Factory field Trip

This week we were able to visit two factories. Although we didn't visit factories that were at the status of sweatshops, the conditions of the factories we visited were still pretty hard to imagine myself working in. The textile factory had loud machinery that made it hard to hear while you were in there, even harder if you were there for long periods of time everyday. The Yamaha factory had a distinct smell when we entered the area where they put the bikes together. By the end of the tour many us began getting headaches. Although many of these conditions compared to other places seem a lot better, in reality prolonged times in these factories may wear down on the health of these workers. Even though this is true, we found that many of the workers were content to on their work here. These factories although dangerous, provided a sort of freedom and independent means of existence that they wouldn't find otherwise, especially for the younger generations.

Yesterday

I spent a beautiful day in Pho Co.

Buying ruou for Irene the birthday girl :) then coconut jelly, then spontaneously being a tour guide alongside minderz. Eating some my hoanh thanh, getting some tra chanh near the church, and then some hoa qua dam on pavement :) walked around ho hoan kiem then sipped on some coffee whilst over looking a busy intersection in Ha Noi. Visit son chau at bo sua and boo. Bought a shirt. Then had some bia hoi :) went to cafe align and had a yummy pina co-la-da. grabbed some mien tron for dinner. Then made it back home safely riding through beautiful Ha Noi at night.

I live for days like this in VN. Everyday I go outside is a potential adventure. My only plan that morning was to go grab a birthday present, and it turned into a fun full day of going around old quarters.

I’m loving every second of this. &I’m falling so much deeper.

Love is not a universal language

This blog title sounds pretty pessimistic, no? I think so, but let's not get all pouncy and hear what I have to say... I guess for me, coming to Viet Nam I expected a certain amount of culture shock, and these past couple of days I've been starting to really re-evaluate what the idea of love is and where it even comes from. It all started in history class (I think.) one day when Jeremy talked about the idea of love and marriage and that our dominant perceptions of what love is essentially western ideals. (Sorry Jeremy don't want to twist your words, but it was something along these lines...) And this really got me thinking...

After this I had an interesting talk with Thay about my paper topic for history class, which happens to be prostitution. He told me some interesting stories that intensely boggled my mind. The popularity of prostitution or even extra marital sex is such a normalized part of Vietnamese culture. Having a dish on the side isn't so taboo here. So does that mean these men love their women any less? Or vice versa? or what are even these ideas of love that I have that I'm imposing on my own view of what a relationship or what a marriage should be. When it comes down to it, how can you measure love, or what love is when as you travel and go to different areas, the ideas of love changes. Even within the same country, as you move to other geographical locations and environments are constantly changing. The rules of love are different and quite possibly how much you love becomes immeasurable and irrelative.

Ai-yah, o.O I don't even know what I'm saying anymore... haha, I guess I'm just learning love just might not be a universal language.

Rice Harvest

This week our class went to harvest rice in a village on the outskirts of Ha Noi. Honestly, coming into this, I was pretty excited. Although many people think that I wouldn't be able to get into the nitty gritty aspects of this, what made me really look forward to this was that it was something that would make my grandpa proud of me. Seeing this process was really interesting. To see how hard work is started from the beginning to the end. With the onrise of development and seeing how it has changed many parts of Vietnam, it will be truly a loss if places such as these start disappearing. What is sad is that they already have. Golf courses are sprouting up in every which direction and its a sad part of development.