My New House

Chu Nhat: Sunday
Vietnamese word of the day: Cam on--Thank you

Well, I'm all moved into my new home in Hai Duong. Its amazing how much more settled I feel just by unpacking my clothes, playing some music, and putting out all of my pictures.

My flat is really quite nice. The college has clearly worked very hard to make sure that I'm comfortable and at home. When I arrived I went straight up to the flat to use my bathroom, and by the time I came out there were about 10 people in my room to meet me. My host contact here, Thu, said that everyone wants to meet me because I am so strange looking. I'm going to take that as a compliment.

Here are some pictures of the new digs. I also have a roommate; he's a lizard named Lady, and he likes to eat mosquitoes. He and I are going to have a beautiful friendship.

My Bathroom. (The blue and red bins are the bath tub...but no worries. As my parents reminded me, I am the girl who used to love bathing in 5 gallon buckets in the mountains.)
My desk. Already a mess...

My parlor.
My bed area.
My boudoir curtains.
My kitchen area.
(God willing I will be able to figure out how to use the black things with the flames underneath...)

(This will be a regular occurrence in my new home)
God bless Skype.

Congrats to my parents on their move!

A mission from God.

Thu Bay: Saturday
Vietnamese Word of the day: con trau: buffalo

So yesterday I was feeling a little homesick** and one of my bestest and wisest friends, Emily Kunkel, decided to google random things in Vietnam to pass along to me and hopefully aid in shifting me to a less blue hue.

This morning I received the following email, with the subject line BIG NEWS!:
"Was googling things to try to cheer you up--and here we go! There is a well known covered bridge in Hoi An, Vietnam (in the Quang Nan Province of Vietnam's south central coast), called Chua Cau--the Japanese Bridge.


"If you make a teary speech about it at your school maybe they'll name a water buffalo after you?
Love,
Emily"

When I was 19 I attended a town meeting in Mount Joy, PA to discuss the possible, but expensive, restoration of one of Lancaster County's covered bridges that had recently been destroyed by arsonists. The head of the coalition to restore the bridge had asked if I would say a few words and speak for "my generation"....I know... Well, I went to the meeting, and lets just say I was already having an emotional day. The meeting kicks off and all of these little old ladies start pouring out these long, heartfelt stories about their first kisses under the bridge, and their cousin who died under the bridge in the flood, and the year the snow was 10 feet high and they couldn't use the bridge, and it all just became a little too much. It came to be my turn to speak and I started choking up, then sobbing as I tried to explain how much covered bridges mean to all of the community, and how that bridge is part of our heritage, and I'm so proud of where I come from even if I went to school in New York City and would never, with God as my witness, live in Mount Joy again.

The phrase "I took a little part of that bridge with me when I left" may or may not have come out of my mouth.

Regardless, my little speech made the first paragraph of the front page article in the Lancaster New Era the next day.

All of this boils down to one important fact: There is an alpaca farm in rural PA, and on this farm there is a brown-wavy haired alpaca named Maddie whose owners were so moved by my speech that they decided to name her after me.

(Alpaca Maddie)

I now have a mission: inspire animal namesakedom in every corner of the globe, beginning in Vietnam...with the water buffalo. Hopefully one as happy as this guy:

Isn't he cute?:)

**Its gonna happen. We're all dealing. Its fine. Lets talk about it.

One month down...9 to go.

Thu Sau Friday
Vietnamese Word of the Day:
Tam Biet: Goodbye

Today was my last day of class at the embassy. No more Vietnamese sessions. No more English Language Training. No more lectures on culture and history and economics and politics. I'm happy to me moving on and heading to my college, but it's also bittersweet. I've been living and working with the 9 other Fulbrighters everyday for the past month. We've really come together and supported one another, and its hard to believe that in 2 days we all scatter around the country and I move to my host town completely alone.

I've always considered myself a pretty capable and independent person--I did choose to sign up for this--but to be honest, I'm not really sure if I'm ready for the next 9 months.

Yesterday our English Language teacher gave us blurbs that last year's ETAs wrote about their difficulties over the course of the year. Basically they said that we may be robbed, we'll have no privacy, we'll be followed regularly, we'll have mold in our houses...and everywhere else, we will never be given a set schedule, we will likely have some sort of stomach issue, our host will probably insist on us working more than our contract stipulates, and we will be desperately lonely.

Seriously? You give that to me the day before I head out on my own? No wonder I had a panic attack...the "I'm stuck in a pit in the sand and its low tide now but I know what happens when the sun goes down" kind of panic attack.
But I've recovered.
Sort of.
Well, not really.
But I'm trying. I know the next 9 months are probably going to be the hardest of my life, but that may not be saying much. Let's face it: I've had it pretty cushy for the last 23 years. I guess everything is relative.

The good news is that I'm really excited to start teaching, and I am looking forward to overcoming the challenges. I also know that I'm going to learn a lot about myself. Hell, I already have. Why hasn't anyone ever sat me down and told me I'm an obscenely impatient control freak? That would have been useful information to have when moving to a developing country in Southeast Asia...

But I must say that while at the moment I feel quite scared and alone, I also feel very blessed. I have the most amazing family, and I also have some really wonderful friends. They've been supportive and loving, and "the pit in the sand panic attacks" would certainly be much more frequent without them. Props to them for dealing with me during my "adjustment period." When I get through this, it'll be because of them.

Wish me luck with my move!

Oh, and this is a picture of me teaching a lesson on New York City at the Embassy. I think I make a very cute teacher, so that's good news.

Inoculated

Thu Nam Thursday
Vietnamese Word of the Day: Me--mom (because I miss mine)

I have been inoculated.

-Hep A
-Typhoid
-Rabies
-Japanese Esyphilities (which until yesterday I still called Japanese Syphillus)

I am one of the few Fulbrighters who arrived to spend 10 months in Vietnam without these shots. "Why so stupid, Maddie?" I'll tell you why: because Fulbright required me get a physical, an HIV test, and a test to see if I was especially prone to Malaria, but they didn't give me so much as a list of recommended vaccines, preventative measures, or anything! Then, I get to VIETNAM and every piece of paper that comes in front of me is telling me all of the ways I may die if I'm not vaccinated!

FURTHERMORE, my doctor in New York also didn't give me any vaccination recommendations ! He didn't even offer to write me a prescription for malaria pills! I had to ask him on a later date! Mark my words Lawrence Adler of 9th Avenue Family Practice, you are no friend of mine.

But all of that is in the past. I am now thoroughly shot up and protected. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I have a splinter in my upper lip from my chopsticks. It hurts.

If god was one of us..or if we could at least meet him at a party...

Thu Tu: Wednesday

Vietnamese Word of the Day: yeu: love

So last week as part of my Vietnamese Culture Class, I took part in a Len Dong, which is a spirit possession ritual associated with Dao Mau, a Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion. I know. Pretty Awesome.

Without prep or explanation, my teacher led the class into a temple. The outside looked like this.

But the inside looked like this!

And there was a god! Or a medium dressed like a god! Or a medium channeling a god! Which then made him become a god!

Regardless, he was dressed in white satin and sequins and was waving his torch of flaming incense dangerously close to both my head and the paper dragons suspended from the ceiling. But I needn't have been concerned: there were about 6 ten year old mediums/gods-in-training fully equipped with a tupperware dish of water to extinguish the torch once it was lobbed in their general direction. They also had t-shirts to collect the burning embers that had scattered in front of the alter/under my respectfully bare feet.

Really though, it was a pretty good time with some sweet music and stylish dancing. As I understood it from our teacher later in class, a family will enlist the spirit medium and put on such a ceremony in times of worry or when they need guidance. For example, if a son wants to get married, his parents may put together this ceremony in order to channel an ancestral spirit and get a blessing or advice for him to move forward. The medium will also change his clothes and channel up to 10 different gods/spirits during one ritual ceremony. (Sounds like something out of the Fordham Acting Curriculum, right?) As part of the ceremony, the family offers the gods and spirits all sorts of food, beverages, and other gifts. The medium/god incarnated blesses the gifts, and afterward all of the guests share the wares.

I'm way oversimplifying it, and probably don't have it all correct anyway. But I will say this: If you can't get behind a religion that offers its gods beer and oreos, what can you get behind?

Analogous. Sort of.

Thu ba: Tuesday
Vietnamese Word of the day:
Tam hinh (photo)

Maddie's recent life changes, in analogies:

Lancaster County: Cow Crossing:: Hanoi Province:Water buffalo crossing
PA mountains:dad hunting deer ::Hang Ga Street sidewalk: child strangling duck
New York City:Rush Hour Traffic::Hoan Kiem Lake:5am women's aerobic classes
For good luck, in USA: crossing fingers::For good luck, in Vietnam: eating dog

More to come....in the meantime, here are some pictures of what's goin' down in Vietnam.
(I'm sorry the above looks like a link...I'm bad at blogs)

Some fellow Fulbrighters on the way to the Perfume caves and Pagoda.

Our rower, en route to the Perfume Mountain.

It was a helluva hike...

FU! (Mark and I love Fordham even in Vietnam)

Part of the Perfume Pagoda

Perfume Cave, supposedly discovered by the Goddess of Mercy

Thu Sau (Friday)
Vietnamese Word of the Day: dai su: ambassador

Last night we had dinner at the house of the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam. The food was good, the drinks were alcoholic, and the Ambassador looked like Teddy Roosevelt.I also got to meet my point person from Hai Duong Teachers College. Her name is Ms. Thu, and she was very sweet and very excited to meet me. She also brought another man from the college who kept having Ms. Thu translate for me that he thought I was very young and beautiful. It was nice, but kind of awkward.

Heading out to see the Quiet American at a 'Vietnam on Film' Festival. Looking forward to having some time to rest and explore this weekend...I'm beat.

Tam Biet. (Goodbye)

How to lose your Life (or become seriously ill or injured) while in Vietnam

Thu Ba Tuesday

Vietnamese Word of the Day: behn sot ret (malaria)

My first 2 days of orientation have been very informative. Here is some of what I've learned:

How to Lose your Life(or become seriously ill or injured) while in Vietnam

Dysentery

Typhoid

Malaria

Japanese Esyphilitus

Rabies

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis B

Worms

Parasites

Diarrhea

Dengue Fever

Swine Flu

Avian Bird Flu

Fungal Rashes of all kinds

Traffic Accidents (see below--terrifying)

Also, I may be followed or monitored at any time....

All of that being said, I am still so happy to be here! Our teachers and Vietnamese hosts are amazing. The head of the program is such a visionary. The things he's seen and done in his life are nothing short of extraordinary, and his goals for education in Vietnam are so inspiring. I'm proud to be here under him, along with some really awesome US Student Scholars.

We also started Vietnamese classes today. It's pretty tough....but our teacher Thuy (pronounced Twee) is funny and smart. She also gave us us all Vietnamese names. Mine is Ngoc Khan, meaning strong, bright, and happy woman....

Crossing the street in Hanoi. Don't try this at home.

First Day

Sunday- chu naht
Vietnamese Word of the day: Motorbike-xe moto

So I've just finished my first full day in Hanoi. I arrived late last night and, despite my jet lag, decided I would get up and try to find a Catholic Church. Vietnam is about 8% Catholic (probably about the same as Lancaster County), and I knew that there were a number of cathedrals and churches in Hanoi. My hotel directed me to St. Joseph's Cathedral, and Twee, the lovely girl at the front desk, gave me a map to get there. It was just a few blocks away, so how hard could it be?

Thus began possibly the most devout day of my life. I don't think I've ever prayed to God to spare my life before today, but I must have done so at least 15 times. I had been told that crossing the street in Hanoi would be ridiculous, but I figured that 5 years in New York had prepared me for crazy drivers who didn't stay in their lanes or obey traffic lights. I was wrong. Vietnam doesn't have lanes--or any type of law enforcement when it comes to the thousands of mo-peds and bicycles that came throttling towards me at every cross street. About halfway through the 15 minutes it should take to walk to St. Joseph's some man offered to help me with my map. Of course he was a mo-ped driver, who then expected me to get on his bike with him and go to the church. Being exhausted from dodging mo-peds on foot, I decided to get on with him--a mistake. He didn't know where he was going--we turned around about 3 times--and my life felt even more in danger than it had on foot. Alas, we finally arrived at the church. Mr. Mo-ped wanted to wait for me (and get another ludicrous $4 out of the deal) but I told him, assertively, NO. This was after he only accepted 4-$1 dollar bills without any tears or wrinkles. Unbelievable.

Despite the journey to get there, the mass really was quite lovely. The cathedral had definitely seen better days. I think it was probably built by the French in the early 1900s and took a few hits in the war, but the music was just really beautiful, and there was more singing than in mass at home. I could tell what was happening most of the time, and I did know 2 words: Hallelujah and Amen. They also played Ave Maria at communion: obviously I cried.

The rest of the day was an ongoing struggle between life, death, and mo=peds. I took a tour of the Old Quarter with another Fulbrighter I met named Corinne. We saw a lot of street restaurants and one killer old Banyan Tree. I got better at crossing the street--you just can't look either way: you just have to go and the drivers will dodge YOU.

Then tonight 6 of us Fulbrighters went out to BALCONY BAR a few blocks away. The beer was cheap, the gin was good, and a mix of Fergie and Christmas music was booming all night. There were also some lovely posters of Angeline Jolie adorning the walls...

Its a pretty cool crew here, and I think we're all excited about getting started. Tomorrow orientation starts at the US Embassy at 8:00. Gotta get some sleep.