the end to another beginning.

As the end of the semester approaching, it still haven't hit me yet that everything will change and I might have to adapt to the lifestyle back in the states. Now, only a week left, it is becoming harder to let go of hanoi knowing I wont be able to relive this experience ever again, or the same way. Taking this experience and UCHANU to the states is harder said than done. Keeping in touch with someone is my biggest weakness, more so when they are so far away. However, all the memories and the people I met in Vietnam, I can never forget. They have become a part of my learning experience and it is something that I will be able to take with me for the rest of my life. There will be friendship that will last and there will be some that wont. Another thing I will be able to take with me is the experience I had working on Nghe An's project. It gives me whole different perspective about doing this type of charity work and how meaningful it can be. To be able to personally visits the place and see everything for myself, it gives me another purpose for helping people. Not simple just donating money, I was able to understand the difficulty, the life, and the joy of these people. I can actually connects with them heart to heart over short simple conversation. The ways people treat me in Vietnam is something I want to do the same in the states.It is so easy to get to know a stranger on the street in Vietnam and they can easily become some really good friend down the road, because they treat you with their heart. That is something I appreciate about Vietnam culture and it is something I wan to do with the people I meet down the road.

being exposed to many different type of experiences here in Vietnam, I am able to find a purpose for myself in the work I want to do in the future. Coming back and living in Vietnam is something I never though about before. But after this trip, I'm seriously considering of coming back here to work after I'm done with school. I learn that there are so much I can be doing in vietnam. I am very privilege to have a lot of things that others don't, and Vietnam provides me those opportunity to give back to those that are less unfortunate. Definitely, after this trip, charity/ volunteering work is something I want to continue doing for the rest of my life. working at hoa binh thanh xuan and fundraising for Nghe An make me realized how meaning work like this can be. the smile and the joy i see in each individual just make the work all worthwhile. I cant put into words how much this trip have changed me and I wont be able to let go any of this experience. I now have a better understanding of my culture, heritage, and identity. And that is the knowledge that I will always take with me wherever I go and will guide me to do more things that I haven't done before.

Group Work.

Working in group meaning you will have to work together and accept each other differences in ideas and working styles. There will always be a person that lead and the rest will follow. Even though having more people working on one project supposed to mean less work and more fun since it is a group work. However, sometime it is draining to make sure the group work is continue rolling and everyone is happy. Communication is such a big part in group work and that is our group weakness. We often time cannot contact certain members for update to see where can we go from the project or forgot to update on each other what is going on. This makes thing a lot harder in which the team have to wait on that individual in order to continue working. Another thing is delegating tasks among team players and be supportive of each other. Since we have 5 members in our group, work usually being separated into groups of twos and one person is left out. This creates clique in among members and i think it does do some damages to the relationship of the team work we are trying to build. Building good/friendly relationship among team members is harder than getting the work done. When the whole team is not having the same passion for the work we are doing, it gets tough when we want to make the product into something great. Working in group is like picking lottery for me, I might have the best members in the world, or I might not be. It takes effort and understanding from everyone in order to keep the team going strong and be efficient.

When working in group, I am not the creative person when it comes to brainstorming for ideas. I like to execute it better than coming up with it. So that is usually my role when working in group, I"m just "free-floating." I would just bounce around, check up on people, and doing little things that people need me to do that can help them get the job done. I tried to work with everyone and have everyone be a part of the experience as much as possible. Of course, when doing things like translation I like to work by myself, it just a lot easier and more time efficient for me. I am demanding at times when working in group because I do like to have things done at a certain way, sometime it's not a thing. Because of that, I often take over too much load work that I should be letting others take over since it is a group project after all, not mine. working in group is always a challenge for me but I do enjoy it every time since it is a different experience each time. All of the challenges and dramas during the process were all worth it when our team members pulled everything off in the end. It is always a very fulfilling feeling that I get each time at the end of the project work.

Nghe An

It was a busy week fundraising for Nghe An. Due to the short amount of time we had, it is amazing how we pulled everything off. This is my first time ever done something like this, gathering donations and personally delivering it to the students and family. We raised money by asking family members and do fundraising events. Even though fundraising events did not raise as much fund as collecting donations, but it was good in raising awareness to everyone about the work we do and what is going on outside of Hanoi. I had a lot of fun and it was priceless seeing the smile on the kid faces. Coming to the school, we overestimated the jacket size for the kids. Even though some kids are in 3-5 grade, they are still very small like they were in 2 grade. Everyone was the same size, so some jackets were too big for the kids. Nevertheless, they still had a big smile on their face holding on to their new jacket, might of been the one and only new jacket they ever received. I quickly collected 300USD donations from family members, in which not a lot in the states, but it made a big difference for these kids. Some have to walk for about 3-4 hours to come to class and they have to do it 4 times a day. Again, seeing these kids make me feel how lucky I am to have more than 1 jackets to keep myself warm and have a car to drive to school, while these kids only have their legs and little skinny body to keep them warm and move about from and to places.

What struck me the most was when we went to each student's house to give them the gifts and money. one family had 4 small little children about 5-13 years old. Their dad left the family for other woman and so leaving the mom to take care of the kids. She has to work elsewhere and can only come home every other 2 days or so. So the kids have to take care of themselves with no adult supervision. I can imagine how they have to go find food, cook it, and take care of each other at night. some family was speechless when they saw us. It was one heartfelt learning experience in which most houses have nothing but a bed and a table inside their house. Some don't even have a door to keep their house secure. I have always knew there are poor family living everywhere, but this time I am actually witnessing it. It's a different feeling. I felt helpless in a sense in which I dont know how much this 200,000 dong can last them until they are back to where they came from. From this trip, I fully understand how important this type of work is. It might be a small gift but it can make a big change to someone's family.

Transportation

I went home this week to attend my cousin wedding. I flew to Saigon first then took the bus back to Nha Trang that night. It was my first time taking a sleeping bus which was quite comfortable. Each one get our own bed and there are tv and restroom installed on the bus. I slept comfortably until we arrived to Cam Ranh. This type of transportation and service were not available while I was living in Vietnam before 2000. Now it is so simple to travel all around Vietnam. It seems like now more and more people can afford a flight ticket to travel from Northern Vietnam to Southern Vietnam. New airports are opening up to accommodate the demands. There are more busses that travel all around. There are taxi everywhere and offices that sell bus tickets all over the place. Travel have become more convenient and affordable. Development provides access to many thing but one important one is transportation. It allows people to migrate and move about elsewhere that they can have better opportunity to work and live. It allows goods to be transport all over the world. Not only that, banks are another thing I noticed that is developing. There will be probably about 3-5 banks that I can spot within a 2-3 kilometers. Bank is also a form of transportation, money transportation. Bank is a symbol of development in which development is about economically blooming. People now actually uses the services that bank provides and have money to put into bank accounts. In my hometown a bank have just opened across from my house. Before people will have to travel out of my town to a bigger city to go to the bank, but now it is across the street! Living in America, a "developed" country, we can easily gain access to a lot of things. Same thing is happening in Vietnam that I am spotting every time I look around while chilling on the motobike. More and more things are becoming available in Vietnam that have never before. However, all of this also comes with changes in lifestyle and needs. Development is like a long ass domino chain, once you knock down one domino, the whole chain will be effected. Once development creates or introduces all of these new things, there will be other things accompany of these new creations.

Southern Trip.

The Southern Trip didn't feel complete to me since most of the time we are doing our own thing and Gerard and Lena are also missing half of the week. It's the last big trip, so I was sad that we were not able to be together and live it up! The thing I like most about this trip is the time the spent at the local house. We get to experience the simple of the the locals. The area was so peaceful with the river across from our house and the cool breeze. Went to go catch some fishes for lunch, ate rat meat, and be able to see the stars at night. The best moment is when we came back from catching fish and found the host's daughter watching her cute music videos. After showering, some folks gathered around the TV and watched it with her. It reminds me of when I was young, waking to from my afternoon nap and while waiting for food, I would turn on the TV to watch cartoon or music videos. The life was so simple and peaceful, I forgot about that moment for a while. Same reason why I like our time at the village the best because that's when all of us are together doing things together.

As for development, Phu Quoc is definitely wont be the same next time I come back. When we were exploring the north side of the island, we stopped at this small shop to enjoy the beach and grab a drink. The area around there is still underdevelopment and have very few tourist attractions which is realllyy nice! As we were talking to the owner, she told us she only have a month left there because investors are coming in to rebuild the area and now she need to move out of the way. She told us she have been living there for 15 years, but they wont give her paperwork so now she is forced to move. The company does give her compensation, but she said she don't want to move, she likes it there. Stories like this we read in text books but hearing it from the victim makes it real. These people are being pushed out of their hometown in order for companies to serve tourists. Migration is something that comes with development. Moving in America is part of the culture, due to work, due to family, due to school. It is common for family to move houses and settling at the same house for more than 15years can be considered a long time and rare. When my family first arrived to America, we moved every year to a different location for the first 5 years. However, in Vietnam, most family probably stayed at the same house for generations! A few family members will be moving elsewhere due to work or school, but the main house will always be where they grew up. Development creates that conveniency for people to move about and I guess that's where the opportunity to find something better comes in. When people are not restricted no more at one spot, their options will open for whatever they wanted to do. tourism is blooming in Vietnam, while companies are making profit out of this beautiful island, the locals now are worrying how much longer they will be able to keep their house and enjoy the land that was used to be theirs.

Factory.

I wasn't really comfortable going to see the factory on Saturday. As I walked around looking at the workers doing their job, it made me feels like I'm going to the zoo. At Hanoismex, the workers seems to have more benefits working there comparing to Yamaha, which to me seems like a bigger company. Most workers are from the provinces that are looking for jobs in the city to make the extra living to send back money back home. At Hanoismex, workers also have a place to stay and an on-site hospital next to their dormitory. I found it surprising since the services the company offers to the workers are quite decent. One thing that struck me is when I found out that workers at Hanoismex earn 200 dollars a month, while at Yamaha, it's only 100 dollars. As a foreign company, I thought the pay would be somewhat decent if not more, but it was half of what a Vietnamese company is willing to pay their workers. Most of the workers there are between 20-30 years of age. It seems that most of them leave after couple of years working at the factory. This can also mean, they are using the factory work to integrate themselves into the city life and once they can find the opportunity, they can go out and do their own things. This relates to the article from the lecture in which working at factory allows these workers from the less modern area an opportunity to become a part of the city. Working at factory is not something that they might think of doing for the rest of their life. At Hanoismex, they said they are always running low on workers since the demand for this job is not high. That was something different than what the article mentioned before. Some company take advantage of the workers because they know there are more people out there needing a job if anyone rebellious quit. So it was interesting to hear that the company is the one that needed the workers.

As for Yamaha, even though they are bigger and more modern but they have no services for the workers. There's no medical clinic nor dormitory for workers to stay if they are from far provinces. Therefore, lots of their workers said to be recruited from the nearby city. Supposed these two factories are the good/better ones from others. They respect the labor laws and give fair wages. However, after the tour, the factory is not all that a good working place. Wages are still quite low and people still have to pay for a lot of things moving and living in the city out of their own pocket. With the amount of money they make is not a lot for a comfortable living. I can imagine how the worse factory place will be like. Even though foreign company might have provided more jobs to third world country, but instead of making their life better, the workers are being exploit and have to deal with labor rights being violate. However, government control sometime cannot go full force at punishing companies like this afraid they will scare away foreign investment into the country economy. Development gives people many opportunity but it also strip others at certain things.

Sapa

The Sapa trip have opened up my eyes to many things. Sapa town is a lot smaller than I expected and we pretty much have to travel outside of Sapa town to see and do things. There aren't much to the town. I enjoyed the experience a lot due to the minority people that I met there. I felt the warmness from them talking to me trying to sell the little products. There is this old lady that followed me for the whole day trying to sell me her hand-made bracelet.  No matter what, she always have this very sweet smile on her face and it reminded me of my grandma. I also met this one little girl that A-Thai knew from couple years back. It is about 7PM already but she said she can't eat until she comes home in the highlands late at night. When A-Thai treated her out to dinner, I was able to get to know her a little bit more. I asked her about the Love Market. She told me there's not much to it anymore, before it meant for people to find their lovers, but now it has turn into a performance catering to the tourists. From her response, she does realized that the meaning of that cultural event changed and have been shaped differently. Instead of doing it for a more meaningful purpose, the Love Market is now just another way to make money for the minority. Due to poverty, the minority groups have to find a way to make money to support themselves, and unfortunately, they have to give away "part of their culture" trading for food.

Development have been offering more opportunities for people to "live better" but those opportunities are not offered to everyone. While people can take advantage of the economy blooming, others people are living of day by day and barely making enough. Khu, our tour guide, she mentioned how girls are being sell overseas to make money for their family. They are tricked into thinking they can make "easy money" elsewhere, and some never return home. Human-trafficking is a big issue in Southeast Asia countries. When farming can no longer put food on the table, people seek to find other alternative. Often times they are forced to move out from their home to other places (thanks to transportation) in order to make a living. It is a risky decision in which they have never been elsewhere but their hometown, going out into the "world" there are more risks than luck. Seeing how the minority people live, it pains me to realized how they are being pushed back up in the highland into like this "little corner" struggling to make a living while people in the lowlands have more opportunity to make a living. At tourist places like Sapa, the culture also lost it meaning. While people come there for authentic souvenirs, most are made from Hanoi in the factory. Tourism and development have done a lot of damage to the "cultural authenticity" of a certain place. While I have a lot of fun, but realized I am actually contributed to all of this changes also.

Kiem An

This week we interviewed a web developer. When we asked whether he did a different job before this, but he has been doing this since he graduated from college. I got surprised a little bit because mostly everyone I know, they have been doing many many jobs before the one they are doing now. It seems that the younger generation is able to pick the job they like and pursuit it while the older generation work because they have to make a living, so whatever job they can get their hands on, they will do it. Working have different meaning now than it is before. Our younger generation now when thinking about working, we thought about will we like the job we do? where should we work? how long will we be working? etc. More in the aspect of whether we will be comfortable and like the job or not. on the other hand, the older generation mostly work because they have to make a living. They cannot pick and choose whether it's a suitable job for them or not, if it puts food on the table, they will take it. The taxi driver I was talking to have been driving for 15 years. When I asked, "Did you do a different job before this?"He said, " I did everything, kiem an ma em." It's not uncommon to meet a Vietnamese person and hearing that they have done several jobs in their life. Since they have work a lot, they knew how to do a lot of things also. Before, I have always wonder why my dad knew so much about fixing things and doing everything. As I talked to him its because he have to do so to feed himself. He took photos, selling books, fixing motobikes, etc. He had to learn everything on his own. Before people are too worry about making enough money to eat, other aspects about working was unnecessary to think of. I felt privilege to be able to pick what I like to do knowing I will have my parents to back me up, so financially for now, I was not worried. Education is something that is not easy for everyone to access during his time due to financial issues. People have to go out and work to help and support the family, they don't have the time nor the money to go to school. The only way to make a living is to work. However the idea has changed. For our generation, the only way to make a living in the future is to go to school. Education, Education, Education. That is also the reason why my parents moved to America so my sisters and I can have a better education. 

As the standard of lifestyle changes, people's expectation changes. There's more "want" than "necessity." As for me, in the future I want to be able to live a comfortable life. Comfortable life meaning I will have a house, a car, be able to take vacation, work at my own schedule, own my own work place, etc. There's a lot of materialistic things that come into the picture of this future dream. I didn't thought of it much because I thought my dream was normal, just like everyone else. But this was not the case for my parents when he's visioning his dream. He wanted to be able to give us what we need and sometime want. He want to be able to afford education for us and make sure we live a "comfortable life" in which we can eat the food we want and not be restricted because of money. To my parents, food symbolizes the wealth of the family. My parents wont let us get everything we wanted, but they will give us all the food we wanted. I am sure this will be the case for most family. Their main purpose to work is to put food on the table for their family. If they have extra they will think about other spending, but otherwise, they can't. Now our  standard of living is increasing, the increase in salary allows the gap for us to spend on other spending like vacation, Iphone, etc. I guess we can call those thing more of "desire want" rather than "needed." I think its interesting to see the difference in definition of "kiem an" according to different people and different generation. Their social standing also influence how they define "working." A person in "poverty" will define it differently than the person who is more wealthy. It's important to be conscious of the changes in the meaning of how we do things. 

Rice Harvesting Week. :)

       Woke up as early as 6:30am in the morning to get ready to go rice harvesting. It is my first time ever and never in my life thinking I would be harvesting rice. Have absolutely no idea what is going to happen, just know I will have to get down and dirty with the mud in the field since it rained couple days before. The muddy field definitely added to the experience of harvesting rice. As soon as I stepped into the mud, from that point on its pretty pointless to keep myself as clean as I can. The mud makes me no longer worry about the dirtiness nor the bugs in the mud. Enjoy this experience was all that is left in my mind. I think we were pretty lucky to be able to be such a good weather. It was not as hot as we expected and the breeze was just perfect!
       After harvesting, we came back and enjoyed a wonderful lunch prepared by our lovely colleagues and drank some rice wine (ruou). The life in the village seems very chill and easy everyone living their day by day. After lunch, our team headed out to talk to the locals and I played with the local kids near the pagoda. As I took the two kids to the village gate to get ice-cream, the locals we passed by were very friendly as they were asking me many questions about my muddy pants. It was heartwarming talking to them in which they kept asking if I'm itch from the mud and if I am tired. They were surprise that we would be harvesting rice and chuckled a bit when I told them I liked it a lot!
      Since younger folks are no longer interested in the traditional rural agricultural work that's why the older people at the village thought it was strange that we are actually enjoying doing work like this. After talking to one of the local while he is fishing at the pond, we see how rural agricultural changes in the village. During the war, the government would divide up land according to the number of members in each household; more people more land. However, after the government set the birth control policy, every household get the same amount of land, don't matter how many members are in their family. Rural agricultural is slowly becoming less popular as an occupation the younger generation would like to take on. About 40% of the youngsters work in the urban area like Hanoi during the day and travel back to the village at night. While the rest had to move to the city to go to school like Chu Khoi's daughter, Yen. The field work is now belonging to the older generation to continue and they are the ones that still live in the village.  Now transportation is available to everyone, commuting from the city to the village is no longer a problem. It allows people to migrate and move around or away from where their hometown to work elsewhere. With the young generation moving away from the rural agricultural labor, how long will this survive in the future? How will development with the new technology affect traditional farming? Will it help or will eventually make farming slowly disappearing?

Central Trip.

Central Trip.

Quy Nhon: It’s such a small, friendly, and peaceful town that was so different compared to Hanoi. There’s pretty much no traffic and one can explore the town by walking. The city has a little bit of everything: open market, supermarket, hospital, schools, beach, historical attraction sight, etc. Some areas are quite modern and developed, but there’s still the feeling and a bit of that traditional Vietnam that still lingers.  However, I am sure I am not the only one that felt in love with the city and many tourists will feel the same way about Quy Nhon which can turn this city into another tourist attraction to accommodate the demand. It makes me sad to think that the next time I come back, it might turn into another Hanoi or Saigon, development!

Kom Tum: It was one of a lifetime experience. Never thought I will be sleeping in a stilt house and spent time with the local minority group. I lived in Vietnam until I was ten but never knew there are minority groups living in Vietnam. It is definitely an eye-opener experience. The view of the mountain is just breathtaking. I enjoyed the ceremony that night a lot, but heard from the locals that a baby just died that day. However, they still go on and continue with the ceremony. I personally felt it was inappropriate to celebrate after a person death, and the village is like a big family that has just lost a member of their family.  They did cut the ceremony short though. The Gong ceremony reminded me of the love market in Sapa. It is originally created for a different purpose for the locals to come together, interact, and celebrate. However, due to the demand of tourism, wanting to experience the authenticity of a certain place, it seems to gradually turning into another performance to entertain the customers or just another tourist sight to make money. The original purpose of the ceremony or celebration is no longer there and it is lowly change over time.

Da Nang: The development that is going on in Da Nang right now amazed me! Driving down the street along the beach, everything looked very much like America. Big houses that look the same, gated neighborhood, hotels, and big fancy casino right along the side of the beach! As we were driving to our hotel, the construction seems to be endless. The development that is going on in Da Nang seems to be very organized. The streets are cleaner, more signs that prevent street venders to do business on the sidewalk near the river. It was interesting to see that one side of the street is for business while the other side is for public spaces.  There are many great places in Da Nang like Hoi An and Cham Island. I enjoyed the city a lot and but didn’t get to see the bridge on the river rotates though.

Hue: There are so many great things about Hue, but the one that lingers in my head the most is the tomb of Minh Khai.  I was overwhelmed by how elaborate and detailed the tomb is! It reminded me of the upcoming 1000 year Thanh Long celebration. Large amount of money are pour into this celebration project. Where does all of this money coming from? The tax money from the citizens I supposed. Living in Vietnam for this past two months, I can already see the changes of Hanoi preparing for this celebration. New tiles were installed in Ho Tay, new lights and signs and statues are hooked up everywhere! While the city is being decorated for this one in a lifetime and also one time celebration, the problem of the sewage system in Hanoi still exists. In order to build this tomb, Minh Khai put his country in debts and caused many deaths so that people can remember and honor him? Often time, political power is demonstrates in the form of wealth and fame. The idea of showing faces and having people admiring still exist no matter what time period or where you are living.

Development.

I have been thinking about the whole development effects during my staying here so far. I never really pick a stand whether development is good or bad for Vietnam. Part of my reasons for coming back to Vietnam is to visit my family and experience that "traditional" Vietnam feeling that I was longed for so long. I was disappointed that I could not find it in Hanoi. My thought was it must have been the same for my hometown, Cam Ranh va Nha Trang. I have been gone for six years, I can't expect things to be the same. I was not really happy with all the dramatic changes that I see in Hanoi, I do miss that "old, traditional" Vietnam that was once there. I remember meeting a foreigner while drinking beer with friends, and he said how he hated Nha Trang. I was surprised since all the local Vietnamese would tell me they love Nha Trang and the "beach is gorgeous!" He said there's nothing but hotels now in Nha Trang, it's too developed for him. That was before my trip to Nha Trang. I came to Cam Ranh first before arriving to Nha Trang, it was the same. Since Cam Ranh is a smaller town, not much have change. Everyone still lived in the same place and I was not afraid to get around by myself since the street is not crowded like Hanoi. As I was talking to one of my neighbor, she made a comment, "yeah everything is the same, no one invest in our town since there's nothing." But once I arrived to Nha Trang, everything was new to me. I could not recognize the street or anywhere I go. My cousins will take me around on his motobike and asked if I remember anything, I would say NO. There were many many fancy hotels near the beach, its true. I asked my cousin how he feels about all of this change and development and does he miss the old Nha trang? He would tell me no, nha trang had nothing before all of this development. It was just a beach and empty land, so there's not much to miss but now there's more to do and see. It makes me think whether development is at all bad for the locals and for the Vietnamese. Who am I to say whether it is good or bad, when I am not the one paying taxes or will live here for the rest of the life and deal with all the problems locals here have to deal with? I am sure if I was poor and gotta worry about every meal, I would not mind working for KFC if it means putting food on the table for my family. I was not comfortable with the new changes but I gotta accept and understand, everyone wants a better life and that's the reason why my parents came to America. There's always two sides to the story and I just have to be conscious when making judgement on what I experience here. 

Interview #1. Pho Seller

Interview. #1.

Our goal this week was to interview a pho seller and a shoe repairer. It was difficult trying to ask someone who are willing to let us interview them. After two days of trying, we were fortunate that a young pho soller accepted our request. His pho place is a family traditional pho nam dinh. Couple of things that I found were interesting during the interview was his interest in cars. He wants to work with cars in the future but due to the family business and financial circumstance, he cannot pursuit is interest. He works from 5am in the morning until 11pm at night everyday, seven days a week. He has been doing this for about six years already. As we talked to him about how’s the business and since prices for housing kept increasing, they barely made enough to pay for the rent. The pricing for their house changed from 6 million dong to 12 million dong in about 6 years. His family came from Nam Dinh and it was not as developed as Hanoi. They moved to Hanoi to start up the pho business and hoping to make a living. He dropped out of school after high school because “he couldn’t keep up with the workload.” The interview flowed very well and it wasn’t as difficult trying to keep up the conversation since he was very kind and open-minded to our questions. He was my first interview and it gave me courage to go on and pursuit the rest since I think some of the ones we picked might be harder than we thought. I learned it will be easier just talk to them and make sure it is interesting for myself as for them since I don’t want to make it too formal. As we said thank to him, he gave us free tra da! It was very refreshing since the electricity ran out and we had to do the interview indoor without fan.  This was a good start for our group because how we are more eager to talk to more people and learn what is their life and job like in Vietnam.

Week 2. Mapping the City.

KDTM Sky City (88 Lang Ha)

      The location we went this week is near the new developing Sky City Building. The building was still under construction when we got there so we could not check out the inside of the building. The building has about more than 20 floors and an underground parking lot. Around the building there's more construction projects that are currently being build.  The area around is very similar to the location we went last week, Ngo Van Nham va Nguyen Thi Tham. It seems to me that it was not fully develop into a private neighborhood yet, compared to other private-gated neighborhood other groups went. All the places on the list are all available no further than two blocks down the main street. Everything were surprisingly closed by that it was not as tiring as last time going around to find all the shops in different direction.  I was also surprised they had a closed by traditional open market, however, no pagoda to be found. The area also have an area for badminton which we could not find last week. This was not on the list to find, but I noticed there was very few places for Bia Hoi. I only saw about 3 places near the area compared to every Bia Hoi restaurant on every corner elsewhere. Even though the area was not fully develop into a private neighborhood yet, but the surrounding has becoming very like the modern city. I did not see any street vendors walking around. There were many many automobile shops and big buildings are under construction. Big shops were on the front of the street while little houses or shops are pushed back into the little alley and hidden. As modern construction projects are moving into the neighborhood, it will set a whole new standard for the local who live around there.

    I would not live in this area in which it is too busy and might be expensive for me. As high class apartment like this being build, I wonder whether it is beneficial for the local or more for foreigner that can afford to pay rent  in those apartments. The streets are busy with vehicles and there's fewer and fewer local interaction as the area will continue to develop and soon everyone will be behind their shop doors that prevent them from interacting with their neighbors. As new businesses coming in, jobs like knife sharpener  and shoe shine boys will slowly disappear.  There's no nearby pagoda but just shops after shops after shops. There was no park and spaces for local use besides the badminton place we found. Will all of this upgraded city will forced the traditional ways of life disappear  eventually? And with all of the resources available to make it more convenient for local and/or foreigners to live in the neighborhood, how will it might affect the number of international residents that might move there?

-mai

Tran Xuan Xoan va Ngo Thi Nham

When starting this project, I thought it will be like Hanoi Survival, where we will have to run around to find all the places and it might be further down than our designated location, but I was wrong. A lot of the things we are expected to find are just around the street. We can easily found a lot of places located mainly on Tran Xuan Xoan. However, some places are easier to spot than others. For example, sinh to places are everywhere, you can find it basically down the street on every couple of houses. However, trying to find a a place to get knife sharpen or key made is a lot harder. We have to constantly asking the local around to see if they know any place that offer those services. In addition, those places are a lot farther than from the center of Tran Xuan Xoan va Ngo Thi Nham. Also, I was surprised of not being to find a court or space to play badminton. In a sense, the area have all the necessity shops that make it more convenient for the people living around there, but those "rare" services like sharpening knife, getting a key made, area to sit down, or to play sport were not easy to find. 

My favorite place in the area is the local supermarket because its very warmhearted walking around there. I felt a sense of community as the neighbor shop owners just hang around and talk to their neighbor store.  I also saw them eaten lunch together which I found very sweet! All the shops are in the open so everyone get to interact with each other more compared to the shops with building we found outside the supermarket and around the street. With building like those, everyone seems to be in their own little house that limited their chances of interact with their local neighbor. 

Even though mostly everything is around the area, but I'm not sure if I will live there. Without recreational spaces, i felt that something is missing. There were schools around but there was no spaces like the park or sport field for the local to use. It's very city-like for me and I want to live near a place that is more peaceful and quiet without much traffic. A place where there's a more community feel when everyone would know everyone near their area and interact more. I do appreciate all the convenient stores around that would make life a lot easier, but it is also important for me to live in a space where i can create a tight bond with the people living around me.

gig.

Favorite interview:

Software engineer.

This one is my favorite interview not so much due to the job, but how he compared the differences between the working lifestyle in his homeland versus America. When he was working in his homeland, he seems to spend most of his time relaxing and his job does not seem like a rush or stressful one. However, working in America, every hour counts, and the job is much more stressful and rush. Often times, we seem to be consumed by work and the majority of our time spent is working. People work to made a living to live a better life but often time to do so, they have to give up a lot of things due to work. Like the case of the crime scene cleaner (pg.80), he lost his marriage life due to the job and nonetheless he doesn’t think it’s a lost. This reflects the life of Americans versus people from underdeveloped counties. Americans, leisure time is sometime that is rare for working people. However, in Vietnam for example, working time and leisure time sometime are mixed. Street venders while selling fruits on the street spend most of their time talking and catching up with their neighbors. Businesses have shops in their own home which allow them to rest whenever they feel like it. They have time to cook and eat with their family, compared to packed lunch in America. Yet, leisure time in America is often only vacation that you take two weeks per year or on occasional holidays. Living in America for ten years, I often got caught up with the busy life due to school and volunteer work that I forget to make time for family.  This interview allows me the reflect on the lifestyle and make me think how I want to live or work later in the future. To be financially successful is important but quality time for family is also the important quality of life. 

Hello my name is Mai. :)

Nguyen Thi My-Thuan is actually my original name. I changed my name to Mai Nguyen after I got my America citizenship. Born in Cam Ranh, Nha Trang in 1990. Came to America when I was 10 years old, so I am privilege to still be able to speak two languages, Vietnamese and English. During the last 20 years, the biggest lesson I learn so far is how to love and appreciate the people around me, especially family. However, that lesson I learned it the hard way. Came home from school one day and I lost my grandma, she died from a stroke. She was my mom, my buddy, my sister, basically my everything. She literally raised me and my 3 sisters while my parents are busy working to put food on the table for us. It was her death that made me realized I have not done "shit" for my parents or anything for my grandma. I took them for granted. I always put them after friends, never tend to make time for them, never tend to stop and think whether that will hurt their feelings, never once do something small to cheer them up. I just went on to do my everyday thing and never really pause and question things. Even though, she is no longer with me physically she still taught me a lot. After she's gone, I learned to take care of my sisters to help out my parents. Since my mom is always too tired to clean and my dad is a tidy person, I'm starting to turn into a neat freak after years of cleaning. Having 3 sisters I have always felt like an outcast as the middle child and hated my parents for awhile until I understand how hard it is to raise all 4 girls together. Now, we are not the best kids in the world that do not cry or get sick and scream and yell and nag and gosh who knows what! Through all of this I just know I have to work extra hard to make up for the sacrifices my parents made in order to give us this educational opportunity in the states. Don't know how, but I got lucky to get into UC Berkeley and met all of these wonderful people from REACH! (API Recruitment and Retention Center).

I decided to participated in EAP ever since I was a freshman.  Even though I lived in Vietnam for 10 years, coming back now Vietnam is not the same Vietnam as I used to remember. My main goal for this semester is to challenge myself to explore and find those memories about Vietnam that I was longing for years. From eating the street food, to riding a bike around the village or small town, to connecting back to my roots. I remember, when the sun is about to set I would come and sit in front of my house and listen to parents chit chat with my neighbors. I would come by my neighbor house and play with her kids  everyday until its time to come home and sleep. I guess I would call it "chilling." "Chilling" in America is quite different, I usually don't "chill" with the neighbor, only friends or people I would know. mostly is also because they don't have time. But in Vietnam, "chilling" become a living style that everyone does everyday, interacting with the people around them and make great relationship! During my short staying here, I hope to create those relationships and continue to make it last doing whatever it is that I have to do.