My Near Death Experience

Today was a bad, bad day. Usually I eat phở every morning for breakfast, but this morning I woke up later than normal due to the Benadryl that I took last night to help me sleep so I skipped it. I was so hungry at lunch that I scarfed down the first piece of pork, and it became lodged in my throat. Okay, no big deal because I've had rice stuck in my throat before and had it washed down easily with a swig of water. This time was different. When I drank the water, the pork wouldn't budge, and the water just came right back up. It couldn't go down because the piece of meat was in there pretty well! I tried again to force water down, hoping it would flush the pork down and into my stomach. The good news: the pork did move a bit further down. The bad news: it moved down blocking my windpipe, and I couldn't breathe. So I tried to gag myself, even sticking a chopstick down my esophagus to try to push it down so I could breathe. No such luck! I started banging around, and Vuong was downstairs, luckily, and came running up after he heard me thrashing about. That's about the time that I lost consciousness. I woke up to him hitting on my back, and I was able to breathe a bit. He was a medical student before he got his degree in Economics so I guess he knew what he was doing. He took me to the hospital, and we saw one doctor who used his tools and camera to look into my mouth. He couldn't see anything so I was taken to another doctor with a longer tube slash camera thing. He stuck it all the way down my throat, and I couldn't breathe again - which scared the ish out of me. There were four nurses there who had to hold me down while the doctor stuck the tube down my throat because I was kicking and punching due to the lack of air getting to my lungs. After repeatedly gagging with the tube down my throat, I heard the doctor say "nuoc" which is water in Vietnamese, and I let out a big belch. Apparently the tube with camera thing also had a water spray thing?? He pulled the tube out, and I could breathe again. Life was good! I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you couldn't breathe, but it's not cool.. not cool at all! That's definitely the way that I do NOT want to die. Moral of the story: Chew your food before you swallow.

Below is the photo the doctor took of the pork buried into my throat just before he sprayed the magic water to wash it down.

Random Answer

So in one of my classes, we're studying Health Care... here's a nice answer for products to use on the face. Click on the photo to enlarge.

The latest 'FPT vs. Michael' Saga

So after posting my previous blog entry on FPT's facebook page, they got my number from MY facebook page and sent me a text after failed attempts to call me (Sorry, folks, but if I don't know your number, I don't answer). I basically complained on their page telling them how the representative had lied to me about VNPT's service being slow when all my students and coworkers who have that provider have told me their internet is just fine. Upon confronting the worker about that, she stuttered and mumbled, "But the earthquake in Japan.." to which I abruptly stopped her and yelled, "The earthquake was LAST WEEK!!" Anyhow, here's their LATEST justification of why the internet here in Vietnam has been so slow for over two weeks:

Subject: About the treatment process of the sea line AAG Date: 3/22/2011 4:24:18 P.M. SE Asia Standard Time From: quyenpnh@fpt.net

Reply To:
To:	mpstrahan@aol.com
CC:	mpstrahan@aol.com, tienlq@fpt.net, tttthuy@fpt.net
BCC:
Sent on:

Sent from the Internet (Details)

Dear Mr. Micheal!

I'm writing from Customer care Dept., FPT Dong Nai Company.
As you know, the sea line AAG was broken on 8th, March made the international speed decrease slowly.
On my behalf of our company, I truly àn deeply apologize to this inconvenience first.
Secondly, we annouce you about the treatment time of the sea fiber line AAG.
According to our update news from the international partners, the broken sea line AAG will be fixed on 26th, March. After terrible disaster's happened in Japan, the international ships focused to support Japan to overcome this bad situation. That's the reason why the sea line AAG will be fixed lately.
However, FPT company increased the international bandwith 3 days ago to ensure 70% of the international speed we commited.
So please let me know how your international speed is at the moment and if you still need to support.
Contact to us if you need any help from now, please!

Sincerely yours,
Phan Nguyen Hong Quyen
Customer care Dept.
FPT - Dong Nai Branch.

ANOTHER care package

It's my lucky week! This time, seasoning from back home (Louisiana) that I put on EVERYTHING!!!

Smokin' it Up

So I have these really cool neighbors, who are also my landlords. The man is about 80, I'd say, and he was once a prisoner of the Viet Cong Army in the war because he helped the Americans build weapons, etc. Every day he sits outside with his friends, lights up some herb, and smokes it. I wasn't quite sure what it was. I knew it wasn't "Mary Jane," but it looked like some kind of tobacco. After doing some research, I found out it's called, ''thuốc lào''. Apparently, it's a pasttime of the older folk here in 'Nam, and my landlord lights it up several times a day. Good for him!

Typical

This is what a typical convo between Tyler and me is like on any given day. Comical.

Care Package Day!!!

Happy Saturday to me! I got a notice a couple of days ago that a package was waiting for me at the post office. I had planned to pick it up this morning on my way home from my class, and as I was walking out the door, the receptionist told me I received another notice! TWO PACKAGES!! Oh happy day!!

From my friend, Leah, I got some Bath and Body Works goodies: body splash and Wallflower refills!! And from my Meemaw, I got three pairs of LARGE underwear (which I can't find here in Vietnam), some Crest White Strips (that's right! my teeth are gonna be shining!!), some Benadryl, Advil, and Tums!!

Thank you both so so so so so so much!!!

FPT: Incredibly Slow Internet Service

For well over a week now, the internet here in Vietnam has been unbelievably slow. Apparently, this only affects the companies of FPT and Viettel due to an offshore cable that has been severed. For me, the internet is vital to keeping in contact with friends and family back home in the states as well as keeping abreast of the world's current events since I have no English-speaking news channels on tv. Watching videos is frustrating, to say the least, and I've HAD IT with FPT! It's been over a week already. Can you people just get off your asses and do something to address the problem? -or at least offer your customers some type of compensation for the crap service you've provided!

Below is a snapshot I took of a video I was trying to download. 13 minutes for a 32 meg file. Really?

How to UNblock facebook in Vietnam

So I've been shamelessly promoting hotspot shield for some time now, but a new and FASTER way (with no advertisements) has recently been brought to my attention by my lovely Vietnamese students.

It's called ultrasurf, and you can go to ultrareach.com and download the program. It works the same way hotspot does, but it's much faster. I can't believe I didn't discover this sooner!

Happy facebooking!

Lisp4 and facebook now blocked in Vietnam

As of March 1st, the Vietnamese government has blocked both lisp4 and facebook. The way around this is to google the program "Hotspot shield" download it, close your browser, then run it. It will give you an address from the states and then you can open facebook normally. I've used it for over 3 years since I lived in Korea and wanted to watch tv programs that were blocked outside of the US. There are pop-up ads every now and then, but it's a free program so who cares!? Be sure to comment if you have any questions, need any advice, or just want to thank me for showing you the way! ^^

Happy facebooking!!