This past week has been quite busy- up again at 6am to travel to the Thầy Pagoda (meaning: “the Master's Pagoda”), a Buddhist temple, an 11th century pagoda and one of the oldest in Vietnam. There are two arched bridges connecting to the pagoda. Built in 1602, they are named Sun and Moon. One of these bridges leads to a small island, home of a small Taoist temple representing the three elements of earth, air, and water. The second bridge leads to a limestone hill. Đạo Hạnh, during the last stage of his life, had walked up to this place and disappeared in a cave. This cave is located in the middle of roots of  trees and is hemmed between a small temple built in honor of the monk’s parents and a small pagoda.

On Tues, Wed., and Thursday, lots of meetings and writing. I am working with one faculty member, Dr. Minh, to write a manuscript for publication on skill transfer in the workplace and editing other manuscripts. I'm also meeting with as many people as I can who know about workplace conflict-some of these people are with the government, some with NGO's and others who are independent. On Friday (while Eric taught my class), I attended a conference in Hanoi: The International Conference on Women's Empowerment in Vietnam. The international development office who is my sponsor, has been organizing this conference for a year- the photo below shows a sampling of the organizers as well as the presenters and moderators. I was invited to attend the welcome dinner the night before with the US Embassador, the just-retired US Embassador, other embassy staff, Vietnamese women connected to the national assembly, a couple of women from Seattle who spoke at the conference (founder of Cinnabon and owner of the Seattle Storm pro- women's basketball team).

 The three Vietnamese women L to R:  Ly Ly, Ha and Huong (staff I work with who organized the conference and Dawn ? (Owner of Seattle Storm) and Jerilyn Brusseau (Founder of Cinnabon- her grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe)-they presented their stories. A slew of other presenters (15 in all) all shared their experiences of starting a business- I wrote a paper for the proceedings about internal characteristics of women empowerment...all in all, a great experience.

With Dr. Minh and Dr. Tuan, Director and Associate Director of International Development at the University.

After the week, I (and Eric) spent Saturday close to home- we were both exhausted. New experiences every day has a way of "catching up" with you and all of a sudden, it is just time to lay on the couch and read or watch TV.

Today (Sunday) we were was up again at 7am to meet with Leanne and Hollis, two labor educators teaching in Ho Chi Minh City- we went to the women's museum and then a long coffee and lunch afterwards to talk about our experiences. Eric had dropped me off and headed back home to make spagetti and meatballs-a little comfort food for Sunday night. After meeting with Leanne and Hollis, I headed several streets north to meet with Sabrina- a danish researcher in town to find out more about foreign investment for her master's thesis. We chatted for a couple of hours and then I headed home on a motorbike (xe om) bike  taxi- what a day! Tomorrow is writing all day-same for Tuesday....so, another great week in Hanoi- I can't believe we have already been here for 2 months!