From Thursday to Sunday we traveled and played Ha Noi style. The first stop on any city tour, Ngoc Son Pagoda on a little island in the Lake of the Restored Sword, Hoan Kiem, in downtown Hanoi. This lake has these giant tortoises that live several hundred years and only occassionally show up on the surface. Its the site for a King Arthur type story where a VN leader against the Chinese in 1427 received a magical sword from the lake and then returned it after winning the country's independence. The students were so happy upon learning this they jumped up and down and got a little crazy.
Most people think that study abroad is something that 20-yr-olds with a little disposable summer income do, but this year's experience with two older students, Albert and Tony, has proven to me that its really ideal to have more mature students on the program as well. Both of these guys have been great assets for their ability to organize outings, to hold up in foreign settings, and to engage with their Vietnamese partners in the internships. Also, I think the older one is, the more one appreciates that chance to be able to spend five weeks off of work learning and traveling.
No trip to Hanoi is complete without a visit to Ba Dinh Square and the Vietnamese version of the Washington Mall and Washington Monument, the oh-so-retro Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and associated sites around it. Here Chau Mai demonstrates his athletic prowess hurdling over the "do not enter" sign. On our morning visit, the mausoleum was closed, so we didn't get to go inside the frigid aircon and view "Uncle" Ho lying in eternal repose. However, we did visit the also air-conned HCM Museum nearby; just seeing what Hanoi is first-hand, and seeing a little more tangible evidence about "the north" and this enigmatic historical figure was a great experience.
How happy is our group? Just look at them!
Scuppy and Hong Anh joined us for this excursion to the national mall, here posing in front of a bamboo grove.
Here is Xuan Anh crawling onto the turtles that carry on their backs the names of those people who passed the national exams and received their PhD's. The steles date back to the 1400's and are one of the oldest archaeological remains in good standing in Hanoi. The site here is part of a larger courtyard and campus for Vietnam's first national university which dates to the 11th century in the same spot.
For the grandparents, another cute kid pic. Here seated in front of the entrance to a Temple for Confucius.
From Thursday to Sunday we traveled and played Ha Noi style. The first stop on any city tour, Ngoc Son Pagoda on a little island in the Lake of the Restored Sword, Hoan Kiem, in downtown Hanoi. This lake has these giant tortoises that live several hundred years and only occassionally show up on the surface. Its the site for a King Arthur type story where a VN leader against the Chinese in 1427 received a magical sword from the lake and then returned it after winning the country's independence. The students were so happy upon learning this they jumped up and down and got a little crazy.
Most people think that study abroad is something that 20-yr-olds with a little disposable summer income do, but this year's experience with two older students, Albert and Tony, has proven to me that its really ideal to have more mature students on the program as well. Both of these guys have been great assets for their ability to organize outings, to hold up in foreign settings, and to engage with their Vietnamese partners in the internships. Also, I think the older one is, the more one appreciates that chance to be able to spend five weeks off of work learning and traveling.
No trip to Hanoi is complete without a visit to Ba Dinh Square and the Vietnamese version of the Washington Mall and Washington Monument, the oh-so-retro Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and associated sites around it. Here Chau Mai demonstrates his athletic prowess hurdling over the "do not enter" sign. On our morning visit, the mausoleum was closed, so we didn't get to go inside the frigid aircon and view "Uncle" Ho lying in eternal repose. However, we did visit the also air-conned HCM Museum nearby; just seeing what Hanoi is first-hand, and seeing a little more tangible evidence about "the north" and this enigmatic historical figure was a great experience.
How happy is our group? Just look at them!
Scuppy and Hong Anh joined us for this excursion to the national mall, here posing in front of a bamboo grove.
Here is Xuan Anh crawling onto the turtles that carry on their backs the names of those people who passed the national exams and received their PhD's. The steles date back to the 1400's and are one of the oldest archaeological remains in good standing in Hanoi. The site here is part of a larger courtyard and campus for Vietnam's first national university which dates to the 11th century in the same spot.
For the grandparents, another cute kid pic. Here seated in front of the entrance to a Temple for Confucius.
1 comment:
there are Hos in that Temple of Literature with the turtles (Van Mieu?)! of course, I don't know which one of the thousands of names Bin is related to but i think we decided one of the turtles looked particularly like him... :-)
ahh seeing these pictures brings back our fond memories of Vietnam. can't wait to go again...
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