VIETNAM
Highlights from Ho Chi Minh City
The Good, the Bad & the Wickedly Awesome!!

The Good Stuff: Our service-learning experiences with the Daughters of Charity. 

Our visit to a school for street children.  The term is often used to describe both market children, who work in the streets and markets of cities selling or begging, but return home to their families at the end of the day, and homeless street children, who work, live and sleep in the streets, and often lack any contact with their families.  Though these particular kids were not homeless, the majority of them had been abandoned by their parents, and were currently being taken care of by their grandparents, who, because of a lack of income, were unable to support them financially. 

Our visit to an old home.  Many of the women who stayed here, like this one, are too incapacitated to do anything on their own.  They live out the rest of their lives in plastic beds, where volunteers feed them, bathe them and help them to urinate and move their bowels.  Though we were initially upset by the helplessness of these women and distraught over their conditions, our grief was transformed into joy at the delight that the women felt in meeting us and the love that the volunteers showered them with.

The Bad Shit: Our fights!

In reality, our entire group gotten along extremely well!  There was only one fight on our trip, and it was between me and an administrator named Rosana.  In an attempt to relive her college years, the 36-year-old married woman flirted with the guys (particularly Sean, pictured on the left), hung out with the students, and, being that I was the oldest female student in the group, considered me a threat and talked shit about me during the entire duration of the trip!!  The situation got so bad that I spent much of the first half of my time in Vietnam crying, and she and I were forced to have a meeting, during which she blatantly lied about everything she had said.  I would have posted a photo of the bitch, but I deleted all of them.

The Wickedly Awesome: Three things, in particular, made this experience better than my last one.

The group.  The trip would not have been the same without the presence of  each and every person.  I'll forever cherish my experiences with every one of them.

The Cu Chi Tunnels!  To say that I've crawled through them with Tina is priceless.

Two words: Body Shots.

**No really.  The entire trip was wickedly awesome!  Every bit of it.**

EDIT: By the way, I'm no longer in NYC--I'm in Taipei, Taiwan!  If you're in Taipei, and would like to meet up, email me .   

VIETNAM
Diary of Danang aka SIN CITY

Though Danang initially appeared cleaner and calmer than Hanoi, our group soon realized that it was all a facade.  Charming and attractive by day, the streets were infested with cockroaches, the skies by bats and our hotel by prostitutes at night.

During our visit a bar appropriately called the VIP Club adjacent to our hotel during our first evening in the city, we were swarmed by prostitutes.   Though I adamantly demanded to the waiter that no "girls" were to be allowed in our private karaoke room, he responded with, "One girl each?"  He subsequently offered "men" to the females in our group. 

We soon realized that our hotel was the hangout spot for these "ladies of the night" after the bar closed for the evening.  The majority of the guests at our hotel, of whom were mostly older Western men, came solely for their companionship, and I witnessed as various women would enter our hotel, consort with the men who were unwinding at the lobby, and the pairs would slowly make their way into the hotel rooms. 

The vast number of prostutites everywhere was certainly a reminder of the Vietnam War.  Though considered the oldest profession in history, the situation in Vietnam is similar to that in Thailand.  The prostitution industry grew rapidly in reponse to the presence of American GIs during the war.  It was one of few forms of entertainment for them, and has persisted as a large component of the country's tourism industry.  While prostitution is illegal in Vietnam, the government has not enforced laws against it, as they profit from it. 

The way in which the older Western men glared at some of my young Asian female friends and me was extremely disturbing.  They objectified us.  We were only playthings in their eyes.

The worst out of Danang had yet to come.  In an attempt to escape our hotel, my friend Jason and I strolled over to the nearby Red River to enjoy our crisp, cold Heineken beers.  Instead of rest and relaxation, we were persistently pestered by three local teenagers, who, subsequently, stole my digital camera (and all the amazing photos I had on it)!  It took an entire hour,  a local mediator, and US$50 for me to finally get my camera back, even though Jason and I were surrounded by over 20 grown teenage boys by that time!!

Vietnam is, undoubtedly, still my favorite country of all, but I'll never again visit the sinful Sin City of Danang.

Posing by the Red River during our first evening in Danang.

Hanging out in a private karaoke room at the infamous VIP club.

The Heineken beers Jason and I were never really given the chance to enjoy.

A few of the camera-snatching culprits! Note: This photo was taken by them after they had stolen my camera.

The one day my group and I enjoyed in Danang, when we given the opportunity to visit the Furama Resort on a day pass! 

VIETNAM
Highlights from Hanoi

Our very first group photo taken as we stand in front of the placid West Lake, the oldest lake in Hanoi, which sits undisturbed among the hustle and bustle of the city.

Service learning at the SOS Children's Village Mai Dich, an orphanage situated on the outskirts of Hanoi.  The children we eager to meet and greet us!

The children live in 16 family-style houses, which were built in the local style, and their interior is kept simple, in line with the local living conditions.  Each house is cared for by a female guardian, or a "mother", who raises all the children in her house into adulthood.

Fuck it.  I quit for the day.  After skimming through 5 books and reading a gazillion BBC News, The Economist, and Far Eastern Economic Review articles, my eyes are burning and I'm nauseous.  So...can any of you spill the secrets of speed-writing two 15-page papers in under a week? 

All I Want For Christmas/My Most Recent Birthday/Chinese New Year/(Insert Gift-Giving Holiday Here) Is This....

Before I've gone to bed every night, most recently, I've surfed the web for the one thing I desire more than anything else in the entire world: The vibrator of my dreams, the Vibratex Rabbit Pearl!!!!

This is a superior version of the vibrator that was featured on "Sex and the City," and boasts rave reviews.   The shaft gyrates in a circular motion for maximum vaginal stimulation while the rotating beads massage the vaginal opening and the rabbit stimulates the clitoris!!  The gyrating shaft/rotating beads and the pulsating rabbit are controlled separately, with great variation in speed settings.  The Rabbit Pearl is also designed and manufactured in Japan, a country whose vibrators are usually considered superior to all others in the adult industry.

I fall asleep every night, fantasizing about the day when I'll finally have saved enough money to buy myself the beloved gadget... or shall I ask Santa to give me one for Christmas ?