Funky, jammy, jivey session.

Dear diary,

Michael Jackson - ☑

House of Pain - ☑

Gloria Gaynor - ☑

Bob Marley - ☑

Musicians in Sài Gòn sure do know how to get down.

Photo taken through a bookshelf. Hella artsy.

Not the greatest quality, I know, but I didn't want to be that guy holding up my camera to snap a couple dozen photos and record every song. I spent my time kicking back a few beers and enjoying the music.

It was a whole smorgasbord of patrons - Argentinians, Swedes, Japanese, Poles, and on and on and on. I also saw my first hipster in VN; granted, he was an American transplant, so technically not my first Vietnamese hipster. I will find you, though, my elusive Pokémon. Looking forward to more nights out on the town!

4 more days.


Cheers,
tm

Things I miss, #1

Dear diary,


I've been neglecting you and for that, I am not sorry. I used to blog way back in the day and I remember why I stopped: I find it so much easier to be lazy instead of summarizing my days and feelings and etc etc....


Haha, but don't worry. I'll get back into it since I definitely do want to share with all you good folks back home. My photos from Cambodia are way over due (I returned over 3 weeks ago!) and they'll be up sometime this week, since my class starts in less than 7 days! I will be busy sitting and learning and taking notes and being studious, so no time to hang out on the internets. 


So, in place of a lengthy post, I will start doing a post of things that I miss from home. I'm coming up on 7 weeks here in Viet Nam now and for the most part, I'd like to believe that I am doing just dandy with giving up a lot of my luxuries back in the states. But, that doesn't mean I can't miss it every now and then. So, thing #1 that I miss right now:

A white lady doing my laundry for me!

Just kidding! (but no, seriously, that would be awesome)... I miss having a DRYER! At my aunt's house, and just about everyone else in this neighborhood, hang-dries their clothes. I mean, it's good and all since we're not wasting resources to dry our clothes since we can do that for free with the good ol' sun, but man, the thing I really miss the most about having a dryer is the way it heats up my boxer briefs! After wearing it and stretching them out, a run in the dryer shrinks that shit and it fits so tight and snug! I don't like stuff hanging loose off me (and you can read into that anyway you want, hahaha).

Yes yes, one of the luxuries I knew I would be giving up when I made my decision to move here. On the other hand though, we do have a washer. Here I was thinking that I'd have to hand wash everything...I was about ready to take only 1 shower a week so I wouldn't have to do that much work. Kidding.

Ok, 'til we meet again, blog!

Cheers,

tm

My first package from home!

Dear diary,


Before I start, I just wish all you dope-ass females a happy International Women's Day! Although, as many have said, every day should be women's day. After spending the past few days with the ladies of The Like Me's, sharing in their joy and excitement of their tour in Phnom Penh, reading the March issue of AsiaLIFE (dedicated to women in honor of IWD), reading about profiles of strong & courageous women across the globe standing up and confronting issues being faced by women (many of color), I feel just so in awe and blessed that I'm living in this time period right now. I just wish I can channel all that into doing something positive with myself. Let's see where this takes us!


Moving on, I didn't necessarily get a care package. These are just some things I forgot to bring with me on the plane. I was in quite a rush from returning from my apartment to my parent's place to set off for the airport, so these things were forgotten in the car. 


I think my mom packed me something extra special, too! As soon as I opened the package in my room, I got a massive allergy reaction to something. My nose started running, my eyes were in pain and I had such a great urge to rub them, but I knew it would be bad. No amount of Rohtos helped me at all. I ended up just falling to sleep for 2 or 3 hours to take my mind off it. 


Anywho, I got me some blank CDs, my much needed hard-drive so I could make room on my laptop for the next 18 months' worth of photos and videos, Sriracha (seriously) and this book:

Yee! This book has been stored away for 2.5 years waiting to be read by me. The only thing I really wanted was the hard-drive and this book, but my mom needed to hit 10 lbs. to ship to me, so I asked for some hot sauce and blank CDs. I didn't really need anything else, but now that I've had time to think about it, some gummy bears would be good right about now.

So, when I decided to move here, I wanted to use the opportunity to really try new things and improve myself on certain levels. One of the things I wanted to do more was read. Now, I read a bit already, but that's mostly just news articles or random articles I find online. I'm gonna start hitting the books now, starting with some Paulo Freire (you'll be so proud of me, Pahole!) I really have no idea what this book is about or who wrote it, other than what a quick Google search showed me. I'm excited to dust off my brain and start nurturing it like it deserves.

Back in APALI 2008, when I was an intern, the directors chose books to give to the 8 interns as gifts and this was mine, from proffy chai. I think she did her best in choosing books she thought would best suit each intern.  And I'll admit, I am not the most well-read (book wise) person in any stretch. The last book I read completely was probably in 2008, and even then, I'm pretty sure I skimmed most of it. My passion for reading started a while back, in elementary/middle school. I'm not quite sure what happened, but it stopped (I used to love them Goosebumps!). I could probably attribute it to my fondness of Dragon Ball-Z, Pokemon, and Power Rangers on the television, actually. 

But, it's never too late to start up again. I've asked a buddy back home to choose some books to follow this one for me. Hopefully I get a nice package again to feed my brain :)

Cheers,

tm