacular! At the top of one of the hills were beautiful rocks and a random satellite. Go figure! Here are some photos of our wonderful hike today!

I want to post a few pictures of Tien in his element. He's so funny. Whenever I was taking a picture of something, he randomly busted out some martial arts moves .. haha. We're so much alike, I think. We're always joking, smiling, and trying to make people laugh. I think that's why we took to each other so quickly.

After our expedition, we all relaxed in the hammocks. I'll be going back to visit in a couple of days. Some more pics. And again, thanks, Martin, for a great time! Good night.

Off to Vung Tau

I'm quickly writing this entry as I'm off to Vung Tau Beach in an hour or so.

This morning, I had pho with Mr. Mark and met Sophia afterward. Her dad took me to change my tire, and Sophia and I walked around the neighborhood a bit. We went by to see Dao. I learned that his father has lung cancer, and my prayers are with him and his family now. I know what's it's like to have a father go through cancer so I want to be beside him all the way. After visiting Dao, Sophia and I ate lunch with her extended family. I'm a bit intoxicated now... just in time to drive three hours to the beach on my scooter... nice.

See you when I get back!

The Vietnamese Wal-Mart

Well, I've managed to find it once again! In Korea, I found E-Mart, the Korean Wal-Mart. And now, I have found Metro!! - the Vietnamese Wal-Mart. It's located in Saigon, so I drove my scooter there with Mr. Phuong after my morning breakfast ritual with Mr. Mark. I bought some teaching stuff. What's exciting is that I met two Cuban men who were shopping there, and I got to speak with them (in Spanish, of course) and hold a good ten minute conversation. I was very happy to practice my language again :) Good times. And of course the Spanish I speak is Cuban so we got along just fine. I, also, met some Koreans in there and spoke a little Korean to them as well. I'm forgetting my Korean more and more every day, sadly, as I don't practice it here in Vietnam.

After coming back from Saigon, I ate lunch with my Vietnamese family and passed out for three hours. Upon awakening from my short-lived hibernation, I ate dinner with my family and watched the property as they all went out. Security 2009!!

I, also, wanted to mention that last night I met the Espresso class, along with Ms. Lam for beer. Dr. Hau cracked us all up with his animal impressions. I took a video. Enjoy!

Chinese New Year Pics

Just a few snapshots from the three week vacation I'm having. Enjoy!

Happy Obama Day

I cut the heck out of my finger so I'll tell my stories mostly through pictures today as I can't type well.

I enountered a problem while cutting my hair. In short, in the middle of shaving my head, the clippers died.

I met Giao, Vinh, and Minh for coffee. We then went to drink beer, minus Minh, eat, and sing karaoke. I went home, drunk-cleaned my bathroom, slashed my finger, got a phone call from Vinh to continue drinking with several doctors, and again off I went.

That said, enjoy the pics from today's events!