Bắc Linh Đàm: mapping a public space in Hanoi

On Tuesday Fantastic Năm motorbiked over to Bắc Linh Đàm to do our second mapping project--this time on a "new"/"modern" public space. The area was pretty spread out, and had a beautiful lake and lots of apartment buildings. We found ourselves mapping out the space on motorbikes most of the time, and at times we actually added to the map while riding past the locations. Given the layout of the area, it would have been a really miserable experience if we had tried to map out the area on foot. The way we made our way around this space definitely affected our experience. I think it made us (ok, at least me) feel a little lazier in general to be using the motorbikes...walking short distances started to feel like a major hassle, and I don't think I felt as intimate a connection to the space as I had at Hồ Linh Quan. We definitely didn't interact with people as much as we had at our previous mapping location, and I do feel that the layout of the area contributed to this somewhat.
Some descriptive words: impersonal, big, spread out, new...
Ultimately, I would not want to live here. I didn't like the fact that a motorbike was pretty much required to get around this area, and the fact that I didn't feel a very strong sense of community. Ultimately, I don't feel much interest in returning to this area, unless it is to visit Phuong, who lives 5 minutes away!

Hồ Linh Quan: mapping a public space in Hanoi

Mapping out Hồ Linh Quan with my groupmates was a really interesting experience. After getting off the bus, we walked for a really long time through narrow, winding streets. During this long walk, I enjoyed talking to Phuong and getting to know more about her grandfather. We ultimately arrived in Hồ Linh Quan, which is right next to a lake, and began mapping out where local residents would go to do different things (such as "play badminton" and "get a knife sharpened"). Overall, aspects of this space made me feel: like I was seeing a real, un-touristy part of Hanoi; appreciative of the warmth and helpfulness of the people; happy because of the personal feel, children playing, and friendly women enjoying a badminton game; and uncomfortable because of the traffic and intense pollution (especially from tons of burning votive paper). One of my favorite parts of this experience was getting cold drinks at a tiny hole in the wall cafe after we were done mapping. I felt like this activity really showed me how well are group works together, and made me excited to continue working together on Project Kiếm Ăn (an interview project on people's experiences with their jobs in Vietnam).
Descriptive words: real, friendly, personal, unpleasant, small, big, intriguing, old...
Ultimately, I do not think that I would want to live here. Coming from a big city with lots to do, I just think I would be pretty bored living in this area. It would probably be kind of annoying to have to walk through those winding streets to get home (if I was out of the area), and I think I would just feel pretty claustrophobic. Also, the pollution and smoke was really memorably unpleasant (although I know that the smoke would only be around for the spiritual time once a year). Ultimately, I really enjoyed this experience, and would like to visit Hồ Linh Quan again, but wouldn't want to live here.

Gig interview

I found the Gig interview of the man who works in a chicken processing plant particularly interesting and meaningful. I really appreciated how this interview in particular showed the human side of a very low status job, and gave voice to an undocumented worker who was being exploited. I would say that this interview in particular reminded me that all people have something to say, and that it's not only people with a lot of education who can eloquently discuss their experiences in relation to broader social and political issues. I learned not only the details of this kind of job, but also the ways that the experience of one person always relate to much bigger issues, such as worker rights, immigration policy, systems of economic exploitation, etc. It also shows how the official "story" or rules (ie people aren't technically supposed to hire undocumented workers in the US) don't necessarily mirror reality, and that's why it's important to investigate what's really going on by talking to everyday people.
In general, I appreciate how Gig gives voice to people working in all kinds of jobs and provides readers the opportunity to hear from people who they otherwise would probably never talk to. I feel like this interview specifically shows how books like Gig can lead to change by educating readers about situations which are not usually talked about. I hope that Project Kiếm ăn will give voice to people whose experiences and views are not really out there, and will lead to positive change in some way.

Life Story

Gerard asked us to write a blog entry with our life story, so here goes:

I was born in San Francisco, California on March 18th, 1989 to a psychologist (mom) and wood worker (dad). A month before I turned 3, my little brother, Noah, was born. I started attending a really small, progressive elementary school called Live Oak when I was 5, and stayed at this school through 8th grade. A few days before I turned 9, my father died from a rare motor-neuron disease. Needless to say, this was incredibly hard on my family and his illness and death were a really significant part of my childhood. I still think about my father a lot and wish that he was here...
I graduated from Live Oak in 2003 and entered a really huge high school called Lowell. While there, I joined the school's swim team and began swimming competitively year-round. Joining the city's best public school swim team (the girl's varsity team had been undefeated city champions since it began) with no competitive swimming experience was really hard. However, I stuck with it and developed a lot as a person, had amazing experiences, and made some amazing lifelong friends. While in high school, I also taught a cooking class to homeless children living at a transitional housing facility in the city. This was an amazing experience that really contributed to my interest in child development and working to help children who have experienced hardship and trauma. I have continued to pursue these interests at UCLA through my Applied Developmental Psychology minor, interning at an infant-toddler center, and tutoring children from the Watts Housing Projects (which are famous for gang violence). At UCLA I am majoring in Anthropology. I love how this major has taught me new ways of looking at the world and has made me a more open-minded and thoughtful person. Also, after my first year at UCLA I spent a month in Tanzania (East Africa) teaching HIV/AIDS education, teaching English to street children, and helping out at an orphanage. This was an amazing and life-changing experience. Additionally, I joined the UCLA ultimate frisbee team, and have enjoyed developing my frisbee skillz, traveling for tournaments, and making new friends on the team.
In terms of general aspects of my life, I am really close with my family and love how we are all really relaxed and goofy around each other. I love how my mom will laugh at me and my brother's Dave Chappelle impersonations and it is not uncommon to hear sentences begin with "dude, mom" at my house. My family means the world to me and I feel so lucky for everything I have in my life.

Things I want to achieve during my semester in Vietnam:
-connect with Vietnamese people of all ages (kids, college students, older people...)
-become as fluent in Vietnamese as possible (and hopefully be able to haggle successfully by the end of the trip)
-make lasting friendships with EAP and HANU classmates
-gain a greater understanding of Vietnamese history and culture
-play ultimate frisbee/introduce ultimate to VN if people don't already play it!
-be able to stand intense heat and humidity
-learn and experience things that make me question my own beliefs and values
-give back through volunteering
-fall in love with VN and not want to leave

Smoke

Tonight we had kind of a crazy experience. We had been planning to see Inception in Thanh Xuan quarter, and were hanging out in the really fancy mall the theater was in before the show. This mall was crazy—really really fancy and definitely Western-looking. Interestingly, I later learned that it was built by the Russian mafia... Anyway, all of a sudden the lights went out. Me and the students I was with kind of looked around and then eventually started walking towards the exit of the building. When we got out, we noticed that there was tons of black smoke billowing out from the side of the huge building. Over the course of the next hour or so, we watched as the smoke continued to fill the street, some people left the mall but others were still going up the elevators, and people were crossing and walking on the bridge connecting the mall building with the mall building across the street. It seemed very strange to me that: 1) no fire alarm went off, 2) people were not reacting as if this was a big deal, 3) no one took responsibility to direct people anywhere, 4) no police officers or fire fighters showed up…in fact, I saw a security guard just kind of strolling in the opposite direction of the smoke, acting no differently from anyone else. I later talked to Gerard (the EAP liason for our program and our core class professor), and he told me that these things may have related to a different sense of responsibility, this being the first time that a huge building had a fire, or that it could be that it wasn’t as serious as it seemed, because Hanoi does have a fire dept which theoretically should have arrived to deal with the situation. This was definitely a disturbing experience which made me think about what happens when there is rapid development and all the systems aren't in place to deal with safety issues, among other things. Here was this huge and fancy building without clear emergency protocol or working fire alarms.

Anyway, I will definitely keep reflecting on this experience, and I look forward to seeing how it relates to new experiences I encounter and knowledge I gain about Vietnam.

The Beginning...

I am sitting in Seattle International Airport waiting to complete the second and longest leg of my journey to Vietnam...In about an hour I will take off for Seoul (11 hours) and will then fly from Seoul to Hanoi (4 hours), arriving at 10pm on August 9th. I already kind of feel like I'm in Korea, since everything in this airport is announced in both Korean and English...
On a different note, I already made a new friend on the plane from San Francisco to Seattle--a woman from India who just completed her PhD and is going to be starting work at Amazon soon. I guess it's a good thing I'm exercising my friend-making abilities before I arrive in Hanoi, since I'm going to be meeting a lot of new people really soon!
Next stop: Korea!