Some pictures of Hanoi

Sorry if some of these are a little blurry!

 This is from our first night in Hanoi, and gives you a little taste of the traffic around town. Motorbike, buses, and people crosscutting all over the place!

This is our friend Nam. He is a friend of our friend from Wisconsin. Getting introduced to him has made a world of difference, we now have a ton of Vietnamese friends that we met through Nam. This is the first night we met up, and a very typical scene around Hanoi. Tiny plastic tables and stools and "fresh beer" which costs around 3,000 VND, and delicious.

 I thought this was funny. A wandering chicken in the middle of random parked motorbikes. Not uncommon to see though!

 This is was a typical street looks like in Hanoi. They're fairly narrow with old trees, and have buildings that can make it look like you're in Europe. With all the people eating Pho on the tiny stools on the sidewalk you are soon reminded that you're in Asia.

This is taken from a rooftop cafe that we like a lot. Here is a view of Hoan Kiem Lake, and the crowd of people gathered by the water happens from time to time, when there is a sighting of the big turtle living in the lake. The turtle is part of a story about a King returning the sword that helped drive out the Chinese in the 15th century, giving it back to the turtle. Hoan Kiem Lake means "Lake of the returned sword."

Communication

As a part of our volunteer fee, we were provided with two Vietnamese lessons to give us an overview of the language. Ten minutes in I had a headache and intense look of frustration plastered on my face as I struggled to imitate the sounds that our teacher was asking us to repeat back to her.

The very first thing we were taught were the different 'a' sounds. There are three different 'a's in the alphabet, and these three different 'a's can have five different accents, six if you count the sound you make if there is no accent at all. The three A's are:

a â ă

The five accents are (shown on the a we use):

ã ạ ả á à

These accents can also be added to the second two 'a's in the alphabet, for example the letter â with the five accents looks like this:

ấ ẫ, ầ, ậ ẩ

So in total, there are 18 different kinds of 'a's. Our first lesson involved pronouncing the word 'ba' with five different 'a' accents (bã bạ bả bá bà). To the trained Vietnamese ear, these sounds are all very distinguishable from each other and present little problem. So, when our teacher quickly read us the five 'ba's, she expected us to repeat them all back to her. The problem however, was that to westerners, she sounded like this: Bah bah bah baaah bah. After straining my hearing and having her repeat herself many times, I could hear slight differences in a few, but not enough difference to remember, and certainly not enough to imitate myself. This presents a problem (no pun intended...lame), as these 'ba's all have very different meanings. For example, one of them means grandmother. Another means rat poison.

Vietnamese is a monosyllabic, tonal language. Every word, as you might guess, is only one syllable (Vietnam is Việt Nam). It is tonal in the sense that many words are almost sung, and different pitches and intonations indicate different letters, words and phrases. So you need to have a good ear for pitch. If you are one of those people who can't sing along to a song for the life of you, I'm sorry to report that you will never learn Vietnamese. That includes my brother, sorry bud.

I have better luck with phrases (v. lone words), simply because if you are saying multiple words a Vietnamese person can more easily guess what you are trying to say. There are also few things most foreigners know how to say, so they can guess that way as well. Saying hello is Xin chào. (Seen chow), this one seemed pretty easy, but apparently if you pronounce it incorrectly you could be saying 'give me rice' instead of hi.

If you're wondering why their language is not comprised of typical Asian characters, it's because of colonialism. The French adapted their language from characters to a roman alphabet in the 1950's I think. I'm not sure of the exact decade because most Vietnamese I ask don't know for sure either. Most of them cannot read their traditional alphabet.

One thing that seems to translate in every country is a sense of humor. I've found that if you always manage to keep your temper, laugh things off, smile and act eager, that you can easily win friends and good favor. It's something important for many westerners to remember when traveling to asia, because many tend to lose their temper very easily, and if you are not laid back there are a million things here that can set you off.

Long Overdue!

HI everyone! Jenny Here!

First of all I want to apologize for taking so long to update again. The pictures below, of Friendship Village, were added by Lauren last week. Friendship Village is the home for disabled children that is about a 10 minute bike ride away from our dorm outside Hanoi. We live in a neighborhood called Tay Mo, which has a small village of shops and markets, next to a series of different farms that we’re assuming grow rice, because the squares of land are for the most part under water. This makes for a really interesting bike ride from the dorm to the Friendship village past Tay Mo…a mix of unattractive concrete houses and shops, some houses made of more traditional materials, huge buildings off in the far distance, factories nearer to Tay Mo, and all along the road these rice paddies that can look really beautiful minus these other industrial surroundings. The people moving around could be walking carrying baskets and wearing traditional cone shaped hats, or riding on motorbikes or trucks spewing out visible exhaust. This mix of old and new is all over Vietnam, and it can often seem that the more modern aspects of the terrain outside the city was rushed in its creation, or it can be interesting that some older aspects have lasted through it. Although we sometimes wish that our dorm was closer to our work (Lisa and I), or at least closer to the city center where we like to hang out, Lo and I were talking the other day about how it’s kind of cool being on the outskirts. For one thing its closer to Friendship village, and can be a tiny bit quieter during the week than the city, but also because if it weren’t for our volunteering placement we probably would have never gotten to understand what it’s like 17km away in a seemingly obscure suburb/village down a half concrete/half dirt road off of the highway, haha. Interesting to say the least, and I think we have taught at least 20 cab drivers how to get there (they never admit they don’t know where they’re going…ever)

My work at my NGO has had its ups and downs these past few weeks. As I mentioned before, I am the first foreign volunteer they have had. Working in a small office of three permanent staff (who speak English but not well), it can sometimes be tough to be on the same page about what I need to be doing, or what kind of direction we can give each other on projects. In the first few weeks, I concentrated on building up their list of sponsorship opportunities. I hadn’t done too much research for this before, but once I got the hang of it I found some really cool organizations and grants that MSD could possibly apply for, and I helped create a decent list of proposals and letters of inquiry that we could work towards. Just to remind everyone, MSD is short for Research Center for Management and Sustainable Development, and the organization was formed in 2008. They concentrate on 1)consulting other CSOs (civil-society orgs) on better ways to plan and manage their organizations, 2) environmental protection and community development, and 3) connecting small enterprises and other NGOs with each other for the benefit of everyone in the NGO community in Vietnam.

I’ve been working mostly on the 2^nd focus, environmental protection and community development. MSD conducts a few different projects aimed at educating particular communities on ways to cut down on pollution and better manage their resources. If this seems like a weak way to work for the environment, you don’t know how they handle trash here. That is, they don’t. It’s everywhere, and there’s not really a set system of picking it up. Sometimes people just burn it in the streets, even in the middle of the city. When the three of us see this, we like to imagine if someone were to do that in the middle of New York, and how many violations they’d be committing, haha. Anyway, this type of behavior varies according to where in the country you are and can have completely different impacts depending on the area. For example, one of MSD’s projects is already in its 2^nd stage in Thinh Long, Hai Hau, Nam Dinh, a province outside of Hanoi. There, MSD has facilitated the creation of different clubs made up of community members and volunteers from WRU (Water Resources University), to educate the entire community about protecting their sea dykes from deteriorating. The deterioration is being exacerbated by activities like dumping trash on the dykes, running boats onto it, cutting down trees near it, which has resulted in several cracks forming, which can lead to dangerous breakdowns.

The project I’ve been working more closely with however, hasn’t begun yet. We are still writing proposals and applications for funding for it, but I’ll tell you a little about what the plan is if its funded. In Ha Long Bay, which is the famous World Heritage Site about 3 hours away from Hanoi, there are 4 floating fishing communities, comprised of about 400 families, totaling about 1,900 people. These families live on boats or on raft-houses, and make their living off of fishing and aquaculture. I need to learn more about it, but aquaculture refers to fish farming and growing other underwater plants, which we actually saw some of this past weekend on Cat Ba island… but I’ll talk about that later. Anyway, it’s clear to outsiders and inhabitants alike that these fish populations will not last forever. With a combination of pollution, sea-level rises, and their own over-exploitation, the natural resources they depend on are not sustainable. MSD wants to survey the villages to find out what the current outlook is towards environmental protection, fund the building of a community raft-house in each of the floating villages to serve as venues for different educational and cultural activities for the people, set up clubs to discuss the changes that need to be made, and reinforce these goals with various community events. The aspect of the project I like the most is the fact that it sets up these community engagements to be led by the people themselves, so that there is a system to go by for any future community decisions. If the community fisherman come up with and agree on strategies themselves, then they’re more likely to stick by it and see an improvement in the environment. Also, I think it’s a good idea to build the community centers. Right now each home is separated by water, and having a place for people to meet and either celebrate their culture or talk about changes to make is good. My role in this whole thing right now is just approaching different organizations (often American) to tell them about the project and why it is worth funding.

It can be a challenge working with the information given to me in the first place, which is the frustrating part. Although my superiors speak English, they often don’t speak well enough to understand the kind of detail I feel like we should have on these applications, and sometimes I don’t know if they know the details anyway. I don’t want to disrespect them either, so when it comes down to the deadlines, it can be difficult to communicate on changes that need to be made without becoming flustered. Since I am also new at a lot of this, it’s difficult sending in forms that I’m not 100% confident about, but as my coworker said, “when we fail, I am no so sad, because good practice.” For the most part I think the organization is doing good things and I’m glad to be here. I think that even just the difference in the quality of the English on documents will help them in the long run.

Now, for a small segment on how I get to work…this part has been an adventure. The dorm is 17km outside of Hanoi, and my office is about 8 or 9 km between my dorm and the city center, slightly closer to the dorm. The options start with the bus, which happens in the following steps: walk 5 minutes to the highway, wait for my first bus, get off at Big C (supermarket), wait for my 2^nd bus, get off across the street from my office. This can be a MAJOR pain. While sometimes we can get lucky on the way to work, getting home always takes about 2 hours because the traffic is so bad. Another option is to take a Xe Om, which is a motorbike taxi. This can cost around 40-70,000 Dong, depending on how long you want to negotiate or how honest the driver is about how much change he actually has. Taking an actual taxi costs around 70-100,000, even without the problem we have where cab drivers drive the longest route to get the most money. Yes, the taxis cost less than 5 bucks to go to work, which is crazy cheap for how far they drive you, and yes the buses cost a total of 13,000, which is about 60 cents, but with all this hassle, I have decided to actually BIKE to work!!! It takes me about 30 or 40 minutes on the way there, 25 on the way home, I skip walking through the mud and waiting an hour for the bus where I get manhandled by anyone and everyone who would like to exit the bus before I do even though we’re getting off at the same stop. The only downside is thinking about how scared my mother would be seeing me bike across a Vietnamese traffic circle, but really it all ends up being funny in the end.

I’m not sure if blogger even allows me to write this much, but I’ll keep going. Two weeks ago, the three of us along with our Canadian, English, and German friends, decided to take a weekend trip to Cúc Phương, a national park about 4 hours away from Hanoi. We were so relieved to breathe in the fresh air and hear no horns beeping us out of the way. It also ended up being a beautiful weekend. We arrived to the park entrance, and arranged to stay in their cheaper cabins in the park’s center. Before being driven into the jungle/forest to our accommodations and trails, we visited the Primate Rehabilitation Center, and saw some awesome monkeys! Soon we’ll put up some videos of the monkeys swinging from bamboo branch to bamboo branch, which was very entertaining. Eventually, the center tries to help them reenter their natural habitat, so our guide explained some more about that process which was interesting.

Since we got to the park later than expected, we couldn’t go on any hikes until Sunday because the sun was going down, so we just hung out for a while in the outdoor restaurant, and eventually got to know some other travelers staying there as well. On Sunday we got up early, and hit the trail to see the Thousand Year-old Tree. The hike was great, and the trail was pretty well developed, so a lot of time we were walking up steep manmade steps, which was physically enhausting considering most of us hadn’t moved that much in a while. It was amazing to have a sunny day while doing this too, because there seems to always be an overcast over Hanoi. The tree was GIGANTIC, so we all hung out once we got to it for a while, taking pictures and just staring up. Then we went back onto the trail and headed further up to see the caves, which we weren’t expecting to be on the trail. The cave we came to was insane, I can’t describe it very well, but the beginning of it was huge to begin with, and we kept going further back and climbing further up through complete darkness until we reached a place where we could see the light poking through. Really amazing. That night, since there were so many of us, we hired a private van for a similar price of the bus to take us all the way back to Hanoi from Cuc Phuong, and the ride back was really beautiful. We saw some amazing scenery, which we will try to post as well.

 I’ll write about this past weekend in Cat Ba soon. First you can enjoy pictures once we load them in, and hear from Lauren about Friendship Village.

Friendship Village!

Here is the entrance to Friendship Village! Tucked back from the VERY busy dirt road that connects our dorm to Friendship Village.

Friendship Village has an organic garden that produces 80% of the vegetables needed for the children, house mothers and veterans who live in Friendship Village.

The garden is also home to turkeys, chicken and some very feisty geese.

This is Linh, she is 9 years old and so sweet! She loves to paint (especially to mix all of the colors together) and comes into the classrooms every chance she gets. She loves to sit next to you and guide your hand as you paint. We can't communicate but she makes it VERY clear when she doesn't like your work.

A few weeks into working at Friendship Village, I decided that the classrooms needed a new look. The walls, ceilings, windows and toys were filthy and the mustard yellow paint was cracked and peeling. I spoke to the director and the manager of Frienship Village had a meeting with all of the teachers to get approval to paint the classrooms. The manager, is very appropriately named Ms. Ha. She is the only person at Friendship Village who speaks english and she is very blunt. She doesn't hesitate to tell you if you are looking fat or very pretty each day. At the meeting with the teachers, they were all yelling back and forth at each other- very confusing. I assumed that they were furious at me but it turns out that they were just very excited. Since then, the only issue we've had is about how to incorporate bunnies into the underwater scene. I'm not sure why they wanted bunnies, but we worked it out. 

A few Hanoi adventures

Hi everyone, Lisa here. This past Sunday the Vietnamese intern at my work, Huong, picked me up to take me around Hanoi on a motorbike tour. Below I explain what we did for the day, and later, talk about an on-site visit my NGO CSIP made to a social enterprise called VIP Bikes. 

After a slight miscommunication about what street we would meet on, Huong picked me up at 2:30 pm in the center of Hanoi, joined by one of her school friends whose name starts with a C and is unpronounceable for most westerners. She handed me a helmet (a quite unfashionable one for vietnamese standards, most of them wear helmets that look like plastic baseball hats) and we were on our way. Sidenote, everyone wears helmets on motorbikes here because it is illegal not to. 

Me and Huong with our helmets, ready to go. I'd like to take this time to point out that I have not gained an enormous amount of weight. Standing next to Huong adds twenty pounds.

Teeny tiny Huong. Note the facemask.

She decided to take me to the Temple of Literature first, which was great cause its one of the main attractions in Hanoi and I had yet to visit. She explained it was the oldest university in Hanoi, although now it is only visited by tourists and Vietnamese praying for something in their lives they want to go well or improve. She told me that during exam week she would go to the worship area and pray for good grades. I told her I would have liked one of those in college.

A picture we took when we first got into the temple.

The elbow pose was Huong's idea.

She wanted us to make a heart with our hands.

Huong and her friend had just come from an engagement party for their friend. They both gave me these little wrapped candies, which are traditional engagement party favors in Vietnam.

After going through the temple, we took a ride to West Lake, an area that is very popular with the ex-pat community. We made a quick stop and had an ice cream cone (my first in two months!!) and then took a motorbike ride around the entire lake, which is 12 kilometers. This was my favorite part of the day, because I got to see so many new streets, markets and parks that I had never been to before. I also really love riding on a motorbike, because you can just relax and look at everything around you. Plus its fun zooming through traffic. After circling the lake we stopped and sat down on a mat, and Huong ordered us a few snacks to have while we sat and took in the scenery.

Huong and her friend sitting on the mat.

Our snacks. Mango, guava, and bbq'd fish. They dip their fruit in seasoned salt there, which is what the small bowl in the middle is. The bowl above it is a spicy sauce to dip the fish in.

Then I had to head back to a friend's apartment for a dinner we had planned, so she dropped me back off. On the way back we were pulled over by a police officer who wanted to know how old I was. When she told him in Vietnamese that I was 23, he told her that he thought I was 15. I think that's the youngest age I've been pegged for in awhile.

It was a great day and I promised her I would take her around any city she wanted in the U.S.

The next day at work, the president of CSIP, named Oanh, and my supervisor, Lan, took me out to lunch at a restaurant in my building. At our meal, Oanh asked if I would spend a few days at high schools, explaining why I am interested in volunteering and helping others, with the hope that I would encourage a few of them to take similar action in their community. I of course agreed and I think i will be taking a few school trips later this month. They also told me that the next day Lan was going to visit a social entrepreneur who started a company called VIP Bikes, and they invited me to come along, which I was very excited for. 

On Tuesday,  while I was waiting for Lan to pick me up, a man came up to me and told me "Happy Women's Day", then returned shortly with a red rose and handed it to me. In Vietnam, they take International Women's Day very seriously, and almost every woman is presented with flowers, chocolate, or a combination of the two. Shortly after happily accepting my rose, I received a call from Lan. After having to repeat herself many times, I finally understood that she was asking me to ask someone if I could borrow their helmet, because she didn't have one for me. This of course seemed a little odd to me, and considering most people wouldn't know what I was asking, also very difficult. I went to the hotel desk and asked if they had spare ones.. they looked at me like I was crazy and said no.

When Lan showed up, she asked if I had found a helmet and I sadly had to report that I had not. Then she started yelling to a random guy on the street, and about thirty seconds later I had a black helmet and we were driving off. Lan is very talkative and always has something funny to say. Unfortunately she decided to talk during the entire motorbike trip, and I could not understand a word of what she was saying. Between the honking on the streets, the sound of her motorbike's engine, and the face mask that she had on, I could not understand one word of her heavily accented English. Luckily she didn't seem to mind my answers, which clearly did not relate to what she was asking in the slightest.

In about twenty minutes we arrived at VIP Bikes and I was surprised to learn that the social entrepreneur that started the organization was Australian, not Vietnamese. He had come over five years ago and saw an opportunity to create the company. Basically, he takes in around 7 or 8 disadvantaged teens in the area, trains them to repair motorbikes at a motorbike rental and repair shop that he started, and in turn gives them a good salary so that they can have a better life. The org is not-for-profit, and he has a lot of really great plans for the next three years. Within that time he hopes to build a house for the children to permanently live in, create a classroom where they will be taught not only mechanics, but English, Vietnamese, and important life skills as well. He hopes to provide all of their meals, and be able to raise their wages. CSIP will hopefully help him obtain these goals. He said his goal is for all of the kids to eventually become self-sufficient and be able to secure a permanent job. It was great to hear about what he was doing, and also amazing to see the difference just one person can make. Because of him dozens of kids are off the streets, providing for themselves and their families.

After a few hours of learning about VIP Bikes, we headed back to the office. Because of International Women's Day, the office had been given bouquets of flowers and chocolate. Around 2 p.m. we sat around a table and had the chocolates and some other desserts to celebrate the occasion. It was at this time that I learned that Vietnam celebrates two women's days. The international women's day mandated by the UN, and their own Vietnamese women's day. I told them that we did not celebrate this day at all, and when they asked what we do to appreciate women, I told them we have Mother's day and Valentines day, but that you either need a child or a boyfriend to be included in them. I definitely think the U.S. should pick up on the women's day tradition.

While we were sitting around they all said how excited they were for the chocolate. When they finally opened the box I was shocked to see that the chocolate was green. Apparently green tea chocolates are popular here, and don't worry I tried enough of them to give my approval. Huong refused to eat them because she thought they were too pretty. Lan also refused to eat them because she is sure that she gained weight last week. She thinks it is either because she was in Saigon and ate too much without realizing, or because she was with her mother this past weekend, and her mother makes her happy and when she's happy she eats a lot.

Alright that's all for now! I hope to have another update on NGO experiences soon.

-Lisa

The Comedy Club at Lisa's NGO (which does really great work!)

I'm going to attempt to sum up some of the funnier moments I've had volunteering at my NGO over the past week and a half. I work at an organization called CSIP (the acronym doesn’t translate to an English phrase), whose mission is to promote the social entrepreneurship movement in Vietnam and to provide both financial and logistical support to social entrepreneurs. Some examples of the social entrepreneurs they sponsor: A woman who formed a center to help disabled people learn how to produce and market aroma therapy pillows so that they will ideally become self-sufficient, a man who set up libraries in distant villages to promote literacy, a woman started a battery recycling plant to reduce acid waste that often leads to birth defects and pollution in the country.
The entire organization is run by four woman, a full-time Vietnamese intern, a few other Vietnamese volunteers, and now myself for a short period of time. The organization is very impressive, the women work incredibly hard and are very professional. They have frequent meetings with me to review my work and make sure everyone is on the same page. Right now my tasks include A LOT of editing of English documents, creating powerpoints (referred to only as ppts here), and writing their first English newsletter. Later they plan to have me assist in writing a fundraising proposal.
I spend a lot of time with Huong, a 22 year-old Vietnamese intern. She is very sweet, and usually ends up practically sitting on my lap and draping herself all over me, as personal space is often a foreign concept in Vietnam. Also, female and male friends show a lot of physical affection, which isn’t necessarily rare for girls in the states, but it is pretty shocking to see heterosexual males holding hands, hugging frequently, and playing with each others hair.
Lunch time at work always brings much amusement. They have a “buffet”, where everyone brings in a cooked Vietnamese dish and then everyone shares. They are very proud of their buffet and were excited to incorporate me. They quickly realized I would not be able to cook much of anything they would like to eat, so I go downstairs to the supermarket in the building and buy meat and rice to contribute. The first time they would not let me go alone, so Huong held my hand and carted me around the grocery store like I had never seen one before, ordering everything for me and counting out my money.
Lan is my supervisor, she is very cute and very blunt. At lunch Lan has two main goals: one, to not eat too much because (“she get fat easy”) and two, to make Huong eat as much as possible. Huong is easily the smallest 22 year old I’ve ever met. I don’t think she is over 4’10, her feet are SO TINY, and today I found out that she is 40 kilograms, which is 88lbs. She is trying to gain weight and everyone in the office forces her to finish all of her rice and eat as much meat as possible… which is still probably a fifth of what I could pack away at one meal. I’m sure she thinks I am a huge fatty.
On my first day of lunch, they had a fruit that looked like a small tangerine. I asked what they were called, which launched a huge debate. A woman named Twi insisted they were called Happy Fruits, but everyone else scoffed at her. They finally decided to use Google Translate, which came up with the answer ‘Citrus Fruit’. After everyone looked to me for confirmation, I tried to explain that it was indeed a citrus fruit, such as an orange or lemon, but that it was not named that. However the minute I said that it was like an orange, they excitedly yelled YES! LIKE ORANGE! This is a citrus fruit! After much back and forth I had unintentionally convinced them that the fruits official English name was a citrus fruit. They all wrote it down in their notebook to remember, and almost daily they point to the fruit, say look citrus fruit! and look at me excitedly for approval, which I cannot help but give. I sadly have started a fruit name myth.
Also when the Vietnamese eat, they chew and smack their lips SO loudly. It is a sign that they are enjoying their food. It gets somewhat annoying, but mostly I feel bad because I cannot bring myself to act the same and show that I like their food. I smile a lot and give thumbs up while eating though, so I hope that this is enough of a gesture. I am also always offered the opportunity to take a nap after lunch on the company couches, but no one else ever does this so I never do either. And a few times a day they ask me if I want a drink, and I always say water, and they always give me boiling hot water, even though there is a cold water faucet…
And finally I want to talk a little more about Huong, because she is hilarious. First, she is a gigantic soccer fan, and a diehard supporter of the English premier league team Manchester United. She checks scores frequently and was very upset to hear that I support Liverpool (I had no choice dating Matt).
Then last week I was sick with a fever and missed two days, and while I was gone she texted and e-mailed me frequently to make sure I was alright. When I returned to the office she had bought me two chocolate bars as a welcome back gift, so so cute.
Later in the week she had me edit a powerpoint she made in English, and below is a picture that she used for a section about a social entrepreneur that started a suicide prevention center…

Last Friday, she randomly started to beg me to sing for her. I could never bring myself to do this in general, let alone in a quiet office setting with everyone listening to me. I asked her to sing for me, but she insisted she was a bad singer. I told her yes same with me! but she did not believe me and informed me that my voice was very sweet, but I still refused. Later that day she friended me on Facebook, and I saw that it was her birthday… Sidenote, in Vietnam they do not celebrate individual birthdays, because they all turn a year older during the Chinese New Year. I would not have known it was her birthday except for Facebook. Upon me saying happy birthday, she begged me to sing her Happy Birthday, which I narrowly avoided by playing her a youtube clip of Alvin and the Chipmunks singing Happy Birthday. She liked it a lot, mostly because the Vietnamese love cute little animals doing weird things.
And last Huong story for now… I came into work today and she had bought me two trinkets just because. The first one is a “replication of a famous Vietnamese folk singer” and the second is a Tiger. In Vietnam being born in 1987 means that you are the year of the cat (im the year of the rabbit according to China), but they were all out of cat figurines so she bought me a tiger instead. The best part of the gift was the bag she gave it to me in, which says “Sweet Heart present for you” all over it. I attached both of them to the zipper on my jacket. Now I need to think of something to get her, hopefully I can come up with something good.
Next time… my triumphs and (mostly) failures commuting to work, along with some terrible Vietnamese jokes.