I just want to go back home to California for a week or two and then come back to Vietnam for another 6 months or so.

I've tried to post this for the last four days, but every time I tried to post this on this website, it wouldn't load.
But here it is:

I REALLY REALLY REALLY HATE MOSQUITOES.
THEY MAKE ME ITCH SO MUCH.
I CANNOT HELP BUT SCRATCH.
SO THEN I GET HUGE BRUISES.
I AM SO SAD.
BUT I HAVE REALIZED... THAT I HAVE DELICIOUS BLOOD.
YUM.

my favorite phrase is..
"em la sinh vien. em khong co tien."

wow. sometimes people really annoy me.

New goal!

I have decided that my new goal is to blog almost everyday. I'm going to try my best to take lots and lots of photos since I know there are only seven more weeks here. I am so bummed. I want to stay longer... even only a couple days, but my mom won't let me. She said that being away from home for four months is already long enough. I asked her how is she going to deal if i ever get married and move far far away. She just responded by telling me, "that's later. this is now." I really miss my mom, but I feel like I am growing up more quickly and learning about myself more than I am on my own (kind of). I already changed my return date from the 17th to the 20th to stay in Quy Nhon for another week after the program ends. I talked to my mom on the phone yesterday and I want to change it again to the 23rd to have a couple more days in Hanoi to spend with water boy. What is weird is that she knew that I wanted to stay here longer because of him. Moms are the smartest people in the world!

Sometimes I get confused and have to think about my relationship with water boy. Everyone ere in the little town within the university seems to know about us... even people I have never seen in my life. They just randomly say hi to me and ask me if I know where my "người yêu" or ask me if "yêu chứa?" I am almost positive that I spelled that wrong, but I just to just keep on rambling on instead of looking it up. What's so funny is that even Chị Hạnh, the lady that sells pineapples on campus everyday, asks me about us. She said that she sees me and water boy playing footsy and smiling at each other a lot. It's kind of embarrassing, actually. I really like spending time with him. He has taught me that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have fun. Taking long walks and just sitting and talking in front of Ho Hoan Kim are some of the most relaxing and romantic things you can in Hanoi, I've decided. He's actually from Ninh Binh and came here only three months ago, so we are actually discovering the city together. So much fun.

So about the Sapa trip... did I particularly love it? Um, the city part yes. The trekking part, NO. I hate to say it, but I'm a city girl. I'm being completely honest about the hate to say it part. I wish that I was more able to enjoy the scenery and the whole experience of the hike, but barely enjoyment existed. But thanks, Gerard, for making me do it. I'll never do it again, though. I really really love the town though. Craig, Mindy, Trang, Thuy Vy, Co Ha, and I met the funniest, smartest, spunkiest Hmong girl ever. Her name is Ha. She spoke almost perfect English, French and probably many other languages I can't remember at the moment. She understood Vietnamese so well but was reluctant to speak it. I don't know why... but she's so cute! he kept on talking about how the girls weren't tourists because we are Vietnamese and have yellow skin like she does. Then she kept on going on about how Craig was a tourist because he has white skin. She doesn't like selling to Vietnamese because all they ask is "how much how much how much and never buy." She likes selling to "tourists" because they actually buy. What I will always remember is when we asked her if she has a boyfriend, and she said no because having a boyfriend is like wasting money; her friend has a boyfriend and she spends so much of her money because each day, she has to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with him. She said she would rather save her money and give it to her parents. So smart! I hope that when I have a daughter, she will be as smart and have as much personality as she does.

And some more pictures from our Sapa trip:
This was the first sight of Sapa I was able to take in at the top of the hotel we stayed at. SOOO different from Hanoi.
Me, Linda and Trang after the best best best omlette I've ever had at the hotel

.. and I will post more later since the internet is super slow and it takes 5 minutes to upload one picture.

today, i webcam-ed with my mommy.
i miss her so much.
i miss my best friend.
i wish that she was experiencing Ha Noi with me.

way over my 100,000 day limit

i spent about 600,000 dong today.
how did this happen???????!!!

quesadilla, fried bugs and ha long bay

i had a quesadilla and a shirley temple today.
it was amazzzzzzzzzing!
i have fulfilled my craving for mexican food for the time being.
i'm back to loving Vietnam again.

i went with linda to buy lunch today, and a com sinh vien place down the alley near school sold fried maggots or worms... i asked the lady what it was, and she was like "chi con sau" like it was normal to eat them. ick. now i know that the two catepillars that were in linda's rau last time were just misplaced into a different dish.

what can i eat in Vietnam with no MSG?
a few of my brain cells are dying every single time i eat.

i really, really, really times infinity enjoyed Ha Long Bay. It was just soooo relaxing, so peaceful and QUIET! it took me awhile to get used to the warm, oil infested waters at the little beach we took a swim and played "water catch-football" in.






i still find it so amazing these houses are on top of styrofoam!

pimple

I got another pimple :(
on my cheek.
it hurts!!

I BLAME THESE DELICIOUS BABIES!!!

m&ms

m&ms in Vietnam do not taste like the m&ms in america.
the first one was good, but then it all went downhill from there...

by the way, the proposal is such a funny movie!!
i've learned to go to the movie theater only on mondays,because then tickets are only 40,000 dong. you cant beat that!!!

kfc in vietnam also gave me a stomach ache. it's like in reverse now. when i eat vietnamese food, i'm fine. when i eat american/western food, my stomach growls. that coleslaw was SO DELICIOUS, though. yum yum yum.

manor!

The Manor has a creepy vibe to it… like something seen in the Stepford Wives or something. Everything was just so clean, so polished and beautiful. I’ve never seen landscape like that anywhere else in Vietnam. The security is so crazy!!! My group basically sneaked into the apartment complex through the café shop, so umm… what does that have to say about the actually protection of its residents? After wondering around for about five minutes and seeing the nice mailroom, the beautiful clean pool filled with CLEAN BLUE water, we basically got kicked out by a security guard. He was mean! He yelled at us, saying that we aren’t allowed to be inside the Manor and screaming “đi ra đi ra!!!!!” He then yelled at another security guard and blamed him for not catching us “trespassing.” The latter guard followed us until we were completely outside of the residence. Geeze… what if I actually wanted to check out the place to rent an apartment there!!!?? Maybe if I went there wearing a Chanel purse and seven for all mankind jeans, they would leave me alone to explore. I guess the security isn't too shabby after all. BUT! I did see a guard outside of the manor taking his shoes and socks off and giving himself a foot message.. ON THE CLOCK TOO!

We also learned that the residents aren’t allowed to bring guests anytime they want. If want to have just one friend over, they have to ask permission from the office or something. Why would anyone want to live in a place where it’s so difficult to just have interactions with other people in your own home? My goodness! Living in the manor seems like living in a jail for the bourgeois. You’re living somewhere with so many restrictions… and you’re paying a lot of money for it. Ummm ok….

You know... I'm not against development entirely. I just don't like it when it's not meant for the general public. The Manor was created for tourists and foreigners. Bulldozing down locals' homes to make space for the construction of these exclusive residences is not something I'm fond of.


wow, i really suck at taking pictures... but yeah, so this is the entrance to the unknown.

KFC delivers in Viet Nam!



idk, this was kind of weird. i don't get it.

across the street, where it looks totally different.

dont know how to delete

i posted my goals twice, and i dont know how to delete a post... so.... i wanna try a sinh to dua hau

my goals

On Tuesday, I thought that found the one meal I can eat for the rest of my stay in Vietnam: bánh mi trừng… but then I ate it three times in a row and I kind of got sick of it. That’s probably a good thing, because then I would have high cholesterol like no other. I’m glad to say that my stomach is getting used to the food here, but I’m sure that it’s going to take a little longer to get used to the way food is cooked here versus at home. The closest I can get to a home cooked meal is the cafeteria, but the food there is so salty and full of fat. It seems like when I get meat, three fourths of my serving is of fat. Gross. It’s also cold most of the time. SO! My first goal is to stop being so judgmental of the food here and just enjoy the different flavors of northern and southern Vietnam. I don’t really have a plan on how to go about this… so I’m just going to force myself. I’ve puked here three times already, so it’s not going to be a surprise if it happens again. If I had to choose one thing to eat everyday for the rest of my life though, it would be the trái cây… or hoa quả here. It’s so sweet and good… and inexpensive! The logans here are so delicious. I was so amazed by how small the seeds are here versus the ones I buy in the states… which take up three quarters of the whole fruit itself. The mangoes here are humungous. I didn’t even know it was a mango until the seller lady told us. I guess this brings me to another goal: try EVERY fruit here. My face is going to be covered in pimples… I’ve already got some from eating pineapples, apricots and logans here already.
One of my biggest goals while studying abroad here is to improve my Vietnamese so that I can amaze all the people back home. I want to have conversations with people, and I want them to say, “Con nói tiềng Việt hay quá!” Being able to speak many languages is a goal that I’ve had for awhile. I tried learning French by using Rosetta Stone, but I got really irritated with it because it kept on saying I pronounce “le garcon” wrong… but I think I was saying it right. I really, really enjoy my Vietnamese class! I think that it’s so fun the whole time we’re in there. I find it so amazing that Wayne reads and writes in Vietnamese way better than the rest of us simply because we are all Vietnamese and he is Taiwanese. He’s so amazing! Our class is full of laughs, and our teacher is absolutely darling. She has so much energy at 9:30 in the morning. I had such an amazing time during Friday’s lesson in the computer lab. I love typing in Vietnamese! It’s so fun! I’m not being sarcastic either. One thing I will not understand unless I really study it is the SMS stuff… It’s making me confused with the correct way to spell in Vietnamese!
I also want to learn the differences between the north and the south and the reason why northerners and southern have different accents and dialects. I never knew that each part of Vietnam used different words for some things until I got here. It still takes me a moment to understand when someone says cup, fruit or China here! I just think it’s so amazing how one nation can be so complex in language. I understand how in America, there are different accents, such as a western v. a southern accent, but they don’t use different words for the same things!
One thing that I absolutely loathe and will never get used to here is honking from those huge trucks… ugh. They’re so annoying, and I feel like I’m going to go deaf by the end of the week. I also feel like they are doing it on purpose. Sometimes when I’m walking at night down an alley or something, the truck drivers honk even though there are no other cars in sight… and I know that they’re not honking at us to get out of the way because we are on the sidewalk as much as possible. SO ANNOYING! I also don’t think I will get used to all of that dust in the air when the trucks and cars pass through the alley ways. I really need to invest in one of those masks. I wonder if anyone is selling a one with a cute Hello Kitty on it?
This is really random, but I was just looking in the dictionary right now, and I came across this word: dại trai: madly in love with a boy and give way to his temptation. I give it a lol.

Obituary

I chose this obituary because of all the irony Alan Landers’ life had. Even though he was the face of Winston cigarettes and was earning a decent amount of money, most of his money probably went back to the cigarette manufacturer, which ended up costing his life. I also chose this one because it’s about consumerism, something that I am very interested in. I hate how there are so many companies that don’t really care about the welfare or health of their consumers and only about making profits. There’s more to life than money… and it baffles me that so many people are obsessed with making more money than they will ever be able to spend. This is just something that I will never fully understand because I will never be super rich! I learned that cigarette companies knew beforehand that tobacco was dangerous to your health, but they kept on promoting their products as good, “cool” things. I think that there are tons of products we use today that are actually dangerous to us, but we just don’t know it yet because corporations don’t want us to know so they can keep on raking in more and more profits. I think Alan Landers is a good model because he was tricked into doing something he didn’t mean to do, and that was to promote death. He spent the last years of his life trying to prevent other people from making the same mistakes as he did. He spent more money on medical bills caused by cancer than he made while being part of the cause of cancer. Maybe people will learn from Mr. Landers and stop spending money on McDonalds all the time to prevent paying thousands of dollars on medicals bills when they are older with clogged arteries and high cholesterol.

Autobiography

Remember the hospital that got two babies switched up and were given to the wrong mothers? I was born there, at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, California on January 24, 2989. To this day, my cousins still joke that I was probably switched with another baby when I was born, and that I am not really my mother’s daughter even though millions of people have told me we look almost exactly alike (I still don’t see it, though). I have lived in Orange County all of my life, in Garden Grove to be exact. I went to Garden Grove High School, and I had a blast! I am pretty convinced that I am one of the few people who enjoyed high school. Sometimes I really wish that I had really, really pale skin so that I could dye my hair red. I think that red hair is so beautiful; it’s probably because Ariel is my favorite Disney princess of all time. I want to get tattoos of my mom’s signature and of a mermaid because of Ariel and because I am an Aquarius. Yes, I do believe astrology is real!!!
My family consists of my mother, dad and a younger sister. My mother, sister and I are extremely close. I consider my mom as my older sister; I tell her almost everything. I basically consider both my mother and sister as my best friends; I love doing almost everything with them! I don’t really have a relationship with my dad since we don’t get along. We have totally clashing personalities. I say “hi” to him sometimes, but that’s basically it. I don’t have any deep conversations with him or anything. I am very close to my extended family, both from my mother’s and father’s sides. My sister and I are the youngest of all the cousins, so we tend to get babied a lot (but not as much anymore since I’m 20 and my sister is now 16). Our relationships have kind of dispersed because all of us have moved away to go to college at one time or another, so there rarely time to just spend time with each other like we did when we were younger. It’s not even satisfying seeing each other only on holidays because there is way too much to discuss and share with only one day! One of my cousins I am closer to is getting married on December 5th, so I am super bummed out that I am going to miss her wedding. I was even going to be one of her bridesmaids! I got mad at her earlier this year when she said she hoped I didn’t get into the EAP Vietnam program so that I could go to her wedding. I told her to move her wedding to a later date so that I could go since she really wanted me to be there, but she didn’t. I put the blame on her for not being able to end her wedding. I’m also very close to my mom’s best friend’s daughter, Cindy. She just turned five in July and finished up pre-school. She’s so funny, loud and amazingly cute. Her mom told me that in school, she said she one mother, one father, one brother and two sisters (my sister and me). I remember one day, she was spelling out “fox” for me. I didn’t really understand what she was saying, so I asked her what word she was spelling out. When she told me, I didn’t hear “fox.” Instead, I heard “f---.” When I was laughing about the situation, she thought I was laughing at her, so she told on me to my mom. The day before I left, she had her mom take her to Target to buy me a whole bunch of snacks. She got me peanut butter, but I left it at home since I thought it would put too much weight in my luggage. I really, really wish that I brought it now… She also told my mom that I am only allowed to go away for eight days. I truly doubt that she understands the whole thing about me being away for more than four months.

I currently attend the University of California, Irvine. I entered as a business economics major, but ever since I started taking classes such as accounting and math classes that seem beyond my ability, I have found myself not too fond of the subject anymore. It’s not that the subject is super hard, but it is just too boring most of the time since I have realized I can’t specialize in only macroeconomics. I’m not a big fan of learning microeconomics. The main reason why I applied to UC Irvine as a business economics major was because I wanted to go into business after graduating college, but my urge to go into the business field has dropped significantly. The only things have prevented me from dropping business economics as a major are that I only have about six or seven more economics classes to take to complete my degree and that macroeconomics still has a special place in my heart. All I wanted was to make a lot of money, but having tons of money isn’t that important to me anymore. I just want to live comfortably and have a stable job that doesn’t bore me… and this is why I decided to double major in sociology! I absolutely love learning about different people, cultures and societies. I love how every place in this huge world has something distinct from everywhere else. I also believe that you have to learn about others to learn about yourself. My currently plan is to go to graduate school and earn a teaching credential. I’m not too sure if I want to get a PhD; it sounds like way too much work and so stressful. I’m either going to be an elementary school teacher or teach economics to high school students—but only macro!
My favorite hobbies are: listening to music, reading, shopping and watching television. I like music from almost every genre except rap. I tried to get into it, but I just can’t! Oh, but I have to admit, I do like TI. My favorite musical artists are: Britney Spears (don’t hate!), Brand New and Taylor Swift. I wish that I could be Taylor Swift’s friend! She seems like she’s just the sweetest girl ever. I also love her style and her hair. I’m not going to lie; I don’t think that most of the songs on Britney’s new CD, Circus, are that great. Nothing will ever beat Toxic!!! Brand New has been my favorite band since… around 7th grade I think? I have NEVER BEEN to any of their shows because they always sell out like after a minute. I’m super excited about their new CD that’s coming out in a few months. It would cost a fortune to get it sent it here from Amazon or something, so I have to wait until I go home to get it, but I will be able to listen to the whole album here somehow…
Currently, my favorite television shows are the Big Bang Theory, Chuck and the Amazing Race. One of my best friends, Jenny, and I are going to apply to be contestants on the Amazing Race within the next five seasons. This is sad, but I finally learned to ride a bike during my first year of college so that I would know how to ride one in case we have to while racing. The plan is that I will eat the gross foods and drive, and she will be the map reader. All other things are still unknown. Other shows that I watch are: CSI (Las Vegas), Survivor, Dateline NBC (I love “to Catch a Predator”), Desperate Housewives, the Office, House and Bones. There’s probably more, but I can’t remember them. Thank goodness most networks stream full episodes of their shows online, or else I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I use to have a big collection of DVDs of movies and television shows, but it’s dying because I sold a whole bunch of them on half.com for money .
I have worked at three places: Limited Too, Bath and Body Works, and now currently at Gymboree. I hate Limited Too and Bath and Body Works. Did you know that it only costs BBW ten cents to make one bottle of lotion? Yup; and it gets sold for more than $11. I think I just hate that store because I hated my manager… I still hate her now. She is so mean! That’s why a whole bunch of my co-workers and I quit and now work at Gymboree. I love love LOVE working at Gymboree! It’s so cute in there, and I love all the people I work with. It’s funny when I see little kids watching GymTV in the store and fight with each other for the chairs. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen parents plop their babies’ strollers in either the corner of the store or in front of the television set and just shop. Gymboree is not a daycare. It’s really fun seeing pregnant mothers one month and then with a baby the next month.

now i can scratch this off of my list of things to do

I'm only writing this to remember the day I puked in a taxi on the ride home from shopping in the old quarters of Ha Noi. It was sick (both ways).