Good Morning Vietnam!

Well as most of you know one of my favorite things in the whole world is to travel...my hope is to go to at least 30 countries in my lifetime (and hopefully many many more). Well, next Saturday I'll be adding at least one more to my list, well...HOPEFULLY anyway. I have a very interesting story to tell about my hopeful Vietnam trip.
About a month or more ago I had talked to my friend Sam about going on a possible summer trip, he said he wanted to go with me but that he had to work an English camp and couldn't go. So, since I did Thailand at Christmas I figured I'd head to China (there is an AWESOME island called Hainan in soutern China) since I'd never been there. Well, I had booked the trip and everything and the following Monday got a text from Sam he said "I messed up the dates, I CAN go, so let's go somewhere!" I told him I had already booked the trip, but I would try and see if I could just add him to my current trip. Checked with Expedia, they said no go...couldn't just add someone (which makes no sense since the flight I had booked was still listed, and of course I had already booked a hotel, but anyway...) so I decided to just eat the $35 fee and cancel. I was excited about the prospect of having a travel buddy finally for one of my trips...traveling alone can be rewarding, plus you don't have to put up with someone possibly annoying you...you can come and go as you please, see what you want, whatever. On the other hand it's not near as memorable to not have anyone to share the memories with. So, anyway...I asked him where he wanted to go. He said he had never been to Vietnam or Cambodia and I hadn't either, and thus the adventure began.
Well, Sam teaches university and as soon as they finished school he said he would go to the Vietnam embassy (this was about 2 weeks ago) and I thought that sounded great. We had looked online and the listed price for a Vietnamese visa was $50. A little steep we thought, but whatever...so, he went to the embassy in Seoul. He filled out the paperwork, etc. and then the guy quoted him at $85. Huh?! He asked why...why was it so much more. "Well, you know paperwork, blah blah blah" the guy said. So, he told me "sorry man, it's $85!" Ugh...OK, it's not your fault, let's just pay it, whatever. So, Sam goes back to get our passports and visas, and lo and behold...the price had jumped up to $120! OK, now this was getting ridiculous. More fees for blah blah blah...what can you do?! So, very very very reluctantly Sam paid the fee for us. I wasn't upset at him, but NOT HAPPY with the situation. So, Sam's driving home after we've already been beaten and left on the road to die...and the guy (I swear) calls Sam and says "Sam, I'm sorry, I forgot...that was only half of the fee. I need you to deposit another $120 each INTO MY PERSONAL ACCOUNT and then I will just send the money on to the embassy for you." Sam says "No, I'm not going to pay you any more!" and hangs up. So, we met last Friday, we decided we were NOT going to pay this guy any more money. I e-mailed a guy that has a travel blog on Lonely Planet and asked him if he had ever had this happen, he said "no, I've never paid more than $50 for a Vietnam visa." So...we vowed and swore with a blood oath (OK, not really) that we were not going to pay the man/crook/evil bad extortionist/jerk any more money. We had our visas in our passports, with a receipt for $220 and so we're hoping these visas will be good when we get to the airport in Ho Chi Minh next Saturday night. If not...um not sure! HA! We do have a plan B, take Air Asia (which has amazingly low flights) to Thailand or Malaysia, but hopefully it won't come to that. I sure hope when we get to the airport they will just scan the visa and let us in. The guy hasn't called Sam back, and so I hope he realized that we were not idiots and I hope he didn't have the power to cancel them. Ugh...if so, we might have to call Al Capone or Tony Soprano to intervene on our behalf.
So, anyway...haven't even left yet and already a really interesting story. So, the plan anyway is to head to Ho Chi Minh on July 24th, and then off to Cambodia for a few days, then back to Vietnam to ride some scooters and chill on the beach. We'll see if it happens! HA!
Wish us luck!
PS: Sorry the pic of the visa has some paper over it, I had to cover my passport number since I am currently in the witness protection program and don't want to be found!
:)

The Land of the Free...The Home of the Brave!

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! Oddly this is one of the few holidays I've noticed that I get homesick, maybe it's just the patriotic side of me, but every year (this is the 3rd) I'm away from the States on the 4th I feel a little sad. I'm thankful for the role the United States of America has played over the years and the freedoms that those before us have helped to defend.
I think back to some of the most difficult and trying times in our nation's history and I'm almost brought to tears when I think of the sacrifice that has been made for each of us, to be able to enjoy our daily lives. I was reading the other day about George Washington and the Battle of Trenton when the words written by Thomas Paine were read to raise the morale of the troops:
These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
I love reading and learning about history but as much as I appreciate our early soldiers, I never could seem to relate to them as well as those who have fought in the more recent past.
I've tried to read and understand as much as possible about World War II, for some reason I am fascinated by it, not in a weird sense that I think it's "cool" but more so that I am in awe that people who lived during that time were able to accomplish the things they did. It's impossible for me to truly ever comprehend what those men and women did to preserve our freedoms. One of my favorite World War II quotes came from Major Dick Winters. Major Winters seems to be everything that was good about those soldiers and although Winters has received many special accolades over the course of his life, he has always remained a very humble guy. At the end segment of Band of Brothers he quoted a passage from a letter he had received from Sergeant Mike Ranney: "I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said 'No… but I served in a company of heroes…'"

This is one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs and very fitting for the 4th!

Muju Firefly Festival

I'm not sure if you remember last year I posted when I went to Busan for Chuseok that I went through a little town named Muju that was really cool. Well, each year they have a firefly festival and I after going I have no idea why they have the festival as I didn't see one single firefly, but anyway, I guess anything to have a festival. I went early in the day, did some minor hiking and sightseeing. It was a really nice day, overcast but still really nice. It was cool, on the way to see a waterfall and a temple I saw some some people out planting rice, so stopped and got a few pics. I've seen plenty of rice fields, but never actually seen anyone out planting. It doesn't look very fun...there was a guy who ran a big machine to plant, and then across the street there were some older women planting by hand! I think they were just planting along the edges where the machine wouldn't reach. Anyway, after a nice day out, went down to Muju that evening for the festival. Not too much was going on, some food and other vendors, pretty much just a bunch of booths and what not. That night Korea was opening the World Cup playing against Greece, so the little Muju stadium was packed with people watching the game...Korea won 2-0 (the fireworks are after their first goal!) and so everyone was happy! It was a fun way to spend the day.

Welcome to my neighborhood

OK, I finally got some pictures of the lanterns as promised. I have had a few friends say they were curious what some of the things around the neighborhood looked like, so I decided to go out and take a few pics of that too...nothing special, I just snapped these on the way to school the other day, but I thought you might like to see where I am everyday. There are of course some pics of the lanterns, they look really cool...hard to capture that in a picture but I really like seeing those everyday, they're very colorful. My apartment building is really tall, so I couldn't get it all in the picture, I should have taken a picture a few weeks ago, there were some really pretty flowers on some of the bushes out front, but they've all gone away. The big building is the library on Nazareth University campus looking back toward my apartment. I believe Nazareth is a branch of the university of the same name in the States. They are building several new buildings on campus right now. It's a nice campus and I walk through there each day on my way to catch either the bus or the subway. The next picture is looking down from Nazareth to the Ssangyong subway station. The last picture is of course the basketball courts at Nazareth, I've met quite a few cool guys over there playing. They just re-surfaced the courts and they are really nice to play on. There are usually quite a few guys out there playing, so it's always a good time. I might try and get some pics next week out in Asan near my school so you can get an idea what that area is like. They are building several HUGE apartment complexes out there by the school...if I'm still here teaching in a few years we could probably get quite a few kids from there.

I had to post this...

OK, sorry...still no Buddhist lamp pics, the camera is getting a little dusty, I need to recharge the batteries and get out and get some pics. So, tomorrow NO SCHOOL for Buddha's Birthday...

So today, I was walking to the subway station as always...it was a beautiful day, I looked and a girl was walking my way wearing the Gold and Black! That's right, a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt, now...I'm about 99% sure she has NO CLUE who the Steelers even are, but still cool. Then (and this was the BIG shocker of the day) I'm sitting on the subway, and I look and the old guy next to me is wearing a Colorado School of the Mines ball cap! I kid you not! I am 100% (I hate when people say 110% so I'll max out at 100%) sure that the guy had no clue about what the hat said or where that even is. It baffled me to see that, I had never even seen one of those hats in the US. It's common to see Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, etc. and some major college stuff, but Colorado School of Mines?!
Unreal!

A blog with no pics...

Is like no blog at all...BUT...I know it's been forever and I haven't posted and I've thought about this several times, quite a few actually.
So I don't have any pics but wanted to just say HI and let everyone know I think of all of you often. The weather here the last few weeks has been amazing, really nice sunny and relatively warm...still a little chilly in the evenings. I love spring time, all the trees are green again and with Buddha's birthday coming up on the 21st there are lanterns all down the street near my house. Each day I think I need to grab my camera and snap some shots, and I aim to do that...so, maybe I can remember. It looks pretty cool, they are really colorful and I like seeing them when I'm on my way to school each day.
I saw something funny/sad the other night, depending on who you are in the scenario. I was riding the bus back the other night from school like I do each night. Well there was an older guy maybe 65-70 and he was really loud (which isn't common in Korea on a bus) he seemed like he was yelling and stuff, but not to anyone specific. Well, I had my MP3 on and was basically just ignoring him since he wasn't close to me anyway. Well, about 3 or 4 minutes went by and he was still yelling and then I noticed that the bus driver was now telling him to be quiet (I do know that in Korean! HA!) Well, that just escalated the whole thing, and the older guy was yelling at the bus driver now. Well, the bus driver had had enough and pulled the bus over at a gas station. He was older too, maybe around 60, and he went back and got in the old dude's face. Well the old guy started kicking at him, and then got up...then went the rounds for a bit and NO ONE, not one person on the bus even blinked an eye, just stared straight ahead. Well, finally the driver pushed the old guy back into his seat and was walking back to start driving again. Just as he was about back to his seat the old guy jumped up and ran up from behind and kicked the bus driver right between the legs from behind...a spot NO MAN on earth wants to be kicked. The bus driver dropped like a rock and just laid there groaning on the floor of the bus. The old guy was over him laughing and pointing and calling him a "bad guy." Well, still no one said or did anything, and there were guys like my age on the bus. Finally the driver got over and turned off the bus...the funny part is NOW people started grumbling because I guess they were going to be late getting home. About 2 or 3 minutes later some other buses came by and pulled over. They didn't say anything to the old guy (who at this point was just sitting back in his seat like nothing even happened! HA) Well, everyone started jumping off our bus and onto the other buses. I was going to just chill since I wasn't in a big hurry...but then I noticed that it was just me, the crazy old guy, and the bus driver still sitting on the floor on the bus. At that point I bailed out too and jumped on the other bus. I have no idea if the old guy got in trouble or if the bus driver will ever be the same again, but I have NEVER seen anything like that here before. Koreans are usually pretty chill and not very aggressive. I don't know if the older guy was crazy or drunk, or what. Poor bus driver! HA!
So, that's my interesting story of the week. I hope everyone is having a great week...
I watched a movie the other night and at the start was an interesting quote (I love quotes, I usually write them down when I see one I like) from Confucius. It goes:

By three methods we may learn wisdom
First, by reflection, which is noblest
Second, by imitation, which is easiest
And Third, by experience, which is the bitterest

Duke Duke Duke!

I meant to post this the other day right after the game, but I've been really busy so it took a few days longer. Well, as most of you know Duke beat Butler 61-59 for their 4th National Championship! I love technology, as I said before I was able to watch the whole ACC tournament on Jarvis' Slingbox and CBS broadcast every NCAA tournament game on their website, which was really cool for me. I tried to watch as much of the tourney as possible, as anyone who knows me knows how much I love basketball. I got up and went to bed all kinds of crazy hours, and made sure I watched 100% of every Duke game. The fun thing was that I was able to "watch them" with my friend Jarvis and we chatted during the games, it took me back to 2001 when we watched all of the games together at his house in North Carolina, just now all the conversations were typed and we were seperated by about 8,000 miles! HA! This is one of the best tourneys I have EVER seen; there were upsets, close games and crazy stories all intertwined into it. From the get go a lot of people said Duke shouldn't have even been a #1 seed, then of course everyone said they didn't have to play anyone hard, then of course there's the whole "Duke gets all the calls" (even in the West Virginia game when they were called for 4 more fouls and shot 10 less FT all the message boards said that) and then finally against Butler where 99% of the country was pulling for the hometown team portrayed as "tiny little David" playing big bad Duke, funny thing is Butler is around 4,000 students and Duke is around 6,000...even through all that Duke prevailed and played great the whole time. I loved the team this year, one of the funnest Duke teams I've ever seen play. They played well together and I just had a good feeling going into this years tourney that this would be the year! I must say, Korea has been very kind to me, last year the Steelers won the Super Bowl, and now Duke won the championship as well.
Wow...what a season, and hopefully they'll be back on top next year too, they still will have a very solid team and some great new recruits!
GO DUKE!
1991, 1992, 2001, 2010