The Mountains
Entrance to the Cave
The Cave (Perfume Pagoda)
The "Tough Cookies"
Rowing in the Rain
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Perfume Pagoda Pics
The Mountains
Entrance to the Cave
The Cave (Perfume Pagoda)
The "Tough Cookies"
Rowing in the Rain
Monday, September 28, 2009
Perfume Pagoda
Weekend before last, we went on a school field trip to the Perfume Pagoda (Chua Huong Pagoda). Early on Saturday morning, teachers, students, and several host siblings (mostly older—my brother and sister did not attend) boarded a large bus for a scenic two hour drive through the countryside. Upon arrival, despite some light rain and fog, we hopped into small boats rowed by local Vietnamese men and women. After a pleasant hour of rowing down a river between the beautiful mountains of Vietnam, we landed and the tour guide showed us the Temple of First Presenting (Den Trinh temple) and the Pagoda Leading to Heaven (Chua Thien Chu) and we stopped to eat our packed lunches (bread and condensed milk for me) before beginning the long trek up the mountain. Or at least some of us (the “tough cookies”) made the trek up the mountain while the wimpy ones took the cable car :)
What a beautiful hike though! The mountains of Vietnam are so gorgeous—gently sloping peaks swathed in dark green foliage rise from yellow-green rice paddies and patchwork farms. Stone stairs pave the way as we hike by shacks with corrugated tin roofs and walkways sheltered by blue tarps. Some people shout out, advertising cold water and ice cream while others just follow us with their eyes. We saw a small building with the floor covered in the yellow and white flowers that are so abundant here, and found out that people leave the flowers out to dry for making tea!
On the way up we took a brief detour to visit a small cave with altars inside. Pagodas are plentiful in and around Hanoi, and I have already visited many. When you walk in to the main room, there is usually a large altar in the center elaborately decorated in gold, red, and green with statues of Buddha presiding on top. The altar will be piled high with offerings of Choco-Pies, crackers, or fruit. Sometimes there are additional secondary altars to the right and left of the main one.
After around an hour or so of hiking, we finally reached the Perfume Pagoda itself. We climbed down a steep staircase into a huge cave, its lower walls covered in lush green moss, its ceiling soaring hundreds of feet above us, prayer flags draped like banners across it. Picking our way over the cave floor, we descended into the depths of the cave. Famous cave formations stand up in the middle of the floor as altars stand in the corners.
We take the cable car back down the mountain, and I can just see the distant flat farmlands through a break in the mountains. In the boat on the way back, I ask our rower lady if I can take a shot at rowing the boat. Although I managed to move us a few meters, it’s harder than you might think!
On the way home, we took a brief stop to chat with some friendly rice farmers and saw how they harvest rice- it’s tough work!
What a beautiful hike though! The mountains of Vietnam are so gorgeous—gently sloping peaks swathed in dark green foliage rise from yellow-green rice paddies and patchwork farms. Stone stairs pave the way as we hike by shacks with corrugated tin roofs and walkways sheltered by blue tarps. Some people shout out, advertising cold water and ice cream while others just follow us with their eyes. We saw a small building with the floor covered in the yellow and white flowers that are so abundant here, and found out that people leave the flowers out to dry for making tea!
On the way up we took a brief detour to visit a small cave with altars inside. Pagodas are plentiful in and around Hanoi, and I have already visited many. When you walk in to the main room, there is usually a large altar in the center elaborately decorated in gold, red, and green with statues of Buddha presiding on top. The altar will be piled high with offerings of Choco-Pies, crackers, or fruit. Sometimes there are additional secondary altars to the right and left of the main one.
After around an hour or so of hiking, we finally reached the Perfume Pagoda itself. We climbed down a steep staircase into a huge cave, its lower walls covered in lush green moss, its ceiling soaring hundreds of feet above us, prayer flags draped like banners across it. Picking our way over the cave floor, we descended into the depths of the cave. Famous cave formations stand up in the middle of the floor as altars stand in the corners.
We take the cable car back down the mountain, and I can just see the distant flat farmlands through a break in the mountains. In the boat on the way back, I ask our rower lady if I can take a shot at rowing the boat. Although I managed to move us a few meters, it’s harder than you might think!
On the way home, we took a brief stop to chat with some friendly rice farmers and saw how they harvest rice- it’s tough work!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Food
Meals on a typical day:
Breakfast ranges from French bread spread with condensed milk to leftover fish to chicken noodle soup. Grandma cooks and I wolf it down at 6:20am.
Lunch during the week is either at a cafeteria on campus or at one of the abundant cafes nearby and could be noodles with beef and vegetables, fried rice, or chicken and green beans. And lunch often involves ice cream and perhaps a sinh tò xoaí (mango smoothie).
I eat dinner with the family around 7:30pm. Mom and Grandma cook an assortment of different dishes to spread across the table while the giant rice cooker has a special chair at the table. Everyone sits down and gets a small bowl with chopsticks. First I pass my bowl down to get some rice and then I pick up food from different dishes, place them in my bowl, and eat them with rice. This often involves multiple arms reaching over others but I have yet to see anyone knock elbows. Using chopsticks to eat has posed some problems, but after my host father showed me the right way to eat, I think I’m getting better at the chopsticks thing. The method: once your bowl is full, you must maneuver your chopsticks as a shovel and hold your bowl right up next to your mouth, scooping the rice with meat or vegetable into your mouth. Needless to say, table manners are a little different here! Some of my favorite dishes are spring rolls (any variety), stewed tomatoes stuffed with meat, and squid.
Although my stomach took a few days to adjust, after a brief bout of food poisoning in my first week here I have thankfully had no further trouble. In fact, I think I am now so accustomed to Asian food that when we went out with the school for French food last week my tummy grumbled a bit!
Breakfast ranges from French bread spread with condensed milk to leftover fish to chicken noodle soup. Grandma cooks and I wolf it down at 6:20am.
Lunch during the week is either at a cafeteria on campus or at one of the abundant cafes nearby and could be noodles with beef and vegetables, fried rice, or chicken and green beans. And lunch often involves ice cream and perhaps a sinh tò xoaí (mango smoothie).
I eat dinner with the family around 7:30pm. Mom and Grandma cook an assortment of different dishes to spread across the table while the giant rice cooker has a special chair at the table. Everyone sits down and gets a small bowl with chopsticks. First I pass my bowl down to get some rice and then I pick up food from different dishes, place them in my bowl, and eat them with rice. This often involves multiple arms reaching over others but I have yet to see anyone knock elbows. Using chopsticks to eat has posed some problems, but after my host father showed me the right way to eat, I think I’m getting better at the chopsticks thing. The method: once your bowl is full, you must maneuver your chopsticks as a shovel and hold your bowl right up next to your mouth, scooping the rice with meat or vegetable into your mouth. Needless to say, table manners are a little different here! Some of my favorite dishes are spring rolls (any variety), stewed tomatoes stuffed with meat, and squid.
Although my stomach took a few days to adjust, after a brief bout of food poisoning in my first week here I have thankfully had no further trouble. In fact, I think I am now so accustomed to Asian food that when we went out with the school for French food last week my tummy grumbled a bit!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
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Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum
Little Brother
Mother, Sister, and Me at the Ho Chi Minh Museum
Mango Road
Ho Chi Minh's 'House on Stilts'
Presidential Palace
Friday, September 11, 2009
My Host Family
I have a mother (38), father (45), sister (11), brother (6), and a grandmother. I feel so lucky because I really like all of them and look forward to spending my four months with them. They all speak some English (except for the grandmother), but my mother and sister speak it fairly proficiently and communication is not much of an issue.
I usually eat dinner with my family as well as breakfast and lunch on the weekends. We also play badminton in the evenings, put together puzzles, play with tops, go on excursions to the pagoda or grocery store, and watch TV. Last weekend, my family and some other students and another family went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and museum and saw where he lived and worked—an interesting experience!
Their house is fantastic-- six beautiful stories including an indoor terrace on the roof, a fish tank in the living room, a garage with a car, and a karaoke room in the basement! Of course very few Vietnamese families live like this, but for now I am happy to be one of the lucky few.
I really love my host family, and am having a wonderful time here. Today we go on a school day trip to the Perfume Pagoda, which I am looking forward to despite the persistant rain! I will work on keeping you updated and still have much more to write about!
I usually eat dinner with my family as well as breakfast and lunch on the weekends. We also play badminton in the evenings, put together puzzles, play with tops, go on excursions to the pagoda or grocery store, and watch TV. Last weekend, my family and some other students and another family went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and museum and saw where he lived and worked—an interesting experience!
Their house is fantastic-- six beautiful stories including an indoor terrace on the roof, a fish tank in the living room, a garage with a car, and a karaoke room in the basement! Of course very few Vietnamese families live like this, but for now I am happy to be one of the lucky few.
I really love my host family, and am having a wonderful time here. Today we go on a school day trip to the Perfume Pagoda, which I am looking forward to despite the persistant rain! I will work on keeping you updated and still have much more to write about!
When 93 degrees feels cool...
Chào, and apologies for the late entry—I didn’t realize I would be so busy even here! Despite a brief bout of food poisoning, I am now completely healthy and doing well! Here is an example of what my daily schedule might be:
Monday
5:45am—Wake up, shower, breakfast with grandmother
6:30am—Leave for school in a carpool with neighbor Pamela and her host sisters, driven in a car by her host father
6:45am—Arrive at school and do homework and socialize until classes start
8:00am—Intensive Vietnamese language instruction
9:45am—Precalculus
10:35am—Free Period
11:20am—Lunch at either the university cafeteria or a nearby café
12:15pm—School Assembly
1:05pm—English
1:55pm—Environmental Science (Double period on Mondays for lab work)
*other subjects include Vietnamese History and Culture (VHAC) and Economics; All classes occur four times per week except for Vietnamese and Math which occur five times
3:30pm—Leave school for an internet café to get snack and do homework
5:30pm—TaeKwonDo class at the Hanoi Sports Centre with local kids, ages ranging from six years old to 17 years old! Three of us SYA’ers attend the class together twice a week.
7:30pm—Return home for dinner with host family
9:00pm—Finish homework and sleep!
Monday
5:45am—Wake up, shower, breakfast with grandmother
6:30am—Leave for school in a carpool with neighbor Pamela and her host sisters, driven in a car by her host father
6:45am—Arrive at school and do homework and socialize until classes start
8:00am—Intensive Vietnamese language instruction
9:45am—Precalculus
10:35am—Free Period
11:20am—Lunch at either the university cafeteria or a nearby café
12:15pm—School Assembly
1:05pm—English
1:55pm—Environmental Science (Double period on Mondays for lab work)
*other subjects include Vietnamese History and Culture (VHAC) and Economics; All classes occur four times per week except for Vietnamese and Math which occur five times
3:30pm—Leave school for an internet café to get snack and do homework
5:30pm—TaeKwonDo class at the Hanoi Sports Centre with local kids, ages ranging from six years old to 17 years old! Three of us SYA’ers attend the class together twice a week.
7:30pm—Return home for dinner with host family
9:00pm—Finish homework and sleep!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
A few snapshopts of Hanoi
A few snapshots of Hanoi
A 'massage train' at Hoan Kiem Lake
Train tracks
A street barber
Old Quarter, Hanoi
A long load
A 'massage train' at Hoan Kiem Lake
Train tracks
A street barber
Old Quarter, Hanoi
A long load
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