Life has been quite hectic the past couple of weeks: moving, getting a car/registering it, starting my internship, looking for a job, getting a job and working, and trying to find time to relax. As of right now, Kathy and I have gotten quite a bit done since we've gotten back and it is time to blog more about Vietnam.

Once we got to Vietnam, we were immediately greeted by Kathy's Grandma, cousins and uncle. This is a common occurrence in Vietnam to have the whole family or quite a large chunk of the family to come greet you once you come from America. Everyone was all smiles and it was sensory overload to hear all the Vietnamese and also see the sights of downtown Saigon. We made our way to Vung Tau where Kathy's Grandma's Temple is and we stayed for the first couple of days.
The Taxi ride to Vung Tau



This is the room that we stayed in when we were at the temple. It was a simple room with a hammock in one corner and a bed in the other. It was quite hot with just a fan but it was my first time sleeping in a mosquito net. I never really had any problems with the mosquitoes but Kathy sure got bitten 20 or so times throughout or stay in Vietnam.

A view of the houses next to the temple at about 5am in the morning.



Another view from the front of the temple. The temple was a serene setting on top of a hill, away from the chaos of the streets below. Kathy and I enjoyed being in the peacefulness, but I was raring see more of Vietnam.



Kathy and I opted to see what Vung tau was all about and we decided what better way than with a cyclo. Cyclos are all around Vietnam (usually in the touristy areas) and you either get badgered by them or they read their paper, eat or sleep while they wait for their next customer, but mainly they badger you. Also because they deal with tourists they charge 100-400% more than the going rate of about 5 dollars for three hours but we got Kathy's grandma's cyclo and payed him a little extra ~10 dollars because he was really good.


As you can see from the pictures, the streets are nearly spotless. This is a rarity in Vietnam because landfills are scarce, people just throw trash in the road and the side of the road. The trash sort of takes away from the beauty of Vietnam as a whole, but the touristy areas are kept squeeky clean. Foreign investment is booming and tourism is quickly gaining ground, so Vietnam as a whole has to clean up it's image to be welcoming to foreigners.

The front of the temple.

This is a picture of the main building of the Temple.
The monks would sit in a circle in front of the large
statue, hit a drum, and chant for a long period of time.





This is a video of the back yard of the temple.

More is to come when I get some free time.

Sorry for the delay our trip is over and I haven't even said too much about it. Too bad I didn't know that the Internet was either a little hard to come by or we were just not going to have any time to blog about it while there. I'll recount the ups and downs through photos and stories.



Kathy and I ready to pass out because we got plenty of sleep at the airport...not.
We tried to sleep on the benches but they are not comfortable at all. The airport designed the seats to have very hard metal arms that stuck out far enough so you couldn't lay down. But, in the end it was sort of good that we didn't sleep because we got adjusted to Vietnam time quick (a day or so) and we slept on the plane.
Trouble is I lost my wallet on the plane or airport. Good I didn't lose anything that I couldn't cancel. Like all our cash.


As seen in the pictures we are much happier to be in Taipei or is it we got some sleep finally. China Airlines would be happy to have us as a before and after example of how comfortable their flight is. Well it's not that comfortable, just comfortable enough to get one hour of sleep which is better then none at all.



A trip to Asia wouldn't be complete without a face mask that you wear 24/7. Now I wouldn't be to enthused with putting on one in the states as people would quickly point you out as a loony, but in Asia people wear them all the time. On the flight to Saigon a good portion of people had them on while they were driving their scooters (more on that later). Reasons I gathered they wore them were to keep out all the dust and dirt that gets thrown in their face from the millions of scooters in front of them, H1N1, and Diesel fumes (which too bad doesn't really help with diesel fumes). Kathy and I preferred to have them on because H1N1 because it was not uncommon in Vietnam and after being their for two weeks its definitely not as clean as the states and would be easier to proliferate. Kathy's cousin even fell victim to the piggy flu after we left. That wasn't to appetizing because on a few occasions we went to her house and ate food with her. We did notice she was wheezing on the last day, but she's better now.
I didn't really like wearing the masks, though. They fogged up my glasses all the time and it was hard to breathe. But those are small in comparison to getting the piggy flu and ruining your trip or time back home.

The trip over here has been a long one. I'll tell it as quick as I can as I'm in an Internet Cafe and my time is running low. The running rate is 3,000 dong per hour or 20 cents.

At the onset of the journey it was a hop and skip across to Baltimore with a layover in Philly (~3 hours). I then rented a car and drove all the way to Delaware which was another hour and a half. So I was running on fumes when I finally made it to see Kathy.
(Blur to the same time on Sunday) Kathy and I are in Boston flipping out that we couldn't get into our storage unit because it was past hours. We had to find a place to stash all of our stuff but luckily thought of a good spot.
(Blur another long day) Kathy and I are cranky and sleep deprived due to the lack of sleep you get at airports, no matter how hard you try. We had another set back in our travels. I lose my wallet at the airport and have a calling spree cancelling all of my cards. Good thing all of my money was in my front pouch. We had finally made it to California and were hanging with her parents for the few hours we could. And said our good byes and got on the plane for Vietnam.
(Blur more another 2 days with the time) We make it to Vietnam and meet her Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and cousins which was definitely a treat. The whole family is very welcoming. They love the fact that I eat all of their food and know a little bit of vietnamese. What can go wrong with that deal.
Since then we've stayed at Kathy's Grandma's temple in a little room. It's very peaceful in the temple even though it is just a few 100 feet up a hill from the chaos of Vung Tau. To describe Vietnam with the time I have so far would be unfair but I'll summarize it in a few words. Everyone drives like a maniac here on the motor bikes, the noise of honking permiates through the air and Vung Tau smells of rotten fish mixed with piss and exhaust. Not appetizing but you get use to it. I like it so far. Much more to come.

My blog has been sitting in some random parts of the intranets for the past year. Think of it far far away in the boon sticks, to the right of a trailer, under a beer and next to these guys. Wait, that's where I am now and I'm going to be leaving tomorrow on a long journey, whilst the reason I am blogging again.

Anyway I should catch you up on to what I've been doing for the summer. I opted to come home after graduation and save a few deniro for my up coming internship back in Beantown, MA. This decision had it's draw backs, mind you. The girlfriend had an internship in a undisclosed location, in a undisclosed lab and working with an undisclosed project that might be America's next lethal weapon (where, I'm sure, tax payer dollars will be put to good use). Yeah, it was hard without her around to enjoy time with and the sights of the oh so "wonderful" Upstate New York, but for our hard ship comes great rewards. A trip 2 week excursion to Vietnam!!! My summer I first thought was going to be pretty boring staying home everyday playing guitar and "trying" to be productive, but I lucked out and got two jobs: one working at my mom's work scanning 20,000 reports (20,000 reports= ~50,000 papers= 100 reams of paper= 5.8 trees ((reams = tree equation courtesy of wikianswers.com))), and working with two wonderful boys.

First, the scanning was a mindless job but I saved some trees from being cut down and created more space for my mom's work. I should of taken a picture of the destruction I created. 10 boxes of madness piled up unevenly. If you just walked down the hall with the paper, you might mistaken the office as Home Depot and be horribly unhappy to find it's a dog genetics lab.

Second, the job working with the boys was great. It was a little hard working 5.5 hours doing mindless work then testing my patience with the boys, but it was worth it. Who wouldn't like going to the lake every day after the office job swimming and throwing rocks, or spinning a boy that can spin for hours and never get sick? Well, If you can't put up with getting peed on, cleaning dirty bottoms and getting hummus thrown in your face occasionally, then yeah you would mind going to the lake every day. There were more perks, too. Perk #473 was watching as both the boys gradually began to communicate more with hand gestures and sign language which was awesome. I even witnessed the unthinkable when D sat down and took a number two. You should have seen his mom come over and tackle him with love and kisses, think Terry Tate but with love. I will miss the boys but hopefully I'll see them when I get home!

The next step of my journey begins tomorrow where I fly to Baltimore, pick up a suv, drive an hour and a half to Kathy.
Sunday we drive to Boston, Monday we fly to Cali and Tuesday at 1am we fly to Vietnam and arrive Wednesday. The next 4 days will be interesting. Check back later for Vietnam updates if we have access to internet.

So here we are in a bleak desolate town in Nebraska were trucks out number the fancy cars that are usually seen in large cities. If someone just flew into Omaha they would be surprised to see a small town with a bunch of country looking folk. Well I guess that is why many people don't go out of their way to come here, unless you hold stock in Warren Buffett's company. I would guess that half the people in the town were participants in the meeting that Buffett had yesterday, but I guess I can tell the locals from the non-locals, cowboy hat and a dirty truck. Don't get me wrong, Omaha is a really clean little city with 4-6 high rises but there isn't too much going on here.

Let me go back and talk about the trip so far.

In LA, LA was LA. The weather was hot and not too humid and the traffic was heavy and heavy as usual. Jee took me to Korea town and we got some food. Delicious. We grilled gogi (meat) and put it in a rice cake that was shaped like paper (dauk). It couldn't have been a better start to the trip then that. Then we headed to what is called a jimjil bang (Korean spa). It was a whole different experience unlike anything you would find here in America. First and foremost, the spa is like walking back in time to the Roman days. If you aren't familiar with the Roman bath spas then I guess I'll have to explain myself. Well lets just say we let it all hang out, but I was cool with that because it is very common in Korea and I was safe to say that I lost all my inhibitions after doing it because well there isn't anything really to hide behind. It was also interesting because there were all old Korean men and a few other guys but I didn't feel to awkward.
In the spa there were showers that we cleaned off in then 3 different temperatured jacuzzies. We just hoped in the hottest one and relaxed and talked. After this it was my turn to get scrubbed. This was quite an interesting experience. I walked into the open room close by and there was this old Korean naked man with pads on his hands and a massage table but the massage table and room looked like it was from the medieval ages. He said down. I asked him if it was going to hurt in Korean and he said no no no you will get clean. So I laid down and he scrubbed all the dead skin and junk off my body. By the time he was finished, my skin felt oh so smooth. We then put on robes and had fresh fruit smoothies and sat in sofas. All in all the experience was sorta a manly romanesque calming time. Not one of your European pamperings that metro sexuals would attend to but a cheap barbaric rousing with the fellas, something I'd do again if I had the chance. Next up, I have to try the one's in Korea. I hear they are much cleaner and nicer.
After that Jee and I went around and drank soju at a little bar because we had a lot of catching up to do. Later, we went to San Bernardino and Jee showed me where he lived. It was nice and quiet but still California style. No one walking and everyone driving. The mountains were beautiful though.
The next day we drove to Vegas and started the fun. We stayed in the stratosphere and it was nice. The weather was 110 and dry which was very different for me. It was like walking through a furnace. The wind would blow HOT dry heat but we got use to it quickly. We gambled, walked, gambled, drank. It was fun to explore Vegas but it seems like it would get old quickly, unless you are a gamble holic. The food though was pretty good, we even got a bottle of wine with our buffet meal which was funny because the country buffet was trying to look snazzy.
Since then we have been driving through deserts, mountains and fields and it is not as boring as it seems but it's boring. The drive through Colorado was really fun because all of the hills and the beautiful scenery. We even drove into some very shady towns and slept in some scary motels but everyone we have met so far have been very nice and accommodating.
We will travel to Chicago today.

To my right and left lay papers upon papers, notes and other enormities that are associated with finals. The past couple of weeks papers have been imaginatively stuffed into my brain via my tiny ear openings, and in my mind I picture myself smiling with leaflets of paper protruding from my ears. It is that time of year that most students dread, finals.

Currently lonely droplets are colliding with the AC in dismal disgrace and the absence of light and pitter patters of the rain are sounds I am not a fan of, it's as enjoyable as country music. Though all of this is happening, Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway are taking me down a little street. I imagine a colorful 2D urban landscape with cheerful people passing me as I stand. Everything is moving around me, the road is a conveyor belt underneath my feet. I am able to watch everything that has been happening in my life lately in deep enjoyment. Papers drop from the sky and turn into doves, people stick their heads out and sing lyrics from the song and a smile is on everyone of their faces. The picture is fuzzy, slightly rustic and has a twinge of 60's to it. The cars have muscle and size, the characters even have 60's style with their hair, clothes and socks. Music has placed me into a cool place full of light, makes me disregard the shame of Boston weather.

So finals are coming to a close, three fully down and 5 left to go. An anticipation of completion seems close, but so far away. Habitually we are so use to going to classes to the point that when you get close to completing them you can't really fathom them being finished. Usually this happens to me and when I finish my classes for summer I do nothing too productive. So, this summer I have some things that I want to accomplish as goals to live my summer by. 1) I want to master the basics of Flamenco and Bossa Nova guitar. 2) I want to be able to sing songs confidently and play outside. 3) I want to fully understand security analysis 4) Have a great time and 5) Create meaningful relationships and understand myself a little more.

On creating a meaningful relationship and relating to music therapy there is one common thing between the two, taking risks. During practicum class, which learn about our setting and play songs, we often have to put ourselves on the spot to help the client. We have to forget our insecurities and to fully connect with the patients and it is quite a hard task to accomplish, but the intrinsic feelings you and the client are rewarded fully outweigh the risk. It's funny because we don't risk anything physical, lose anything, but risk emotions which we hold tightly to ourselves. We put a value on these emotions and if someone shakes them up in a certain way then we feel totally worthless. Many musicians fear playing in front of an audience to the point where they will avoid it at all costs. Some even say they would prefer death then playing in front of the audience and messing. How messed up is that? I have realized it is quite irrational to say something like that. I'm starting to realize that it is the way you perceive a feeling or risk that makes it so hurtful. The same is with relationships.

Some people fear dating, for the fear of commitment, fear of rejection or the fear of a broken heart. I can say that I have been part of the fear of rejection mode for most of my life and because I was always conscious of this, I always acted a certain way that held me from being perceived as I really am. It becomes frustrating for the performer when they don't preform as well as they know they can or the person who is not able to express them as they know who they are. I guess we just have to be aware of our fears and look at them from an outside prospective. Until we do, we will be slaves to our fears a sad state of mind.

The boy has rekindled that long lost passionate affair with music. It has been music school that has drove the musical passion out of many souls but a simple change in thinking and instrumentation sure can do wonders.

When anything is assigned to you by someone else and is deemed "homework," you drag your feet and complain. Sound familiar? This homework could have even been something that at one time, you enjoyed to do. So what could be done to solve the problem? Why reinforcement baby.

Positive and negative reinforcement is used in your life and sometimes you don't even consciously think about it. You might think to yourself, "If I do a good job on my test I will go celebrate with some friends tonight." You are giving your self something positive for studying hard and putting in effort. A simple game of rewarding good behaviors. On the other hand, you use negative reinforcement when you do something negative when you don't do your preferred behavior. You think of something that you absolutely hate and that motivates you to behave accordingly.

While each and everyone of us vary in our amount and focus of reinforcement, some people lack reinforcement all together or don't even utilize this very effective tool. I played music only when I had to and this lead me to play and practice with no passion. Well now I'm changing that around. Now I am getting back into guitar because I'm inspired by my new instruments, Bossa Nova and Flamenco styles. I now utilize them to my advantage. I have been telling myself to get this much homework done, do this important thing, and that and then you will be able to play your new guitars and learn some new techniques. Now when I do my homework I focus exponentially harder and playing music has become what it use to be, pleasurable.