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.