m0rrow's Xanga

Obligatory update

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:29:18 GMT

Another one.

Throwing another bone to Xanga...

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:39:33 GMT

...to temporarily sate its gnawing hunger for neglected blogs.

Obligatory Update

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:59:11 GMT

I'm posting so xanga won't delete my account. sigh.

Flier for my opening!

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 07:56:31 GMT

I can't believe...

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:17:00 GMT

...that my time in Hanoi is almost over. It really has flown by. It just seems inconceivable that I have been in this place for 50 days. I still haven't decided if things move at a faster or slower pace here. I think maybe both, if that's possible. I really think that I will be back. I think that there is more art for me to make here and more discovering for me to do. I will really miss the new friends I have made. There's always email, but it's just not the same. Hanoi has been a wonderful, strange, at times extremely frustrating, but ultimately, incredibly rewarding experience.

As sad as I am to be leaving, I'm looking forward to getting back to my life and friends and school in LA... though have a feeling that I'm going to be in for some extreme reentry culture shock when I get there. It's so funny how things happen... if I hadn't decided to go to Princeton reunions this year, I would have never talked to Bernard and Eric about Campus, and I never would have had this wonderful opportunity and all these amazing experiences. I know there are about a thousand Life Lessons I have learned in my time here, and I'm going to need some time to process and understand even a fraction of them, but I think one that is clear to me already is that saying "yes" to new, good things is a good idea. I know this seems obvious, but it's something that I need to be reminded of again and again.

Hmmmm... I think that's enough public introspection for now.

Right now it's almost 3:00 am and I am working furiously on my big silk project. I am determined to get the layout done by morning. I'm taking a mini-break now. There's warm rain pouring down outside and I smoked a Cohiba on the balcony.

Tonight was the evening before Têt Trung Thu, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Other than the Lunar New Year, this is the biggest holiday in Vietnam. There are mooncakes galore, huge holiday street markets selling lanterns and noisemakers and masks for children, and tonight there were lion dancers going around the city. A troupe came to our street, and Ha, Phuc and I ran outside to see them. They usually only go to businesses to dance for donations and bring good luck, but I attracted a lot of attention with my camera and goofy foreigner-ness, and the next thing we knew, the entire troupe (and crowd of spectators) swarmed in to Campus and performed. If you've never seen the lion dancers in Chinatown for Chinese New Year it's hard to describe the experience - the bright flashy costumes, the crazy clang of drums and cymbals, the wild, exciting, frightening gyrations of the dancers. It's amazing! I fed the lion 20,000 VND for good luck!

Okay, break time is over, back to work!

Tourist Sights/Sites

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:26:28 GMT

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

One Pillar Pagoda

All Dressed Up for the Opera

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:11:23 GMT

Here are pics of me and my fabulous friend Sarah all fancified for the opera.

My Vietnamese language skills...

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:21:34 GMT

... are FINALLY improving.

Thanks to Ha and Phuc I can now count and negotiate prices in Vietnamese; this is enormously helpful. Almost everything here is done on the bargaining system, and most prices you are initially quoted are roughly three times what they should be. Custom dictates that you go bargain back and forth a few times until you settle on a price. As a foreigner, I sometimes get quoted prices as high as five times what they should be. Usually the haggling is pretty low-key and good natured, especially compared to the intense pressure you get in China... but it's still annoying to have people consistently attempting to overcharge you, and it's annoying to have to go through the charade of pretending to walk away every time you want to buy something. If you can bargain in Vietnamese, the whole process takes way less time and the vendors cut the crap immediately. (Although rip-off attempts are the norm, there are also plenty of people who are extremely honest, especially away from the touristy areas. I've had people return my money when I accidentally overpaid and I've had people refuse to accept tips. So generalizations are only generalizations.)

Thanks to Nick I can now give directions to cabbies, also enormously helpful. Being able to say "go straight," "turn right/left" and "stop!" have probably saved me an average of 20 minutes per day previously spent circling my neighborhood, helplessly mute as the driver ignored my emphatic pointing.

I'm also learning words for food, lots of sewing-related vocab for my project, and idiomatic expressions that make me feel "just like a local." The other night I almost burst with pride when our angry waitress yelled "Mui chet ah!?" and I understood her. Translation: "Do you want to die!?" (It's a long story. Check my other blog.)

m0rrow the media hog

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:19:26 GMT

Here are some pictures off the Suffusive Gallery website of an opening I attended. [Link ]

And here I am in Timeout Magazine. [Link to the article] (The pic is much bigger in the printed version of the magazine... unfortunately for me, since I am making a funny face.)

And apparently I was on TV when I went to an opening at Vietnam Art Gallery a week or two ago. Media hog! ;)

Some Pictures of Moi

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 05:36:56 GMT

Please keep in mind that these are not glamour shots!

(Below) View over Halong Bay

Cutting endless meters of silk

Ha and I working - me doing layout, Ha sewing