Halloween in Vietnam was a strange experience for me. There was certainly no chill in the air, the usual signal that Halloween is here and fall is in full swing. Instead we sweltered in 90-degree heat while attempting to apply face paint and costumes to 40 squirming bodies. We spent our Halloween at SMILE, our service placement in Vietnam that works with children affected by HIV.

It’s a strange thing to explain Halloween to someone that has no concept of it but I did my best to explain that it was a day devoted to dressing up and going door to door to collect candy. (I debated explaining the significance behind All Hallows Eve or even Dia de Los Muertos but I was struggling enough to translate the basic facts). We did all the things that kids in America love to do: bob for apples, pumpkin carving, games and finally a make shift piñata that produced more screaming and excitement than it did candy.

We also gave the kids cookies we had made ourselves. We had spent the previous night baking dozens and dozens of chocolate chip cookies for the Halloween party; and here’s something I did not know, children in Vietnam don’t like chocolate chip cookies! More for us I guess. Despite the confused looks, the sweaty face paint and the lack of love for our cookies, both the American students and the kids had a great time!

The next night we attended a Halloween party put on by our roommate’s English club. Apparently we were the main attraction, we spent the majority of the night being asked to have our pictures taken or to pose with people we had never met!

Poland is a country full of gorgeous landscapes, hospitable people, and amazing food.  I may be a bit bias, considering I am Polish-American, but once you experience it for yourself you will forever understand.  Just thinking of the hot, delicious pumpkin soup and delectable pierogi is making my mouth water.

The JFRC had two study trips organized for our fall break: one to Greece and the other to, you guessed it, Poland.  While many immediately went for the Greece trip, I knew that going to Poland was a no-brainer.  Why wouldn’t I want to go to the motherland?  Plus, Poland would actually look and feel like fall.  All of September and October, when in Chicago it was cold, Rome had been hot and humid.  There were no leaves changing colors.  No cool, crisp fall air blowing.  But, I knew Poland would give me my much need fall fix: and boy did it.

We arrived first in Warsaw, whereupon I immediately felt right at home.  Warsaw is a city similar to those in the US: full of people, skyscrapers, public transit, and endless shops.  We were walking along one of the main streets when I suddenly caught a whiff of a familiar smell.  It was coffee, and it was coming from somewhere that in America I had been an extremely loyal customer: Starbucks.  I, of course, had to get a comfort coffee to, one, remind myself of home, but two, to appreciate the Western phenomena of to-go cups.  I love Italian coffee, but you can only drink it at the bar and they give such a feeble amount.  I miss being able to get a huge coffee and then walk all over Chicago with it keeping me warm.

Our first night in Poland was a wonderful taste of what was to come.  There were mountains of Polish meats, pierogi, potato pancakes, a huge bowl of Greek salad, and cups of beetroot soup.  While I was only able to eat the salad and soup, both were delicious.  For dessert, I devoured a vanilla sundae topped with warm cherry sauce: truly divine.  By the end of the meal, our stomachs matched that of Santa Claus’s and we had to be rolled out the door like Cutlet in Animal Café.

After visiting the stare miasto, becoming educated at the World War II museum, listening in rapture to a ninety year old Auschwitz survivor, and getting hooked on a new coffee chain, Coffee Heaven, we left Warsaw and headed by train to Torun.

Torun is a tiny medieval town that accommodates to college students and gingerbread lovers.  It is home to the Nicolaus Copernicus University and a gingerbread museum: both of which we visited.  We went to Nicolaus Copernicus for a human rights symposium that was completely amazing and provoking.  The museum, on the other hand, was…entertaining.   Let’s just say reenactments are not my thing.  From Torun, we headed to Krakow, a city rich with jazz music and culture.  We visited the Schindler museum, had an emotional experience at Auschwitz, ate more pierogi, and lived Real World style in an apartment.

I was extremely sad to leave Poland, even though I was ready for a break from traveling.  Already, I wish I could go back.  I miss the food, the people, and the coffee.  Plus, compared to Rome, Poland is super cheap.  If you are a person on a budget, go to Poland because not only will get more for your zloty, but you will see how lovely and worthwhile the country truly is!

Hi all,

It’s been a little while since I’ve returned from my 10 day trip to Greece, and I want to give you some details of the amazing time I had there!  This trip was arranged by the JFRC, and I was accompanied by around 50 classmates.

We flew from Rome to Athens and had an amazing seaside lunch upon our arrival. I tried so many different types of seafood that I had never tried before! It was a great start to the trip. After visiting the temple of Poseidon, we went to our hotel and then received a walking tour of historic Athens. With dinner free, what else could we get for our first meal than gyros? At 2 euros a pop, these were by far the most economic and delicious meal. Tradition Greek gyro: flavored pita, cooked meat (lamb or chicken) shaved off the kabob, tzatziki, onions, tomatoes, and french fries! We topped off dinner with Greek frozen yogurt with honey and raspberries.

On the second day we visited the Acropolis, seeing the Parthenon and the ancient Agora. We also visited the amazing Acropolis museum which houses numerous original statues, parts of pediments, and other artifacts from the acropolis. I adored the museum because it was unbelievable to see the statues I’ve studied about in Greek history courses in person!  Our tour guide was spectacular, and I knew it starting the first day- Ionna Kopsiafti always captured my attention and told us the most interesting stories of Greek history. That night a few friends and I visited a jewelry/leather shop and ended up invited to a meal and drinks with the owners! They had fresh calamari, and a variety of other delicious looking plates. We happily partook in the meal and were astounded at how friendly the people were!

We left Athens for Delphi and visited the temple, amphitheater, and ancient stadium. We did some major hiking and saw truly incredible views of the Greek landscape. We had another great group dinner and were offered oyzo, which is a licorice-like alcohol. After the shock of the time I attempted to drink it the first day, I politely declined the offer at dinner.

We then traveled to Nafplio, stopping on the way at a traditional monastery. I mistakenly wore shorts that day and was taken to a room full of skirts that looked decades old! Always up for an adventure, I happily grabbed one and wore it around on the tour of the monastery. We saw some breathtaking views and sent out to our hotel after a slight hiccup- our bus ran down somewhere between Delphi and Nafplio, so we were delayed just a short bit. To get to our group dinner, we hiked 250 steps up a mountain to a local tavern, in which we enjoyed several courses and turned the place into a dance club for the remainder of the night!

After Nafplio we drove through the area that used to be Sparta and hiked around the Byzantine ruins of Mystras. It was amazing that we were able to explore cathedrals and homes that were centuries old in this ancient town. We travelled to our tour guide’s native town, Karyes for the afternoon. Karyes is a tiny, traditional town of Greece. We were welcomed into the biggest tavern that could fit our large group and enjoyed a group lunch, after which we participated in a scavenger hunt around the city, visited a wine cellar, and sampled loukoumades ( a pastry similar to donuts doused in honey) in the town square. The one slight mishap of my trip: I lost my digital camera somewhere in Karyes. When we boarded the bus close to midnight, it took me only a moment to realize my camera wasn’t in my purse! Unfortunately, between the tavern, scavenger hunt, and wine cellar, it could have been anywhere in the city! I couldn’t hold up our bus to look for it, and was distraught to have to leave it behind. The Dean of Students here at the JFRC told us only a few days earlier that “objects don’t matter, people matter” , and I woke up the next morning deciding to forget about the pictures I lost and focus on enjoying the rest of my trip!

Our last destination was Mykonos, and we stopped briefly for a lecture at Corinth before taking a boat to Mykonos. With free time the next day, I woke up early and hiked around a part of the island (it’s much bigger than it looks!) and loved all the white buildings and blue shutters that characterize the town. After a great lunch of gyros, I went shopping with some friends. It was the very end of tourist season, so many stores had discounts on all of their merchandise. Almost everyone I know bought some form of gold or silver jewelry in Mykonos! I also, oddly enough, enjoyed a couple crepes in Mykonos. (Just prepping me for my time in Paris I suppose!) Our last evening we had an amazing meal in which I tried raw octopus, fish egg paste, and sea urchin, just to name a few! I made sure to try absolutely everything for good measure. We had sentimental speeches by our tour guide and teaching advisers seaside that evening.

Our last morning there was a local parade that took place along the sea in Little Venice. It seemed as though all of Mykonos came out in their Sunday best to celebrate an important political date in their history. I made sure to get a spot along the sidewalk to view the marching bands.

We returned to Rome that afternoon, exhausted from a very lengthy trip! I still am in disbelief of the amazing architectural and sculptural masterpieces I was able to see and learn about, combined with the incredible views of various parts of Greece we saw while hiking. I’m missing the Greek food already and wish we could have brought some back with us! I’ll never forget how kind and welcoming the Greek people were to us, and definitely hope to return someday.

October for me has been a month of many things- School picking up speed, late Summer finally conceding to the reality of Autumn, Halloween, two of my three brothers birthdays, and of course my own birthday. One thing has been constant for October- pumpkin pie. Every year I go through several pumpkin pies… sometimes by myself. Luckily I have a high metabolism. Every year the first day pumpkin pies appear in the grocery store is like a little celebration for me. I remember last year I got the first pumpkin pie delivered to Devon Market in Chicago straight off the delivery truck. I was smiling the whole two block walk back to my apartment. You can imagine my excitement as October rolled around here in China. I generally tend to eat in Chinese restaurants and avoid western food, but I was ready for some pumpkin pie. It’s a part of my life. I saw some pumpkins around Beijing so I assumed there would be pumpkin pie. I assumed wrong. (Insert emphatic sigh) I have searched high and low, and much to my chagrin I have found nothing. Even in the western district of Sanlitun, which I like to think of as the nanban quarter after Dr. Fair’s Asian Studies class at Loyola. There are some western coffeehouses that have pumpkin lattes, but it’s not the same.
My birthday was on the 19th and I guessed that maybe my friends had found a pumpkin pie for me to eat. The day rolled by and one of my friends brought by a cake, but no pie. Later we went to the Peking Opera. The performance was spectacular with beautifully panted faces, elaborate costumes, and a very interesting vocal range. The night came to a close with no pie. It was the first birthday in my extant memory without pumpkin pie.
Even when I left Beijing for a weekend with one of my Chinese friends, there was no pumpkin pie. I went to Tainjin by bullet train for one weekend. All over the city were the remnants of concessions, which were basically foreign enclaves run by the major European powers, Japan, and the United States to extract wealth from China through trade domination. My favorite concession was one with a hmmm, Hapsburg feel? It had lots of German and Italian restaurants and had a lot of neo-renaissance style architecture. It was weird being so European/Colonial in China. Even with the foreign presence long gone, the old concessions had turned into hip hangouts for Chinese who wanted to experience the west at all the cool cafes and restaurants. My hope was with all the foreign places I would find some pumpkin pie. Alas, there was none to be found. However, I did get a kind of sweet to placate me for a while. The time in Tianjin was the Mid-Autumn Moon festival and that meant one thing- MOONCAKES!
If you don’t know, mooncakes are popular treat in the fall popular in the sinosphere. They are given out as gifts to coworkers, friends, and relatives during the mid-autumn moon festival as a sign of affection/recognition of an important relationship. There are many kinds of fillings- my favorite being redbean paste, green tea, or lotus seeds. They are so sweet and delicious. The filling is so thick, that even though the cakes are relatively small, each one is about 1,000 calories. Yikes. Once I ate five in one day. Mooncakes abounded in Tianjin and I was able to have my fill. One night after riding bikes around the city my friend Elvis, his friends, and myself all posed with mooncakes held up in the air next to the full moon. That was really cool. Tianjin is a city known for its sweets, so the mooncakes proved exceptional. It was really nice to eat them by the ocean, even if the ocean was black from China’s absurd amount of industrial waste. The feeling was great- sun, friends, sweets, and the sounds of ocean. Still, on the bullet train ride back to basecamp in Beijing, I was still craving pumpkin pie.

My hope was about to run out on the pumpkin pie when a dessert party was planned for this week on Wednesday to help alleviate the stress of this week’s midterms. I half joking said to Mariel in student development at the start of the week, “If only there would be pumpkin pie at the dissert party. I would be so happy”. She replied with a diplomatic, “We’ll see what I can do”. The next day I saw Mariel with Kevin in the main office of TBC and I inquired about the pie. Kevin was also diplomatic with words and then Mariel turned to Kevin and said, “I think I can do it”. Kevin looked shocked and said, “You can get pumpkin pie in Beijing?” She smiled at both of us and said, “I know a guy”. I guess word had gotten around from Fr. Gene how much I had enjoyed pie (I told him on my birthday how much I had missed it). The following day I got an email from Mariel in the morning, “I have the pie, but only one so be early to the party!”
I was the first one at the party, and there it was in all its glory in the center of the table- PUMPKIN PIE! The first bite was amazing, followed by the second… all the way to the crust. I was so happy. Everyone could see the happiness on my face. I swear the pie was what got me through the rest of midterms and then on to the Guilin expedition, which I’ll talk about in my next blog. Mariel later told me that her roommate knew a guy who knew a guy who had the supplies and had a Chinese baker friend. He sold the pies, complete with homemade whipped cream for around 160 RMB, which is equivalent to about 27 dollars. However complicated the deal was, it was worth it. Remind me next time I am going to china to stash pumpkin pie filling cans and spices and a powerful mini-oven ( WHY ARE THERENO OVENS IN CHINA???) so I can make my own pies and sell them to make a profit off the foreigner community. Anyhow, I need to get back to work on some presentations. Peace for now~

October 17 to October 28th
Fall Break
Instead of Spring Break in Rome at the JFRC we are given a fall break. Now our fall break is the lasts one week, the equivalent of a spring break. It gives us students a chance to travel to and go see Europe or Italy. I chose to do the latter of the two and stayed in Rome for half of fall break, than explored Italy for the other half. While I stayed in Rome I spent one full day walking all of Rome starting at Piazza del Popolo, checking out the Borghese Gardens, Via Del Corso, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and continued all the way to Piazza Venezia and the Roman Forum and the Coliseum and I ended the journey at Mount Testaccio which is a ancient landfill/dumpsite of roman pottery. It was a full day of walking that was much needed “ME TIME.” Also snapped a few photos on the journey as well.

Hunger Run 10k
My 5 days in Rome also consisted of running a 10k starting and finishing at the Baths of Caracalla (one of the biggest bath houses from ancient Rome). Through out the 10k various tourist attractions were passed such as the Coliseum which was unbelievable feeling as I ran on the closed streets of Rome that are normally packed with tourist buses and taxi cabs.  The street was packed with people going back to the ancient days of Rome when everyone either was walking or on horseback.
I finished the race with a time of 39:40 and finished 80th out of 1500 people which was fun. My goal time was 40 minutes and for never having ran a 10k I think that was a good place to start. The race ended with laying on the field of an old track waiting for a lunch call from the US Ambassador to UN Mission in Rome.
Somehow our head of student life got connected with the US Embassy and it was set up for participants from my school that after the Hunger Run we were invited to the US ambassador’s residence for a rooftop BBQ. Now you may think that Lays Potato chips, Heinz Ketchup, Chipsahoy cookies, and burgers are extremely normal in the United States. But here in Italy you would be lucky to find any of the above items, it was honestly heaven on a plate. Not to mention we were eating the BBQ amongst the green parrots of Rome’s forests just inside the ancient city walls of Rome.

In Italian Parco Regionale Dell Appia Antica in English Appia Antica Regional Park
Another day I went to the Appia Antica Park which is a regional park located in southern Rome. This park is extremely cool because it almost feels as though you are in a different world, or land, or country all together. The park is located in a valley of sorts and when you are within the valley you cannot see outside to the normal hustle and bustle of Rome. Even though you are only a mile or two south of the historic city center of Rome and just barely outside the city walls. There were ancient houses, crypts, aqueducts, and the original Appian way. The Appian way is the ancient road that the Roman’s used to transfer their troops fast off to battle. Also it was the first main road built that was leaving the city.Also this was the first time that I had seen more than one Roman working out, there were plenty of people doing physical activity whether that be biking, running, or walking.

Perugia – chocolate FEST
The Chocolate festival was a very chocolaty experience to say the least. Perugia is located in the region of Umbria, one region north of Lazio – Rome’s region they hold the Euro Chocolate Festival every year. Usually over 500,000 people visit just to get their hands on Europe but mainly Italy’s best chocolate. At the chocolate festival was Chocolate bars the same size as oversized bricks, also full extra extra large pizzas of chocolate not to mention chocolate kebab and chocolate covered apples. Most of the chocolate was extremely expensive so I just went around to the 150 plus booths asking for free samples and acting interested in purchasing. Lets just say, I consumed my fair share of chocolate… well as much as my stomach could handle.The highlight of my visit was not the chocolate but it was the friends and views of Italy that made it most worthwhile. I went on the trip to Perugia not knowing the two girls that came with me very well. Howeve, by the end of the day in Perugia both Shimoli and Karina had became great friends. It was a great coincidence that they happened to be around for fall break and joined me on a chocolate adventure when almost everyone at JFRC is traveling all of Europe.

Au-Pair Family Visit #2
Also during fall break was my second visit to the family that I will be living with for around 6 to 8 months from January until June or August. The second visit exceeded the outcome of the first visit. On this visit I got to meet more of the extended family and also bonded with the two boys Giacomo and Niccolo and their mother Francesca more so than I did last time. That being said I also got to meet Francesca sister and husband and their two kids. They live in London so I assisted the two boys with their school work due at the end of their holiday. I also met the Giacomo and Niccolo’s grandma and although she only speak Italian, I had a minor and brief conversation with her. The visit consisted of consuming the best food I have ever had in my life, SORRY PAPI! I had truffles grinded on top of my pasta. Had ravioli filled with veal, also had homemade gelato, and farinata that is made out of chickpeas I believe. Anyways I am trying to grow out of being a picky eater being surrounded by all this unbelievable food. Yes Gram, finally you would be proud of me although I do have to say that focaccia and salami is unbeatable when it comes to a sandwich.

Another update is to come, sorry I am behind we’ll get back into the swing of things soon…

Extend a hand to someone you do not know today, never know what someone may need!

Ciao

Steve OOOooo

Ciao friends! Here is the final installment of my posts about fall break!

After Poland a few of us went to Budapest in Hungary. The first thing you need to know about Hungary is that they have this crazy currency. Called the Hungarian Forint (abbreviated HUF so we called the currency “Hufflepuffs” after the house in Harry Potter, but more on that later), their currency is so inflated that $5 USD is equal to 1000 Hungarian Dollars. Crazy! It was mindblowing to go to the ATM once our plane landed and take out 10,000 “Hufflepuffs”(or about $50 USD). As we were taking our money out we were all laughing about how many ‘Hufflepuffs” we had on us and how we were “Hufflepuff big spenders.” Well I guess that someone overheard us because not five minutes later when we were ordering a cab did we hear a couple behind us ask the taxi stand attendant, “How many Hufflepuffs will this cost?” We had started a trend!

We spent our first day in Budapest doing all the touristy stuff. Budapest is technically two cities, Buda and Pest (you can’t make this stuff up), that has been combined into one city. They still, however, call the west side of the river “Buda” and the east side “Pest” (we were staying in Pest). We walked through Pest seeing the famous Gerbeaud coffee house along the way. We crossed over the Chain Bridge into Buda (but not before stopping to take a million pictures!) and started making our way to Castle Hill. We saw St. Matthias, the Fisherman’s Bastion, and had a great overlook of Pest, especially of Parliament. It might have been cold and overcast but it was still so beautiful!

The next day, however, was one of the most relaxing days I’ve had abroad. We spent the entire day in the Gellert Bath House. Hungary, and especially Budapest, is known for its bath houses, all located over natural hot springs. The Gellert was huge, with 6 different pools of various temperatures, saunas, and every spa treatment you can imagine. We spent hours just swimming around, talking, and relaxing in the water. It was a perfect way to end a crazy busy fall break trip and we left feeling refreshed but ready to be back at home at the JFRC!

Before I arrived in Vietnam, I vowed that I would make the most of my time here. For me, a big part of this meant traveling every opportunity I had. So when a free weekend came up, I decided to make the most of it and head to the Con Dao islands off of Vietnam. A short 30-minute flight away, the Con Dao islands are everything I could want in an island vacation– plenty of beaches, snorkeling, jungle hiking, beautiful ocean and most importantly, completely devoid of people. I mean, there are people who live on the island and there are now a handful of hotels, but it has yet to become a major tourist destination and for this reason, I loved it.

We were confused about the lack of tourists, especially the lack of Vietnamese tourists, given the proximity to Ho Chi Minh City and the low cost of flights. But this confusion was cleared up when I returned and my roommate immediately asked me, “How many ghosts did you see when you were there?” From 1861 to 1975, Con Dao was used as a prison by everyone from the French to the Vietnamese and finally the Americans. According to the prison museum we visited, over 20,000 prisoners died on Con Dao. The prison has been closed for over 30 years, but the vast majority of Vietnamese hold that a person’s soul lives on after death. A vacation to an island where thousands of souls may still linger is out of the question for the majority of Vietnamese.

The possibility that the island was haunted aside, we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful place to get away from the noise and chaos of Saigon. There were beautiful beaches with not another person on them. We saw monkeys leaping from tree to tree as we hiked through the jungle. I often ask myself, how did I get here and I can’t believe that I am lucky enough to see so much of the world while attending school.

Pictures here: http://ashleynerickson.tumblr.com/

Note: My sincerest apologies for my blogging sabbatical, it was all with good reasoning.  Pictures will be included in the photo journal.  See Below.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

This quote is indeed true, until you reach that old familiar pillow and realize how exhausting traveling actually is, and you fall into a deep slumber.  These are my feelings exactly.  Over the past 10 days our eccentric group of eight took a journey from the South, through Central, to Northern Vietnam (blog title hint).  Our stops included a return to Nha Trang, Huế, Hội An, Hanoi, and Ha Long Bay.  The travel was beautiful, each city held its own distinguished features. But I am in a state of sensory and mental overload.  A state that will probably take a few more days to fully digest because this trip represented the count down.  The 1 more month abroad marker has passed and I can only hope that I have, or by December 15th, will have done and seen as much as I can.

In total we spent about 19 hours on the train, 11 hours on a bus, and about 3 1/2 hours on a plane.  The traveling was mostly done by land, during the day (unfortunately starting each trip at 5 am) so that we would be able to see the entirety of the Vietnamese landscape.  I spent the time staring outside of the window, not bored, but captivated and entertained by the tropical plants, volcanic mountains, vast coastlines, wildlife, and rural communities.  I read two books, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, and A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, or I was rocked and lulled to sleep by the train and my newly updated travel playlists.

Our return to Nha Trang was more than welcoming.  I won’t go into much because of a previous blog.  But I will say that 2 days on the beach (especially as I heard stories of snow and low temperatures in Chicago) and eating the best mint ice cream in the world was fine by me.  We left the beach and headed to Hue, the old imperial capital of Vietnam.  We spent one day learning about the feudal dynasty from the 17th to 19th centuries in the South and visiting the tombs of the late Kings, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh. It was a great exploration of the different architectural and material styles of the French at Khai Dinh and the traditional Vietnamese at Tu Duc.

Hoi An, translated as the “peaceful meeting place” was our 3rd stop and the most enjoyable in my opinion.  It is “the place” to go in Vietnam for handmade goods from art to shoes to clothes at reasonable and cheaper prices by American standards.  It was the city in which the stars of Top Gear stopped to tailor custom suits, pamper themselves on the beach, and ride around in the sand.  I have to admit I did tailor a coat at a whopping $40.00 and it fits like a glove.  In the 18th century the city was a trading hub for Chinese and Japanese merchants and remained an excellent trading port thanks to its prime location on the river.  The “old town” is comprised of bold yellow French inspired shops, restaurants, and homes.  Many people were seen walking or cycling along its 4 block radius intersected by three main streets. UNESCO named the city a World Heritage site in 1999 because of its beautiful blend of foreign and local influence.  If members of our group weren’t walking around in town, we could be found at a Vietnamese cooking class, in the hotel swimming pool, or at the tailor’s.  I will miss the calm and beauty of Hoi An.

If we thought Ho Chi Minh was hectic, nothing could have prepared us for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, located in the north.  Our hotel was located in the Old Quarter, comprised of narrow and winding streets, with a heavy traffic flow and essentially no sidewalk space. Our time in Hanoi was well planned and full of tourist activities.  We visited the Hoa Lo prison, or “Hanoi Hilton,” where John McCain was held during the war, the Confucian Temple of Literature,  a water puppet show (colorful, traditional, and beautiful), the Ethnography Museum of Vietnam’s minority groups, and lastly the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body is kept under tight security (rules are don’t stop, don’t lift your hands, and pull your paints up Pedro).  We ate a lot of delicious dishes in Hanoi.  My favorite dish was at a hole in the wall restaurant that served only one dish, fried fish in vegetables and dill with vermicelli noodles and fish sauce.  You cooked the food at the table and topped it with cilantro and peanuts.  While Hanoi was special in its own way and was worth visiting, I still remain partial to Ho Chi Minh City.

Last but not least our group traveled to Ha Long Bay.  Located in the South China Sea and comprised of about 1969 limestone islets. Ha Long translates as the “descending dragon” and know as a rock wonder of the world.  We spent 4 hours touring the bay.  It is one of the most beautiful destinations I have ever laid eyes on.  But despite the beauty, it has become a victim to several environmental concerns.  These include: the clearing of sea grass and mangroves, overfishing, pollution from boats and industrialization.  In October 2011, the World Monument Fund, included the bay on the 2012 World Monument Watch. Ha Long Bay was also named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, and therefore new strategies for protection are under discussion.  I could try to explain the beauty of this site, but the pictures will speak for themselves.

August feels like a life time ago.  When I look at a calendar I realize not much time has passed but so much has happened. Thanksgiving is on Thursday, and risking cliche, I am thankful for this experience and those I have to share it with.  Our group is small, but just the right size.  We are an intellectual group, one that likes to explore and remain open minded (even if our sleeper car is full of birds and Kate loses a shoe).  I am thankful to visit my roommate’s hometown in two weekends and see where she grew up, that her family would open their home to me.

My 10 day “vacation” (or it felt like one) is over and it is back to the grit and grind of school.

Until next week,

Stephanie

A photo journal from our trip to the North of Vietnam

Paris has been my favorite weekend trip thus far- I can’t even put to words how much I enjoyed it! We woke up the first morning bright and early to walk to Notre Dame Cathedral- only 5 minutes from our hotel! We walked up the 400+ steps to the top and saw some amazing views of Parisian landscape. We then passed by the Louvre, and walked to the Champs Elysees. One of the highlights of my trip was Lauduree- the world famous Macaron store on Champs Elysees. I’ve been dreaming about visiting Lauduree for years, and never thought I would be able to go there myself! We finished the day by walking to the Arc de Triomphe and seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Even though it was a bit rainy, what better city is there to be rained on than Paris?

On our second morning, we visited Le Sacre-Coeur and Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, tickets to see a show at Moulin Rouge cost upwards of 100 euros! We later walked to a small town center with lots of artists painting cityscapes. They were gorgeous pieces of art, but expensive! We stopped by a crepe stand for a nutella and banana crepe (amazing) and headed back to our hotel before going out for a nice dinner.

On the last morning of our short trip, I decided it would be fun to explore a less touristy part of Paris. Le Marais is a historic district and Jewish neighborhood full of adorable boutiques and unique pastry shops. It was a delightful experience, but too short, as we had to catch our flight back to Rome in the afternoon.

I missed Paris the second we got on our plane, and wish I could have spent more than a couple days there! The architecture is incredible- every street looked like it could be photographed and framed. Just the experience of seeing the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysees up close, and truly believing that I was in Paris, of all places, was magnificent.

This past weekend I decided Thursday night to venture with a friend on Friday to the town of Orvieto, which is about an hour and a half train ride outside of Rome. The town is basically up a small mountain, and you have to take a ride similar to a ski lift up to the top! Orvieto is renowned for its wine and the only gothic cathedral in all of Italy. It was well worth the three euros to view the inside of the duomo- the main part of the building is horizontally striped! Every inch of the interior had exquisite murals on it. My friend and I also went into a small shop to sample some Orvietan wine and cheese.  The town was full of gorgeous signs of fall- something I miss dearly from home. Beautiful multicolored leaves were drifting down the quaint streets- and I caught my first fall leaf (a huge tradition in my family)!

I travel to Madrid and Barcelona in two days, and I cannot wait to finally speak a language I feel comfortable with!

Until next time…