I love it here!

I'm guessing some of you are wondering what I do when I’m not working during the day. Well, my time is filled with working with my church. On Mondays I run the Family Home Evening program for the young single adults.  This calling has been a huge blessing in my life while living here in Vietnam. The people are so great and so real.

The pictures below are from this past Monday at the mission home in Hanoi.  We had a meeting combined with the Relief Society (or women of the church) because there is construction at the church building. The missionaries are so great at bringing new young adults to meet all of us and learn more about the gospel. We had a great lesson from a young single adult on dating. Then we played ninja and ate yummy food! The Relief Society ladies made a traditional Vietnamese cake which is made out of a form of rice, sugar cubes, and a type of small seed on top. They are then boiled and served hot to everyone. It's really good!

It's good to be immersed in a culture that is totally different from the United States. When you go on vacation you really don't get the whole feel of the country, you only get a taste.  I feel like in America you care about what you wear, what you have, and a whole list of things like that. But here, from what I have seen, they really don't care. They care more about what is inside, than what is on the outside. It's refreshing to be here and to really get to know the people.

Every Wednesday I help teach English at the church and I love it! The people who attend are so eager to learn and want to speak better English. I have met many amazing people through this program. The last video is of us teaching the participants parts of the body by singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

                                         

Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been such a blessing, and has helped me make so many good friends.  I love hearing all of their life stories. I'm going to miss everyone that I have become good friends with. I love how the culture here is opposite from anything in America that I have experienced so far in my life. It's funny that this really is my first time out of the United States (except the Caribbean).


It did take me a little while to get used to living in a city. There is always something going on here no matter what time; this city never sleeps. I have loved living here in Hanoi and it's going to be really weird going back to America in a few weeks. I look back and try to think about what it was like before I came here and it's hard for me to imagine. I have fallen in love with this city and the crazy traffic. I will be sad to go back home and a not as exotic lifestyle.

Rodents

A few weeks ago I kept on smelling a disgusting odor whenever I would leave the house. It kept on smelling and it was getting stronger as a few days passed. We found out we had a dead rat somewhere in the house! How gross is that?! My aunt said that it's hard to keep rats or other insects out because of the open windows and doors. But also there are just so many of them here, on the streets you can see plenty of sewage rats all over.

We were looking for the rat in one of the showrooms downstairs but we couldn't find it. We didn't think to look up at the ceiling! It had climbed into the walls and had gotten stuck in the Air Conditioner. So GROSS! We were all down there just laughing because just its tail was sticking out. It had been up there for at least five days. It grosses me out to think that I had walked under that rat so many times and had never seen him.

The past couple days I have seen a lot more rats late at night or dead on the streets. I have never seen such big rats before and I hope to never see them outside of Vietnam! I also hope to never see a mosquito again, but Chicago is full of them.  

Warehouse

I was able to go to a warehouse that we work with. It's about two hours away from downtown Hanoi. The people working at the factory are the same workers that work at the lacquer factory. They were packaging items and filling up a huge container on a truck. They had a lot of pieces like boxes, baskets, and trays to ship out to America.

 

As I was on the way to the bathroom I came across these two men sleeping on the job. One was on a portable cot and the other was on a hammock a few inches above the ground. They were dead asleep and were not moving to let me pass to the bathroom. I was pretty loud too and they weren't moving an inch, I had to crawl under the hammock to go to the restroom! They weren't too happy when I woke them up later!

Grandpa I ate frog legs!

I went out with Thang to eat frogs legs! I ate frog legs before in January of this year, back home with my grandfather. We went to Hugo's Bar and Grill in Naperville to have frog legs, but they didn't look like the ones I ate this week.

 The yellow sticks above are baby bamboo! I thought they were okay, a little of a weird after taste.

 I loved these mushrooms! They tasted really good. I feel like everything I eat is new!

The restaurant where we ate was in the old quarters. I was the only foreigner eating there that night. It seems like I'm always the only foreigner is most food places I go which I love because to understand the food you have to go with someone who is Vietnamese.

This is the skin of the frog, it actually wasn't the worst thing in the world even though it does look a little gross.

There are many ways to eat frog legs here and we ate it in a hot pot. They have a bunch of vegetables including carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, and others. I love mushrooms now! To eat the frog legs, you turn on the hot pot and put the frog legs in even through they are already cooked. I loved the frog legs! Again I'm so surprised that I'm eating all these odd foods! They were much bigger than the ones I ate in America. It was kind of hard to eat because it's just like eating wings - the bones are all still there. I was eating with chopsticks which I'm still trying to master. It was very hard to eat the frog legs; I'm just not talented yet at eating with them, but I hope to get better.

The frog legs had a lot of meat on them which was delicious! They were really fresh! I couldn't get over the fact that I was eating frog legs because you could make it move just like a frog moves when it was alive. But it was SO good! It did kind of surprise me that they would leave the feet on when they serve the legs. I ate the small feet bones! I will definitely come get them again before I leave next month!

Second Chance

I had the opportunity to go out to the lacquer factory with a customer for the day. This was my second time going, and it was better than the first. I knew the people at the factory better and it was cool to see what they have been working on since I last came. This woman below is the owner of the factory; she's been so kind to me when I visit. She also slaps me on the butt when she wants me to sit down, haha! After this was taken she was looking at the photos and commented on how short she is!

Again I had to use the squatty potty and got to see them kill the chicken for lunch. But this time I was able to take some good photos of the boys making lunch. They would just laugh at me because of my facial expression of all the meat. I still can't believe that they eat every part of the animals body, not leaving anything behind. They were cutting up the chicken feet, cow tongue, liver, gall bladder, and so much more!

Our customer is an interior designer from Chicago! She traveled all around Asia with the company she works for to see how the products she designs are made. She is very talented and it was fun to see her design many different products. A lot of ideas and planning go into every design. You have to think about what people will buy and the function it's going to have in someone's home.

The boy in the picture is spray painting a finish onto a color chip for us to see how it looks. On the left side is a women making a pattern with mother of pearl. Below are some pictures of using egg shells to make a design. This is a very old practice. They have an egg shell then they press it into the lacquer which makes a cracked looking design. There is a video below that shows this!

The customer and I went around the village to see what these people do in their homes. It was cute to see all the grandmas with little babies come out into the street to show the kids two foreigners. I have a picture below of a women who was nice and we became good friends.

We came across many factories of mother of pearl, coconut bowls, lamps, vases, and other home goods. They all had to do with lacquer mostly because this village, for multiple generations, has been making products with it. We had an older boy who was riding his bike up and down the street following us. He was a little shy but wanted to be in all of our photos!

King and Queen of Japan

The king and queen of Japan came to visit Vietnam and were staying in a hotel right down from our house. Off of the main street there is a Japanese International school and all the kids came out waving flags. They were so cute! The king and queen drove right by us from the airport in a huge caravan.  I have a video below that you can see him waving to everyone from his car.

I have asked a lot of people who are from and live in Vietnam "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" I have had quite a few girls say Japan. I would have thought they would say a country outside of Asia. One girl said its because they have good fashion and another said because of the jobs there.

My adventures

I have been able to go biking or running at night or in the mornings to explore the city.  It's awesome and different every time I go out. The night market on the weekend is full of many tents for many blocks. You can find anything here for a good price. They have a lot of knockoff purses, shoes, and clothes.

I came across this men's club where they have golf. The people here who have money will play golf or tennis because it involves playing a specific place and involves equipment. The men are hitting golf balls into West Lake into score zones. It's just like Top Golf!

One of the most famous temples is located right by West Lake. It's beautiful! I haven't been inside yet because it was closed. A woman was selling turtles that you can throw into the lake for good luck...I thought that was pretty stupid but that's just me. They had a bunch of little baby turtles that they had caught from West Lake. I believe the turtle is symbolic to the people here.

 

They have a rowing club that practices most mornings in West Lake. It's amazing to see how fast they are going as they follow the edge of the lake all the way around. You can see the coach in a motor boat yelling directions at them.

I took this picture when it was National Women's Day. All the boys were dressed up in front of a temple and there was music playing also. It's a big holiday here that everyone celebrates! They passed out roses on Sunday to all the women and also a sweet girl from English class gave me some chocolate.

You can just go to the bathroom anywhere here. I have seen so many men just peeing on the side of the road or in a park. When were were riding back home I saw a little kid just squatting over the sidewalk just taking a poop!

The real ife in Vietnam

Last week I had the opportunity to go into a family's home with the Mormon missionaries. It was my first time in someone's home here and it was really interesting. It's not like the homes in America I have been to, I can tell you that. A lot of people in the middle of the old quarters live in one room with their family. I've been told that people will have 5 to 6 people living in such a small space. The rooms are small and they have to conserve as much space as possible. The mother, father, and children will live in the home. When their children marry then the son's new wife will live there also. It's amazing. I think how the type of housing works here is that you don't own or rent out an entire home, you do it by rooms. Not everyone lives like this but some do. It's very eye opening that people around the world live like this. In America you have rooms that you have but never even go in, they're just for show.

I walked around the street for a while by myself before I went to the girl's home. I have seen enough animal parts to last me a life time! Seriously, yet I still eat it. They have everything just sitting out there in the open. I could tell that foreigners don't come to this part of town because I was getting weird looks and they weren't as friendly as other places in Hanoi. They were confused, I think, as to why I was walking around this part of town. I'm glad that I walked down the small alleys to be able to look into people homes and to really see how they live. It was a cool experience.

 Ducks hanging in a store front window

 The food here is so fresh! I can tell the difference from the eggs here and from America.

 So many new fruits and vegetables that I have tried and seen here!

 First plate: A chicken and

Second Plate: Pig snout, ear, feet, and intestines

This is the most disgusting thing! A goat just hanging from its neck! Not pictured is the rest of the body in the buckets below, including its feet.

Spicy noodle

After English class this week we went out for spicy noodles! They convinced me to go even though they said it would melt my face off! This restaurant has seven different levels of spicy but most people get close to level one. I got less then level one and it was still hot! I dared one guy to get level five and he did it! I tried some of his and it was way spicy! I don't know how he ate the entire thing. My throat hurt for a few days after eating my dish. I ordered the seafood mix which consisted of shrimp, broccoli, noodles, and everything else I have no idea what it was. But it was really good!

I'm going to miss these guys!