Hanoi

So I start this blog with the event that have most recently transpired.
Work was the usual Monday, pretty quite. Started another book today, I think it should be a good one. This weekend was quite interesting, explored quite a bit. I passed by a church that I'm pretty sure was built while the French where here. This coming week I'm going up to the waterfalls in the Northern part of the country, There are four of us on two bikes so hopefully it doesn't end badly. Waited out a rain storm with a Vietnamese family under this hut. yelled at the Chinese tourist with them as they walked bye. HAHA. Taught an English guy how to get a rock bottom price on the streets of Hanoi. "Whatever they say, divide that by four and yell dat qua zamza!!!!!!" They will know you mean business. Got told by a Vietamese dude that I was killing hiphop and go sleep at home, and he kept doing the gesture with his hand that he was watching me( like De Niro does in meet the Fockers) for like 40 min after me and my buddy got our asses kicked by him in a dance off. Pretty tick that we lost to Mexico, it is what it is. Been on a Western food binge this week, I don't even know why. I know that it's not going to taste that good and be like 4 times what some Vietnamese dish will cost but I keep going back, weird how people are like that.

Well till next time

Spencer

Hanoi 202

What a time its been since my last update. I have been very busy between  work, all the events we have been participating in, and trying to find places I want to go outside the city.

Here at CSIP, I have been given many opportunities to meet and talk with a verity of people in the field of social entrepreneurship. On Wednesday and Thursday. The World Bank hosted an event called, innovation day. This event was the final rounds of a competition of about 250 proposals. Specialists came from around the world (Phoenix, Canada, India, ect.) to judge the 30 finalists. out the 30 teams that were invited to innovation day, 16 walked away with capital to take their plan to the next level. CSIP partnered with the world Bank and we lent a hand on the second day with a mini seminar. Many of the participation lack formal education, and the information shared  gave them a better idea of what a Entrepreneurship looks like on paper.

Everyone will get a kick out of this. For lunch on Friday, my boss here at CSIP was nice enough to take us all of out for some Mexican food. It was interesting, It was wasn't bad for being in Hanoi, Vietnam. I guess this world is truly globalized if you can get an enchilada in southeast Asia. 

On the other hand when I was in Ha Long bay last weekend the seafood was fantastic. the freshest stuff I have ever had. To go along with the great food the scenery was unbelievable. Like nothing you could ever imagine. It looked strait out of Jurassic Park, I'll let the picture speak for its self. 

Thanks for reading 

Spencer  

Hanoi 102

I would like to give you another update on how my trip to Hanoi is treating me and what I have been doing.

So last week I wrote my blog on Friday night so before I could tell you how my weekend went. Sam a volunteer from the UK and Phillip a volunteer from Germany let me tag along to a music festival with them. I had an awesome time and got to know Sam and Phillip. It started at around 1 in the afternoon and went to about midnight and if we weren't dancing we were walking around. The event was held at the American Club. It was a nice gated community with perfect grass right in the middle of the city, it looked like a festival from back home with the three main sponsors being Coors, Jim Beam, and Corona. After a long day of dancing and talking I called it a night and came home. Relaxed all Sunday for it was going to be a big week at work.

At work, they have been working me hard and have a bunch of stuff for me to do. As of right now before I start reviewing applications for groups that want funding for their social entrepreneurship (If you don't know what it is, Unreasonable People, is a great book and would give you and overview about what its all about). I have been editing articles on their website and reading books for them and giving them a short review. During lunch I practice my Vietnamese and they asked me to teach them some American slang, it's quite fun! On Wednesday we had a launching event for our 2011 social entrepreneur program. It seemed that everything went as planned. It was great talking to people about their ideas, you could really see the passion in their eyes as they talked about the details of what they felt needed more attention, It was great. This week was long and the weekend was much needed.

this week maybe 8 or so new people moved into the house and it is packed. 1 of those 8 people is a guy and he is way cool. His name is Eddie from Ireland and me and him hit it off right away. The first night I took him out to play some pool and I got to know him a little bit. It's wild how you could meet someone from the other side of the world and have so much in common. Last night a big group of us went to a all you could eat ice cream bar and stuffed our faces. Eddie and I stayed downtown and I showed him what Hanoi has to offer. We had a great time and talked with some locals. Tonight I'm going to try and catch the USA Spain game down at a cafe. 2:30 kick-off so it might be interesting what else I might see going on.  

Till next time

Spencer

First week in Hanoi

                                       

So I start this blog a week into my adventure to Hanoi, Veitnam. Every preconception you may have put it aside, and for a second everything you have seen in las cruces or for that part, LA or even New York throw that out the window. This South Asian city of  over 6 million people and over 4 million motorbikes has nothing fake about it.



Besides being the only white person and a head taller than everyone I think I blend in quite well.  The people are great, everyone wants to say the little bit of english they know to me and I return the favor with the travelers amount of Vietnamese I know. I have a sheet of common sayings that I have been trying to get down but I need to inroll into a class. The language itself isn't tough its the pronunciation. for example the way you spell ten and mosquito are the same.which I found out on my search for repellent. For some reason, when the doctor said no maleria in Hanoi I assumed no mosquito's, boy was I wrong. Maybe the 4th night I was here another volunteer and I from Washington State were sitting outside having a drink and we got eaten alive. A bad ending to the night when the mood was set when we heard beers 15,000 dong beers or about 70 cents american.
Well to close it off for this evening, I feel that I made the right decition coming here to Hanoi. I have a feeling I will learn a lot during my time here. I will be posting my thoughts and feeling next Friday.

Spencer