I’m not sure what I’ll be posting here, on my personal blog, since my VN trip is being documented on Return to the Motherland 2012. I think I’m going to try to keep from posting about my trip, at least in a passive tone.
I really wish I could see how the blog looks, but unfortunately, blogspot and wordpress are blocked in VN. Luckily, my blog is hosted through a different hosting site, rather than through wordpress, so I’m still able to post and view my personal blog. For the family blog, we have to use blogspot, which allows us to make posts, but not view the blog itself. I dunno. It’s weird.
So far, I’m enjoying this trip much more than last year’s trip. Having rooms for the cousins only, rather than having to share with the adults makes things more relaxed and enjoyable, and so far, we kids have been left to our own devices . . . No obligation to spend time with the adults, where we’d eventually get bored because they’d speak Vietnamese most of the time, and then we’d be stuck wherever they are.
I’ve been having trouble with the jetlag, same as my cousins, but I don’t remember having so much trouble last year with it. I didn’t sleep on the plane like last year. For overseas flights, it seems that they have scheduled times where they dim all the lights to get passengers to sleep, and I assume that’s to help with the jetlag. I totally didn’t do that this time, read a book for the first half of the flight, and then slept for most of the second half . . . so I herped up this time.
My cousin, Theresa, has been trying to speak Vietnamese, and since she knows less Vietnamese than I do, it encourages me to try and speak more often. Hopefully, by the time I go home, I’ll be able to speak a little better. My cousin, Quan, who’s gone to Viet school in Houston (sort of like Sunday school, but on Saturdays, and all you learn is Vietnamese stuff), is teaching me some of the grammar and stuff, so that I’m not totally illiterate. I’m excited because I’ve always wished I could speak Vietnamese fluently, but alas, the daycares in the US speak only English or English and Spanish, and I guess my parents spoke more English than Vietnamese to me when I was young, so I didn’t retain much knowledge of the Vietnamese language.
I know this is a text-only blog, and I apologize for it not being as interesting as ones with pictures or the vlogs. If the internet is willing to upload the video, I’ll try to make a vlog for my next post.
Until next time,
Praxis
Because when I drink, aside from the Asian blush, I also get mildly itchy and feel kinda swollen. And apparently no one else in the family has experienced this, from what I gather.
I guess I’ll backtrack and start from the beginning, though I don’t think I’ll start with the flight. Theresa pretty much covered that part. I think. It’s hard to tell because we can’t view our blog from Vietnam, but can post just fine.
After we landed and got out of the airport, we went to the apartment building we would be staying in while we are in Saigon. Our family knows the owners, so it’s easier to stay at the apartments rather than looking for a hotel. Once we got to the apartments and settled in, my cousins and I (and Evan) pretty much passed out, around 5 in the afternoon (5 in the morning central time). My cousins and Evan somehow slept until 5 the next morning, while I woke up around 12 or 1 and didn’t go back to sleep until 3, after having downloaded some books to read.
It’s okay, I like my gift better, anyway!
The gift for my sister, which I accidentally opened.
The next morning, I also got up at 5, and my aunt on my dad’s side, Co Hoa, was visiting from the country with her oldest daughter, who goes to a university in Saigon. They had an ao dai and a suit for my parents, which I think my parents had asked to be made for them. Co Hoa also had a jacket made for me, using measurements they had taken while I was in Vietnam last year; this surprised me, as I didn’t expect to be receiving anything and just thought I would be giving them the candy and medicine my parents had sent with me to give to her family. I was pretty touched, especially when my cousin gave me two small boxes that were gifts for my sister and me, from her two younger sisters. We had spent an extended amount of time with them last year, compared to all the other places we had visited.
After my aunt left to return to her home in the country, my cousins and I were all left to do whatever we wanted. We spent a good 2 or 3 hours just sitting around, getting caught up with things we’d missed during our flight to VN, as well as looking for tourist-y things to do in the city. We eventually decided on a war memorial museum, which we went to after lunch. The lunch was kinda disappointing, since the items Theresa and I had first wanted were not available. The three of us (Theresa, Evan, and me) ended up ordering the same thing, at the suggestion of the waiter. I think he was tired of waiting for us to look through the menu.
The war museum was pretty interesting, but also was rather draining. As Theresa told me last night, for many of the pictures, you end up thinking of something like, “This could’ve been my mom or dad,” and for the photos showing the aftermath of agent orange, “This could’ve been me.”
There were 3 floors in the museum, and after eavesdropping on a tour guide when we first entered, we went to the 3rd floor to start. That was where the majority of the photos were, and most of them had a caption. Even after picking and choosing captions to read, getting through that exhibit took a really long time. Personally, after leaving that exhibit, I didn’t have much interest in looking at the rest of the museum, probably because the rest was more historical, and not so personal.
By this time, we were pretty exhausted from the walking around and lingering jetlag, so we took a taxi back to our apartment and “took a nap” around 5. My cousins got up earlier than I did and went to have some coffee with a third cousin of ours, but I chose to sleep longer and didn’t wake up until 9, after they had gotten back and woken me up to go eat dinner.
This part of our day was kinda a bust. Apparently, the address we had gotten from the internet for the restaurant was completely wrong, and actually had two different streets in the name. The taxi driver took us to both streets, but we suspect that he took us in a huge circle when driving us to the second street. Saigon is separated into districts, and the place we ended up at was in the same district as our apartment. We found a barbecue place on the street to eat at, but only Theresa and I ate, as Evan and Quan were both full from meals earlier in the day.
Theresa and I were both pretty surprised at how good the food was. It was sort of in the style of a Korean barbecue, where they bring you a plate of seasoned, raw meat, and you grill the meat yourself on the pot of coals. Oh, we also had some beer, which, as I stated at the beginning of the blog, affected me a lot. I suspect that part of it was due to being in a novel context, where the same amount of a drug (alcohol) as one had in their normal setting affects them much more when partaking of the drug in a new context. Or so my neuroscience knowledge tells me.
In any case, 2 was enough to give me a good buzz and make me sleep at 12 once we got back. We had 2 plates of bbq, one plate of pork, and another plate of goat meat. Both were delicious, and I’m hoping we go back there to eat before leaving VN. The place we ate at had two dogs and two kittens, and it was really hard for me to not call them over to pet them. I probably would have, if it weren’t for Theresa, who said not to because they could have rabies. So I made myself content with taking pictures of them, though I only got pictures of the kittens, and not the puppies.
So, I hear the plan for today is that we cousins are allowed to go about the city and do our own thing again, so we’re going to the Reunification Palace, and possibly another place if we have time. Quan is spending time with family on his dad’s side, but will be back in time to eat dinner and then go to the place we had planned to eat dinner at yesterday. Tomorrow, we’re leaving for another city, but will be back in Saigon on Tuesday.
Thinking about it now, 3 weeks does really seem short. Having an apartment just for the cousins (rather than having to share with the adults) and being able to do things on our own definitely makes this trip more enjoyable than last summer’s. Seriously, Teresa, I think you’re missing out. I don’t even think it’s as hot as it was last year — the temperature the last few days has been mid-80’s, though still really humid.
TL;DR? Well, whatever. Most of my posts are like this, anyway. SO GET USED TO IT.
(Copy pasta’d from cousin’s blog, will add pictures later)
Hey guys, I know it’s been a while. I have a draft written up for before I went to Akon, but the video wouldn’t upload to Youtube, so that’s why it’s been so long. I also need to blog about Akon itself, but I’ll probably do that later and just change the date to the weekend of Akon. So what if that’s cheating?!
I’ve landed in Singapore, and the flight to Vietnam from here takes about 2 hours. It’ll be 11:00 there, which means it’ll be 23:00 in the US, a half day behind Vietnam. My cousins and I started a blog (Return to the Motherland 2012)which we’ll be using while we’re in Vietnam, but I’ll be sure to keep posting here every once in a while. I’m in Vietnam for 3 weeks and will be flying back on the 24th.
Stay cool for those of you in the US! I know I’ll have to work for it.
Herp — I meant that my sister and her fiance got D3 for me as an early BIRTHDAY present, not early Christmas present. Also, sorry about the dim lighting . . . that’s just how I usually keep my apartment, and I forgot to turn on another light to make the lighting better. And yes, I know that the last sip of hot chocolate I took in the video was timed absolutely horribly. (Wut, you mean that stopping in the middle of a sentence is inappropriate?!?)
A couple of other plus points about bartending that I didn’t cover in the video:
– I could use it as a fairly self-sustaining source of income should I need to use it as such.
– It would help me further in becoming socially adept, which would help with med school applications and interactions with future patients.
– I would get more interaction with customers as a bartender than as a server, which ties in with the previous point.
– I would get paid more than if I were to be a server, which ties into the first point.
– It could help me become more “well-rounded”, as opposed to if I were to try and get a job in the medical field as a scribe or something like that.
I JUST WANT A JOB GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH.
I want to be cremated. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away two weeks ago, and her funeral was this past weekend. I’m glad that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore, but it was really difficult to watch my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandpa have to deal with the pain of her loss. Most of my family wrote a piece about her for a memoir, and after reading through the rough copy last weekend, I wish I had been able to get to know her better. Most of my cousins also were in the same situation as me; the language barrier and my grandma’s quiet nature kept us from being able to bond with her over the years, but it’s easy to see how amazing she was through what my aunts and uncles had to say about her in the memoir.
In junior high, my great grandma passed away, but I don’t really have any memories of her at all, and my memory of her funeral proceedings are very hazy. So it was pretty surprising to see the ceremonial/traditional funeral garments that my parents, aunts, and uncles wore . . . to be honest, it had a cult-ish Ku Klux Klan vibe since Asian cultures traditionally associate white with death and mourning. And the daughters of my grandma had a hood as part of their garment.
Although my grandma passed away, it was nice to see that my family was also able to have fun, even on the same day of her burial. After her burial ceremony, our family went to a restaurant to eat, where we had reserved a private room. I’m not sure how other funerals are, but I think that the feast was probably also a way to celebrate her life.
I suppose I should get back to my initial point. I want to be cremated when I die. My grandma had an open-casket viewing before the burial, and whoever prepared her body must’ve pulled back the skin on her face to make it more taught and “prettier”. They also put make-up on her, and the lipstick made her look completely unlike how I had seen her when she was alive. So I want to be cremated in order for people to be able to remember me the way they want to, not still and lifeless. Besides, I have this crazy notion that I’d arrange for my ashes to be split up into bottles for people to take away with them. Like party favors or something. So that they can scatter them on their next vacation. In any case, I’d want my funeral to be more of a celebration, but I guess funerals are for the living, not for the dead. Or so I’ve heard.
I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but there is a new sub-page under the “About the Authors” page. Phantasma is a fellow student who is starting to focus more on his interest in writing and drawing/art. I’m sure he’ll post his on introduction soon enough, but I figured I should go ahead and formally announce it in a post of my own. After all, this is my blog.
Classes are officially over for me, and now it’s finals time. I only have two, and the first one isn’t until Friday, the 11th, so I have quite a bit of time to procrastinate study. However, what I’m worried about most at this point is my piano II class’s recital on Saturday. What with the funeral and the suspense with my grandma’s death, I hadn’t really put much effort into practicing my piece. It’s an etude, which is a piece “intended as an exercise or to demonstrate technical virtuosity” (dictionary.reference.com), and as such, a real pain in the ass to learn. I’m happy to say that I’ve seen a great amount of progress in the past couple of days and can get through the piece fairly easily. At least, I pretty much know the notes; it’s just getting my fingers to remember them by Saturday. If I don’t have it down by Saturday evening, I at least have a fall-back, and my professor already knows about this. But she’s given me her vote of confidence and seems to think that I’ll be able to have it together by Saturday, so I’m sure that’ll help boost my morale and all that jazz.
I probably won’t publish another post ’til after finals, but at least then I’ll have time to make a vlog.For all my readers who are also students, good luck on finals!
I just tried an epsom foot soak for the first time in my life, and it felt soooo good. Next step is to take an epsom salt bath.
It’s been two weeks since my last blog post.
The days passed by in a blur.
My parents visited for Easter,
And my apartment is covered in fur.
I flew through the last week feeling like a ghost.
On last Thursday’s Neuropsych exam, I regrettably made a C.
But it’s okay because I got some adjustable dumbbells for free.
Things are still good, as far as I can see.
Today I feel like a piece of toast.
Driving in traffic is probably worse than the bends.
My ex and I are no longer just friends.
But my grandma looks like she’s near the end.
I may never even get to see her again.
So herp, I’m still working on finding a satisfactory camera setup for my vlogs; I’m seriously thinking about buying one of those mirrors that hair salons use (you know, to show you what the back of your head looks like) and setting it behind my camera so I can see what the heck I’m doing while vlogging and adapt accordingly.Until then, sorry when I try to show you stuff and you actually don’t really see it. And same goes for me being off-center for pretty much the entiiiiiree video.
So last night, my sister posted this on her facebook wall. We’ve kinda talked ourselves into wanting to do it, but given the fact that we’re way out of shape and probably pansies, we’re waiting ’til at least next year (probably October) to participate. However! We think we might volunteer at the one in Austin this October and see what it’s like. I think it sounds fun! Granted, a 10-12 mile obstacle course sounds really grueling . . . we’ll have a lot of work to do before we can consider ourselves ready for the challenge. Neither of us have done that kind of thing before, so we both figured that it’s something we want to try at least once in our lives.
Here’s a picture of the Konexi game where we were determined to use all 26 letters. What words can you find?
And this video makes me want to buy a used PS2 and DDR and be all awesome on it. (And it’s also actually pretty decent exercise!) He makes it look so easy! This guy is the creator of the Dead Fantasy series and works as an animator and choreographer for Rooster Teeth Productions, the company that makes Red vs. Blue. This video and this video were both made by Oum using mocap (Motion capture) technology, and Oum choreographs and performs the dances himself . . . So in short, I’m saying I’m jealous of his dancing abilities, haha. And it’s also pretty amusing to watch those videos and imagine him dancing to it.
So my piano II class had a recital yesterday (Sunday). I only played my duet piece because I didn’t like my Baroque piece enough to want to perform it for other people. Now, my partner and I had been practicing for weeks, and our performance of the piece was pretty solid. Apparently, I still get quite a bit of stage fright because I totally herped up big time while we performed our duet. One part, I’m not sure what messed me up, but I had to stop playing altogether for a few seconds. Another part, my left hand decided to skip a measure, and so I had to drop its part for a few seconds as well. I know I messed up somewhere else, but I can’t remember exactly what it was. And my hands started shaking halfway through the piece. Fuuuuuuu —
And I thought it would be easier/less stressful for me if it were a duet because I wouldn’t be up there by myself. I feel like I was even more nervous than if I had been performing alone, though I don’t know why that is. PUH. Whatever. Guess I’m not meant to be a performer.
Ionno what else I had planned on talking about so I’m going to end this vlog/blog now.
Sorry for having so many links in this post loooooolll. Was that title too long? Herpp.
Edit: GOOD NEWS! Turns out that the campus police were just being super cautious and picked up my bike in order to prevent it from being stolen. I’ve already gone and picked it up from the police department, and all is well in the world. :D I’ll also try to put up the vlog/blog I had planned to post during the weekend by tonight. I hope everyone’s having as good a day as I am!
But someone stole my bike. This means I have had a bike stolen from me TWICE in THREE months. See, I can get having a bike stolen from me once, especially since the first one was just sitting on the bike rack unlocked, but this time, I had LOCKED THE REAR TIRE TO THE FRAME.
So lemme backtrack and give you the background.
I had biked to the Jonsson Performance Hall at around 12 AM to practice piano on the nice Steinway, which took some sneaking about in itself, since all buildings are generally locked by this time at night. But there’s usually at least one way in, through one of the buildings, and with all the skywalks, entry into one of them pretty much equals entry into the rest of them.
Anyway. Practicing in Jonsson Performance Hall. Towards the end of my practice session, around 1:30 or so, I hear noises outside of the hall, but since no one bothered me and I heard no talking, I just kept practicing and ignored the slight commotion. I leave the hall around 2:10 AM and see tables set up in front of the hall (as if in preparation for an event later in the day), which made me pause for a second while I tried to remember whether or not those were there when I first got to the hall. After concluding that they were set up during my practice, I leave the building through the wheelchair/handicap accessible door, which is where I had left my bike.
AND IT WAS GONE.
And I was liek, “WTF.”
So then I walked around and checked all the nearby bike racks to make sure that it wasn’t on one of those, moved by someone who thought it would be a fun prank to take someone’s bike and place it elsewhere. I confined my search to the nearest buildings because, after all, the rear tire was locked to the frame, and I doubt a prankster would go through all the trouble of carrying a bike to a far-off bike rack. This also is likely the reason that allows me to eliminate the student population living on campus.
And then we go back to the fact that someone had been in the building while I was practicing. Given that the buildings are locked and that tables were set-up, it was likely a maintenance person who had the keys and the task of setting up tables. Being a maintenance worker, this person most likely also had a pick-up truck. In addition, being a maintenance person, it wouldn’t be suspicious to see this person driving around on the campus at night, in between buildings where there aren’t any roads. Therefore, I conclude that a maintenance person stole my bike. Because they had a truck, they were able to just simply throw my bike into the bed and drive off to their house, where it would be simple to use bolt cutters or whatever to remove my bike lock. And then voila, new bike for child, wife, or self.
Really. Why did it have to be mine. Technically, it’s not even mine. It’s my friend’s, who lent it to me after having purchased a fancy new bike. WHATEVERIDON’TCARE.
Anyway, the vlog I was planning to post is already uploaded; I went to practice piano during the time it was uploading. So expect to have a vlog/blog in the next few days, if I can stop raging long enough to finish it.
No wonder I have no faith in humanity. AND HAPPY EARTH DAY I GUESS.
All right, I think I have these two videos in the right order. I can’t tell for certain right now because the videos are being converted and can’t be played as I edit this blog. The first vlog should be me talking in my pj’s about my drive home from Dallas. Also, wtf am I doing with my legs/feet? I think it’s safe to say that I fiddle quite a bit when talking, in one way or another. Of course, I also fiddle around when I’m not talking . . . I’m just a fiddler. Fiddler on the roof? Obscure (maybe) Jewish movie reference from BCA.
Anyway, this first video was filmed the same night I got back home from Dallas, which I probably say somewhere in the video. But I can’t be sure because I haven’t watched it since I first filmed it over a week ago. Oh wells.
This was the recording of the game “Peas Feed Me” on my old computer at home. I said that I didn’t know what the game was based off of in the vlog, but upon closer inspection, at the intro screen, it says that it’s based off of a TV show. Makes sense, I mean I can see the game setting being an actual scene in a TV show.
I’m gonna try and find it so I can have it on my laptop too lol. It’s always nice to have a game (or something) you can play (or do) that requires no real thought and is amusing, and therefore, relaxing to play (do).
The outfits looked something like this, but my sister’s was pink and silver instead of red and gold. Red and gold is reserved for the actual wedding day.
So yesterday (Sunday) was my sister’s engagement ceremony. Traditionally, in the Vietnamese culture, the male’s family prepares/performs the ceremony for the female’s family. I guess one could compare it to the man asking the woman’s parents for her hand in marriage. Except more fancy. Since my sister’s fiance is not Vietnamese, my parents decided not to force Brad (and his parents) to prepare the ceremony themselves. Of course, the ceremony could have been skipped entirely, but my parents wanted to do this for my sister because “they’re worth it.” Not entirely sure what they mean by that, at least, not in specific terms.
In any case, it was nice and there was lots of good food and my sister and her fiance got to wear fancy traditional Vietnamese clothes for the ceremony. I got to meet Brad’s parents (along with the rest of my family, which means parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles . . . the whole kit and caboodle), and they left me (and I think most everyone else) with a good impression. However, aside from the honoring of ancestors and procession of gifts at the beginning of the ceremony, the whole thing didn’t really feel much different from a regular holiday get-together.
The roast pig is so good! It has a crunchy skin while the actual meat remains moist and super flavorful.
I guess this is a nice way to describe the ceremony and give some detail about the reasons behind certain parts in a short-and-sweet kind of manner.
What’s funny is that my mom told me that I have to marry a Vietnamese guy because she’ll cry if both of her daughters marry “American” guys. I think it’s relatively safe to assume that American = white. When I told my sister that our mom had said that, she laughed and replied that “it’s not her decision to make anyway.” Which is all true, but to be honest, I’ve kinda inherently known that my parents expect that of me, or would like that, so my preferences have been shaped to include that as a requirement. Of course, before this little conversation, the preference hadn’t been as definite, and I’ve only dated white guys so far, but I’ve always felt that it would be best if I found a Vietnamese guy who also fit all my other preferences.
The point is, I don’t mind that my parents have really narrowed down my “sea of fish” into a pond. Even though it was my mom who brought it up, I’m sure that my dad feels the same way.
So, in other news, my cousin accompanied me back to Dallas last night. He’s a high school senior and is using his college days to visit my campus (more as an excuse to miss school than due to interest in my college). We didn’t get back to Dallas until 12:30, and early on in the ~5 hour trip, we stopped at a gas station to fill up my tank and grab some energy drinks. I had the bright idea to grab a Monster Java Loca Moca (energy drinks and coffee have never really worked consistently on me; half the time I feel they had no effect at all, the other half they’re super effective), and by the time we got to my apartment, I was pretty awake. As a result, I’ve pulled an impromptu all-nighter, one in which I actually wasn’t totally unproductive. I gave my cousin a tour around campus, we sneaked into some of the buildings, and I actually did some studying for one of my classes.
Thank goodness I only have one class today (technically, I have two, but the second class is pretty fail). I feel somewhat tired right now, but not like I’m going to pass out. Hopefully I can stay up until this evening, and then go to sleep at a decent time.
My cousin leaves for Houston tomorrow evening/afternoon, and the plan seems to be that he’ll take the Greyhound bus back. I’ll have to drive him to the station, though, and I’m not entirely sure where that is, though I’ve been told it’s in downtown. I just hope I don’t get stuck in rush-hour traffic.
And even with all this extra time I got from not sleeping, I still haven’t unpacked my clothes and whatnot.
