tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75057530766524394262024-03-05T08:06:58.775-08:00GIEU Vietnam - Laos: JOURNEY beyond the SEA to SouthEast AsiaGlobal Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates in Vietnam and Laos, May 2011gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-61800668988239917982011-05-31T20:30:00.000-07:002011-05-31T20:48:18.190-07:00May 31- Save the best for last<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFXyDEoAnEcmgVyvKtjsJXlaEDUcZjnyx3AUV5aj-plFaj1bbI284bXsTZYSbmh1VYLFTw-WnBP1TfhxEvkcJYp1yEdHVG2n5RP_BF0AFHtwoE-HemjwMDPhV4tDBcUFsBANzZ98aJM8/s1600/P1060493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFXyDEoAnEcmgVyvKtjsJXlaEDUcZjnyx3AUV5aj-plFaj1bbI284bXsTZYSbmh1VYLFTw-WnBP1TfhxEvkcJYp1yEdHVG2n5RP_BF0AFHtwoE-HemjwMDPhV4tDBcUFsBANzZ98aJM8/s640/P1060493.JPG" width="640" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And so the morning of May 31 is Time to fly for most of us to our new destinations and it was so hard to say goodbye, and I seriously think it's much better when we gave huge hugs to each other and hope to see one another again in the future.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Many of us took the bus back to Vientiane to take the train to Thailand, some us took the flight home, and the Hanoi University girls took the train from Luang Prabang to Vinh (Vietnam) and then home in Hanoi.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It has been the A-May-zing month of May if I should say, in four weeks we have travelled to various places in Vietnam and Laos, we have been to many caves, rivers, mountains and the sea, we have visited many historical sites and have been to many temples and beautiful places. We have travelled by all means of transportation that we can, by bus, by train, by boats and we can not count how many steps we have walked along the road and on the way up and down to some temples and caves up high in the mountains. We have been together as a group and we have met so many wonderful people in Vietnam and Laos, and worked with the local people in our volunteer project sites. We have completed our service work in Quang Tri (Vietnam) and Xieng Khuoang (Laos) to bring the new look to the places we have been to. There was some low moments during the trip but most of the time we jumped really HIGH :) and I am sure we have learned a lot from what we have experienced, many of which we have never known before.</div><span style="font-size: small;">I would like to get back to what</span><span style="font-size: small;"> William Faulkner said "<i><b>You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.</b></i>", I think we have gone beyond the horizon and made this journey to the SEA (Vietnam and Laos) our MAY, the Marvelous Adventure of the Year.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">It has been a great journey in four weeks of May and we will keep the memory of the trip and our smiles forever wherever we go for our next destination.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">-TA-</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHoEjR1fk4S-UAFq2L88FHHgpqKzIeBN089TbI2m2dAjRhbovu9DHbXtYf1KKPMTL-X4d7q9qyDcx2fUVIp4n2yt8k4nhZOaY4TmuF5FmLi-ZNwqJFhsc-cXaF-bHfj67hnn8anZYtY1A/s1600/Library+XK.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHoEjR1fk4S-UAFq2L88FHHgpqKzIeBN089TbI2m2dAjRhbovu9DHbXtYf1KKPMTL-X4d7q9qyDcx2fUVIp4n2yt8k4nhZOaY4TmuF5FmLi-ZNwqJFhsc-cXaF-bHfj67hnn8anZYtY1A/s640/Library+XK.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-29188619948965666782011-05-30T10:31:00.000-07:002011-05-30T10:31:43.320-07:00Smiles from Luang Prabang<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H5YdKd78x8U/TePUPFrqYaI/AAAAAAAAAjo/RHwuY1S20JI/s1600/IMG_5987.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H5YdKd78x8U/TePUPFrqYaI/AAAAAAAAAjo/RHwuY1S20JI/s640/IMG_5987.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-9460920715073464112011-05-27T08:46:00.000-07:002011-05-27T08:46:55.282-07:00French Fries, Chopsticks and Paint SplattersAt the conclusion of our harrowing journey through the mountainous northern regions of Laos, we have emerged to find a much colder climate in Phonsavan, the likes of which suit most of our Michigan counterparts and leave new Vietnamese friends donning cardigans and long pants.<br />
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Luckily this gives us all a chance to make use of our scarf purchases from Hanoi - the likes of which we thought would be dead weight in our suitcases during 36 hour return flights. This is good news!<br />
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This leg of our trip begins at the Xieng Khouang Hotel for our first night not requiring air conditioning.<br />
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This component of our service project takes us to the Xiangkhaung Library for 3 days of painting, landscaping and french-fry eating (with chopsticks, naturally). We began our first day sanding the outer walls of the library in preparation for a new coat of primer and paint, a festive coral with maroon trim.<br />
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The majority of our two days to date have been spent with the current staff of librarians and some local children for added guidance in the finer points of painting. The library sits on a former UXO site which has now been cleaned up to make way for both a local museum and our project. The library project we are working on exists in the wider scope of the Lao Library Project (http://www.libraryoflaos.com/), an NGO begun by an American Veteran originating in Vietnam with corollary projects in Laos and Cambodia. The project looks to create central librarys in each of Laos 100 provinces with room to create smaller satellite facilities to serve the greater populations in these countries with multi-media resources.<br />
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Many of the sites picked housed former UXOs with the intention of replacing bombs with books and creating a place for humanitarian efforts and community building.<br />
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We look forward to completion of our small part in this exciting effort and doing some touring later in the week around this historic area in the heart of the mountains.Teshiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04068386205237880068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-34719723791046597492011-05-24T08:16:00.000-07:002011-05-25T16:27:58.502-07:00Lovin' Lao<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YQfXAy33Vcw/Td2ObwaVx_I/AAAAAAAAAjI/k2VqqBnfm04/s1600/5760095610_ce1b4a2de5_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="498" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YQfXAy33Vcw/Td2ObwaVx_I/AAAAAAAAAjI/k2VqqBnfm04/s640/5760095610_ce1b4a2de5_b.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
We arrived in Laos after a long and arduous ordeal with immigration officials. Strangely the Laos border was only about one mile from where we had stayed the previous night. Our new tour guide, Alie, met us with our new bus on the Laos side of the border. We loaded up the bus and drove for about four hours until we reached Savannakhet, our home for the night. After a very late lunch, we set to explore the area. Some of us took a walk to the river to watch the sunset while the rest of the group went to a local park and played soccer and basketball with some of the local kids. Tomorrow we continue our journey in Laos and head to Vientiane—about a six hour bus ride from Savannakhet. Hopefully we can pick up some Laotian on the way! <br />
We have arrived at Vientiane, which is the capital of Lao. We got a chance to wander around the city and see some of the major attractions including the Golden Stupa, three Buddhist temples, and the Victory Monument. Later on in the day, we had a meeting with the head of public affairs in the U.S. embassy in Laos and learned about her experiences. Our hotel was right next to the Presidential Palace and right across from the Mekong River, which separates Lao and Thailand! It was really nice to walk along the river. On our last night at Vientiane, we were treated to some traditional Lao dance and music. <br />
From there, we continued our journey through the beautiful mountains of Laos to Phonsavan where we will be starting our library project for the next four days. <br />
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Our last night in Vietnam, we had a big dinner as farewell for Truc – our fabulous guide. We feasted on giant prawns, fried squid, clams, vegetables and of course, rice. We hung out the rest of the night and finished off with a special presentation for Truc and a group discussion reflecting on our experience in Vietnam.<br />
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</div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-47719289457274464602011-05-24T07:44:00.000-07:002011-05-24T08:23:09.789-07:00More exploring in Quang TriOur last few days in Vietnam were really memorable. We left Dong Ha for Lao Bao – a town on the border of Vietnam and Laos. On the way, we made a quick stop at the Rock Pile and learned a bit of history about the battles fought there. All the foliage that had been destroyed during the war has grown back so we could not climb the Rock Pile itself, but we took a couple of pictures and learned some interesting facts about the war. The Rock Pile presented an obstacle for both sides in the war, and especially for the US Army because they were unfamiliar with the terrain. Next, we spent some time at the Van Kieu minority village. We treated the kids to some candies and learned about their lifestyles. Because they don’t speak Vietnamese, it was difficult for us to communicate with them but we found that a smile can be as good as words. The villagers’ livelihood consists of various agricultural practices, and because their parents work all day in the fields, the older children are responsible for taking care of their siblings. <br />
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From the village, we walked down to the Ho Chi Minh trail. In the war, it was crucial transportation route for soldiers and supplies between North and South Vietnam and Laos. Then we went to the museum in Khe Sanh. The mountains surrounding the museum were beautiful but in the past there was so much bloodshed there. Next, we continued on to Lao Bao and spent the afternoon exploring the town. We spent a mellow night in Lao Bao. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-071up5DwGUk/TdvD4eVgvKI/AAAAAAAAAhE/6qmdCNQqh-A/s1600/IMG_0902.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-071up5DwGUk/TdvD4eVgvKI/AAAAAAAAAhE/6qmdCNQqh-A/s320/IMG_0902.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-14200935385531891232011-05-20T15:12:00.000-07:002011-05-20T15:12:47.609-07:00En route to Laos, see you again, Vietnam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AHsCNxVxueQ/Tdbm8JO-cdI/AAAAAAAAAeE/YqUPT2BNFsQ/s1600/P1050937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AHsCNxVxueQ/Tdbm8JO-cdI/AAAAAAAAAeE/YqUPT2BNFsQ/s640/P1050937.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-47094890516451215712011-05-18T08:27:00.000-07:002011-05-18T10:21:50.013-07:00The Phong Nha CaveToday we took a trip to the Phong Nha Cave, which translates to "wind teeth." The cave is given this name because it is very windy inside and the rock formations resemble teeth. After a three hour bus ride, we arrived at the Son River, located in the Quang Binh province, north of Quang Tri. We then boarded two small boats that took us down stream to the cave. We spent time trekking through the cave, admiring the natural carvings, as well as climbing up the outside of the mountain to see more of the cave. Along the way up, we saw spectacular views of the countryside. This breathtaking view is scattered with dark memories of the war, with small ponds and darker shades of soil marking bomb craters. We ended our afternoon outing with lunch at a nearby hotel then traveled back to Đông Hà.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TfJkw1cSOoU/TdP_ktWxuyI/AAAAAAAAAdo/OTqw9dro2UU/s1600/P1050905.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TfJkw1cSOoU/TdP_ktWxuyI/AAAAAAAAAdo/OTqw9dro2UU/s640/P1050905.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3GB4OevQ7_wHvOVAEfB2tJ9dPbyrKNQGLz3sW7PxaH4MyXQw9Vq6Q8JcYZbVB9ncGk7vw-1vdyH-97N3AuzcPmigIaKMgXwLokFf2ZOaLZQVcP-ygLKXjfMalh3ciFk76abKEEYSpc0/s1600/P1050917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3GB4OevQ7_wHvOVAEfB2tJ9dPbyrKNQGLz3sW7PxaH4MyXQw9Vq6Q8JcYZbVB9ncGk7vw-1vdyH-97N3AuzcPmigIaKMgXwLokFf2ZOaLZQVcP-ygLKXjfMalh3ciFk76abKEEYSpc0/s640/P1050917.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-56737588562200758462011-05-18T08:18:00.000-07:002011-05-18T10:09:36.853-07:00Exploring the War Remnants in the Quang Tri ProvinceYesterday we took a trip to the town of Quang Tri, DMZ (the former demilitarized zone) located along the 17th parallel, the Vinh Moc tunnel, and the beach. The town of Quang Tri is where the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War took place. We visited the ancient citadel where the battle occurred, and learned more about it from the museum.<br />
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Then we traveled north to the DMZ, where we walked across the Ben Hai River bridge that separated the north and the south during the war. For many of us, it was eye opening to see how distant two parts of a country can be and how real it felt given the physical separation. We also visited the museum at the DMZ and saw some pictures of the NGOs that are working to help restore communities affected by the war, including Project RENEW. Visiting the museum helped us to understand more about the role of Quang Tri in the war and the efforts that NGOs have been making since. Many of us were moved by crossing the river and visiting the museum because it made the war seem much less distant than it does at home in the US.<br />
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From there we traveled east to the Vinh Moc tunnel along the coast of the South China Sea (also known as the East Sea in Viet Nam). We crawled through tunnels made by the North Vietnamese during the war to be used as protection for soldiers and their families. Entire communities lived in these underground homes for long periods of time. Children were born in the tunnels, attended school there, and families eventually transitioned their entire lives to the underground tunnels.<br />
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In the afternoon we got a bit of relaxation at the Cua Viet Beach. It was nice to spend the afternoon in the sand and the waves.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLe6cPglpJJ0IzQ5jgnC6FvBSZ3wVk-4EnOUxb1crhLbCRXMWqI6-Um2GFrJkJ6R5LcGboFVjZ7To54IQPsiYE0E-IT6o2AP_Gk-vUa9eR86oMpXn9cYLGHm9M_E57t8GIIk-FeS9b44/s1600/229075_10150198081371665_636131664_6739523_1370577_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLe6cPglpJJ0IzQ5jgnC6FvBSZ3wVk-4EnOUxb1crhLbCRXMWqI6-Um2GFrJkJ6R5LcGboFVjZ7To54IQPsiYE0E-IT6o2AP_Gk-vUa9eR86oMpXn9cYLGHm9M_E57t8GIIk-FeS9b44/s640/229075_10150198081371665_636131664_6739523_1370577_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-61583045275746798392011-05-17T10:23:00.000-07:002011-05-17T11:21:44.888-07:00Rocky's Birthday ThoughtsI had a fantastic birthday in Viet Nam and a good friend of mine wanted me to share some thoughts on this day. My father fought in Viet Nam in 1968-1969. As a result of being shot up he had to have a leg amputated and led a life full of physical and mental pain from the shrapnel in his body, PTSD and exposure to Agent Orange. Yet he was also a man of great love and compassion, passing away from several heart attacks and strokes when I was 16. Below is a poem on my birthday reflections in Dong Ha.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I just finished being hai muoi lam</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">People ask me why I go back to <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Viet Nam</place></country-region></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">For me the personal has always been political</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Not an abstract philosophical elliptical</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">No matter how many socks used or applied baby powder</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">With each step the pain always got louder</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Prosthetic limps can't hide the limp</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Never called him a wimp</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Even as phantom pains struck like lightning </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Hitting each piece of shrapnel is frightening </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">He used to say "freedom has a price"</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">But they weren't there when he'd slip on the ice</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Crack!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">How many bones can you afford to lack?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Dioxin chemical nightmares</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The government never paid that fare</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">They take the youth </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Destroy and twist the truth</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Other fathers and sons play ball & run</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">But taking care of strokes ain't no fun</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So I jumped head first into the Mekong Delta</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Trying to understand the hand that delt ya</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">At an early age I knew hell isn't a place underground far</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">And heaven isn't up next to a star</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Simultaneously coexisting right here</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Embracing the tension became clear</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Constantly unveiling the layers</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Figuring out the key players</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">"Let's move forward and be friends"</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Is what I heard here...bends </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Your heart and mind</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Stripping the fruit from the vine</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Let's learn and love one another...?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">It wasn't just a voice from my own mother</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">But foreign young and old alike</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Shattering every preconceived fright</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So I come to search for the ghost of my old man</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">And tell him I have a new plan</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Plant trees where bombs maimed</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Where American and Vietnamese came</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I come to leave a token</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">For the dead and living, smokin</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An incense prayer</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">That before the dawn</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">We can unite and be strong</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Reality is not a static fatality </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Where we come from shifts</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Tectonic plates can rift</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">When we shed the scales off our eyes</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Slowly stripping down the lies I do apologize</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I come in hope of a dream</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">That washes our blood & tears away in a <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mississippi</place></state> or a Red River Stream</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Where tomorrow is brighter than yesterday's jelly napalm</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Learning the rights from the wrongs</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">This is why I come back</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So you and I won't lack</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The necessary compassion needed to combat </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Ignorance in all its shapes and sizes</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Sharing with each other our greatest prizes.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Rocky Block</div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-58321571402722158282011-05-17T07:28:00.000-07:002011-05-17T08:46:05.799-07:00Hard Work in the Hot Sun!We spent Friday through Monday working with the NGO, the Global Community Service Foundation (GCSF), on one of their new projects, a school for the visually and hearing impaired. The school is geared towards preparing young children with visual and hearing impairments for either further education in a mainstream school or for the workforce with vocational training. The GCSF took on this project after the last NGO that ran the school, then called Kids First Village, lost their funding and was unable to continue with the project. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimqvu8mgq2hFKEJ0x0oalGpHDJ1Uv6QBdla92Mph4oqqUYZH0fsyANyneRuc7AI_ZksoOGyyo2MHhhZgRITM8av01phFu7C6JD53ovLVbswZSEXWALEJCehBoBujEpZJFahK7zZmKDZQY/s1600/DSCN0566.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimqvu8mgq2hFKEJ0x0oalGpHDJ1Uv6QBdla92Mph4oqqUYZH0fsyANyneRuc7AI_ZksoOGyyo2MHhhZgRITM8av01phFu7C6JD53ovLVbswZSEXWALEJCehBoBujEpZJFahK7zZmKDZQY/s320/DSCN0566.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
We've been helping the GCSF with preparing the school through landscaping and cleaning. It has been a lot of hard work, with the physical labor even more exhausting in the heat (but apparently the people who live in Đông Hà consider it "cool" weather for this time of year). In addition to our work at the future school, on Saturday morning, four members of our team travelled to the home of a local ethnic minority family and aided them in building the foundation of a new bathroom.<br />
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9fifRn_7Gk1ev0PXqZV298ccp0pCPaOOAuPnbOK4PHE?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="480" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_3g4pRlPwM5k/Tc8LpgwASjI/AAAAAAAAAaM/INkEihQTxbY/s640/P1050701.JPG" width="640" /></a> <br />
<br />
Over the four days we worked at the site of the new school, we planted over 300 trees, cleaned three buildings, cleared four lots of grass and weeds, and truly came together as a group. We hope that our efforts will continue to benefit the school that is scheduled to open in October of this year.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bT-Qec1ZfK0/TdKUvaXLnTI/AAAAAAAAAcA/DZpMfx_5M7c/s1600/P1050716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bT-Qec1ZfK0/TdKUvaXLnTI/AAAAAAAAAcA/DZpMfx_5M7c/s640/P1050716.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Working with lawn Mower to clear a playground<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IhVKj2Cr8dE/TdKWUGzBXMI/AAAAAAAAAcI/WX4fpfu9f3c/s1600/DSCN0549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IhVKj2Cr8dE/TdKWUGzBXMI/AAAAAAAAAcI/WX4fpfu9f3c/s640/DSCN0549.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Working under the sun<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rwZpe4EVrOY/TdKWakBDqxI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/Yu8vpiQNGxw/s1600/DSCN0553.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rwZpe4EVrOY/TdKWakBDqxI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/Yu8vpiQNGxw/s640/DSCN0553.JPG" width="472" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Planting trees </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzH3gpPIp2lthCMdiUm2X4qStUf7m-hehuttE6b1cypSH5vkMTujwiLcbAsp4lQkYV9sQELk54zC-fQYROmmWI_U_cU5SxGNh3u9K0I_xGHmBuSrUY35ADUHK0x_1Jma3FlyevDsGhsJk/s1600/P1050729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzH3gpPIp2lthCMdiUm2X4qStUf7m-hehuttE6b1cypSH5vkMTujwiLcbAsp4lQkYV9sQELk54zC-fQYROmmWI_U_cU5SxGNh3u9K0I_xGHmBuSrUY35ADUHK0x_1Jma3FlyevDsGhsJk/s640/P1050729.JPG" width="640" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We're ready to take off to the next destination when our work at GCSF has been completed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-60029238543577050212011-05-14T08:44:00.000-07:002011-05-14T17:07:59.651-07:00The Journey to Đông Hà!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m3ozx_oSjtE/Tc6svhuWjEI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/0jb4JOY_NzM/s1600/sunrise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m3ozx_oSjtE/Tc6svhuWjEI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/0jb4JOY_NzM/s320/sunrise.jpg" /></a></div><b>Sunrise in Đông Hà, Quảng Trị (shot taken through the train's window)<i></i></b><br />
<br />
Wednesday evening, we boarded an overnight train in Hanoi, and 12 hours later we were 580 kilometers away in Đông Hà, in the Quang Tri province. For most of us it was our first time on an overnight train. We all slept in four person rooms in a sleeper car, with two sets of bunk beds in each room. The night was spent chatting, hanging out and getting to know each other better. <br />
<br />
At 7:00 am the next day we were greeted with the intense heat and bright sunshine of Đông Hà! We spent the rest of the day Thursday learning more about the NGO we were going to be working with over the next four or so days, the Global Community Service Foundation (GCSF), and we visited Tâm Cafe, a coffee place for where the staff who work are hearing impaired people. We checked the menu and learned from the pictures posted on the wall how to order our drink and food in sign language.<br />
In the afternoon, we visited one NGO called Project RENEW (Restoring the Environment and Neutralizing the Effects of War).<br />
<br />
Project RENEW works to help people affected by UXOs (unexploded ordinates) and ERWs (explosive remnants of war) in the Quang Tri province. The organization is currently active in three of the districts in the province and is hoping to expand to a fourth in the near future. The Quang Tri province was the most bombed area during the Vietnam War, and contains the majority of UXOs still remaining, causing many problems for those who work in agriculture, look for scrap metal, and herd livestock. One way Project RENEW helps victims is with initiatives like the Mushrooms with a Mission project, where the organization provides families affected by UXOs or ERWs with the means to cultivate, gather, and sell mushrooms to help support them financially. <br />
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Over the past two days, we have been working with GCSF on another project, involving landscaping for a future school for the blind. The location is inside a complex that used to be operated by Kids First Village. <br />
It's been a lot of hot, hard work, but we're all getting through it together and growing as a group.<br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ETTkHRaRy3ESFSMRvNrKbcccp0pCPaOOAuPnbOK4PHE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kGvIFnQiXXDRlnhdw4-bfLemdcTiIxtVuYN7M-0j9yau_BGnh567IVPJzkvwtxgKhKAPE4S-YWB4JL6j4W1S330XrllWnr2Yro_RcBW2yR5rMFVoUrosbjxvSPaQl0CojDusZJs_DZ4/s640/P1050669.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=102795964451610515521&target=ALBUM&id=5606350091278565489&feat=embedwebsite"></a></td></tr></table><br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Gkca5SXDPJMP36K62Lcr18ccp0pCPaOOAuPnbOK4PHE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_3g4pRlPwM5k/Tc8L5JzQzFI/AAAAAAAAAak/mf91Kb8ItAY/s640/P1050711.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102795964451610515521/BusyWorkingTimeAtQuangTriCenterOngHa?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTGu6z9s4HHqgE&feat=embedwebsite">Busy working time at Quảng Trị Center, Đông Hà.</a></td></tr></table><br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/eB2XPmszbE1Ebb3DgyK46cccp0pCPaOOAuPnbOK4PHE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgubDspMyh8crnRLzQXhKwuqHsmZHEnC21IQCWoiNBgIvEQKg1cf26NzARxLq9Uy2uvIwz2-Kzw_m6yDrriALXs8iT4t2cojDyTZ6fpA2Bf5YvA7h0dtYj_liBOtiwn8pMVH0M1lfLRm_E/s640/P1050700.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102795964451610515521/BusyWorkingTimeAtQuangTriCenterOngHa?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTGu6z9s4HHqgE&feat=embedwebsite">Busy working time at Quảng Trị Center, Đông Hà.</a></td></tr></table>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-61425421165587597612011-05-13T17:12:00.000-07:002011-05-13T17:14:10.233-07:00Busy working time in Dong Ha<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F102795964451610515521%2Falbumid%2F5606350091278565489%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCNSXjZPEvdHKyQE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-74197528324619077092011-05-10T23:58:00.000-07:002011-05-13T16:22:24.959-07:00The last hours in Hanoi<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F102795964451610515521%2Falbumid%2F5605964532620978961%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCKnXgMKCwOyj8AE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br />
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On the morning of May 10, we went to the school Sao Mai, which is a school for kids with mental and physical disabilities. We took with us the Vietnamemse snack called Bim Bim to hand out to the children. We first met with some of the staff and learned more about the center and autism, then we were divided in small groups classrooms where the children study and play. We paired off and visited ten different class rooms along with students involved with Volunteers for Peace Vietnam. We played games, sang songs, and helped them with lunch before the kids went for nap-time. Then we had a chance to ask questions about the center and went out for lunch with some of the VPV students. <br />
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After getting back to the Old Quarter section of Hanoi, we worked in 4 different groups and explored different areas that are known for selling different items in the Old Quarters of Hanoi. Some people went to Medicine Street, Paper Street, Toy Street, Souvenir Street, among others. We all were able to interact with the people who live and work in the area and some were even able to visit their homes, which are located down the alleys that lead behind the street-front shops. <br />
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We went to the early morning flower market in Hanoi, where Vietnamese farmers and vendors sell a variety of beautiful wholesale flowers. <br />
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All of us are doing great and we have a few more hours to enjoy Hanoi before getting on a night train (leaving at 6:30 pm) to travel to Dong Ha, which is in the center of the country. It's about a twelve hour train ride, so we'll be able to catch up on some sleep and probably spend more time bonding over games. <br />
<br />
Bye for now! :)gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-10842998751511295142011-05-10T18:02:00.000-07:002011-05-13T17:19:02.792-07:00Sunday May 8<br />
We went out on the boat again all day and everyone had a blast. We rented kayaks from one of the floating communities and toted them behind our big boat until we got to the place we wanted to kayak. They were a lot of fun to be in, but steering them posed quite a big challenge for most of us, since we had 2 people trying to do it and the wind was not too helpful. We kayaked through a floating fishing village, which was about 1 hour off the coast. It was interesting to see them so close up. Many of the houses also had dogs on them, which we thought was funny. During the trip we also had some splashing wars, so most of us got wet. Only 1 of the students fell in, which we consider a big success. After we got back to the boat we had lunch and some people decided to play a game. The loser of each round of the game had to do a silly dare. Some of these included pulling out a piece of Rocky's hair, doing silly dances on the deck of the boat, and pulling a crew members ear. We also went to another cave.<br />
Today was also TA's birthday. We had a surprise birthday party for her in Rocky's suite on the 13th floor of the hotel. There was a beautiful cake and all of us had a fun time hanging out. <br />
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Monday May 9<br />
We traveled back to Hanoi today. Once back we went to visit the American Chamber of Commerce. It is not affiliated with the government, but the Vietnamese government will meet with them. We talked to the director, who taught us about a lot of what he does and the business aspect of what is happening in Vietnam.gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-837932571943382542011-05-10T10:31:00.001-07:002011-05-10T10:32:48.866-07:00The Kayak Team on Ha Long Bay<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F102795964451610515521%2Falbumid%2F5605037217017400481%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCIHn7ImMjcXyKw%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-32351660492765051692011-05-09T13:51:00.000-07:002011-05-09T13:51:30.767-07:00Week One Roundup<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GO_FPHYucd3ygDxjCvPVq8Fi4YyGEUhJqwFANvPKtRY?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBXJ1qDO_0VKpM8JZRTFSnpdaPfsGMZs1uQUsyzrHyArfbcx-i_KPgk_swOJE6WrgLiXcNZaa5OwKFU2EkdimfhAMgDQ9U50ihkO0gaiacdYu3JJoKcA4ntrH8RPZz-UrSzM6bxX8LLz0/s800/P1050312.JPG" height="600" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102795964451610515521/DayTour?authkey=Gv1sRgCI2hmbzevraEzwE&feat=embedwebsite">Day Tour</a></td></tr></table><br />
Thursday, May 5th<br />
CITY TOUR<br />
We started the day by visiting Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. This is where his body is kept and on display. After going through the security we were able to see the body, which is over 30 years old, which is guarded at all times. Then we went on to visit the complex, which has remnants of his life including the house he lived in before he died, some of the cars he used and personal items. The area that we saw was mostly outside and had a lot of green area, which was quite beautiful. <br />
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Next we went to the museum of ethnology. This explores the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam, by telling us how they live and providing artifacts. On the inside was where most of the information was and the traditional items were held. There was also an outside of the museum, which all of us really enjoyed. This area had different styles of houses that the ethnic groups live in. They were all very cool, but one of our favorite houses was 20 feet off the ground. Most of us climbed up to the house, which was a little scary. We found it interesting that most of the floors were made of bamboo.<br />
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Temple of Literature: This is the oldest school in Hanoi and has the names of the people who graduated from it on stones that sit on stone turtles. People go to this place when they want to receive good luck for an exam. People may also go here to worship, since it is a temple. <br />
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Hoa Lo Prison was the next place we visited. This is a historic landmark for the Vietnamese and was where they were imprisoned during fights for political freedom. But Americans know this place better as the Hanoi Hilton. The prison was used during the Vietnam-American War to hold POWs. One significant person that was held there was John McCain, which was really emphasized at the prison. The Vietnam-American war part of the museum touched home for more of the group and had a more significant impact on us. There were remnants of things the prisoner’s left along with a video of what all happened. One of the main messages that was talked about was how well the Vietnamese treated the American POWs, which contradicts what we have learned in the past. It was interesting to see both points of view, allowing us to get a better understanding of the War. Part of the prison has been demolished since it was last used, which was hugely controversial, since it is such a significant part of Vietnamese history.<br />
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American Embassy: Here we learned about what the Embassy does in general and how someone goes about working at an embassy. They also talked about the relations between the Embassy and Vietnam. One of the main issues we discussed was human rights and the differing options on it. We also talked about the development of the city.<br />
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Friday May 6<br />
Today we visited Hanoi University, where the 4 Vietnamese students we are traveling with study. We had 2 lectures today, separated by lunch at the school cafeteria. The first one talked about the demographics of the area, the economy and how it is changing, poverty, and developmental challenges. The second lecture, a lot of people found quite interesting and was presented by an American teacher. We learned about how Hanoi’s landscape can be viewed as text. He informed us about the history of Hanoi and how the development has become to be. There are reasons as to why the city is shaped as it is. There is the old quarter and the new quarter, which are quite different. Defining architecture in Hanoi is so different, since there have been so many influences present, with the French being a major one. One of the major landmarks we talked about was the Long Bien Bridge, which was built by the French, but the Vietnamese are very proud of it and it is a big part of their history.<br />
After the lecture, we were given free time to go out and explore the city along with get dinner. Everyone split up in to small groups and went out to have fun. The night market was also that night, which is when a street is closed and shops are set up on the street and many people go out shopping. This was one of the nights that some of the people in the group went and got massages, which were great. Other people went out to the Salsa club, which was a few doors down from the hotel, which was a lot of fun. <br />
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Saturday May 7, 2011<br />
Today we were all up and out of the hotel by 7:30. We traveled to Ha Long Bay, which was about a 3-hour bus ride, on our very nice and spacious bus. When we got to the bay, we went onto a boat for our group. The boat was wooden and had 2 levels, which is consistent with most of the boats we saw. We had lunch on the boat, which was good. We had some issues trying to get everyone foods that they could eat though, due to eating restrictions, but everything worked out fine. <br />
Everyone really enjoyed the boat and the view was indescribable. We will put up pictures soon. Lots of sunscreen was applied and it looks like no one got too burnt. We docked to take a tour of a cave, which was so cool. The rock formations were amazing and it was hard to believe that it was naturally formed. Then we went to the beach for a bit to hang out and have some fun. The water was quite nice after such a hot day and most people also hiked up to the top of the rock formation to see around the whole island. The sight was breath taking. One group even had a photo shoot at the top. As we boated back to shore the sun was setting, which was a great way to end the day trip.gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-81787855690378741712011-05-08T16:25:00.000-07:002011-05-08T16:27:29.519-07:00Quick Message from Ha Long Bay on Mothers' DayThe GIEU group went to Ha Long over the weekend, one of the World Natural Heritage Sites recognized by UNESCO. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed some beautiful sunshine so we all looked tanned and happy. We finally got internet connection just briefly before we return to Hanoi Monday Morning. There will be more entries to follow from Hanoi later.<br />
Happy Mothers' Day!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/star8/4750447149/" title="See Halong in different way with your action - Gìn giữ vẻ đẹp lãng mạn của môi trường Hạ Long by ☼TA ☼, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4750447149_94c29f504b_z.jpg" width="640" height="617" alt="See Halong in different way with your action - Gìn giữ vẻ đẹp lãng mạn của môi trường Hạ Long"></a>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-81274837461148437382011-05-05T16:17:00.001-07:002011-05-05T16:42:55.490-07:00Some snapshots to update<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F102795964451610515521%2Falbumid%2F5603367828391719873%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCI2hmbzevraEzwE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-77794175158809352322011-05-04T13:52:00.000-07:002011-05-05T15:51:22.466-07:00Xin chào Hà Nội, Xin chào Việt Nam!This is the slideshow of GIEU members on their "first hello" to Hà Nội, the capital city of Vietnam.<br />
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="600" height="400" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F102795964451610515521%2Falbumid%2F5602953231947964753%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCMrFu7_Wx-bwbA%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br />
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You can also enjoy the song Bonjour Vietnam (Hello, Vietnam)<br />
So GIEU members have come to Hà Nội to say Xin Chào Việt Nam!<br />
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<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/94y6svVU4so" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-73150213747926016902011-05-04T10:35:00.000-07:002011-05-04T14:00:54.237-07:00First day - Exploring Hà Nội with Scavenger HuntI am Huy Anh from the North Vietnam group. Both Vietnamese and American students are very excited for first day of GIEU. We had a scavenger hunt around the town that challenged us to walk to various destinations in the town. Moreover, there were many interesting things that I have rediscovered Hanoi - the city which I have been living for more than 20 years. Here are the top FIVE:<br />
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5. Walking across the street is very dangerous. However, my American friends get used to it faster than I think.<br />
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4. I like the tranquility of Sword Lake - the center of Hanoi very much. There is another world inside Jade Mountain Temple (Đền Ngọc Sơn) which is peaceful and calm. I wish I could go there when I have free time.<br />
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3. It is little bit chilly today. However, the weather is good in daytime. It is raining at night.<br />
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2. I love our group members. They are Alicia, Ellen and Shannon. All of them have made my great day although I cannot fully understand the conversation between them along the course today.<br />
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1. We have been walking for nearly 5 hours. Thus, I can sleep better tonight.<br />
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Some pictures were taken by Ellen:<br />
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Shannon, Alicia and Huy Anh at O Quan Chuong - one of Ancient City Gates<br />
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Magic tree<br />
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Long Bien bridge was built by French architecte, Gustave Eiffel, who designed the Eiffel Tower.<br />
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Shannon, Alicia and Ellen are in front of Ceramic Mural<br />
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Happy family ice cream :-D<br />
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Ellen's favorite part of Ceramic Mural. It depicts children celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival. For more information about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival">Mid-Autumn Festival</a>.<br />
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St. Joseph's Cathedral in the Old Quarters<br />
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National Library landscape<br />
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Shannon is checking index in library<br />
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Taking a rest in Jade Mountain Temple<br />
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Hanoi Opera House<br />
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Lunch at Phở 24<br />
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History Museum<br />
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Ly Thai To King statue - the founder of Hanoi city<br />
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See you next time !gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0Hanoi, Vietnam21.0333333 105.8500000000000221.0056928 105.81051800000002 21.0609738 105.88948200000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-85711255719486730522011-05-02T12:28:00.000-07:002011-05-02T13:49:22.974-07:00Some thoughts to share from one HANU student on GIEU trip last year<i>One year ago, we started GIEU Vietnam on May 3, It would be perfect to recall what we have accomplished with this essay by Phùng Minh Yến, the Vietnamese student from Hanoi University (from the Newsletter by Center Four Southeast Asian Studies, Winter 2011.<b></b></i><br />
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"I joined a dynamic group of American and Vietnamese students in the UM Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates Vietnam 2010 trip to experience Vietnamese history and culture while getting actively involved in social work. My perspective about the war comes from family elders and history class at high school but emotions about the war came up when I had the chance to visit museums and historical sites with American and Vietnamese students. On one hand, I felt sorry for what had happened during the war but on the other hand I am so happy that the post-war friendships can flourish between Vietnamese and Americans. What I really looked for after each visit is not the war facts but how people recover to build the good relationships for a better future.<br />
I really appreciate that the GIEU program created opportunities for both U-M and Hanoi University students to bring about mutual understanding between the two nations’ young generations.<br />
Social work was a very meaningful and important part of the trip. We rolled up our sleeves to plant trees in kindergartens in mountainous area in A Luoi and played with kids and painted a mural of their dreams in an orphanage center in Danang City. Such activities brought my friends and me closer to local people so we could understand their lives. As young people we could contribute something both physically and spiritually to the children and local people we met. I treasure wonderful memories with GIEU 2010 and hope for this program to continue annually so that more students will be able to have great experience and memories like I did."<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/star8/5677496671/" title="P1050239 by ☼TA ☼, on Flickr"><img alt="P1050239" height="279" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/5677496671_f6f4736ea2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>- Phùng Minh Yến, FIS 2008gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-6698845789946017072011-05-01T15:30:00.000-07:002011-05-01T15:30:48.279-07:00Greetings from Ann Arbor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4V96Q0M67utYj-zwoSjt0jiSE6QfBZYy9aUp-8uvIR-YMTz9PRUWe96OZnRpHYWPjHxlmmb0umPNH88GGKaUCdzynAoZLRNbVdONvdUeQv7g_NpaOT7quH6JWq1qr8y5gpKQrFLa7z5o/s1600/IMG_0611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4V96Q0M67utYj-zwoSjt0jiSE6QfBZYy9aUp-8uvIR-YMTz9PRUWe96OZnRpHYWPjHxlmmb0umPNH88GGKaUCdzynAoZLRNbVdONvdUeQv7g_NpaOT7quH6JWq1qr8y5gpKQrFLa7z5o/s200/IMG_0611.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Hi everyone,<br />
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My name is Alicia! I'm at home right now and in a few hours will be on my way to Vietnam. So excited to meet up with everyone for our amazing trip! A little about me, I'm from Saline, Michigan, which is a small city right outside of Ann Arbor. I just finished my junior year at the University of Michigan (Yay!). My major is American Culture and I'm minoring in Community Action and Social Change. For the past two years, I've lived in a Co-op, which is a large three-story house where the residents all help in taking care of the house. This year I had 27 housemates! I LOVE listening to music, so we will all definitely have to share some of our favorite songs. I also like reading and I'm bringing some books with me, so let me know if you would like to borrow any :) I'm really excited to travel in Vietnam and Laos, meet new people, and learn about the culture in Southeast Asia. <br />
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See you soon! (notice the Vietnam and Laos map that's been hanging on my bulletin board for months)gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-11808621541896097482011-05-01T11:58:00.000-07:002011-05-01T12:05:01.261-07:00Greetings from Vietnamese studentsHello! <br />
Welcome to Vietnam! ^^<br />
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How exciting to know that our journey will start very soon! And this time tomorrow some of you will have already arrived in Hanoi. On this very first entry, we would like to firstly send you the warmest welcome to Hanoi – Vietnam and secondly, we want to take this opportunity to initiate an online “get – to – know –all” activity from which GIEU participants will get some information about one another. Before moving to the detailed introduction from the Vietnamese side, we would like to briefly introduce you to Hanoi University in general and the Faculty of International Studies in particular. <br />
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Hanoi University (HANU for short), formerly Hanoi University of Foreign Studies was established in 1959 and located at Nguyen Trai road, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi (about 10 kilometers away from the city center). The Hanoi University of Foreign Studies as in its name provided only courses on foreign languages and foreign languages teaching. However since September 15, 2006 the name of the university was changed to its current name: HANU. Significantly, from that time on, the university has opened new educational programs namely Accounting, Finance and Banking, Computer Science, Tourism, Business Administration and International Studies. The special thing of those programs is that students will study them in English. Thus, it can be said that entering Hanoi University, students who choose the specialized programs get dual benefits: both good English competency (we actually after our first year get an IELTS certificate from the university) and specialized knowledge. <br />
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Objectively speaking, HANU is not the number one university in Vietnam but students graduating from HANU are often remarked as active, flexible and possess good English skills and the rate of students who get employed after graduation is quite high in comparison with other universities in Hanoi. Also it is quite interesting to tell you that the female population at HANU outnumbers male one. About 90% of HANU students are girls and the rate is similar with regard to HANU staff :D<br />
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As you might already know, four of us are International Studies (IS) students among which 2 are from class IS 07 (Pham Trang and Huyen) while the other 2 are from class IS 08 (Hoang Trang and Huy Anh). Ah, this is just for fun, out of 54 students of class IS 07, there are only 3 boys, together with only 5 boys among 48 students of IS 08 :D. Some of you might be curious about our major. As a final year student who is almost done with the faculty, I just want to share with you my personal understanding of what IS is about. Basically, students will study about 2 main branches within IS namely Development and International relations. In Development, we study about poverty, environment, economics, etc. while in the latter, we study about international relations and Vietnam’s foreign relations. Students graduating from IS faculty work in various fields but the ideal job for us is to work for a non – governmental organization (NGO). <br />
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For more information on the university and the faculty, we would love to share with you more when we meet in person. Now, we will introduce ourselves to you all one by one :D <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NCvT736Bogg/Tb2clBmQdbI/AAAAAAAAACM/Fj0TxKanRjQ/s1600/Pham%2BTrang.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="214" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NCvT736Bogg/Tb2clBmQdbI/AAAAAAAAACM/Fj0TxKanRjQ/s320/Pham%2BTrang.JPG" /></a></div>I am Pham Trang and I am one of the two final year students mentioned above. I am going to graduate in June, after coming back from GIEU. I am living in Hanoi with my family. I am very glad to be part of GIEU 2011 as for me, this will be the last trip of my student’s life and hence I would like to make it the most unforgettable and rewarding. I am quite an easy going and simple person, I like meeting new people and learning about their hobbies and discussing with them about future plans. I love music and dancing. I listen to music every day and when I have free time I go dancing. I hope during and after GIEU, we will become good friends and learn a lot from each other. Oh I can’t wait to see you all! :X:X:X:X <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MxeUngtm5nF-kNiCbkqJnWatXIekAHBDolIttMFKFgS4rhupVqkN9mCE6bmmUnFdgQLsHq0iCAmL-lO2fj1jzBZmnI73-gWtpCaarmRj5IYHPoycHdq56aIfoUg0fprJPmaj9Eb8dcQ/s1600/huyen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MxeUngtm5nF-kNiCbkqJnWatXIekAHBDolIttMFKFgS4rhupVqkN9mCE6bmmUnFdgQLsHq0iCAmL-lO2fj1jzBZmnI73-gWtpCaarmRj5IYHPoycHdq56aIfoUg0fprJPmaj9Eb8dcQ/s320/huyen.jpg" /></a></div>Hi all, I am Huyen, a last year student living in Hanoi. About myself, I am an adventurous person. I love exploring new things and that’s why I want to travel often and try to keep my life occupied with new experiences. Sharing the feeling of a last year student with Trang, I feel so happy and lucky to join GIEU as it would make my student life more memorable. I believe after this one month, what we bring back are not only a big change in appearance with sun burnt hair and dark buffalo skin :-p, but also tons of new things learnt along the journey and many good friendships as well. Eagerly counting down to the day we meet \m/<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m9hRMtjqpGg/Tb2bo1UIARI/AAAAAAAAAB8/-r81kIs-KLY/s1600/hoang%2Btrang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="299" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m9hRMtjqpGg/Tb2bo1UIARI/AAAAAAAAAB8/-r81kIs-KLY/s320/hoang%2Btrang.jpg" /></a></div>Hi then, I am Hoang Trang, a third year student of FIS. It’s quite interesting that we four are all Hanoian. I hope that it will make us easier to show you guys amazing places or fantastic experiences when you all come to this city. About me, I love foods, together with cooking, eating and taking pictures of different food. I feel relax when making cake or trying a new recipe since I can experience the taste of creativity, even when sometimes those too-much-creativities could come to totally strange flavours and finally come to their seats as garbage (so sad :-( ). It seems that I said too much about food but I am now so excited to show you the map of Hanoi food when we meet each other. I am also sooooooo eager to meet you guys, enjoy our one-month trip and have many funs together during the trip and later. Oh my god it is so amazing!!!!! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pOUlZeFgZuo/Tb2bjgYfvAI/AAAAAAAAAB0/5Tv-hnf0-l8/s1600/Huy%2BAnh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pOUlZeFgZuo/Tb2bjgYfvAI/AAAAAAAAAB0/5Tv-hnf0-l8/s320/Huy%2BAnh.jpg" /></a></div>Nice to meet you, my name is Huy Anh. I am the last and only one Vietnamese guy participated in GIEU 2011. I am interested in topic such as politics, social and environment issues. Like all other young Vietnamese, I am so passionate in traveling, getting know new people, experiencing different ways of life. I am looking to GIEU for new experience of interacting with people coming from different culture. I love to dance (but I am not a good dancer :-( ), listen to guitar solo, piano solo and some instrumental music, especially the soundtrack from my favorite movies. I also love to read book, which it brings me to another world out of my current life. My favorite authors are Conan Doyle on fiction and Jared Diamond on non-fiction book. <br />
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My favorite quote:<br />
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage and the strength to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.<br />
- Reinhold Niebuhr -<br />
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From left to right: Huy Anh, Huyen, Pham Trang and Hoang Trang <br />
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Modelling UN Summit - discussing about North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program <br />
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Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity project in Ke Sat - Hai Duong provincegieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505753076652439426.post-69877893195510635992011-05-01T11:01:00.000-07:002011-05-01T11:01:55.534-07:00The Awakening of HanoiThe Awakening of Hanoi<br />
By JENNIFER CONLIN<br />
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Correction Appended<br />
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TO find the Mai Gallery in Hanoi, you must first walk down the bustling avenue of Le Thanh Tong, a street filled with flower stalls, neighborhood shops, sidewalk cafes and the ubiquitous roar of hundreds of motorbikes streaming in the direction of the century-old opera house. As you turn down Phan Huy Chu, one of a maze of narrow alleys in the Old Quarter, the throngs of teenagers leaning against parked mopeds with their cellphones cupped to their ears quickly disappear. Instead, squatting on the sidewalk stirring steaming pots of soup laced with noodles, pork and cilantro, are elderly women, their faces hidden under traditional farm-field conical hats, chatting among themselves as they give you a quick, inquisitive glance.<br />
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As I made my way down this passage on a warm morning in late November, I thought about why I had come to Hanoi — to see a country I knew only from history books and vaguely remembered images from the nightly news in the 1970s. The map of Vietnam was like a screen saver on our television set, and the war in Southeast Asia dominated the discussions at the dinner table in the politically active college town of Ann Arbor, Mich.<br />
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Thirty years later, I found myself experiencing an enormous disconnect. Hanoi was not at all as I had pictured it. Instead of being a squalid third world capital struggling to recover from years of war and isolation, it was a stylish, European-influenced metropolis with manicured lakeside promenades, tree-lined boulevards, ancient pagodas and French-colonial buildings painted in a peeling palette of jade, turquoise and burgundy.<br />
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On the streets, elderly men sipping tea at food stalls and grandmothers balancing poles on their shoulders laden with heavy baskets of fruits and vegetables were outnumbered by representatives of a younger and more boisterous generation. Nearly sixty percent of the population in Vietnam was born after the war ended in 1975, and Hanoi feels like a city of teenagers. They were everywhere — doubled up on motorbikes, their hair streaming behind them like jet spray as they raced off to school or work. At night they gathered in the parks and the city's dance clubs before zooming off again to start a new day.<br />
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Two days into my stay in Hanoi, I had made the obligatory visits to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (where the body of the still-revered leader lies in state) and the Temple of Literature (once a university, built in 1070) but had also found my time increasingly taken up by visits to the city's art galleries. That's because back in London, where I now live, friends who had been to Hanoi had all come back raving about the art. One showed me her collection of traditional paintings — each a different village scene, Impressionistic in style, painted on wood and then treated and polished with sap from a lacquer tree. They were stunningly luminous, laced with gold and silver gilt as well as crushed eggshell. The effect was like looking at a detailed painting under a thin, still puddle of water.<br />
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“Just wait,” my friend said. “You will fall in love with the art there.”<br />
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And I had. But while I was fascinated by 20th-century Vietnamese art — a mixture of Eastern techniques (woodcutting, engraving, silk and lacquer painting) with European influences from the early 1900s (Impressionism, Cubism) — I was most taken with the contemporary works by younger artists, many of whom are integrating the traditional into the modern and expressing themselves in new ways that reflect an awareness of what is happening in the Western art world.<br />
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THAT'S one reason I was now headed toward the Mai gallery, hoping to meet Tran Phuong Mai, the owner, herself. As I wandered from art gallery to art gallery, her name kept coming up in conversation, as other dealers would describe her — sometimes with a slight roll of the eyes or a faint note of exasperation in their voices — as being among the most prominent figures in their midst, the one who was most adeptly taking advantage of the increased attention contemporary Vietnamese art was attracting in the West. (Well, that was certainly in contrast to one gallery owner I met, who when I happened to mention that Charles Saatchi, the noted British collector, was beginning to feature young Vietnamese on his Web site, said, “Charles Saatchi? Oh, I got an e-mail from him several months ago asking me if he could link my gallery Web site. But I had never heard of him. Is he famous?”)<br />
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Young, stylish, attractive and with a close relationship with many of the city's young artists, Mai was beginning to sound like a character I knew well from my days of living in Manhattan in the early 1980s, when New York's downtown art scene was exploding. Could this be the Mary Boone of Hanoi?<br />
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Opposite a wall of boldly drawn graffiti in the tiny alleyway was her sleek, modern art gallery. On display inside the stark white space were the colorful urban landscape paintings of Nguyen Bao Ha, an Abstract Expressionist, whose work has been described as depicting the “cancerous” pace at which Vietnam is being developed. There was no one inside, however, except Mai's mother. Her daughter, she explained in her halting English, was at her new art gallery, her second — a sign that business was booming.<br />
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When I finally tracked down Mai at the other gallery, a three-story space on less-remote Hang Bong Street, it was clear to me she was a young force — she's 36 — in Hanoi's art world. With a stylish crop of jet black hair and trendily dressed in a hooded red zipper jacket and black skinny jeans, she looked every bit the part of an artist's friend. But she also had the demeanor of an experienced businesswoman. She instructed her assistant to get us a pot of tea, and she invited me to sit while she told me her story.<br />
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“We were the first private art gallery to open after doi moi,” she said referring to the Communist government's decision in 1986 to allow foreign trade and private ownership. A poet's daughter who grew up around artists — many of whom painted her portrait as a child — Mai opened her original gallery in 1993 with the help of her parents. “Previously, every gallery was state owned, and Vietnamese contemporary art was anonymous to the rest of the world,” she said, adding that the Hanoi University of Fine Arts (previously the École Superieure Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine) had provided Vietnam with an unending supply of talent since it was founded by the French in 1925.<br />
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“Now many of our artists are exhibiting outside of the country,” she said, adding that her paintings, like those in most Hanoi galleries, range in price from $300 for a small canvas by a relatively unknown artist to less than $6,000 for a large canvas by one of the “Gang of Five”— the first contemporary group to gain international recognition outside Vietnam, in the late '90s.<br />
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“My clients come from all over the world,” she said as she escorted me to see “master” paintings — works from modern artists like Bui Xuan Phai, whose work is frequently compared to Van Gogh's and Klee's, and who died in poverty in 1988. Now his paintings are sold by Mai for $10,000 and go at auction for twice that.<br />
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After warning me about Hanoi's many “art shops” — kitschy stores aimed at tourists that sell cheaply produced decorative art — she sent me down the street to meet Vu Dan Tan, one of the first experimental artists in Hanoi, whose atelier, Salon Natasha, is open to the public and served as one of the first meeting places for contemporary artists in Vietnam. I found Tan, a white-bearded man, sitting in his paint-splattered studio surrounded by his work, paper creatures and masks constructed from recycled packaging — a style developed during the war years when materials were short and now was a statement on the Western-style consumerism that has enveloped the country. He told me his work had been exhibited in Australia, Germany and Japan. “It is a very different time for artists,” he said, sitting down gingerly at a wooden desk covered with paint brushes.<br />
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An international art expert agreed. “There are many vibrant young contemporary artists in Hanoi, and people are definitely buying their work — hoping it will one day appreciate,” Mok Kim Chuan, a specialist in the Southeast Asian Paintings Department at Sotheby's in Singapore, told me by telephone. “We are not auctioning many of the younger artists yet because their work is still readily available in the galleries, but we are very aware of them.” He said that the post-Impressionist works by the Vietnamese artist Le Pho, who died in 2001, were now auctioning for around $300,000. “Contemporary art is very hot right now,” he said.<br />
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Suzanne Lecht, an American art consultant who escorted Bill Clinton around the galleries of Hanoi in 2000 and who has lived in Hanoi and run the Art Vietnam gallery since 1994, is trying to help Vietnamese artists gain more recognition in the United States. Her newest gallery, the Fielding Lecht Gallery, is in Austin, Tex., and she is planning an artist-in-residency program in Hanoi for international artists. “I want it to be a meeting place for artists from all over the world,” she said in a recent interview. “It will also expose Vietnamese artists to many more ideas,” she added.<br />
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Just down the road from Mai's second gallery is the Apricot Gallery, which features minimalist artists like Le Thiet Cuong, whose family fled Hanoi for the countryside from 1964 to 1973 to escape American bombings, and Le Thanh Son, whose colorful canvases of village life impressed Mr. Clinton enough that he bought one to take home.<br />
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All galleries must get permission for exhibits; the government frowns on raw sexuality, and overtly political paintings, like depictions of “Uncle Ho,” are prohibited. Curious to see the experimental side of Vietnam's art scene — which was beginning to feel like a cross between Montmartre in the 1920s and Williamsburg in the 1990s — I visited L'Espace Centre Culturel Français de Hanoi and the Goethe Institute. Both, being foreign owned, get less government scrutiny (though they must still get a permit) and regularly hold public events that give exposure to installations and performance art presentations by conceptual artists.<br />
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At L'Espace an exhibit called “Surfaces” was on display, which showed small bits of dirt from historic places in Vietnam like My Lai, the site of a massacre of civilians by American troops in 1968. The Ryllega Gallery, next door to the opera, also provides space for experimental art installations, aided by a grant from a British cultural organization.<br />
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Art, it seemed, was everywhere in this city — from the Hanoi Museum of Fine Arts, with three floors and more than 2,000 objects on display, including artifacts from the Stone and Bronze Ages, an array of Buddhist images (one from 1057) and early lacquer paintings, to the many Hanoi restaurants that incorporate contemporary Vietnamese art into their décor.<br />
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In the public spaces of the century-old Metropole hotel, I noticed well-heeled American couples checking out the contemporary art on display in the lobby before heading out to the thatched roof terrace bar overlooking the hotel pool. The bar, with its large comfy wicker chairs, is an inviting spot to enjoy a well-made cosmo and warm, crispy spring rolls.<br />
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And, later, at dinner at the fashionable Restaurant Bobby Chinn, I watched a parade of young women in miniskirts traipse by my table and then followed them into a back room, where they were nestled on silk cushions in velvet banquettes, a water pipe in one hand, a drink in the other. On the walls behind them were abstract paintings from Mr. Chinn's personal art collection, which he regularly rotates through his restaurant.<br />
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When it comes to darting in and out of galleries, restaurants and the many craft and silk shops in Hanoi's densely populated Old Quarter, walking is the best way to get around. Though the roar and density of the traffic is overpowering, it's easy to navigate the city with just a hotel map in hand.<br />
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Even a simple stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake, looking out onto the tranquil Ngoc Son Temple, which floats like a jewel in the middle of a lake, provides a glimpse into local culture. I watched an outdoor traditional flag dance exercise class (while enjoying a ginger ice cream from Fanny's, a near-legendary ice cream shop by the lake) followed by a noisy aerobics class of middle-aged women boogieing down to techno music. The language barrier makes it hard to strike up a casual conversation with strangers, but those who do speak English (mostly the under-30 set) are eager to practice with Westerners.<br />
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One day, having already enjoyed a typical breakfast of pho (beef noodle soup), I allowed myself Hanoi's other cuisine, French, and sat down at a table on the second floor of the Paris Deli, a comfortable bistro with black-and-white photos of Paris on the walls. From my window seat by the balcony overlooking the trendy Nha Tho Street, with a view of St. Joseph Cathedral in the distance, I took in the street scene below as I sipped a glass of Beaujolais nouveau, which had just arrived that week, right on time.<br />
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When my confit de canard appeared, my young waiter started a conversation in English that lasted nearly 15 minutes. It turned out he had a friend in New York. “If I visit, will gangsters and thugs get me, like in the movies?” he asked. “I see you later,” he said after I paid the bill, though we had not exchanged numbers, making me wonder if the city was much smaller than it seemed.<br />
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MY last morning in Hanoi, I again met with Mai, who had said she wanted me to meet Nguyen Manh Duc, a man in his late 60s who is considered the father of experimental art in Vietnam. When a friend and I arrived at her gallery, a taxi was waiting for us, and we quickly headed out toward the suburbs, the European elegance of Hanoi gradually replaced by urban sprawl. Thirty minutes later, after several cellphone calls between Duc and the taxi driver, the taxi deposited us on a corner where we were met by a thin man on a bicycle. He motioned us to follow him down a road and around several corners. There, in the middle of a neighborhood filled with housing projects, we came upon the exotic Thai Stilt House, Duc's home and atelier.<br />
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Walking through large wooden gates decorated with decoupages of photographs, notes and fliers, we were directed up a flight of wooden stairs, and we added our shoes to a pile before walking into a dimly lighted room. It was filled with hundreds of Buddha statues and ceremonial ornaments. Sitting around a low wooden table on stools about a foot from the ground were five young Vietnamese art students (all men, ages 23 to 27) drinking tea and smoking Vinataba cigarettes — no doubt the Vietnamese equivalent of the French Gauloise. Duc had invited them to meet us.<br />
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Most spoke little English, but they seemed excited to meet Americans, particularly Americans interested in Vietnamese art. All spoke reverently of Duc, whose Stilt House has been a salon for the avant garde art movement since the 1990s — the setting of controversial art events, installations and performance art. Sometimes in broken English, but mostly through the translation of another young student, they explained that at their art school they were mainly taught traditional European and Eastern techniques. Modern artists were not taught and were barely even discussed. “We come to Duc to create contemporary art and to talk about ideas with him,” said one of them, who like the others, had never left the country, though each of them had a Yahoo e-mail address.<br />
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Duc, described by one gallery owner as a “Gandhi-like” figure in Hanoi, sat listening as the young men discussed their nascent careers and then, only when pressed, added his thoughts. “There is still a big separation between mainstream art and experimental art in Vietnam,” he said through an interpreter, not wishing to elaborate further on the subject. “I will just say that when they are here we try to close that gap.”<br />
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We spent nearly an hour in conversation, until squatting on the tiny stools began to feel painful and the combined smell of smoke and strong tea became overpowering. The students and I walked out into the street, and the conversation lingered, as they peppered me with questions about my life at home, and what I thought of Vietnam. Finally, it was time to go. They thanked me again for coming, hopped on their bicycles and headed off.<br />
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Three hours later, on the computer back at my hotel, e-mail had arrived from one of my new friends, containing an attachment. “Here is my painting,” he wrote. “Hope you like.”<br />
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I did. <br />
(Link:<a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/travel/18hanoi.html?scp=9&sq=Hanoi%20in%20the%20morning&st=cse"> http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/travel/18hanoi.html?scp=9&sq=Hanoi%20in%20the%20morning&st=cse</a>)gieu2011http://www.blogger.com/profile/07881066999461930060noreply@blogger.com0