Here I am in Haiphong, with my friend Dzung, her husband and daughter. I met Dzung at MSU last year when she was studying international trade. She helps Haiphong's economic development by establishing business partnerships with international companies.
While in Haiphong, I taught for two days- the first day with faculty and staff at Haiphong Private University about Performance Management and the second day, I worked with business students on the topic of Organizational Change (below).
Tricia and Alexa flew to Hanoi on December 29th to visit for a week- this is Tricia on our trip to Halong Bay, a beautiful area off the coast of Vietnam, with thousands of limestone islands jutting out of the water. We stayed on a boat for 2 nights and had lots of adventures- visited a fishing village, kayaked in the ocean, walked and rode bikes on Cat Ba Island, ate some amazing dishes, chatted with other passengers from all over the world, visited a huge cave system, etc. I was most happy just being with Tricia! Unfortunately, Alexa had fallen ill the night before, so Eric stayed behind and nursed her back to health.
When Alexa got better, Tricia fell ill and so missed our outing to the bowling alley with Thao, my friend's daughter. We ate pizza, bowled and shopped in a beautiful mall-it was as if we had been suddenly transported back to the States.
Some of my colleagues at the university (Hite, LyLy, Yong, Ha, Huong and Minh) took Alexa and I on a day trip to one of the newest and largest pagoda's in northern Vietnam, lunch at a restaurant that specializes in duck and then a boat ride through a number of caves.
Other university colleagues in the business school (Chi Anh, Hien and other staff) made lunch for Eric and I at Chi Anh's house-here Hien is teaching me how to roll the filling in rice paper to make speing rolls or Nem.
A couple of days later I flew to Hue in central Vietnam where I presented an all day workshop for faculty and students on "Interactive Teaching Techniques" at the Hue University of Foreign Languages- here I am receiving a gift from the Rector (President) of the university. The photo below is a snapshot of faculty and students working on an exercise at the workshop.
The next day, Eric and I flew to Ho Chi Minh City where I gave a presentation to faculty and students on conducting research at Ton Duc Thang University. Above is a photo of the faculty and students and the photo below shows us with Leanne Noble and Hollis Stewart, two labor educators who had been teaching at TDT for 6 months. In the middle is Vinh, a student and TDT employee who organized the workshop.
While in HCMC, I worked with other Fulbright Scholars from across Vietnam while Eric played. Here he is exploring the Chu Chi tunnels-one part of a series of tunnels that ran for miles through central Vietnam and were used during the war as a safe haven from the bombing/chemical weapons used by the Southern Vietnamese and Americans. They were build large enough for the Vietnamese to move through, but too small for the Americans who often got stuck or trapped while trying to invade the tunnels.
We had our last reunion with the Fulbright crew and their family members in HCMC and enjoyed an amazing meal of seafood.
We all found time to play on one of the days while in HCMC- touring the Mekong River...
Our captain and crew...
Eric at his favorite barbershop/barber- right on the street, like everything else. Eric is getting spiffed up for our "Thank you Party"- below are photos of our friends that made our stay in Vietnam so wonderful.
After our party and before taking off for Malysia, Eric and I take off on the motorbike for Ba Ve National Park, about 30 miles west of Hanoi. We visited the Ho Chi Minh monument and pagoda on top of BaVi Mountain- we counted the number of steps on the way down from the pagoda...1212!
Eric proposes to me again in the ruins of an old French Church- a part of the French summer camp- a playground for the French during the hot season heat of Hanoi. So romantic.
Now we are in Kuching- East Malaysia- to visit my friend, Norseha Unin and her family. Norseha and her family lived in E. Lansing for six years while Norseha received her Ph.D. We first visited a stilt village in the jungle (I wish I had written down the names of all the places we visited!)
Many years ago, the tribes in the jungle practiced head-hunting as they fought their boundary battles with nearby villages.
Kek Lapis, or Indonesian Layer Cake is sold throughout Kuching. It takes hours to make each cake and comes in an assortment of flavors- we visited one of the bakeries and sampled each flavor- sometimes twice. YUM.
Here's the crew we spend three days with.. from left to right Humiera, Norseha, Sumayia, Fifi, Hisham, Effa, Feeka and Maya.
We also visited the Fairy cave- the most amazing I have been in so far- so beautiful
Hisham and Norseha- we are waiting for the girls and to celebrate Feeka's 25th birthday. The seafood restaurant was huge- like a big market, but with large round tables, seating hundreds of people. To prepare for the next round of customers, the table clothes are gathered up (with all the dirty dishes still on the table), a new tablecloth spread out and more patrons seated.
At Norseha's mom's house- also, her brother, sister-in-law and new baby live there.
Our farewell dinner at Norseha's house- the girls dressed up in matching Sarong's that Norseha had purchased in the market that day.
