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.

Amazing Race Asia

I figure everyone knows what Amazing Race is.  There is also a show on the AXN channel here in Asia called the Amazing Race Asia.  They are accepting applications for the newest show right now.

Diep told me I should apply for us to play... I have an emphatic two word answer to that:  NO WAY! 

Diep used to trust me in all of our travels. Now she sits back and waits for me to make a mistake so she can take shots at me.  Of course, hindsight is 20/20.  If she were making the decisions, we would be worse off... I know this firsthand. As far as my mistakes go, my favorites are when we get off an airplane in an unknown part of an airport terminal.  You have two choices in general: turn right, or turn left.  There is a 50 per cent chance that I will head in the right direction, but I always look for a screen to tell me which gate and terminal my next flight boards at, so even if I go the wrong way, it isn't more than 50 meters. She will give me hell on those mistakes (if you even consider them mistakes), even though I appreciate stretching my legs after a long flight.  There is no way I would let her berate me on TV like that.  The list goes on and on why I wouldn't go on that show with Diep.  I saw an American and his Philippino wife on that show one year... the guy was in tears before it was over.  I would have been in some Singaporean jail if it had been me suffering the abuses he had gone through.

Today is Monday.  One day of work and then I am off again.  This time, taking a two day walk to a field site and then to Saigon for a day before heading back to Hanoi on Saturday.  Could be an interesting week.

Megan Has a Good Day

I imagine Megan has some pretty crummy days in Hanoi.  As an only child with a very protective mother, she doesn't get to get out very much.  As she gets older, we are trying to give her the chance to get out and enjoy some of the events that are appropriate for her age.

So, yesterday she had a school friend over from the night before (this girl has an Ethiopian mother and English father) and they took the bicycles out around the lake to a cafe.  Megan enjoys the freedom she has on a bike, but I can;t help but to worry about the traffic when she is out alone.

Later that day, she went with a Korean and Belgian friend to the MTV-sponsored concert I mentioned in the previous post.  She said she enjoyed that more than she expected.  It was a little tough on us, though, because we had to take off at nearly 11:00pm from our house on the motorbike, find her in a crowd of around 30,000 young people and then hunt down a taxi to take them home. We had to actually hunt the taxi from the motorbike, get Diep in the taxi and drive back to the stadium that the concert was held.  When the taxi stopped to pick up the girls, the taxi was surrounded by kids thinking it was available to take them home.  It was mass craziness!

The stadium is a good ride from the house and the pollution and traffic was pretty bad. It was all worth it, though, if Megan had a good time.

MTV Exit Concert in Hanoi

I went to the country team meeting at the US Embassy today because nobody more important than I was at the office today... that is to say it was just Daniel and I (not to say Daniel is less important, just to say he would chew off his arm to stay out of a meeting like this).  Anyway, the upside of the meeting was the announcement that MTV is the orgnanizer for a concert at the My Dinh Stadium this Saturday and the embassy was giving away free tickets to embassy personnel.  The email went out to everyone except those at JPAC, so I would not have known about it had I not gone to the meeting.

Anyhow, I don't want people to think I am a big MTV fan, because I can only watch Lady Gaga and Jason Beaver, or whatever his name is, so many times in a row before I start pulling my hair out.  I scored two tickets that I plan on giving to Megan and letting her enjoy the concert.  Actually, the concert is a boy band from Korea and some Australian pop artist... not my idea of a great time.  But, I think she will like it.  I managed to deceive my way into an extra ticket because I mentioned Daniel may want a ticket - knowing full well he would give up his ticket to another friend of Megan.

In other news, I just got back from my second 10-day TDY tour.  I posted the pictures on my Facebook even though I can't get on Facebook at this time.  No doubt, Vietnam is clamping down on Facebook and it may be gone forever from this communist nowhere land in a matter of weeks.  If that happens, I figure I will be turning to Blogspot to put out my missives, photos, and just plain blabbering.

Some poor lady got run over - and killed - by a cement truck just a hundred yards or so from our office two days ago.  She must have been on the road for at least 45 minutes before they carted her away... isn't it ironic that animals get cleaned off the streets immediately and people are left to the gawkers for hours... of course, there is a reason the animals disappear so quickly - two words:  Fresh meat.

My newness still hasn't worn off of  Diep yet... give her a few days.  She is still hugging and kissing me.  She keeps checking next to her in bed to make sure I haven't left again.  I figure I am a couple dozen farts and other infractions away fromm getting on her nerves again.

For the time being, it is good to be home!

On the road again...

I have been on the road significantly for the past couple of weeks and, after a brief time in Hanoi, I will be heading out again tomorrow. I missed the last two weekends to work and it looks like I will miss the next one as well. The upside is that traveling is easier than working because it is mostly sitting down and waiting for the next form of transportation to pick you up, move you, or drop you off. My time in the office is a little more hectic because I find myself trying to catch up on all the things that have gone by the wayside while I was gone. Getting it done isn't so much the problem as prioritizing and remembering what needs to be done.

I just got back from Danang two days ago. Diep had stopped by and stayed with me for the night at the Furama Resort on her way down to Saigon. Megan, too, was not in Hanoi because her class took a road trip to Hoi An and Hue from 8 - 12 March. She was very excited about taking this trip with her class, and I imagine she suffered a little anxiety when her mother boarded the same airplane she was on going to Danang... unannounced. Diep didn't plan it that way, but they managed to get on the same flight. Too funny!

So today and tomorrow will be pretty busy getting ready for the trip and then getting on the road for the next ten days. In a way, I am looking forward to it, but the other part of me dreads not being able to follow everything that is going on.