last horrah

yes my friends, my trip was cut tragically short due to a knee surgery that i cannot postpone anymore.  so i will be back in the states in just a few short days.  as a last horrah i went on a cruise in halong bay! it was the most amazing thing i have ever seen.  there is quite a large group trying to get halong bay added as one of the 7 wonders of the world.  it is a bay with 981 names islands and thousands of little islands.  probably the highlight of the entire trip to vietnam was kayaking in halong bay.  we went through one of the islands in a cave that was probably only 3 feet high and when we got through it it was the most beautiful lagoon completely surrounded by islands.  the only way in is through that little cave.  it was simply amazing.  we made a lot of friends on the cruise which is always a lot of fun.  after kayaking i spent the evening jumping upp the 4 story cruise ship into the ocean with 4 college kids from singapore that i made friends with.  it was a lot of fun!  anyways this will probably be the last post here i hope you enjoyed!

Another Recital

yes, two recitals back to back.  i am really tired.  but they both went pretty well.  today i played at the university of music in hanoi.  it was really fun, the president of the university came and gave us flowers and stuff he is a really nice guy.  the best part was when they introduced us it was like the introduction you give to fighters before a championship boxing match.  it got me really pumped to go and play some dragonetti.  haha.  in other cool news i was officially offered a position next summer.  it has really been an amazing, life changing experience that i would not trade for anything but im not so sure i will come back.  yesterday it was 48 degrees Celsius and 90% humidity.  for you Fahrenheit people thats a little over 118 degrees.  yeah, not so much fun.  but with less than a week left here i am starting to miss it already.  

Recitals

In case you didnt know i was supposed to do a solo recital while i was here.  there were quite a few recitals planned for this summer actually.  the three americans (me ellen and mckenzie) the principal cello and a pianist for the VNOB.  well the three americans got together and decided it would be more fun for us and the audience if we were to play more than one recital and do it all together.  last night was the recital at the VNOB theatre and it was really a lot of fun.  dont get me wrong, i didnt play perfectly, but i played well and it was an enjoyable night for everyone.  when the musicians in the orchestra found out we were doing a combined recital they all wanted to get involved too which made it even more fun being able to work with some of them much more closely and really get to know them (like the concert master who was at least 30 min late for every rehearsal).  so us three ended up playing about 15 min each, then mckenzie and the first player of the second violins did a Bach double together; me, mckenzie, the concert master and the principal cellist played a rossini string quartet, and our accompanist played part of tchaik's piano concerto.  as an extra special treat me and ellen and mckenzie treated everyone to our (now famous) violin trio!  it was a really fun night and we are doing it again tonight at the conservatory so i hope it goes just as well

sorry about the butt shot. i promise thats not me.  that is inside the cu chi tunnels the rest of the pictures are saigon

Saigon

so we just got back from a week trip to see some new stuff.  unfortunately i forgot the charger for my camera so all you get for now is pictures of saigon.  as soon as i get pics of nha trang and the other areas from the girls i will post them.  you cant see, but i will explain what we did.  so we took a 32 hour train there which was uncomfortable.  saigon was pretty awesome!  we took a tour of the cu chi tunnels that were used in the war and met a lot of really cool people there.  we stayed in the backpacker area which is really cool because it is mostly kids our age who wither just graduated or are taking time off to see the world.  we soon discovered that when people are traveling by themselves for up to a year they are very very friendly.  people we met became our instant friends and it is really cool staying in a backpacker district because at restaurants and stuff we would see a lot of the same people and they would invite us to eat or watch a game or play pool or something.  very cool.  other than saigon the other big part of our adventure was nha trang.  if you ever come to vietnam you need to visit nha trang.  the beach is beautiful and it is very cheap.  the hotel was right on the beach, literally i could have thrown a rock from my room into the ocean and it only cost me about $12 a night.  the most expensive rooms in the hotel (which was 4 stars) was $46.  while we were there we beach bummed a lot and rented a boat along with some other people we met and went island hopping and snorkeling.  we went with a bunch of people on a scuba diving trip through vietnam, new zealand, and australia, and a brittish guy.  they were all really cool but by far the best part was that the vietnamese guys that we rented the boat from were musicians (of sorts) and were nice enough to give us a free concert.  good stuff.  

My classes

so i have neglected to tell any of you about the other stuff that i am doing here.  besides playing in the orchestra i am teaching 2 english classes at a childrens school and 2 music classes at an orphanage.  well...its not really an orphanage, its a bhuddist lady.  apparently people just started dropping their kids off at the temple where she works and she took them all in.  she is the nicest lady ever!  so now she has 20 kids between 5 and 16 years old.  they all live in a rather small area so their living conditions are pretty depressing (they sleep on shelving units with pieces of wood laid horizontally for beds.  the only padding they have is a thin (like 1/2 inch) mat.  but we go there and teach them music to hopefully cheer them up and give them a hobby.  so far i have taught them quarter notes, half notes, whole notes and some rests.  since its me i also taught them thumbs up and high fives.  they are good with 'up high' 'down low' but are still having trouble with the 'to slow' concept.  anyways they are great

Linh-Li's Birthday

It was Linhli's 4th birthday yesterday.  it is really cool how they treat me like i am one of the family!  the party consisted of Linh-li, her parents, her grandparents, and me.  the random american that crashes all of their family functions.  it was fun though.  it was really funny, her grandparents bought her some legos so all of us were playing with them, except Mark.  he was kinda just in the corner being quite.  then like 30 minutes later out of no where he pulls out this beautiful intricate color coordinated creation that makes everything we were doing look like crap.  i was thinking, 'oh my goodness, that is exactly something my dad would do!'  anyways, they are a really great family i feel really at home here...linh makes sure of that. haha.  she takes care of me.