2,879 BC: Mythological Origins of the Vietnamese People

Welcome to my posts about Vietnam history, mashed up with modern Vietnamese issues and news! So much better than a dry (ha) description of soups, especially since I'll be talking a lot about food and food prep in the context of my Market To Table series (which is debuting this week!). This has been a fascinating and, frankly, way more interesting topic to pursue than my original plan. There's a lot of exciting things I've got lined up, and I'm looking forward to going on this journey with you.

I'm going to delve into major events from Vietnam's past, both ancient and modern, and explore related issues. But for this first one, let's keep it light and fun - mythology is awesome!

This post is about legends: kings, fairies, and dragons themselves appear in the birth of the Vietnamese people, and they launch a history that spans many millennia.

There's something special about knowing your people and nation have a long history. As an American, we find this mythology in narrative: endless police procedurals, Hollywood movies, and "The Great American Novel" haunt our collective unconsciousness. We celebrate our most recent origins on the Fourth of July and try to uphold traditions our ancestors brought with them from all over the world. But we're still babies compared to the great civilizations of the world. Check this out.

In Southeast and East Asia, the Viet people were first identified as a group over 3,000 years ago, and were Australasian in origin. Genetically, the geographical home of the main ethnic group, the Kinh, is what is currently northern Vietnam and southern China.

But before we knew this, advanced science and technology confirming ancient migration patterns and the history of our genes themselves, the Vietnamese people knew something truer.

They know their true origins...

Saigon's Canals: The Project From Hell

The revamped main canal.

Ho Chi Minh City's canals are two different stories, which diverge significantly (ha), with many accidental but important lessons learned along the way. Today I want to tell you about what surely must be one of the most compelling sustainable infrastructure projects I've heard of yet: the transformation of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe branch of the Saigon canal system.

Over the course of 10 years this branch was transformed from an open sewer spreading disease and destruction to a jewel of central Ho Chi Minh City's park system.

And, to think, it almost didn't happen - at least 4 times. In fact, it was literally abandoned as un-doable at one point by a foreign contractor. Not a good omen, you say?


Hit the jump for just how the longest of these canals turned out, as well as pictures from some of the city's less well-off canals:

Nominally a God

I've had teachers tell me during teacher training (both my first two years of undergrad studies, when I was an education major, and during my more recent TEFL training) that your rules are inviolable in the classroom. In the words of one educator, you are God's direct envoy of teaching to this classroom, and what you say goes. But what if you can't make your wishes understood?

Today I experienced an unsettling situation that I feel compelled to write about, primarily because I'm a little surprised that this hasn't happened to me already, but also because it brought home to be just how much of a guest I am in classrooms.

It underlined my relative newness to teaching, my lack of cultural knowledge, and my entire understanding of discipline in HCMC's public schools, and in this school in particular (disciplinary measures vary widely between schools in the city).

Ho Chi Minh City's Fascinating District 7

Rae recently took me out for my birthday and we had a fantastic time. I visited a section of the city that I've never been to before and was wanting to know more about, because it's substantially different than the rest of the city: District 7. (Pardon the lack of photos for this post - because it was after dark, my camera wasn't taking anything worth posting - mostly just blurry light splotches on a sheet of pitch black.)

We went to Scott & Binh's, the number 2 rated restaurant in HCMC, where I was in an almost all-English environment for the first time since coming to Vietnam. It was weird! To celebrate, I got myself a fish and pasta pesto dish, which was fantastic. We toasted to the Fourth of July with Tiger beer and mango margaritas, and our dinner on the patio, surrounded by bamboo and christmas lights, resulted in a very relaxing meal. Afterward we went walking and she pointed out her international school and her yoga studio. We picked up a final late night coffee on our way back to the beginning.

HealthNews: Ridiculous Foot Pain Not Infection

Centre Medical International - Where I now have a GP.

Well, this diagnosis was completely unexpected. I thought I had an infection. WRONG.

Let me explain. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I have been experiencing some serious problems with my left foot. Let me recap a full 9 days with the following representative dialogues:

Day 3: "Hey Ben! Want to go to the supermarket?"  "Sure, but I can't go far or fast."

Day 5: "Hey Ben! Want to go out tonight?"  "I can barely make it to the kitchen on the 2nd floor and you want me to walk to a restaurant 30 minutes away with healthy, drunk 21 year olds?"

Day 8: "Hey Ben! How's your foot?"  "Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod"

By Day 8 it was swollen, red, shaking, and completely unable to support weight. I couldn't move or wiggle any of my toes. I was in major pain. I'd roll over in the middle of the night, touch it to the bed frame, and wake up gasping and sweating (the sweating is normal, but the gasping in pain? not so much). I could barely go anywhere, let alone get off my bed, without leaning heavily on something. I was getting really scared.

Demo Lesson Headaches

Pull the football away one more time, I dare you.

NOTE: This will be one of my rant-y posts. I try to keep them to a minimum, but sometimes I just have to let it all out and complain in English. Skip this one if it's not your cup of tea!

First of all, what is a Demo Lesson?

An ESL Demo Lesson is a lot of things, but none of them efficient, or even very useful, that I could see. This is the basic takeaway I have from my first (hopefully only, ever again) Demo Lesson. It was a series of hoops, like many things in Education, but some of them were ablaze, and some got pulled away at the last minute, like Lucy pulling away Charlie Brown's football. I made it through successfully, but it wasn't without unnecessary frustration pitfalls.

USPS Terror Funhouse Commence

Thanks to Ally for the photo and
extra, necessary, finger emotion.

HEY! CHICAGO USPS. Yeah, YOU. Get over here.

What is this?

I said, WHAT IS IT?

Oh, it's my passport? The one you lost, 31 days ago? But USPS, how will I pick it up at the post office now? I mean, I don't even live in your country any more. How will I go down to the HELL that is the Ravenswood USPS Branch, stand in line for several hours, and then wait for you to pull your head out of your collective ASSHOLE while you attempt to locate this for me? And who says you'd even be successful? I got one of these pink mail slips last time, and you lost it for a month. A MONTH. How do I even know you have it now! Maybe this is one of your TWERPY, DERPY GAMES.