Dirrrty South. . . . Mekong Style

I just told my students about their exams, they’re getting up to leave for the door, and I suddenly remember….it’s Thanksgiving today! When I started teaching, I had an elaborate lesson plan for Thanksgiving. We would talk about what were thankful for. Maybe I’d give them readings on the sanitized Thanksgiving story, and another more realistic account of Native American-colonist relations, and ask them to compare. Why does one story gets told and not the other, etc. etc. However, at this point of the semester, along with the screwiness of TVU’s scheduling and randomly canceling classes for non-existent typhoons, I am scrambling just to complete the school’s curriculum, aka I am enslaved to the textbook. Though I couldn’t do my awesome original lesson plan, the least I could do is mention the holiday. It is one of my favorites, despite its dubious origins. 

I stop my class from leaving.

“Wait! Today is a special day in America. Do you know it is?”

They shake their heads no. I start to write Thanksgiving on the board, and they recognize it. 

“What do people do on Thanksgiving?”

“Eat Turkey”, they all say.

“Yes. That’s very important. But, it’s also a time to show that you’re thankful for the good things in your life, your friends, family, etc. It’s a time to be grateful.” They nod their heads.

I continue, “I want to tell you that I am very thankful to have you as my class. I am happy that you are my students. I really enjoy teaching you, and am truly grateful to have the chance to be your teacher.”

Looking around the room, a sea of confused faces stare back at me. Hmmmm….

“Did I talk too fast?”

A resounding yes.

“Could you understand at all what I just said?”

A resounding no.

“Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving! See you next week!”

A chorus of “Goodbye Teachers” flooded past me as they rushed out the door into lunchtime.

Two awkward faces, one awesome photo. Last Tuesday Tyler, the Vietnam In-Country Representative from VIA (aka ICR), gave me a ride from Tra Vinh to HCMC on his motorbike. Before this trip the longest time I’ve ever been on a motorbike was for maybe 45 minutes. From Tra Vinh to HCMC is 6 hour endeavor. We were pretty hardcore. We left at 11am, arrived at 5pm, and did not take any food, drink, or bathroom breaks. To be fair, we had to take three ferries, where he parked the bike on the boat and we just sit and chill for 15 minutes each time so that’s kind of like a break…. except not, so HARDCORE 4 LYFE. During the last hour of the ride, our bums were sore as sore could be. I think we spent that hour just talking about how much our butts hurt. If our butts could talk, they would be saying “Aaaaaaauugghhh”. But you know what, it was worth it! The ride was really fun. We chit chatted, shot the shit. Going through the Mekong Delta is a beautiful, lush drive. When I go on a xe do, I don’t notice as much. Usually this is because I fall asleep, but also seeing the countryside is just not the same when from a car window.

More ferry pics. 

The main reason why this trip was awesome was because Tyler discovered Che Guevara High School (some where in Ben Tre).

What I’d do for a T-Shirt, or a jersey, or better yet, a letterman jacket! I wonder what the school mascot would be?  

Besides the occasional email and gchat, my main link to old college friends (or more accurately friendly acquaintances) is facebook. when did this happen? people i know, i actually know and call (or at least have called) friend, are getting married, are already married, are having babies, yadda, yadda, yadda. Is this Day One of the rest of my life? Weddings weddings weddings, babies babies babies.

Maybe I should start warming up my credit card for all those registries. Oh wait, that’s assuming that I am even invited to anything! Should I be sad that I rarely directly hear about these things? Only newsfeed tells me! Does that mean we’re not friends anymore? When is the point that you stop being friends with someone? If you stop talking to someone, does it mean that friendship slowly fades away, or it’s just if you wait until you’re in the same vicinity, old connections would start up again. However, if you only acknowledge each other’s existence when you’re in the same location, is that really being friends? I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just a part of the times now. If with very little effort, everyone can find out about stuff from facebook and twitter, really what’s the point of doing anything more? Let’s just communicate by current status, profile pic, relationship status, and photo albums. You know what i’m doing, who I’m doing, etc. You see a photo album, “Thailand adventures”, lo and behold you know I just went to Thailand. Fuck having a blog. That’s even too much effort when I can get essentially the same amount of information communicated elsewhere.

Slowly but surely change can happen. However, with every step forwards, we take two steps back. Yesterday I was in awe of the American people. For the first time in a long time I felt hope and optimism. I was thinking Obama had a chance to win, but I had no idea it would be such a landslide victory. Having been disappointed by  American voters (and lack of voters) again and again, I didn’t have high expectations for how this election would turn out. Seeing the results, I couldn’t believe it. The American people actually want positive change, actually voted for a compelling, intelligent candidate who would be able to provide that? It’s quite an amazing thing. Not only Obama is the first Black president, first person of color, first son of an immigrant, he has a frickin’ ethnic name! I could never imagined it in my lifetime. When I was younger, I was often taught that people with names like “Anh-Thu Nguyen” aren’t considered American let alone allowed to be president. I was surprised that the American people were able to surprise me. I know I am young, only 23 (24 in Vietnamese years), but it’s hard not to feel jaded by our political system. Oh wait, but the next day this rejuvenation of my faith in the American people was shattered with Proposition 8. I go back to my recipe of one pinch of hope and two cups cynicism. We are just as fucked up and prejudice, with a shit ton of isms and phobias. But fuck you all you people who voted for Prop 8. What the hell did I ever do to you? Now you’re taking my rights away? Also, fuck you state of California for allowing this to be on the ballot and fuck you for disenfranchising me and other voters in the state election. 

Anyways, when making the decision to do VIA and come to Vietnam, one of the biggest cons was that I’d be away from the U.S. during this critical election. The US is at such a historical juncture, do I really want to be away for that? Shouldn’t I be working for the Obama Campaign or doing something like that? In Vietnam it has been difficult feeling connected with what’s going on in the States. It’s not exactly the same, but luckily I have able to join with an organization called Democrats Abroad, which holds events, fundraisers, screenings of the DNC, Obama speeches, etc. There’s DA orgs all over the world, and I was able to hook up with the HCMC chapter. DA also helps make voting abroad easier. I was able to send my ballot to Tim, the head of DA-HCMC, who Fed-Exed to the States for me (cuz from Tra Vinh my vote would have never arrived on time). 

Yesterday I was in HCMC to watch the election results. Did I really cancel my class, travel 5-6 hours just so I could watch the election with a community of Americans so I could witness this historic event not in isolation? Why yes I did! In the morning I met Duyen, a friend from Claremont who’s studying abroad in Vietnam. She and the other students in her programming were watching CNN in a GO2 bar, which is in the backpacker district. With each state that went to Obama, everyone would cheer. It was kind of anticlimactic when Obama won. It was just like, oh he got 270 electoral votes, he wins. Also, the election was over so quickly! I was so used to 2000 and 2004, where it was really down to the wire and you’d have to stay up hella late to get the results. When it was announced he got enough electoral votes, all of us took a shot (though technically Duyen just held her shot, smelled it and scrunched her nose). We stayed at GO2 until after McCain’s speech. That was quite good. It was the first time in the election that it seemed like he was actually being sincere and lo and behold he became a very eloquent and compelling speaker.

Afterwards we headed to O’Briens, which has woodfired pizza and hamburgers, aka it’s a major bougie expat hangout. Dems Abroad was having an election watching party there. People were coming in at different times, but I think at least 50 folks showed up (though I’m quite horrible at estimating anything). We watched Obama’s speech and cheered like crazy. It was probably just a fraction of what celebrations in the States were like, but at least it was something. I felt less far away. It was very touching to be there with all these other Americans who gave a shit, and though we were world away from our homes at least we could be here and connect with each other. 

That morning, Hai Binh, a friend from the States, called me. Hai Binh was saying she was lacking folks to celebrate with. She ended up meeting me at O’Briens where sketchy white expat dudes instantly tried to pick her up. I was there for two hours. During the first hour, like I said, I felt like a community with these Americans, felt like I just experienced something unique with them that I was grateful for. By the second hour, I was reminded of why I don’t like most expats. Obnoxious, noisy, problematic and just plain gross!!! White frat boys who see Vietnam as an exotic paradise with cheap prices, hot asian girls, silly cultural norms, and where status and respect for simply being a white male is abundant. One Australian guy, a condescending, rude dude teaching Economics and a private school, tried to offer Hai Binh private “econ lessons”. Gross! Puke!! It was still a great day. I was happy to celebrate with some of my favorite ladies…