Bumblebee and Cherry Bomb

[Daniel]

I go by many names in this country.  "Abanyo!" "Zhano!" "Yiddle Boy!"  Usually the neighborhood boys call me Abanyo and older women call me Yiddle Boy.  Dad's students call me Zhano, sometimes.  Apparently, my name is hard to pronounce for the Vietnamese.  But everyone who doesn't call me those names calls me Denyo, which is mostly correct.

A week ago I went with Dad to the university for the second time.  I was in a desk at the corner and near the end of class, someone behind me said, "Yiddle boy, do you want some candy?"  I said, "Sure" and then when I was eating that piece of candy a girl from the other side of the classroom ran over with her fist full of candy and dumped it on the desk in front of me.  I felt pretty successful.  That experience plus Dad's plans for a Halloween party with the students gave me a great idea.  I will set up a Selfie business where when the girls want to take a selfie with me, first they have to put in an appropriate amount of candy in my bowl.  The amount of selfies they can take depends on how much candy they put in.  Now isn't that just genius?

You already know that Dad got a motorbike about a month ago.  It's expensive when our whole family takes a taxi somewhere, so Mom and Dad decided that Mom should learn how to drive a motorbike.  First she practiced on Dad's motorbike, but then we bought a used motorbike from some British travelers.  They had named this new motorbike "Bumblebee" because of its color. We liked the idea of naming the bikes, so we named our first motorbike "Cherry Bomb" which fits perfectly because for one, it's red, and two, it sometimes makes a loud backfire that turns lots of heads.  I made up a cheer for Bumblebee;  "BUMBLEBEE....AND BEYOND!"  Today it was Mom's first time driving me and Michael somewhere.  We went to the beach at noon because it's an easy route and there's no traffic at that time.

Michael and I started ping pong lessons a week ago.  The first day was really frustrating, mostly for Michael, but the second day it was easier and Michael developed some major skills.  Today I had to miss ping pong practice because 5 days ago I got a pretty painful concussion.  In fact, I'm having Mom type this because my brain can't focus on the screen very well.  It happened when Anna and I were wrestling.  She accidentally swung my head into the metal pole of the bunkbed.  That may not sound very painful, but I nearly blacked out.  It hurts a lot when it's going through its pain phase, but that's happening less often now.  Besides being painful, having a concussion is boring.  I can't run around, but I'm also not allowed to watch movies or play on the computer.  At the beach I could play in the sand, so that was nice.

Human Shields?

[Tim]
So, I wrote about motorcycling and totally neglected to talk about the use of local drivers as my human shields.  So sorry.

The thing is, when approaching an intersection you are going to be heading into oncoming traffic at some point, regardless of whether it's a cross street or roundabout.  Remember the trout swimming upstream?  If you're very lucky, some other trout might also be wanting to turn left at the same crossing, so the lady with the toddler standing between her knees can go ahead of you splitting the traffic to her right and left, and you just slide in behind.  Easy.

There is a huge roundabout on this side (east) of the river.  You might think roundabouts would be easy, but this is a huge one, and not for the faint of heart.  I'm using the word "lanes" of traffic here with a little bit of poetic license, but to the best of my count the roundabout handles 28 lanes of traffic, mostly going north and south.  It's a maelstrom.  The semitrucks have the right-of-way--just go ahead and say that first.  After that everyone kind of just slows down and merges into the traffic coming broadside at you from your left.

So the strategy when I'm heading to the city center (B) from our home in Son Tra (A) is to find another motorbike who is also entering the fray, and carefully stay to her right.  The northbound motorbikes veer to her fore and aft, and I am protected like a spacecraft is protected by heat-shields on re-entry.  I make it over to the calm area just north of the traffic circle, and now the main body of traffic is coming from the north, our right.

Now it's my turn to be on the outside, providing a shield for the girl who shielded me in the first half of our roundabout adventure, right?  I am willing, but usually I look around for someone else to use as a human shield for my right side as we navigate through oncoming south-bound traffic over to the bridge.

And I love the people here, so I feel a bit bad about my tendency to think of them as human shields.

Using them as Human Shields

[Tim]
I've been wanting to write about motorcycle riding.  I wanted to wait until I had pics or videos to go with it, but I've realized that I will never actually be able to capture these things on camera because my hands are rather white-knuckled to the bike as I'm trying to look all suave and relaxed in this freeforall melee they call Vietnam traffic.

It's not a cohesive story, though.  More like a bullet list:

• I've stopped wondering where the seatbelt is, each time I mount my cycle and take off.  However, if I'm toting an extra human behind me, I sometimes almost look to see if they are buckled in or not.
• It is not legal to turn right on a red light.  I think.  But every time I'm idling at a light, numerous people turn right.  And left.  And go through the light.  Other people wait with me, though, and then turn right.  It's also not legal to drive with a headlight on during the day.  Say some.  Honestly, it seems like there are not very many laws here--just rumors about what policemen sometimes enforce.
• I don't have a license to drive my motorcycle.  If I get pulled over, I'll either try to buy off the traffic cop (usually they are just shaking down the tourists who rent motorbikes, from what I gather) or I may run the risk of having my motorbike summarily seized.  That adds a little zest of excitement to my rides...
• The roundabouts are freaky scary.  They are especially scary when turning left, going straight, or turning right.  You probably wonder what could be scary about turning right, but then you don't know that the major roads are actually 4 roads wide.  In one intersection I traverse between here and school, there're three lanes going north and three going south.  On the shoulders of these lanes there are two two-way roads.  Even on the road that only has three lanes going east and three going west, drivers treat it as though there is a secret lane that goes opposite the traffic.  I'm afraid it's very hard to explain.  It's even harder to navigate.
• I seem to have finally learned to kick the kickstand up before proceeding into the street.  For the first weeks, I was only managing 50% rate of remembering that little nugget.  If you forget, you can drive for quite a ways before turning (leaning) left causes the still-down kickstand to come into traumatic contact with the pavement.  Sparks fly!
• If you want to learn to drive a motorcycle, it's best to go out when the roads are empty.  When are the roads empty, you ask yourself?  Not at 5:30am!  Not at any time in the morning.  Not at 11pm, though it's quieting down by then some.  Try 1pm.  At 12:45pm you will find the roads are as empty as you could possibly want.
• Turning left is a cultural challenge.  In the USA, we go out into the intersection and make a rather acute left turn.  It's normal.  But it's a problem here, because in doing so you've presented yourself as a broadside target to the traffic coming at you from two directions.  Broadside to the traffic that never stops (except at 1pm).  So sometimes I still catch myself doing that, but it's really a bit dangerous.  Instead, the thing to do if you're coming from the north and want to turn east (take a moment to visualize this), is to come to the intersection and WITHOUT STOPPING, you need to angle across the lane of traffic so that your left foot could (if you wanted) kick the curb of the sidewalk on the northeast corner of the intersection.  Did you turn your bike broadside to the oncoming traffic?  No!  You came south on the north-south road and went across the northbound lanes of traffic so you could get over to the curb.  You were like a trout swimming upstream: A beautiful picture from nature, driving as God intended it.  So now you are at the northeast corner of the intersection and you want to continue your left turn to the east.  Traffic is coming at you, and you need to negotiate this traffic and get over to the south side of the road where the other eastbound traffic has recovered from intersection-induced slowdown and is beginning to pick up speed.  Do you turn broadside to the traffic to get south across the road?  No!  You simply ease out into the oncoming traffic and allow the other motorcycles to split around you to your right and left.  Think of the wake left behind a speedboat.  Be the speedboat.  Eventually, you reach the marked center line and it's a bit like coming up for air--you can breathe again.  You are going with the traffic, now, toward the east. And all is well.  You've made a left turn.
• Sometimes I get all confused and start thinking that my primary purpose in coming to Vietnam is to reform the traffic rules here.  I get all indignant because somebody in front of me is deciding to do a u-turn ... on the bridge.  I'll get all bent out of shape because someone is driving straight at me and I'm trying to turn right.  And then I remember that it's not actually my job or my goal to bring order to the traffic situation here.  I relax.  I adapt to how driving is done here.  I do stop short of performing a u-turn on the main east-west bridge over the river, though.

Take your kid to work day

Daniel's side of the Story:

Today Dad took me to the university that he works at. I sat in the corner reading while he taught the students.  He told stories about me (how I'm good at athletics and stuff) and how everyone wants to take a selfie with me. Not long ago, we went to the beach with friends, and some teenage girls crept up behind me armed with their phones, eager to sneak a selfie.  I was like "go away!" but they literally chased me around the beach trying to take a selfie with me.  

At the end of the class, just as I feared, Dad's students (the giggling teenage girls) wanted to take a selfie.  Luckily Dad was on my side said "NO SELFIES. Daniel, make a run for the door!"  He was kidding, but for me it was pretty serious.  And we were headed to the next class. Fortunately this class did not hover over me with selfie sticks.

I have been getting really used to riding on a motorcycle. In fact, I love being on a motorbike now. At first I was scared to death that I would flip off into a busy intersection. Now we can fit THREE people on Dad's scooter. Isn't that crazy!? (In Vietnam, not at all.)  

Lately when it's only me, Dad, and Michael, we have worked out a way to fit on the motorbike. When it's a long ride, that's a little uncomfortable.  But today, at the university, Dad had to take me and a Vietnamese student to a copy shop.  Even though the student was bigger than Michael, it was actually much easier to fit because he knew how to fit in the least space possible on a motorbike.  Three guys on a scooter.  One time I saw a family of five on a scooter--our family could definitely not do that.

But the three guys on a scooter got me thinking about the Studio C video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVr1YI6x-eQ

And Dad's side of the Story:

Friday mornings Janet goes to a women's Bible study with other expats, and usually we leave all three kids home alone during that time, since my teaching schedule has me at the university each morning at 7am.  However, in the last days/weeks, it's been a little rocky sometimes for the kids to be home and relating to each other without parental intervention.  Last night was another rather emotional episode, and we determined that it wouldn't do to leave them home together today.  For Far Side fans, this is the cartoon that comes to mind:

It's not a completely grim situation among the three Chase kids--sometimes days go by without emotions becoming overwrought, but it's something to pray about if you're a praying person.  Thanks for that.

In any case, we sent Anna with Janet to hang out where the women were gathering, and she helped with childcare for that.  Michael stayed home and worked on math and his photography course.  And Daniel came with me to two sections of English Pronunciation class.

The students I teach are all freshmen, so you can imagine 18-year-old college girls that have come to the big city from the countryside where they never had seen foreigners in real life.  And today they had not just their tall American Teacher, but also his adorable 11 year old son.  To the Vietnamese, Daniel is breathtakingly cute.  If he wanted it, he could be in a boy-band in Vietnam and a million girls would put his picture on their schoolbooks.  He doesn't want it.  

Daniel says that he read, but I saw him sneaking games on the tablet from time to time.  We had the Android tablet repaired this week.  The new screen cost what it cost, but the labor was $5.  Five dollars!  My computer experienced water trauma, so I'm ordering a replacement motherboard from the US.  When it comes, the shop is going to charge me $10 in labor to swap boards.  I'm impressed.  Trying to think of what else I can get repaired around here!  Today the local bicycle repair guy aired up two tires, oiled my chain, and re-attached a the pedals to the frame, and he wanted $.50 for the services.  I paid him $1 and said to keep the change.  :)

So back to the freshmen.  I could see that they were all itching to do selfies with the young master Chase, so I told them about the girls on the beach, and how it really wasn't cool to take selfies with a kid who doesn't want the attention.  But I wasn't clear enough in my meaning, because at the end of class they were rather desperately inviting him to come over for a selfie Pleeeeease.  I took a mock-protective stance and told Daniel to make a dash for it while I covered him.  I'm sure they'll eventually get a selfie with him, but hopefully we'll work out a photo-shoot where they can get a selfie with the whole Chase family.  Or, as we've sometimes joked, we may get life-sized cardboard Chases made so that people can get selfies with us on a broader scale.  

When we loaded onto my motorbike with Daniel, Minh, and myself to go make copies of the textbook, I did find myself humming the song in the "Two Guys on a Scooter" video Daniel mentioned above.  I've been writing a post about motorcycling in Vietnam.  I'm calling it "I use them as human shields."  Every day I learn something new about how to navigate Viet traffic.  More to come on that.

From Daniel

                                                10/1/15

 Lately I have been doing swimming lessons on the coast of Vietnam. I don't like it very much because of the salt water, the waves and the swim teacher. But I will say, my swimming has improved a ton. I do it three days a week along with Anna and Michael. I am always tired when we bike home.

A while back Vietnam had the full moon festival. Some people would say, "Wow Daniel! You got to eat cool foods and see lots of sights. Wasn't it fun to shop and buy symbolic kittens?" And people who knew me better would say, "Sorry you had to soak yourself in sweat and stand around while your sister shopped for scarves." 

Only most of the festival was boring. I liked being on a boat and sail through a sea of candles. On that holiday people would light a candle, put it in a paper bucket and put it in the river. (Talk about pollution) It was really cool,though, Especially on a boat.

Shopping, Ugh.  What's with the weird mannequin head?

It seemed like we walked for hours just to reach this popular sandwich stand.

                                                10/8/15

Yesterday was my last day of swimming practice. As always I hated it. luckily this time it was in the pool not the ocean. I'm pretty glad it's over. But I have improved with swimming a lot. What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much to talk about...

http://youtu.be/MskvAM-ZnVo<--- Me swimming! :o)

Tomorrow we are going to go on a road trip. It does not feel a road trip at all. We already are on a trip in a way. Are house does not feel like home to me so why would leaving it be like a road trip? That's why I miss America so much. It all seems like a way to long road trip. Not like moving houses. 

I'm starting to get really used to Vietnam. The neighborhood boys have finally gotten over me being surprisingly white. I've made some friends. And I got thousands of dollars!!! ...In Vietnamese money. OK fine, that translates to about ten bucks.

10/11/15

Yesterday was awesome! Maybe I should back up. On my last blog I said that we were going to go on a road trip. The thing is that it was my first time going on a road trip as a tourist. And honestly, I'm not much of the tourist type. I like going to gram parents house or going to an amusement park. I don't really like seeing things. So obviously I did not enjoy most of it.

But my misery all changed on our ride home. To get to the town we took a bus. That was boring enough. But on the way back we took a train! It was my first time on a train. It was better than riding 3rd class on an airplane. We had four beds and mom packed awesome snacks. Watching out the window of the train is the sight seeing I like.

So in conclusion, looking at temples and pagodas and shopping in the heat for hours all turned out good on the train ride. I want to do it again an other day.

Bye!

From Michael

One day we went out to get dinner, and just as we were getting finished with the meal, it started dumping rain. Not gradually, like it does in Bend, but it was as if some one had dumped a lake on our roof. The shopkeepers started frantically putting up the awnings and taking in their grill. Luckily, we had two decks of cards in Dad's motorcycle, plus Farkle and a game called Gold Miner. Dad got Gold Miner and a few extra cokes, and we waited out the storm. Eventually the rain stopped and we went home.

Two days later Dad and I went on a "dad date". There is a big Buddha statue that can be seen from the beach called I don't know what. We got on our motorcycle and headed up Son Tra mountain. We arrived at a big complex of courtyards and temples, where we found out that the Buddha
on the hill was actually a hollow temple!

Afterwards we went further down the road to a resort. We swam in the ocean, and found a lot of cool shells, many with the creatures still in them! The sand was nice, and later on we found a chain of rocks, covered in crabs and barnacles and coral. I would like to go back someday.

Planted

Good Morning, American friends and family!  

Janet here.  I'm sitting at my kitchen table with a tall glass of iced green tea.  The victory in that is that I'm voluntarily sitting downstairs when I could be upstairs in air conditioning!  The temperatures still get pretty hot most days, but the morning is staying just slightly cooler long enough for my kitchen and living room to be pleasant after breakfast--as long as all the fans are on!  

I just looked up at my handy wall clock that also shows the temperature. Have any of you seen Good Morning, Vietnam recently?  We watched parts of it in preparation for coming here, and the jokes Robin Williams makes about the weather keep coming to mind.  At one point his superior officer is scolding him for not accurately reporting the weather--he simply says that IT'S HOT, with various colorful metaphors, instead of giving the temperature. The officer says, in a pinched voice, "It is two degrees cooler today."  Robin Williams replies, "And me without my muff!"  We are all meant to side with him in feeling like two degrees couldn't possibly make a difference when it's just so dang hot!  Well, the reason I bring this up is because this morning when I noticed that I was staying in the kitchen after breakfast rather than retreating to the upstairs, I looked over at the wall display and saw that it is "two degrees cooler than yesterday." 

We don't think the weather forecasting websites ever have an accurate story, though.  We've been promised thunderstorms every day this week, and we have yet to have one.  It's officially October now, so we say bring on the rainy season!

I actually didn't sit down to write about the weather, though.  I wanted to tell you about this plant.  When we were furnishing our house we were glad to find a second-hand furniture store.  This plant was there, having just received a rather short and uneven haircut.  Tim being Tim, he immediately bought it.  This was just a few days after he had bought a whole bunch of plants for the roof, and if Tim has ever paid full price for something and then sees it used at a bargain price, he will buy it again.  And how could you ever have too many plants, right?  So this plant was delivered along with our roof-top table and chairs.  When Tim started carrying it to the roof, he found out how heavy it was, and it only made it to the first landing of the first flight of stairs.  It didn't take long for us to realize that's exactly where it should be. All those concrete stairs needed some life on them!

Well, it has turned into something very meaningful to me.  I wish I had taken a picture of it when we first got it, but I didn't know it was going to become important.  You'll just have to imagine it--all of the light green new growth you can see wasn't there, so it was just a bunch of cut-off stems and a few mature stalks sticking out at odd angles.  It was probably on the stairs for two weeks or so before any new growth began to be visible.  I never get tired of seeing the beauty of new growth on plants.  It starts out just as a rim of bright green coming from the center of a small stalk, or maybe a tiny fuzzy lump on an otherwise dead looking branch.  The excitement of the potential waiting there is probably what makes gardening such a therapeutic and hopeful hobby.  I took a picture from above so you could see the angle that I see it as I come downstairs every morning.  It's been quite exciting to see those rims of green become tubes of green and then see the leaves beginning to fan out.  I really can see a change every day.  I don't often come downstairs already excited about a new day, but when I see that plant, and how it continues to grow every single day, I get a lift in my spirit and in my mood.

I had been observing this for several days when one morning as I looked at the plant, the words, "That plant is you," passed through my mind.  Again the next day: "That plant is you." You can't tell in English, but that is a plural "you."  That plant is us.  This thought persisted in my mind without embellishment for several more days before I really began to study its meaning.

A plant has been radically pruned and then moved to a new place.  There's shock, and awkwardness, and a new set of circumstances to get used to.  After an adjustment period, the plant draws from the life within itself and the nutrients around it and new growth appears.  The plant is still not balanced or evened out, but the potential in the new growth sections is so exciting that you don't mind that the whole plant isn't yet beautiful.  

I know you can see where I'm going with this.  We have definitely been pruned radically and moved to a new place.  But here's the thing: I don't feel like we're growing. I can see progress, of course, in how we've adjusted to the heat and the city, but it doesn't actually feel like personal growth.  It just still feels like we've totally messed with our lives and have ourselves to blame for the challenges we're in the middle of. I'm very aware of what I've done to my children.  When Daniel is sad because he's lonely and homesick, I know that I have deliberately done this to him.  When Anna pines for friends her age to talk to, I know I have deliberately done this to her.  When Michael is paralyzed by his sense of awkwardness, of not knowing how to do things and fearing being stared at, I know that I have deliberately done this to him.  I'm telling you, this is not easy to bear.

And yet...day after day I walk down my stairs and see that my plant is growing and I hear that still, small voice say, "That plant is you."  I believe Him.  The outward signs are not as clear, but as surely as that plant is experiencing new life, is becoming more beautiful, is daily moving forward, so are we.  Each one of us.