This is my last day in Hanoi. I liked everything except for the work and I could gripe about the weather. I really can't teach children well and the job offers I had for adults bit the big one ( Read more... )

I noticed some interesting things on the way to Thai Binh. First, the cemeteries we passed on the way are built like little fortresses to protect their dead from the effects of marshy land. We were also given free food called “Cay cakes” but were shaped like sticks and combined stick rice, carrots, and enough ginger to mask the favor of the other ( Read more... )

A friend of mine invited me to the Tet festival market place for all your festival shopping needs. Google maps said it was a half hour walk, but it turned out to be forty minutes, but my friend was stuck in traffic so she was late, too. It was built around a regular open market where you bought nuts, spices, and dried fruit in bulk and gift shops ( Read more... )

I went back to the States for the holidays. As always, I visited with family, hit the gym, and watched too much TV; naturally this led to regaining five or so of the pounds I'd lost in Vietnam. I've also recommitted myself to not just writing but pushing my fiction on agents ( Read more... )

I've been in Vietnam for almost three months and tonight, just after midnight, I fly back to Iowa ( Read more... )

“Dumb Luck” by Vu Trong Phung is the novel Vietnamese most often tell me to read when the subject comes up, so I did ( Read more... )

I think I finally figured out what really, really bugs me about my boss ( Read more... )

So I hung out with two different women at two different times today. I had tea, lunch, and cards with one woman who is searching for herself in Buddhism and philosophy and the other in a bar this evening who is striking out on her own path with more beer, poetry, and dating than her parents would approve. Both of them want to study abroad to help ( Read more... )

Well, it's been a discouraging week. The plan had been to explore Vietnam while working part time until the middle of December, then go back home for the holidays and come back to work full time. Unfortunately, because I'm only here until the middle of December, people aren't that interested in hiring me. And while the older the students the ( Read more... )

I went to go visit a friend of mine at her college, a college in the British sense of the word in that it is a subdivision of a university where they study the environment and sustainable development. They were having a celebration of their college, so the central campus was like a little fair ground with booths and a talent show. The friend I ( Read more... )