Good Morning Vietnam!: Hue, Baby

It's nearing that time of the week again where my fuel reserves are running low, my laundry pile is building up, clean underwear and socks are becoming scarcer and scarcer, and the weekend is right around the corner! It's also that time of the week where I finally find time to update my blog and this time, after a short hiatus, I will include pictures! So last weekend was totally sick, maybe one of the best weekends yet. On Friday night, after scrambling to get packed after our post-teaching snack of Banh Tio, we hopped on a packed bus Hue-bound to GTFO. These buses are insane. For about 40,000 dong ($2!!!) you can take a van packed up to your noise with people and luggage on this 1 hour trip that would shame Mr. Toad. Lanes and central dividers are merely suggestions, and very weak suggestions at that. Oncoming traffic is no deterrent when valuable seconds could be saved by accelerating into the oncoming lane. Finally we arrived in Hue and got ready for our night out. Our resident Hue locals, Nhan and Triang, showed us to the coolest nightlife in Hue, this area full of backpackers, ex pats, and trendy bars with names like "DMZ", "Brown Eyes", and "Octopussy" (lost in translation hopefully...). What we thought was going to be a chill night of sitting and talking quickly turned into jumping and dancing amid the sea of sweaty French and British people. The people we were able to talk to all had very interesting stories. Many were merely stopping through as they continued their motorcycle trip through Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Others came to the see the sites. Others came to see the women. One friendly fellow hinted that Laos was the Amsterdam of South-East Asia. Others told me I look like Jamal from "Slumdog Millionaire". Everyone had something to say!

The next day we checked out various sites which I think the pictures can describe better than I can; Citadel, Pagoda, Dragon Boat on the Perfume River. While these were all awesome, the best was our stop for Italian food for dinner. Oh how I missed you, Pizza. We all inhaled our little tastes of the West and hoped that it would never have to go away, but alas, it did. I salivate now as I think of that melted mystery cheese tickling my taste buds. Why did you have to leave!!??!

Dream Team

Sunday had the beginnings of a classic lazy day, but at 3pm, it was all business. In a match of the ages, the Duke Engage group took on the local village's competitive soccer team in an international battle that will surely premier in an ESPN Original Movie. See Dad? I told you I would be an international soccer star. I finally made it!!!! The community put together a whole shebang for this game. Refs came and they even set up an announcers table with loudspeakers and everything. It felt like the whole village was watching.With me holding down center back, Vu and Justin killing it in the midfield, and Hue star Hieu going strong up front, we were a killer force, but for most of the game, we were trailing: 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 etc, but in the second half, we came up stronger and pushed the game to a 4-4 tie. And with a beautiful goal in the last few minutes, we took the win with a play that will certainly top Sportcenter's top 10 for weeks to come. Shoutout to Billy Burns for showing he has chum chums by dominating at fullback and Nguyen for showing tremendous hustle, ball control, and shooting ability up front. Finally, Corinne Santoro channeled her inner Petr Cech by making unbelievable stops in goal. Our 5-4 victory was not only a win for our insatiable egos, but also for our nation. Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.

This week we made enormous progress on our projects and have actually, for the most part, finished both of the original projects. The fence is completely erected and now all that is left to do is paint, and the playground is nearly completely laid. Due to our sheer awesomeness, Alyce decided that we should take on some more projects. Although at first we all may not have welcomed the notion of even more work, we realize that this is why Duke Engage is paying us to be here. So we dutifully accepted our next two projects, painting the current elementary school and preschool and building another fence and playground for a neighboring preschool. If all goes according to plan, in two more weeks we will have a renovated elementary school with a fence around it, a newly painted preschool fit with a small playground, fence, and garden area, and a fully tiled playground and mural for a different preschool. Not bad for 7 weeks. Everything seems to be coming together and we are all extremely excited to finally see our hard work come to fruition.

As I write this we our finishing our 36th day (if i counted correctly...) here in Vietnam. With only two weeks left of work followed by some much deserved R and R in Saigon, the reality of this surrealistic experience is hitting us. While I feel like I have been in Vietnam for ages, I am starting to understand that this awesome time does indeed have an expiration date, a date on which we will have to say goodbye to our roommates, goodbye to Alyce and Thao, goodbye to our students, goodbye to the contractors, goodbye to the nuoc mia and sinh to ladies, goodbye to the lunch lady, and goodbye to the community. I think we are all still trying to come to grips with our bizarre and amazing lives everytime we stare out at the rice paddies and say to ourselves "Wow, am I really here?" Soon enough, though, we won't be here, we will be somewhere else, and that incredulousness will only exist in our memories.

This weekend, Vu, Divya, Corinne, Justin, and I are taking advantage of our last free weekend by going to Hue tonight, the beach tomorrow, and the Eco-Tourism zone on Sunday to check out some monkeys. We will stay at a guesthouse in Hue and gorge ourselves on some much needed hamburgers for dinner. With hamburgers, the beach, and clean socks (I just did my laundry!), this weekend promises to be a memorable one. And for all of those State-side, I must quote Justin in saying, "Have a good good time!"

Not counting down yet,
Nick

P.S. Here are a bunch of awesome pictures. Enjoy.