First Trip

Well I've been kinda putting off writing this blog since like Tuesday. Always conveniently finding myself too busy. What a joke haha. Anyways.
Well uhh last Friday we went to this beach town called mui ne. (moy ney) Its a pretty cool town right along the beach that I call the "Santa Cruz of the country." there's a lot of cool restaurants and stores. And the big thing there is kite surfing.
So after a 4 hour drive and arriving at about midnight on friday we checked into our hotel room which I was pleasantly surprised with. On Saturday we woke up and took a drive and explored the whole town and the fish village.




They have these everywhere. It's just like a million sardines sitting and rotting in the sun and it smell sooo freaking bad.
After that we went to the beach. It was a pretty nice beach. The waves were kinda small but they were still fun. And there's a pool right next to it which was super nice.
On Sunday we went to this thing called the "fairy stream." its a stream that you walk in up to this little waterfall. It was pretty awesome.




That was the waterfall. The water was brown like that the whole way. And it was warm which sucked. But it was fun.
Later we went to these big huge Sand dunes on an army jeep. It was way fun. And it starting raining while we were there and there was a ton of lightning.




That night at dinner while we were waiting for our food a gnarly storm came in and it was pouring rain and all the power went out and stuff. and I heard the loudest thunder I've ever heard. I jumped 3 feet out of my chair.
On Monday we hung out at the beach for a little, and then on our way back to the city we stopped to go look at vietnam's largest reclining (laying down) Buddha. We took a gondola up this mountain and then we had to walk up a bunch of stairs. But it was so awesome and it was huge. Huge.








I wasn't even close to as tall as one of these.





This is the view from the top. Very beautiful.
Oh and It was weird. When we driving through the more rural parts and we passed a bunch of cemeteries we saw that lie 75% of them have big swastikas on them. And the giant Buddha also has one on his chest. And I was tripped out but then my mom told me that I originally meaner peace. Oh. It sucks that when people see it now they have such a negative connotation on it.
Anyways the trip was very fun. And my first experience of like actually touristing and seeing other parts of the country. Parts that people travel from all over to see.
Oh and yesterday we went and saw transformers 3. That movie is freaking awesome. I don't see how those movies keep getting better and better every single time a new one comes out. And optimus prime gets cooler and cooler. So, coolest movie I've seen in a long time.





She fell asleep on my leg. She's so cute.





Hahaha.

Location:Mui ne

Birthday Time

The past couple of days have been pretty busy yeah. Monday was oskar's birthday. We went to this marketplace called ben thau I think. Like bin tow like how you would say tow as in towel. The whole place was burning and it smelled really bad. And everything they sell here is fake. They have adidas and Nike stuff an oakleys and ray bans. Buy it's all fake. You can tell. So I really have no idea what to buy. Oh well though yeah. At the market though no one would leave Brighton or dalila alone. They keep touching their hair and trying to hold them and stuff. It's funny cause Brighton always looks at me and kinda has this embarrassed/help me look on his face. When my mom was buying some cute pink little asian shoes the lady sat there rubbing her hair for like 5 minutes straight. Like really 5 minutes. Then we went to the little meat/fish area and it smelled pretty gross and most of the stuff would definitely not pass American health standards.




After that we went to a restaurant called pho 24 (pronounced fu like f*** you, yes) which is like the panda express here. The money is called dong and the most common food sounds like the f word. Gotta love it. Anyways the stuff is good, it's just like chicken broth and noodles and then you can put bean sprouts or leaves and chives in it. I was pleasantly surprised.




After that we went to this place called vincom, which is like this really big nice mall. And we went to the arcade and we saw these Asians going crazy on the dance dance revolution. It was like the coolest thing ever. And when we got home my mom was way cool and we had rainbow cupcakes! They were awesome. My mom is awesome. So that was the first celebrated birthday in the new home. It was quite fun.




Yesterday I went to BIS which is the British international school. The place is pretty ridiculously nice. With how much it costs to go there it makes sense. I played basketball with some boys there. It was fun. Hadn't worn my kobe's or my compression shorts in a while that was cool. I forgot that compression shorts are the most comfortable things ever and they feel so good. Anyways that's been the past few days. As you kinda get into a routine and figure it out its not too bad I guess. Oh and we got a piano, so everything is fine.

Location:Saigon, Vietnam

Dr. Martens and Rock Climbing

Today is Sunday. I don't really know how long I've been here. A week and a couple days. I just don't know how many days. And I'm way too lazy to try and figure it out. Yesterday I went to lunch at sean's house and ate a way good lunch. It was like biscuits and gravy but with mushrooms in the sauce, and rice instead of biscuits. It's so good. To bad annika's leaving for a few months so I won't get her good cooking. Then we wen rock climbing with me and Amos and Emilio, Aaron and sanbot. I think that's how you spell his name. It's Thai I don't really know. We saw this group of French people there. And this one guy was telling us to pay for 2 climbs instead of for an hour because "right here (pointing to his forearm) gets really sore and tense." We were like dude this guys a douche!! Bu then we got out there and he was doing all the crazy routes an we were dying still after just two of the easy ones. So that was humbling I guess. That's what sean said and I thought that was about right so yeah. Then we went to sean's house again and ate spaghetti, it was good. Then we played video games and then went to bed at like 11. But we had to wake up at 6 to go to priesthood conference. It was so boring. I almost fell asleep like 12 times. I felt bad for Josh he had to translate the whole time. Then I went home and yeah, tried to find some cool music and found one song. A success I guess yeah? We also went to this one street the other night and found an adidas, Nike, doc martens, and vans outlet. It was pretty cool. I don't really like vans that much anymore, except for the old schools. Like JV. But I realized that Dr. Martens are soo cool.


This guy is sick he's got the pants rolled and the shirt all the way buttoned up. And the shoes are so tight.









Brighton had an intellectual moment while watching the cars and motorbikes go bye.

It's getting better I think. Things are starting to develop ad it's kinda nice. It's starting to feel a little more like home. In my mind at least. Like Adam says mind over matter. He's into that. It's kinda funny. I've been reading some Dan Brown books. They are very thought provoking. He makes a point to display how much of today's culture and society an things are based on misconceptions and lies and stuff. Very intriguing for sure.
Anyways I miss home and things are definitely not the same here. Americas standards are a lot higher. Every"thing" (like the material stuff) there is pretty much better and higher quality. Like a wooden court for ball is like unheard of here. But this place has a simple beauty and innocence that's pretty cool.

Location:Nguyễn Văn Hưởng,,Vietnam

Still Trying to Figure it Out

Well we're here. It's crazy to even think about. To be honest I keep trying to deny it really. The city is huge. That picture is the view from my window. We're on the 16th floor an it's windy all the time. Which is nice because it's really hot and humid so it feels good, but it blows everything around and drives me crazy. And it's really loud too. Sometimes when it rains it goes crazy. Most gnarly rain I've ever seen. It's cool I guess. I had DragonFruit. Which sounds cooler than it tastes. I like the seeds in it though. Kinda like a kiwi. Oh it smell bad too. The air is always thick and hot and kinda gross. I'm over it. I miss America and I miss hamburgers.

Location:Nguyễn Văn Hưởng,,Vietnam