Heading to Saigon Today

Through my travels with the office, I earn points on the national carrier, Vietnam Airlines.  After 40,000 points a member qualifies for free round trip travel to Saigon, among other places.  So, I am taking advantage of this time to meet up with Diep and Megan.  Diep seems to feel that she and Megan have to travel every time Megan has time off from school, and Megan's school takes from 1- 2 weeks off every change of season (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) all have an associated break.  That is a lot of off time, so I try to join them when I can.

Since Diep is already in Saigon, I was able to hang out with the fellas at the office after hours.  The office has a bar that is maintained by the administrative NCO.  I had a couple of beers, ate a little pizza and then came home... pretty tame, but it was nice to hang out.  Unfortunately, when your work is your life the coversation tends to center around work, and that is something that I wasn't really into last night.  I left a little earlier than everyone else, but I usually do that anyway.

I'm Feeling Better Now

Yesterday, we had a central government-level round of talks between my boss's boss and our counterparts.  This happens at least twice a year, but there is always lots of preparation for it when it does happen.  Two things make this event especially stressful for me: 1) I am the go-to guy on a lot of what is happening - from schedule, to events, to in-country coordination; and 2) A lot of the members of the visiting delegation are special-needs people, i.e., they need a vehicle to take them shopping, or they need to change their airlines ticket, or they need me to fix their PDA.  No one need is really too much for me to handle, but all of them put together adds up to a lot of my time invested in their need.  These two primary issues, coupled with the fact that we just finished a field activity (I am exhausted and haven't had much time off for a very long time), and the last minute translation of the 11-page script that we finished the night before the talks make this the most stressfull event that I have to deal with throughout the year.

Anyway, it is over now and about half of the crew have either left, or are leaving, this morning.  The other half will be nothing more than a slight annoyance until they trinkle out of here over the next couple of days.  A huge burden has lifted from my shoulders and I feel much better now.

Diep left for Saigon yesterday.  She wasn't helpful before she left.  I had to work on Saturday and Sunday to get ready for Monday and she was acting as if I had some mistress at work.  It sucked being at work already and then to come home to the cold shoulder because I had been "neglecting" the family didn't help my morale at all.  Not that I didn't see her issue: That was the weekend of Megan's Birthday.

So, I will joint Diep and Megan in Saigon tomorrow night.  In the meantime, I will do a few things at work and make sure that I get my workouts in and enoy this next day and a half away from family stress.

Hanoi weather, this morning, is beautiful.  That doesn't happen very often.

Censorship

Slowly, over the past few months, access to my FaceBook account has started disappearing.  At first it was an occasional 404 message when I tried to bring up the main page and then the main FB became a rare access event.  That was okay, because I had the FB lite web site as a back up.  Now, that appears to be gone. I have been relegated to access via my PDA, and even that has started occasionally giving me access issues.  No doubt, someone in Vietnam doesn't want me usinng FB, but I can't figure out why it is any different than any other social networking site in the eyes of "Big Brother" Vietnam.  My Space and Twitter are allowed, but those aren't the site I have accounts with... and to be honest, I don't like to switch from one site to the other, it gets confusing and all of the usernames and passwords are hard to remember.

Word on the streets is that our work servers will soon be opened up to FB.  Our servers reach out to the web through Hawaii so Vietnamese firewalls would not be a factor.  They sure are taking their sweet time about it, though.

I wish I had a reason as to why Vietnam is blocking FB.  In this world of communications, it just doesn't seem like shutting FB down from the Vietnamese community would make even a small dent in the security conundrum the Public Security folks are up against.

Megan's Birthday Pictures

Megan doling out the ice cream cake... yum!

Happy Birthday Song

Birthday Cake

Mom still cuts the cake

Couldn't sleep

I tend to get up early though I have been trying to sleep later these past two weeks.  I pushed my wake-up call to 5:00am and I have enjoyed the extra sleep.  This morning, however, I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep.  I laid in bed for a little while as the distant lighting lit the sky outside the bedroom window and beyond West Lake, but even that with the distant roll of thunder couldn't lull me back to sleep.

Today is a national holiday in Vietnam.  It is one of those holidays that prove Vietnam is improving economically.  The holiday is the Hung Kings Day set on the first king's death date (giỗ).  The holiday is relatively new and has been added to the calendar for the week before May Day.  I say it is proof of economic development, because in the not too distant past, Vietnamese people worked 6 days a week taking only a week or two off during the Lunar New Year.  Now that people have more spending money, they want more time to enjoy it.  The holiday is a good opportunity to take a three-day weekend trip.

The day is not a holiday for me. I have too much to do getting ready for a round of technical discussions between our headquarters and Vietnamese counterparts.  The meeting isn't until Monday, but the group is coming in on Saturday and I have a few things I have to do before they arrive.  I will take my holiday from 28 April - 2 May, through the "Liberation Day" and May Day weekend.

Megan has the day off from school today and will have all week next week off as well.  This time off sandwiches spring break between the two holidays.  It is also her 14th birthday on Saturday.  I guess I am not the only one feeling old.  Diep pulled out some pre-Megan photos and had them sitting on the table when I got in yesterday.  Obviously she has been reminiscing as well.  Anyway, Megan is growing up into a fine young woman and I hope she has a great birthday.  This year, she has invited some girlfriends to see a movie at the local theater, they will enjoy some pizza and an ice cream cake, and have a sleepover.  I will try to stay as much out of the way as I can.

Oatmeal

I have been eating oatmeal at work to avoid going out and eating huge calorie lunches every day.  The thing is, oatmeal is not easy to find around here.  Last night, Diep and I went on a search for oatmeal at the local supermarket and came up with nothing; so on the way back, we stopped by our apartment complex shoppette to see if there was any there.

After looking through the five rows of goods that the shoppette had, Diep asked the counter girl if they carried oatmeal.  The conversation went back and forth for a couple of exchanges before she said they didn't have any left for the moment.  We didn't really expect them to carry it anyway, it just happened to be on the way back from the store, but her question as we were walking out the door kind of caught me by surprise.  She asked Diep if we wanted to buy it to eat or if we were visiting friends.  After I asked Diep if she said what I thought she said, I thought it was hilarious.  Vietnamese custom is similar to western custom in that when visiting friends for dinner you would bring a gift, i.e. a bottle of wine or some flowers.  In Vietnam, apparently it could be something else like... a can of steel cut dry oatmeal.  So, don't be surprised if I come over to dinner with some oatmeal next time!

Friends Visiting

Diep and I met a very long time ago when her and her friend walked into a pool bar.  Diep's friend, Trang, asked her to come talk to me and introduce us.  I dated Trang very briefly, usually while Diep came along, and I saw things weren't going to work out between Trang and myself fairly quickly.  Anyway, that is how I met Diep... and Trang.

So, since then, Trang married an Italian man and went to Italy.  She had a daughter and then got divorced.  I am not sure what jobs she has done or how her life has been in Italy, but she does visit Vietnam from time to time.  This time, she came with her boyfriend and visited Diep in Hanoi.  Trang and her boyfriend, Andrea, invited us to eat at one of the older eateries in what is known as the Old Quarter, the Cha Ca La Vong.  This is one of the most famous of restaurants in Hanoi and it hasn't changed much in the past 20 years.  It is run down and the service is lacking.  Nevertheless, it is one of the "must do" things on the list when traveling to Hanoi. 

Trang is a naturalliy pretty woman, but has put on a little weight in the past couple of years... nothing like a woman in her 40s in the U.S. but still she isn't the skinny girl she used to be.  The extra weight makes her tattoo on her lower back a little misshapened and that, along with the blond highlights, boob job and less-than-conservative dress made her a topic of not-very-flattering conversation for everyone in the restaurant.  Hanoians love to talk about other people.  I have, over the years, learned to ignore these snide little comments, but even I felt a little uncomfortable at the restaurant.

Diep and Trang reconnected, and Diep invited Trang and her boyfriend/husband (not really sure what the relationship is) over to dinner at our house.  This was good in that we didn't have to go out in public again, but not so good in the fact that two social events in one week is about 1 1/2 too many for me.

The dinner went off well and the reconnection, overall, went well for me.  Apparently, it was an opportunity for Diep to see how lucky we are to be doing what I am doing, living where we are living and enjoying generally comfortable lifestyle.  I am always aware of how lucky I am. I remember very vividly how it was in Mobile before coming back to Vietnam, but I think Diep needs reminding from time to time.

In a nutshell, life has been good since Diep saw Trang.  Not sure how long it will last, but it is good for now.

She said...

One of Diep's friends from when we first met came to Hanoi today.  Diep knew about this a few days ago and had made plans to have dinner with her friends and "husband."  I was given the choice of whether I wanted to go or not and in the end I let Diep make the decision yesterday when she told me it was better that I stay home because I have to go to work the next day.  That was fine with me... I was looking forward to spending a relaxing evening with Megan and hitting the hay early.  So, it was a little distressing for me when I came home from work today to find out I was, in fact, going out with Diep, her friend, and her friend's husband - who just happens to be Italian and speaks very little English.

It ends up the evening went okay and I came home a little earlier than everyone else.  I just hate that whole thing of a plan having been made and then it changing the next day.  For example, I wouldn't have gotten up at 4:30am had I known that I would be going out tonight.  Anyway, all is well that ends well.

Unfortunately, now we are scheduled for dinner with these friends on Friday.  There goes my free time...

113th repatriation ceremony in Danang, Vietnam

Rendering honors at the 113th Repatriation Ceremony in Danang, Vietnam

10 April 2010 was the last day of the 98th Joint Field Activity.  Anyone who is a friend on my facebook has seen the pictures go up over the past 6 weeks from the advance work period through the main operations.  10 April was also the day that we sent seven sets of remains back to the U.S. for further identification.  This was the largest number of transfer cases I have seen on a Vietnamese tarmac since the early 90's.  The ceremony went well, and the U.S. Ambassador and Defense Attache were present for the ceremony.

As proud as I was to be present for the ceremony and participate in the operation over the past six weeks, I was very happy to come back to Hanoi yesterday.  Diep has been getting mad at me for staying away from home for so long and my early flight back on Sunday left us the rest of the day to go see a movie and have all three of our meals together.  It sounds simple, but it was a happy time.

Over the past six weeks I traveled extensively throughout Vietnam.  I worked in Quang Tri, Danang, Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong, and HCMC.  That is a lot of provinces and municipalities for me and I don't necessarily hope to cover so much ground in future field activities.

We now have less than a month before the next field activity kicks off, with lots to do in between.  I will try to find some down time where I can before this whole things starts all over again.