July 4th Weekend Success!

Weekend in Vietnam and then BBQ at our apartment was a great combo.
Vietnam was amazing for the following reasons:
1. Hong
2. Hong's mom
3. Hong's uncle
4. Yale alumni
5. Banh mi (YUMMM)
6. interconnected history with US (yeah i know this is more boring, but still a big part of this trip)

So once we got out of the airport Hong has this huge 15-seater van come pick us up and bring us straight to the Cu Chi tunnels. For a group of 9, having transportation taken care of is an amazing thing, especially when the cu chi tunnels are like almost two hours away. Of course, along the way there we pick up some fresh and yummy omelette banh mi (vietnamese sandwich).

When we get there Hong tells the "Asian looking ones" to hush and pretend to be Vietnamese since its free entry for locals, haha. But once we get to the counter, this guy starts speaking to us in Vietnamese and we all stare blankly at him...total fail. Walking through the Cu Chi tunnels was a pretty cool experience though, made me feel slighly claustrophobic. It's a miracle that Eric (who is over 6 feet) got through them. To imagine running through these three feet high tunnels with guns is slightly ridiculous. They showed us this video at the beginning of the tour that was total propaganda: "The Americans came and bombed women and children, and pots and pans." Molly was definitely falling asleep during the video.

Later that day we went to the War Remnants Museum and it was the first time I've wanted to cry after a museum exhibit. I'm sure Auschwitz and other concentration camp musuems are probably worse, but for me, this was the most heart wrenching exhibit I've seen. At first walking in, all I saw was propaganda talking about American aggressors who attacked and tortured innocent Vietnamese women, children and farmers. But when I got to the exhibit about the after effects of Agent Orange, it was impossible to detach oneself and think about war purely from an abstract political standpoint. These were pictures of individuals whose lives were completely destroyed by the after effects of war. Mothers whose children were severely deformed or disabled and would need taking care of for their whole life. So 70 year old women were still bathing and washing their 50 year old sons. They displayed a letter that a girl wrote to President Obama. She was a third generation victim of the aftereffects of Agent Orange, pleading to Obama to give aid to the victims. She quotes his speeches in which he talks about his daughters, and his belief in providing children with opportunities to pursue their dreams and asks, "don't we deserve a chance too?"

Going through this museum puts our lives into perspective. How insignificant our own fears and concerns are. How we're so privileged to be going to college, to live in a rich country and have the resources to travel and spend money on frivolous things. I think for most people, seeing horrors and atrocities is a reason to refute the existence of a higher, all-good, supreme being. But I think that seeing such violence makes me think how much more we need God. A world without God would be unimaginably ugly.

After that we went to drop by at an alumni's house and I discovered in these neighborhoods there are hidden gems everywhere. By that I mean that you can walk into an alleyway or street that looks extremely dilapilated and poor, but then walk through gates to find a beautiful house, several stories high. Houses are built on an individual basis, so what you find around it doesn't necessarily signify what every house is like.

For dinner, Hong's uncle (who isn't really a relative), in addition to hiring us a driver, takes us out to eat at a seafood restaurant and gives Hong money to buy each of us a drink later. This man can barely speak English, so we couldn't even express our gratitude in any way or have much of a conversation with him. All I ended up finding out was that he owns a rubber exporting company. But his generosity is just amazing. It pays to have friends around the world.

Later we tried to take a look at the clubbing scene in Vietnam but Hong's mom, like most other moms is a protective mother hen and came to pick us up at 12 am sharp from the bar and ushered us home. Even though it was a little early, we didn't mind. We were tired and she has already been so generous. Hosting 8 of us all at the same time.

Sunday was visitng the Reunification Palace and shopping at the touristy markets, the quintiessential haggling experience. We got on at 5:30p.m. flight and got home by 10 p.m.

Right after, Monday was July 4th! BBQ at La Crystal. It got a rough start since the charcoal we got was taking forever to light. Most people just ended up snacking and drinking some beer. But it was plenty fun. We definitley had almost 50 people there throughout the night and I met quite a bit of interesting people. It's crazy to halfway across world and meet people who are just from all over. Really shows you how small technology has made the world.

I probably won't be traveling again this weekend, but it's going to be a busy week with two dinner seminars, Hong's birthday and a bunch of other things coming up!
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Ping-pongs? Buddhas? All in one weekend

Wow. That was just a crazy weekend in Bangkok, Thailand. I have no idea what I expected but it definitely was not what I experienced this weekend. The first night that we got there, it was already 10:30 p.m. on Friday and we were wandering for an hour before we found this "Best Comfort Residential Inn" and we definitely walked past some super shady areas where girls were waving to us, offering certain "special massages." But thank god we eventually found the place and it was quite nice, a block away from the main street, close but not too lose. We put our stuff down and hit the streets right away -- headed towards Soi Cowboy (what a name). Once you hit this area you know why it's called a redlight district. Red neon lights everywhere with establishments named "Suzie Wongs," "Spice Girls," and "Cowboy." We found the least sketchy place to sit in and observed the streets. People watching on this street is quite amusing. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:














Later on we walked into some random bar and BEWARE, anything that is behind a door or curtain on a street like this, once you walk in, there is EXPLICIT X-rated material. Completely naked girls on stage. Haha. We all walked straight out after we walked in. This was the beginning of our Bangkok experience.

The next day was full of touristy destinations. We took a private Chata Praya River boat tour for 350 batt each, which is a little more than $10. Totally worth it. The person driving our boat was super nice and tried to give us our money's worth by going slowly past places of interest, pointing out to us every time we passed a huge lizard (he had a thing for those lizards). Along the way we passed by Wat Arun, a huge temple.

Climbing that thing was a pain. The steps were so steep, basically up to my knees. Then we went to this floating market that had so much good food. It was a shame that we spent only 30 minutes there.

The boat tour ended at the Grand Palace and this is where we started getting scammed. We walk past this huge opening of the Grand Palace (not the main entrance) and some guy tells us that it's Buddha Day so there's a ceremony until 1:30 p.m. It was only noon so he suggested us go to two other temples in the area that were free, no entrance fee. At first he suggested we take the bus there, but then he said since we have 6 people a taxi would be cheaper and then he changed his mind again and said taking the tuktuk would be better. These two tuktuk drivers came up and said they would take us around for 40 batt/tuktuk for two temples and back. Each tuktuk would fit 3 people so that was definitely a good price. Our tuktuk guy didn't talk much but the other tuktuk driver was friendly and spoke English. He seemed so amiable and friendly and nice. I almost got a picture of him too. Tik in his Tuktuk (we should have had Tik the Tuktuk take us to the pingpong show in Patpong, haha):
But after the first destination he tried to bring us to this shop that sold tailor made suits. What? None of us would buy anything like that, so we left immediately and at the next stop they dropped us off and the tuktuks never came back. We didn't pay anyways so we felt like we gained. We just took a taxi back to the Grand Palace for the same amount that the tuktuk would have cost us, but in addition we got a free tour of several temples :D We get back to the Grand Palace and some other guy tells us that its Buddha Day and the temple is closed until 2:30 p.m. Something was fishy here so we ignored this guy and went to the main entrance and lo-behold, there's no such thing as Buddha Day, the Palace was never closed during the day and these were freakin scammers trying to sell us stuff. That is just so hilarious. We thought these nicely dressed guys were so friendly for giving us such detailed directions, but they were complete scams. The rest of the day went by without drama, but I can't believe how tricky those scammers were, lying to us that something was closed to send us off to some random place to sell us stuff.

Now for the last night in Bangkok, we went to so a Ladyboy show called Calypso that was pretty amazing. Not sleazy, people of all ages were there, they sang (lip-sang) and danced to random American and Asian song. They sang to "Nobody" by that Korean girl band too! It was super fun. But then...after that we went to see a Ping-pong show and that was completely ridiculous. The girls there were pulling stuff out of their vagina (razors, shooting darts, needles). The mainstay of the show was definitely the ping-pong girl though. She shot those out with such precision and accuracy. The pingpong balls went at least 10-15 feet. I was trying to avoid having the balls hit me with all my power, and hitting the balls back with a paddle. The goal was to hit the ball into a basket that some girl on stage was holding. What a show, haha.

On the last day we went to the Chatuchak market, with over 1000 stalls, it felt like the Silk Market times 10, haha. Then we ended the day with a nice Thai massage. The first massage I've ever gotten. Molly says it feels like a bus hit her but I thought it was nice. It was a big sketchy at first though since it was on the second floor of some small hotel, but things turned out alright.

That's the end of my Thailand rant. For more pictures, please visit my facebook :D
Bye for now!
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Work Day Numero One

Just finished my first day of work and I'm exhausted. I actually feel like a working woman (obvious with less pressure to complete work by certain deadlines), getting home after dinner with friends and a long day, all I want to do is shower and go to sleep.

I got to work this morning on time and most people at the office weren't even at work yet. It wasn't until 9:30 a.m. when most people started filing in, how bizarre. Additionally, the whole office is basically women except for the two other interns, Alex and Adam, and all these women are so soft spoken. The whole office dynamic is weird because everyone is nice...but kind of distant and cold. Perhaps its the work place culture? My supervisors are super nice, but it's like no one talks to each other. We had a staff meeting today and cake because it was someone's birthday, but the whole ordeal was just awkward because it seemed so polite. The girl whose birthday it was didn't even seem excited and we just sat there in silence as someone cut the cake. Good thing I'm working with Molly, at least I have someone to talk to, lol.

Turns out that I'm going to be working events for most of the summer. Making programs, documents, putting in reservations, updating the website information, etc...A bunch of pretty mindless things that don't think much thinking. Kinda disappointed that I won't really be challenged that much. Maybe I'm just underestimating this job, but I hope it won't be just a repeat of all the logistics stuff I do at school. On the other hand, the events that they organize seem pretty cool and I would be excited to attend them (some of them are at pretty fancy places :D) After work all the Bulldogs met up again, ate dinner and then walked on the Explanade. So amazingly beautiful.

Thank god the weather has been nice. Though it's been raining a lot in the night and mornings, it makes the rest of the day fairly cool. Hope this coolness keeps up!!
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Food, more food, and then a circus show?

Just finished with my first full day in Singapore! The apartment is pretty nice, with two full bathrooms, three bedrooms, a fairly large kitchen, flat screen TV and of course AIR CONDITIONING. What more could I ask for?
Here are some pictures :D
My Room:

The living room:

After settling in, I ran some errands and then met up with the rest of the Yale Bulldogs (Hong, Kate and Molly) that were here already. Hong's high school Singaporean classmates brought us to eat at some restaurant called Chin Chin, pretty good stuff (of course we had Haianese Chicken, the renown Singapore dish). However, what I was most excited about was, of course, DESSERT we had at this place called:
(which literally translates to "remember to eat"). It's apparently one of the best dessert places in town and we had some really really yummy asian style desserts with shaved ice, almond/sesame paste, etc. tastyyy. See how happy this food has made us?
More yummy stuff to come....
We ended the night at the Esplanade, giving us a beautiful waterfront view of Singapore and saw a cute circus act there also. It was a perfect way to end my first day in Singapore.


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Once Again, Off to the Other Side of the World

Hello my dear friends, it's been a long 9 months since I last posted. Tomorrow is the start of another crazy summer overseas in SWELTERING heat (New York was pretty sweltering hot today also), I heard Singapore is pretty hot over there. But no worries, I'm sure the AC will be on full blast everywhere. As of now I'm not quite sure what my internship over there really entails, but I've already been thinking about where I'll be traveling the next 8 weeks that I'm going to be in SE Asia. My ticket to Vietnam is already booked, Bali and Cambodia should be the next destinations to plan!!!!!

I just checked-in online, printed my boarding pass, and jammed a whole month's worth of clothes into my suitecase. Farewell my New York friends and hello Singapore!
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Back in the Big Apple!

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since I last posted and so much has happened. It was definitely sad to say farewell to IUP, but at the same time I'm extremely glad to be home.
So my last two weeks in Beijing were filled with so many amazing highlights:
-going to 十渡and climbing the mountain, the view was amazing on the top
-eating at the IUP farewell dinner at Kro's Nest (supposedly the BEST pizza in Beijing) and wearing 旗袍's (Chinese traditional attire) with teachers and classmates
-attending an underground Beijing rap concert!
-spending my last night eating on the 后海 lakeside
Going overseas really gave me a chance to explore a city in a way that I wouldn't do with NY. Even though NY is probably surrounded with just as much tourist attractions/events to go to.

Overall, though I wouldn't say I loved IUP and loved Beijing, but it was a good experience. Being away from home, exploring a new city on my own and become friends with IUP classmates and teachers have all become valuable experiences. Coincidentally, one of my teachers was actually on my flight back to NY!

After having had completed Level 5 Chinese at Yale, I entered IUP taking one of the highest level they offered during the summer. While I would say that my Chinese improved a lot, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as learning a lot. IUP was more of consolidating a lot of what I have learned already, helping me master vocabulary usage, solidifying grammar rules that I kind of have picked up instinctively, and become more fluent and smooth when speaking. It was a great way to bring together things that I already kind of understood but was never formally taught. The two year minimum that IUP requires definitely makes sense to me now because IUP isn't about bombarding and exposing students to more vocabulary (which is what HBA and PIB do) its about mastering usage and verbal skills. I also got to learn a lot more about Chinese society and culture through the small class discussions that we engaged in. Because of the small class sizes each of us had adequate speaking time and were actually able to launch into discussion if we so wished (as opposed to regular language classes of 8-10 people where the teacher is doing most of the talking).
Here are some pictures!

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Almost done!!!!

Only two more weeks left! By this time I think I'm basically ready to go home, I miss my parents, my friends (at Yale and NY) and I miss food at home. While we're on the subject of food, I just went to Pizza Hut with a bunch of friends and now I think that I've gotten so used to the food here that I can't eat fatty American food anymore, the roof of my mouth feels swollen, something Chinese people would say is 热气太多了　also know as "too much hot air". I'm going to drink some Chrysanthemum tea since that's suppose to be "cold air"and reduces hot air (all stuff my aunt told me).

So back to this week. Well, its been crazy hot for the last two days because of the humidity, 78% humidity, can you believe it? Usually when humidity is over 50% that means rain but I guess not in China. Therefore a good idea is to stay indoors during this humidity, but of course I don't stay in. Instead I head to Forbidden Palace, which is mostly outdoors and takes hours to get through. Was not a good idea. But at least now I've knocked it off of my bucket list of things to do in Beijing. The Forbidden Palace was nice, but eventually it all started to look the same and there was still way too many people there in the disgusting heat.

Aside from going to Forbidden Palace, I did get to see a movie this week called Aftershock or 唐山大地震, with some classmates and teachers. And it redefined the term tearjerker. I went in not expecting to cry at all, but ended up crying a total of 7 times throughout the movie. It would have been so embarrassing if the rest of the audience hadn't been crying. My teacher emerged with her face all puffy and red. During the first day it was playing in theaters, they handed out packets of tissues to each person! Though this movie definitely made me cry, I don't know if I can objectively say it was a great movie; there were many loopholes in the story line. But as the first IMAX movie in China and as such a tearjerker, it is definitely worth seeing! I can't wait till I get back to the States to see Inception and Toy Story 3, heard they were amazing also.
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