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April, 24 2013Hanoi, Vietnam

Year of the SnakeLet's be honest. It's been a while since the last blog post and the truth is that I have had

a pretty tough year so far. Stressful and boring in turns. But, we can skip most of thatand hit some highlights - starting with the big Tet holiday! Believe it or not, Hanoiliterally shut down for a week and was very quiet for another week after that. I meanreally. It was shut down. Below are some shots: New Years Eve night (Feb 9 on left)and New Year's Day (Feb. 10 on right). Note the empty streets and closedstores.

New Years morning was just about the most deserted I

have ever seen any city in any country. I had a greatjog, then in the afternoon I walked around with Susan tocheck out the wonderful flowers. It was neat to see Hanoians just walking around...notworking, but enjoying their city. Below are some shots of the Tet flower displays aroundHoan Kiem Lake. Yes, those large displays are made out of flowers!

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Yen Tu MountainDuring the Tet holiday week, I rang in the new year of the snake by spending a day witha Vietnamese family during their trip to Yen Tu mountain - an important Buddhist

religious site. The mountain came to prominence as a religious site when King TranNhan Tong abdicated the throne to become a monk in 1299. During the Tet holiday,tens of thousands of people come to the mountain for good luck in the new year. Whenwe went there it seemed like everyone in Vietnam had come on the same day! It wasreally amazing - Tightly crowded steps leading up the mountain for about 5 km. It was avery long, but interesting day. The pictures don't do it justice at all. Think manhattansidewalk-type of crowded.

Late February Blues and BlissMaybe it was the cold mist or thedense crowds or both, but after thattrip to the mountain I got sick. Imean, i got really sick for a couple

weeks with some sort of a crazyVietnamese flu. Luckily Campbell'swas there to sooth me in my time ofneed. Also, during that time I got awonderful Valentines Day surprisefrom my lovely husband!

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Busy Busy MarchIn early March when I still had a nasty phlegmy cough, I took my first trip to Quang Tri

province, the site of my research, with one of the CRES researchers. I thought this wasit. It was going to be the final round of meetings before my research began. Little did Iknow, this trip was just the beginning of several moremonths of permissions paperwork and meetings. Imet lots of people, which was great, but also foundout that I needed to write up a daily (!) schedule inorder to gain permission to work in the province.This was a bit of a surprise to say the least. So, Ispent the next two weeks in a hotel in Hanoi writingand translating my daily schedule. Luckily I am in Vietnam, so there is always good,sometimes unusual food close at hand. The pictureto the right is of Banh Gai, a tasty black sticky ricetreat wrapped in banana leaves.Then Brent came to visit! So, we spent ten days down in Saigon having tons of foodand fun. Even though it was very hot, Brent and I jogged together several times.Anyways, Brent is acclimatized to the relentless furnace of Samoa.

Above: Reunification Palacewhere we took a tour.

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Susan's House Since I just had one week between Brent's visit and my trip to the

US for my sister Emily's wedding, my friend Susan was kindenough to let me stay at her place for the interim week. Susan isa Fulbright scholar working in Hanoi this year on improvingnursing care in several hospitals - among about a million otherthings. The picture to the right is of Hanzi, the neighbor's pup.She is a special Phu Quoc Island breed, bred for swimming! Emily's Wedding in Vermont!Oh my goodness it was so amazing to be back in the US for acouple weeks! It was just what I needed and I had an absolute

blast from start to finish. I arrived in PA on Monday April 8th,wasted no time buying boots and stockings withmy mom and sister Cate, and then flew up to Vermont on the 10th tohelp Em prep for the nuptials. It was all just too much fun to explainhere, so I'll just show with some photos.

Top Left to right: Mom MacFadyenprepares for the margarita pool party; meanwhile back in the room Em unveils a 30lbbox of the 'phish' from Ben and Jerry's Phish Food - later wrapped up as favors...Goahead and be amazed; Em then took some time to celebrate my belated birthday withBirchgrove coconut cake!

Bottom photos:Dads and Moms at the pool; Em gettingher hair done; chatting it up at thefood table in the hair salon.

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Better photographers than I took plenty ofpictures at the actual wedding...so Iapologize for that. But, I was able to capturethe signing of the Ketubah (right) and more

family visits on Sunday (below)!

No Trip Home is Complete without

LongwoodMy parents and I

enjoyed thegardens withoutthe Christmascrowds that I'm so used to. And, towards the end of myUS visit, I was lucky enough to visit my horseback ridingteacher, Maria (three times)! That big cherry on top ofthe rest of a great visit reminded me how much I lovehome and the people there. I miss you all!

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Back in HanoiSoon I will, at long last, start my research down in Quang Tri province. I've receivedword from CRES, my host institution, that I have official permission now. So, I will headsouth next week, fully expecting the unexpected as my research year continues. What have I been doing with my spare timethese past 3.5 months? Well, I've been readingmainly endurance sports memoirs. It seemsfitting and it brings me some sort of meditativeone-ness with my time here alone in a foreigncountry away from my home, new husband,and family. Here are two books that I can highlyrecommend: To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley,

and the Mystery of Enduranceby Kirk Johnson,and Running on Empty: An Ultramarathoner'sStory of Love, Loss, and a Record-Setting RunAcross Americaby Marshall Ulrich." Remember what the badger said: "I can teach you only to dig, and to love home."Consider me the badger, then. Being a runner doesn't make you a sage. It can giveyou a personal philosophy, test you and take your measure, and even save your life.But it doesn't make you a good person, or even a nice person. It doesn't guarantee agreat marriage or success in business. Those achievements spring from your own

character and your own experiences, and I wouldn't presume to tell you who to be orhow to live. But everyone can dig deeper and love more." - Marshall Ulrich