Jamais sans mon journal

Bric à Brac - Odds and Ends

2012-02-12T17:02:00.000-05:00

We're exactly halfway through Lent Term already, although I must say it feels to me like we just started. I decided to take my camera for a walk one day to document the sights I see every morning.

Below are treasure hunters who were out in droves this week, wearing big wellies and carrying metal-detectors (the more serious ones, at least).

Looking for treasure - will the Thames reveal its secrets?

I walk by the Millenium Bridge Footpath every day - the second nicest bridge after Tower Bridge, in my opinion. In the picture below, you can almost spot Butler's Wharf - it's just beyond the tall, nearly complete building named the "Shard", which I believe is used for office space. the Millenium Bridge gets you from St Paul`s on the north side to the Tate Modern on the "Bankside".

London School of Economics and Political Science

I went to see Les Misérables this week with three friends who are all just as keen as I am to explore London's cultural attractions to the fullest. It was fantastic!!! I saw Les Miz three years ago with mom, but this time was just as special. I love the male leads in this musical, which is mainly about Jean Valjean and his journey from convict to respected mayor to runaway from the law to father and hero/revolutionary.

I had a really fun and sociable weekend: my friend X invited a few people to eat dumplings at Northumberland House (the LSE residence which is closest to Trafalgar Square) then another friend invited me to brunch on Saturday (and then I squeezed in some time at the library). That night we went dancing in Soho and I didn't get to bed until 5 am or so ;) and finally we had a huge potluck on Sunday with about 12 people.

Time to hit the books. I have an essay on "agrarian reform" due on Friday!

Bises de
Miss Engagée xx

Broadway and Bowling

2012-02-04T10:37:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from the books this week wasn't too hard. I went to my friend's bowling party on Thursday and we had lots of fun inventing creative ways to bowl. (Speaking of bowls: Happy Super Bowl tomorrow!)

It's gotten down to zero degrees Celcius in the last week or so, sparking complaints from LSE students who aren't from Canada or a Scandinavian country. I absolutely welcome the cold front since it gives me an excuse to adopt a superior attitude and tell my friends how much colder it gets in Ottawa ("The second coldest capital in the world after Ulan Bator!! You know we never miss school even when it's minus 40...yeah, you just can't expose ONE BIT of skin in that kind of weather").

Today I went to Broadway Market with my flatmate from Lithuania (she doesn't think it's cold either). The market is a smaller, funkier version of Borough Market, which I frequently visit since it is near my residence. We both sipped hot apple cider with cinnamon and wandered around sampling olive oil, homemade cheeses and pies. I love that they sell flowers in February here, it's as if English roses are immune to the cold weather.

Hope you are well and staying warm. My new "stay warm" trick is to wear several pairs of tights...works like a charm. ;) XoXo Miss Engagée

If all else fails, watch these marvelous dancers and dream of a hot summer!

La vie, la vie

2012-01-29T07:48:00.000-05:00

Bonjour tout le monde,
Je suis malaaaade cette fin de semaine donc je n'ai pas fait grand chose. Le travail s'empile et je me sens un peu comme un hamster dans une cage - ouf! Il faut parfois faire le vide, fermer les yeux, et méditer. Oublier les dates de tombée, les présentations, les essais et la recherche d'emploi. Faire du temps pour soi et apprécier la vie.

J'ai quand même passé une semaine très agréable. Ma copine colombiana, La Ñoña, m'a invité à un concert de Prokofiev interprété par la London Philarmonic Orchestra. Les billets étudiants étant seulement 4 pounds, elle a invité un grand group, nous étions une douzaine!! J'ai adoré retourner au Southbank Centre, la salle de spectacle est vraiment chouette et du 4e étage vitré, l'on a une vue spectaculaire de la Thamise.
----
I thought the LPO concert would be my only fun outing of the week, given the work I need to catch up on, but the same friend was kind enough to invite me to her Colombian party on Friday. Her friends are so fun, and of course there was salsa dancing! Plus I got to practise my Spanish a bit, which is quite rusty and terribly French-accented, but hopefully understandable. My friend A from Miami is much better than I, and I'm surrounded by Mexicans and Colombians so there's no excuse not to become more fluent.

I'm planning a weekend in Oxford in February (for the Oxford Forum for International Development), and maybe a trip to Istanbul in March! so lots to look forward to. Now back to the mountain of essays and readings...

xox Miss Engagée

Like Alice Down the Rabbit Hole

2012-01-23T19:39:00.000-05:00

Photo credit: Camomille

Like Alice's Mad Hatter friend, I often want to look at my clock (or agenda) and exclaim: "No wonder you're late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow. " or some other delightful nonsense about the funny way time works. Like in Alice's mad world, my world is filled with tea parties and metaphysical discussions.

London is filled with wondrous little places that make you feel like you stepped into another world. I had a great time this weekend, exploring Camden Town and the East End with a guest from Brighton. We found this amazing teeny-tiny piano repair shop (see picture above) and walked around the old Stables (which were used back when the train station would unload in Camden and the cargo would be sent around the city on horse-drawn carts).

We visited Brighton last weekend, on a warm-ish Saturday. It feels very "hippy" and peaceful compared to London. I really enjoyed exploring the North Laines (a maze of pedestrian streets with lots of vintage stores, an old weaponry and uniform store, pubs, cafés, record shops, etc.) and climbing up and down the hill overlooking the University of Sussex.

I love living in England. Time is flying by so fast!!

Got to go plan a presentation on the topic of "Economic restructuring and the informal economy".
Much love,
Miss Engagée xoxo

Me encanta Barcelona

2012-01-08T18:14:00.000-05:00

Buenos Dias!
I'm back in London after a wonderful few weeks back home and a 5-day escapade in Barcelona.

Here are a few highlights of the trip to the beautiful capital of Catalunia:
-a day at Montjuïc exploring the Olympic Park, the Castle, the Funincular, the Palau Nacional and the Grec Theater...

Castel - à Montjuïc

-eating tapas every night in the company of my charming brothers

Taller de Tapas, on Carrer Argenteria - yum yum!

-Exploring surprising and inventive Modernista buildings like Casa Batllo, designed by the famous Gaudi

Casa Batllo

- Checking out the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece, which will be hopefully completed sometime around 2030...Gaudi was inspired by nature. As you can see, the columns look like tree trunks, and all throughout the building there are structures inspired by honeycombs, flowers, lizards and amphibiens, and even skeletons!

Inside La Sagrada Familia - l'intérieur de la Sagrada Familia

-Catching the sunset from the roof top of La Pedrera, another Gaudian beauty!

Rooftop of La Pedrera

I also enjoyed the Museu Picasso as well as our little auberge, Pensio 2000, which was quite central and very charming. Orlando and Manuela gave us tips on neighbourhoods to avoid and to explore and even gave us an impromptu lesson on Catalan, the language which is most spoken in Barcelona.

De retour à Londres! J'ai passé un séjour formidable à Barcelone, où nous avons mangé des tapas incroyables et vu des édifices magnifiques. Les endroits que j'ai le plus appréciés? Le Musée Picasso, le restaurant Taller de Tapas, la Sagrada Familia et la Pedrera ainsi que le parc Montjuïc qui offre une vue magnifique sur la ville.

xoxo Miss Engagée

Nürnberg und Mainz – ist wunderschön

2011-12-21T16:16:00.001-05:00

You've probably clued in that I love *good* museums. I love them so much that I visited three Berlin museums in 1 day (they were awesome museums but I have to admit I spent a lot of time indoors in part to avoid the cold!). The Pergamon Museum was by far my fave: like the British museum, it houses magnificent sculptures and friezes from former colonies. And on top of that they have a whole STREET from Babylon. I would also recommend the “Topography of Terrors” and the Stasi museums, which are both free and which contain lots of sobering information about Berlin’s Nazi past and secret police, respectively.

Pergamon Museum - Entrance to a Babylonian City

My last morning in the Haupstad (Capital City) was spent wandering around Kreuzberg checking out the Turkish market, the canal and the little boutiques.

Berlin's funky Kreuzberg neighbourhood, boasting a canal....I even saw some swans.

I’d have to say Berlin was my favourite German city – no contest – but it was quite nice to experience some of the southern Franconian-quasi-Bavarian culture.

Nürnberg was quite fun and relaxing to visit, thanks to my amazing host who I’ll nickname Queen of Hearts. She introduced me to her friends – including one guy who gives guided tours of the city in his leisure time, who generously showed me around town – and basically planned a really pleasant weekend for me. I visited the famous Nûrnberg Christkindmarkt (Xmas market) as well as the Kaiserburg and Stadt Fembohaus. My favourite word of that weekend is “Feuerzangenbowle” which refers to a sweet, hot drink which is made by setting fire to a bowl – or basin – of alcohol and sugar.

Nürnberg Xmas Market - Marché de Nöel

L'ancienne demeure du bourreau, convertie en apparts étudiants - This is the former home of
the Executioner (back in the Middle Ages), which now serves as a student residence.

I said goodbye to the Queen of Hearts on Sunday and visited the Nazi Party Rallye Ground – a fascinating exhibit uses videos and pictures to explain how the Nazis used Nürnberg as a base for their propaganda rallyes, which attracted several thousand participants each time.

Then I headed to Mainz for the final leg of the journey. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend staying in Mainz on a Monday in December – it’s a very small town and the Gutenberg museum is closed on Mondays. But I did find enough to do for a day, including visiting the Christkindmarkt – naturally – and indulging in some retail therapy.

Les maisons à colombage de la ville de Mayence - Mainz's Timber Frame Houses

I'm back home for the holidays. Hope to see you soon. Merry Christmas to all!!
xoxo's Miss Engagée

Ich bin ein Berliner.

2011-12-14T17:44:00.000-05:00

Guten Tag alles,

"Ich bin ein Berliner" as an American President once said (thus inadvertently covering himself in ridicule - since the word "berliner" outside Berlin can also mean Jelly Doughnut).

Berliner Krapfen *Jelly Doughnut*

I am enjoying Tee und Schokolade (tea and chocolate) whilst sitting in a very cosy and übercool flat in an übercool neighbourhood of Berlin. This neighbourhood, Kreuzberg, is quite multicultural and filled with Italian pizza joints, Turkish bakeries, Vietnamese pho restos and the like.

Last night we walked down the road (quite literally) to a little club to attend a gig by Flimmer FrühStück, a pop-rock band composed of a pianist, a saxophonist, a percusionist and a bassist. The band members are friends of my hosts' so it was nice to get to know them a bit, plus I really enjoyed the show.

Today I walked around Kreuzberg before visiting the Jewish Museum. The museum is quite informative although I have to admit I looked in vain for mentions of the Maccabees (thanks to our friend David's Hanukah stories I have retained this little bit of Jewish history) before it dawned on me that, of course, the Berlin Jewish Museum would be mostly about the German Jewish experience. It is actually a very child-friendly museum (with play areas interspersed throughout the permanent exhibition) and I almost wished I were 5 again to be able to play with the giant cut-out Hebrew letters.

East Wall Gallery

In the afternoon I joined 40-or so other people for an English-language free tour of Berlin. Our guide Barry was a wisecracking Irishman/former Law student who clearly loves his adopted city. I have to agree that Berlin is a fascinating city indeed - how can one not be amazed by its central role in the history of the 20th century, along with its unique blend of modern, shiny, gritty and grand. We saw the major sites including Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag and a number of memorials. It was a great tour but by the end, most of us were cold and wet!

I also stopped by the Alexanderplatzen Christmas Market - which I must say was a lot more enjoyable in rainy weather since there wasn't much of a crowd. I ate some gingerbread and ooh'd and aah'd at all the Germany food like pretzels, WeiBs Wein, Glögg, and Flammkuchen (aka tarte flambée).

XoXo's Miss Engagée

The Radical East End

2011-12-06T10:54:00.000-05:00

Bonjour tout le monde,

Petite mise à jour de ma fin de semaine. Dimanche dernier, j'ai fait une visite guidée de l'"East End" avec un dénomé David Rosenberg. La visite, intitulée "The Radical Jewish East End", nous a permis de voir d'un autre oeil le célèbre quartier où Jack the Ripper a fait ses victimes; qui est célèbre pour ses caris (sur la rue Brick Lane); où des milliers d'immigrants se sont installés à leur arrivée sur les quais de Londres; et qui est maintenant un lieu très à la mode. J'ai appris que le quartier abrite plusieurs centres communautaires (comme Toynbee Hall) et plusieurs lieux de rassemblement pour les groupes anarcho-radicaux (par exemple, le bureau de Freedom Press), pour les syndicaux, et pour les communautés religieuses.

Hello everyone,

Here's a little update on my weekend. Last Sunday, I participated in a guided tour led by a gentleman named David Rosenberg. The tour on "The Radical Jewish East End" showed us another side of the East End, a neighbourhood made famous by Jack the Ripper and curry houses, where thousands of immigrants first settled upon arriving by boat to London, and which is now a very up-and-coming area. I learned about the many organisations which are located in this area, such as Toynbee Hall, the offices of Freedom Press, the former offices of trade unions like the Jewish Bakers' Union, as well as many places of worship like the Mosque on Brick Lane.

Our Guide telling us about the radical-anarchist movement

Under an overpass, we found this beautiful map of London' s East End.

A plaque commemorating London's Jewish history, including the Soup Kitchen
which fed up to 5,000 people in its heyday.

These houses sell for 2-3 million pounds. They are kept deliberately shabby on the outside,
so that film crews can use them as sets for Depression-era movies.

This being my last week of term, my brain is already on vacation! Will post next about my holiday plans. XOXO Miss Engagée

Hyde Park Xmas and Harrod's Department Store

2011-11-27T05:19:00.000-05:00

Hello all and happy First Sunday of Advent (yes, I'm counting the days til Xmas!)

Just a quick post today, since I have a mountain of readings to do (this week's theme is: State fragility - tons of material to cover) plus I plan to go to church for once, and make a pasta salad for a potluck with friends tonight.

I had a good week, not too stressful since I didn't have any presentations or essays due. On Friday we heard a really interesting speaker, Gabriel Palma, who teaches in the Cambridge Economics Department but who has a two phDs (one in economics, one in politics). He's from Chile which somehow made him seem even more "sympa", and used his country to illustrate why there are stark inequalities across countries (in other words, income distribution in Chile is quite unequal compared to Korea, for instance).

And yesterday I went to the Hyde Park Christmas Market, which should really be called the Hyde Park Christmas Amusement Park. There were tons of rides, including a Haunted House (with a Thriller soundtrack) and a ferris wheel. We walked around wishing we were little again, then went to Harrods' where we decided that it's quite nice to be in our twenties with some spending money of our own.

Inside Harrods'

Well I've got to go. Only two weeks of left in Michaelmas Term at LSE!
XOXO Miss Engagée

Hampstead Wannabe

2011-11-19T14:28:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,
I hope you are well. I had a great day today - ditching the library in favour of Hampstead Heath, one of London's oldest parks situated north of Central London. It was a beautiful sunny day so I just had to be outside!! I love London, but sometimes you just have to leave the concrete jungle and go commune with nature.

There were swans in the pond! although I didn't take a picture of them. I really enjoyed wandering around Hampstead itself, too, it's a very upscale and pretty neighbourhood. Since I worked up an appetite walking through the Heath, I stopped for tea in a charming shop called Melrose and Morgan. Would definitely go again.

xoxo Miss Engagée

London Sky

2011-11-14T14:59:00.000-05:00

Greetings everyone, I hope you are well.

Been a while since my last update so I just wanted to indicate that I'm still alive (and still procrastinating from homework). I had a wonderful weekend with the friends who hosted me in Aix en Provence! We did a bit of London sightseeing - wish I had remembered my camera. We went to the Old Spitalfields Market in the East End on Sunday; saw Trafalgar Square and ate in the Crypt Café at St-Martin-in-the-Fields (a great place to grab a bite); took pictures with a group of Marines who participated in the Remembrance Sunday parade; gaped at Big Ben and the London Eye (which my friend called the "London Sky"); watched the Sunday buskers entertain the crowd; had a much-needed nap; ate fish-and-chips at a local pub; took a long walk along the Thames and had a thought-provoking conversation with Occupy London Stock Exchange participants. Just listing everything we did in one day makes my feet ache!! ;)

I am keeping busy with essays, presentations, readings and planning (American) Thanksgiving dinners. Hard to believe there is barely a month left in the Michaelmas Term! I am looking forward to the Christmas holidays, that is definite. Hugs to all,

xoxo Miss Engagée

Quirky Profs at LSE

2011-10-30T04:54:00.000-04:00

Another week has flown by...I can hardly believe that it's mid-way through the semester, which means that I 'm actually a quarter through my taught Masters' courses at LSE!

This week I felt like it was really time to settle down. I had a presentation on Friday on the topic of "Hirschman`s Forwards and Backwards Linkages" (leave a message if you really want me to explain this to you) which went surprisingly well considering I only practised what I was going to say an hour before our seminar started. I've also started to think of the essays that are due in the next few weeks...luckily most of them are formative, meaning that our professors will give us written feedback in the hopes that we can integrate their advice for our final essays.

Given our workload and the sometimes dry nature of what International Development students study, it's refreshing when we encounter teachers with memorable quirks or peculiar teaching styles. For instance two of our professors have referenced pop culture in their lectures- one guy shares the name of the Hollywood actor who voiced Buzz Lightyear in the movie Toy Story, so naturally we were treated to a Toy Story theme one day. I think the take-home message that day was: "To infinity, and beyond!"

Another prof of mine, Diana, came to class in a "Star Trek"-inspired dress and recounted how she found the dress while shopping in Marks and Spencer. One key point of that day's lecture was that institutions matter for economic development and that economic growth strategies are determinant for future generations. This continuity was illustrated by showing the striking ressemblance (and thus, we assume, genetic ancestry) between Jean-Luc Picard (the character played by Patrick Stewart in Star Trek) and the Kenniwick man.

Photo Credit: Great Archeology

Wikipedia entry for Jean-Luc Picard

I wish every lecture was as entertaining (imagine, I could organize my notes by theme..."Hollywood references", "Pop culture", "Corny jokes"...).

I'll leave you with this quote from Picard which I should adopt as my slogan given the copious amounts of tea I consume:
"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot".

xoxo Miss Engagée

Bella Italia

2011-10-25T18:24:00.000-04:00

Just back from a lovely, restful trip to Firenze in Italy! I met my mama for a few days of sight-seeing, eating, shopping, eating, speaking Italian and eating gelato. We stayed at a lovely little hotel five minutes from the Ponte Vecchio, right off Via Tornabuoni, where all the Guccis, Diors and Pradas are located. Day 1, I climbed the beautiful Duomo (Cathedral) and we visited the renowed Uffizi Museum where Boticcelli's "Birth of Venus" is displayed. We also had my favourite meal of the trip at Caffè Cibreo, on Via del Verrocchio (highly recommended!).

Firenze, Italia

Il Duomo di Firenze

Day 2, we spent some quality time with The David. Mom was surprised to see so many tourists, since last time she was in Florence (1986) it was the year of Tchernobyl, and she was literally alone with Michelangelo's most famous statue!!
We also ate some more, and saw the Church of San Lorenzo where Cosimo (Medici)'s crypt is located.

Buen apetit!

I also spent some time in Pisa before taking the plane back to London. The obligatory stop at the Leaning Tower turned out to be quite pleasant- I managed to snap some pictures before too many other tourists were out and about. Following Rick Steves's advice, I walked back to the Stazione Centrale through Pisa proper, which is quite a pleasant little student town. Unfortunately Pisa's No 1 gelato place wasn't open on a Monday morning (what an idea!) but I grabbed a delicious pizzelle as a last culinary treat before heading home.

The Leaning Tower- and me

Row me to the shore

2011-10-15T16:38:00.000-04:00

Today was a beautiful sunny day for rowing! I joined the LSE Rowing Club (NOT to be confused with the LSE Rugby Club although the acronyms are the same) and today was our first time on the water. Conditions were perfect, although I sadly can't say the same about my rowing skills.

Last week was quite fun, I've been making lots of Latin American friends thanks to my Colombian amiga. We went to an oh-so-British pub on Friday after attending two lectures (one lecture from a former DESTIN student on her way to a Young Professionals position at the Asian Development Bank, and a lecture from Dr. Purna Sen, the former Director of Amnesty Asia Pacific and another LSE alumni).

This week I am going to cram a bit in order to enjoy my four days in Italy! Should be wonderful. I'll keep you posted.

Lots of love,
Miss Engagée xo

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-10-09T17:37:00.000-04:00

Bonjour tout le monde et bonne action de grâce!

Encore une fois j'ai oublié de prendre des photos cette semaine...le train train du quotidien m'accapare, quoi. La première semaine de cours s'est déroulée à une vitesse incroyable, nous voila déjà avec des tests et des présentations à préparer...

J'attends les résultats d'un cours d'économie, mais à date je prends le cours suivants:
DV 400- Development: History, theory & policy (cours obligatoire)
DV 410- Social research methods (pour préparer notre dissertation)
DV415- Global Environmental Governance (avec Tim Forsyth, prof très sympa)
GY445- Urban policy and practise in the South

De plus je compte être auditrice libre pour un cours intitulé "Race and Space" avec un prof très cool - le cours ne me donnera absoluement rien d'"utile" mais sera surement le lieu de discussions passionnantes sur le pouvoir, le politique et la race/le racisme.

This weekend, I went to the British Museum (had a look at the mummies and the Asian artefacts) and cleaned my flat. We've already been here two weeks! which is hard to believe until you take a look at the state of our floors. Ah the student life...

I've joined the rowing club- should force me to be a little active, although since we currently have 1 functional boat the chances of my getting on the water are rather slim. That's ok, all I want is the chance to socialize and look stylish like these women. ;)

LSE women's rowing team, 1953.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone,
Miss Engagée xx

Brunch and Brick Lane

2011-10-02T15:32:00.000-04:00

Greetings everyone,

I had great ambitions for my first weekend in London. Surely, I'd be able to squeeze in a museum and a major attraction or two (say, Buckingham Palace, which I've been told is closing for the season this Monday).

Predictably, though, my plans changed and I ended up spending a lot of time doing every day chores...Laundry? Check. Groceries? Check. Readings for this week's lectures? Check, check, check. Buckingham Palace? I guess that will have to wait until next year.

I did manage some exploring: Borough Market, which is very close to my residence, offers a wide variety of things to taste and smell. I bought some fresh figs which I made my friends taste- to mixed reactions (the American in my flat said he's been a picky eater since childhood, so I guess it was nice of him to indulge me). On Sunday, we had a big brunch for 12- I tried (and failed) to make crêpes, but we had tons of other foods- including congee prepared by my Asian flatmate, which was a huge hit.

In the afternoon I walked over to Brick Lane, the Anglo-Indian mecca which boasts many curry houses and vintage shops. The Petticoat Market was winding down by the time I arrived, but the street was still bustling with families and young people looking for Indian sweets or chicken tikka.

Brick Lane

View from Tower Bridge- What a beautiful walk home!

The weather continues to be beautiful and warm- we International Students wonder why the English are always complaining about it. I hear that it's 30 C in Paris so Europe seems to be experiencing a heat wave. It should cool down this week but hopefully it will be sunny for a while still.
xoxo Miss Engagée

London yeah!

2011-09-28T06:12:00.000-04:00

Hello mates
Writing from Merry Olde England - where it is unbelievably SUNNY at the moment! If only it would last :D
I'm slowly settling in at the moment. I'm going to do a grocery run in a bit; have already set up a bank account with HSBC (but am thinking of cancelling because of their monthly fee); and have found my way around campus to attend 2 days of pre sessional economics workshops.

I'm really happy with my residence location (at Butlers Wharf) and with my flat. I have 5 room-mates: one American from California, one Brit, one Chinese girl, one Lithuanian and one German (who speaks French, English and Spanish on top of her German). They are all "sympa" and we are planning a brunch together on Sunday. We also invited the next door neighbours since the more the merrier!

I should take more pictures but I'm just taking it all for the time being. London is a huge city so I'm going to buy an A-Z city map and try to explore a few things every week. For instance, the Sir John Soame museum and British museum are super close to campus so I will definitely check them out again (went in 2008 but now I have the luxury of going as much as I want).

Bisous tout le monde, I hope you are well.

xoxo Miss Engagée

L'Alsace, un vrai coup de coeur

2011-09-25T16:13:00.000-04:00

Bonjour!
Je suis installée dans ma chambre à Londres, avec (presque) vue sur la Thamise! Avant de vous parler de mon nouveau chez-moi, voici une mise à jour de la dernière semaine...

l'Alsace

Maison de thé chez Christian, Strasbourg

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg

Maisons typiquement alsatiennes avec colombages

La vallée, vue sur Thal Marmouthier

Un vrai coup de coeur!
I spent a very enjoyable 3 days in Alsace, France's smallest region which has flip flopped between Germany and France over the centuries. My lovely friend and pen pal picked me up in Saverne and showed me the sights including a stop in a centuries-old castle nestled on top of a hill overlooking Alsace on one side, and Lorraine on the other.
We then went to Strasbourg, famous for its Kugelhofp (a kind of upside down cake....perfect for fika!), its Cathedral and its lovely old houses with "colombages" (wood pannelling). My friend had to spend Friday at the university so I hopped on a train and explored the neighbouring city of Colmar (home of the Statue of Liberty creator). While in Colmar I enjoyed the Unterlinden Museum (which houses a truly spectacular collection of mediaval art) and walked around simply enjoying my pretzels and the lovely houses.

Saturday, my last day in France, I took the train back to Paris and strolled around the Jardin des Plantes for a while, before heading down la Rue Mouffetard for some window shopping. I met my friend and hostess for a late night (late to me!) supper, gossip and tarte tatin.

I'm now in London and had my first pint by the side of the Thames. Life is good, my room is lovely and my flatmates are quite nice (for now we are on our best behaviours haha).

Bisous, à tout le monde,
Miss Engagée

Aix en Provence et Grenoble

2011-09-20T11:48:00.001-04:00

Bonjour!
Time for another update from beautiful France. I am sitting in the appartment of a lovely couple who i met through Couch Surfing: their place is right in downtown Grenoble and almost has a view of the mountains that surround the city. I was just up the Bastille mountain today; what an amazing view!!!

But, hold on, lets rewind a bit you may say: how was Provence ?
It was fantastic! I stayed with another lovely couple, one archeologist and one neuroscientist, who made me yummy chocolat au lait and let me laugh at French television ;) I saw Cezannes atelier and met up with my friend Emily for crepes au Speculoos.

Atelier de Cezanne. He liked to get here early to paint the morning light.

Aix en Provence

moi devant les Champs Elysees de Arles (Alyscamps en provençal)

We went to Arles on Saturday: it,s a tiny little town with gorgeous Roman crypts, a Roman amphitheatre and Roman baths. My friend and I met some super nice people who speak with a charming provencal accent (they have their own dialect which few people speak these days, unfortunately). One gentleman was nice enough to fika with us for two hours; telling us stories of the place where he grew up ( he was born and raised in Arles, right beside the Roman theatre). His dog Puna was pretty cute and sat on my lap trying to drink my juice and gobble my chocolate.

Grenoble

Grenoble is a nice city; reminds me of Western Canadian ski cities. Not too much to see but the view is great! Their museum is well known for its superb modern art collection: it is closed on Tuesdays but luckily I went yesterday (and had the place nearly to myself, how cool is that).

Tomorrow I am heading to the Alsace region for three nights. Then Paris for one night and then....LONDON! Hope you are all well.

xoxo Miss Engagée

Pompidou, Picasso et Place de Vosges

2011-09-14T15:32:00.000-04:00

I slept in a bit today knowing that I had done my "must" tourist things in Paris and that today was going to be just a relaxed day au pays de l'Hexagone. Arrived at the Pompidou Centre around 11am (opening time) to discover a mega long queue, and a frazzled lady at the door saying they had a "major problem" and weren't opening until later. Luckily there is lots to see around the Pompidou (the neighbourhood is called Les Halles/Beaubourg and next to it is another interesting neighbourhood called le Marais/La Bastille), so off I went to explore.

Fontaine Igor-Stravinsky

Centre culturel suédois, où mon amie a travaillé

Le quartier du Marais est rempli de petites ruelles et de charmants jardins. C'est là où se trouve le musée de Picasso, qui est malheureusement fermé pour rénovations jusqu'en 2013 (les oeuvres sont prêtées à d'autres musées pendant ce temps, il y en a même qui seront à Toronto en 2012). C'est également là où la prise de la Bastille a eu lieu, événement déclencheur de la Révolution française. Aujourd'hui c'est un quartier paisible où il fait bon flâner. J'ai notamment fait un sieste dans le parc de la Place de Vosges, qui vaut vraiment le détour (le musée Victor Hugo s'y trouve- l'auteur a écrit Les Misérables dans une chambre du deuxième étage d'un hôtel adjacent à la Place de Vosges, ancienne Place Royale).

Place de Vosges

Ces jeunes lycéens jouent à un match de foot à côté de la muraille de Philippe Auguste, construite en l'an 1200!!

Centre Pompidou, a large arts centre which includes the Museum of Modern Art

Oeuvre de Larry Rivers, I like Olympia in Black Face, 1970 [d'après Olympia de Manet]

Rennes, ville d'art et d'histoire

2011-09-13T15:00:00.000-04:00

Bonjour tout le monde,

Back in Paris rather unexpectedly, because I couldn't get a train ticket to Lyon! well Paris is not a bad place to stop en route to the South of France.

I stayed at the Auberge de Jeunesse de Rennes for two nights and visited this beautiful little medieval city in Brittany (Bretagne). I was visiting a friend and had delicious galettes at her house, une spécialité bretonne! I did my own little "walking tour" of the city and explored the small but lovely historical centre, the Jardins de Thabor and the Museum of Fine Arts, not to mention l'Université Rennes II. It's a very easy city to get around (there is only one metro line!), and although I didn't get to visit Saint Malo or Mont Saint Michel as I had thought I might, I was very glad to see a bit of la Bretagne. Rennes is a real university city and I met a few international students staying at the youth hostel while looking for accomodations. I'm so glad that won't be my case, as I already have lodgings set up in London.

Rennes est à la confluence de deux voies maritimes- le canal d'Ille et Rance, et la Vilaine.

Le Centre historique de Rennes

Day 3- Mia in Monet's Garden

2011-09-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Quand j'étais jeune, ma mère m'a acheté un livre intitulé Linnéa in Monet's Garden. J'ai également reçu la poupée Linnéa, et un costume d'Halloween (à ma demande exprès ma mère m'a cousu un petit tablier...avec beaucoup d'amour et quelques épingles de sureté.)

De là j'ai développé un grand attachement aux peintures de Monet et des autres impressionistes. À la vue des Nymphéas j'ai presque eu les larmes aux yeux! Ce qui m'amène à ma 3e journée de tourisme à Paris et aux environs- GIVERNY! c'est à dire la maison, les jardins, le pont japonais et le célèbre étang aux nénuphars que Monet a peint à plusieurs reprises au courant de sa vie (jusque dans ses années quatre-vingts et ce, malgré une double cataracte aux yeux qui l'ont rendu presque aveugle).

Quelques photos de ma journée:

Nymphéas de Monet- au Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Étang de Nymphéas, Giverny, France

La maison où Monet vécu avec sa femme et leurs 8 enfants

A spectacular day...I finished it back in Paris, by climbing up the stairs to see the view from the Sacré-Coeur "butte de Montmartre". I walked the windy streets of Montmartre, stumbled upon the Moulin Rouge, and finally headed home after another long but amazing day!

Day 2 of non-stop marathon sight-seeing

2011-09-09T18:39:00.001-04:00

a very quick message since I'm heading to bed: *EDIT: plus pictures!*

Whew what a day! 12 hours of sight seeing, I must be crazy or just one very determined tourist. Here's a summary of what I did today in Paris, France:

-J'ai visité le cimetière Père Lachaise
- J'ai vu le Jardin des Tuileries
- J'ai parcouru les expositions de l'Orangerie (y inclus les très célèbres Nymphéas de Monet)
- J'ai revu le Quartier St-Germain des Prés, Notre-Dame de Paris (de l'intérieur)
- J'ai adoré la Sainte-Chapelle! Que c'est beau

- J'ai repris une glace chez Berthillon!

Au caramel...miam! mais le Praliné aux Speculoos était meilleur.

- Puis une visite du Louvre, y inclus un petit coucou à La Joconde et La Vénus de Milo. C'est gratuit pour les moins de 25 ans, et en plus le Louvre est ouvert jusqu'à 21h30 les vendredis, donc j'en ai profité.

La nuit, le Louvre est spectaculaire!

Saviez-vous que la Vénus de Milo a été sculptée en deux blocs? une pour la tête et le torse, l'autre pour les hanches et la partie inférieure.

Enfin, un petit souper sur la Rue de la Seine et je suis rentrée, épuisée mais très contente de ma journée.

Love love, A Very Lucky Tourist in Paris

PARIS!!

2011-09-08T17:43:00.000-04:00

I'm keeping this URL for now...and updating with my current travels in France!

I arrived yesterday but it already feels like I've been here a while. Probably because I've seen so much!

-First Day:
Notre-Dame de Paris (from the outside since I couldn't go in with my huge luggage)
Jardins médievaux de Cluny
the bridge which is covered in locks put by romantic couples who then throw away the key (it's symbolic of everlasting love)
My first ice cream...Berthillon, praliné au speculoos, on Ile St-Louis
Champs d'Élysées and lots of perfume stores
Arche de Triomphe
Place de la Concorde

Day 2
Started with croissants under Eiffel Tower
then walked up the Tower (the equivalent of 42 floors to get to the Eiffel Towers' second level!)
Hotel des Invalides (and the Musée des Armes, not to mention Napoleon's grandiose tomb)
Baguette on the steps of the Musée d'Orsay
Some of my favourite Renoir paintings are in the Musée d'Orsay!! "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe", "La Balançoire" and "le bal du moulin de la galette".
Walked along the Quay D'Orsay and saw the Grand Palais and Hotel des Invalides from the front :)
Supper in the Quartier Chinois (the most delicious pho!)

Pictures may follow later. I hope you are all well!

Bisous, from A Very Lucky Girl in Paris

Kapoor on "Unlearning" according to Spivak

2011-03-25T17:43:00.001-04:00

Another interesting quote...this one reads a bit like a critical development manifesto.

‘Learning from below’ is a tried and tired formula, particularly in development. For Spivak, despite its politically correct message, it results mostly in more of the same. Serious and meaningful learning from the subaltern requires an anterior step: learning to learn. I have to clear the way for both me and the subaltern before I can learn from her/him. In effect, this is the on-the-ground application of the above-mentioned unlearning process. It is suspending my belief that I am indispensable, better, or culturally superior; it is refraining from always thinking that the Third World is ‘in trouble’ and that I have the solutions; it is resisting the temptation of projecting myself or my world onto the Other (Spivak, 2002: 6). Spivak cautions, for instance, against assuming that such concepts as ‘nation’, ‘democracy’ or ‘participation’ are natural, good or uncontestable. To impose them unproblematically in the field is to forget that they were ‘written elsewhere, in the social formations of Western Europe’ (1993: 60).
Unlearning means stopping oneself from always wanting to correct, teach, theorise, develop, colonise, appropriate, use, record, inscribe, enlighten: ‘the impetus to always be the speaker and speak in all situations must be seen for what it is: a desire for mastery and domination’ (Alcoff, 1991: 24; cf Spivak 1990a: 19). [italics and bold mine]

Reference: Kapoor, I. (2004). "Hyper-self-reflexive development? Spivak on representing the Third World Other", Third World Quarterly, 25 (4), p. 641.

Reflections on Alternative Development

2011-02-25T22:21:00.000-05:00

I am taking an extremely interesting course on "Post-Colonialism and Post-Development" at the moment. I decided to take this course because alternatives to capitalist development are very rarely discussed in development studies, at least in my experience. Here is a quote that I wanted to share (this being a dumping ground of sorts for me):

"...[D]evelopment has brought disenchantement to many parts of the world...Any development studies worth its salt should reflect on alternative accounts of the good life, and should not dismiss out of hand the claim that a good life is lived locally, in contact with the soil, and in accord with Gandhian notions of beauty, frugality and simplicity.

But these nods to power and truth should not be made uncritically. Proponents of post-development [my note: another word for alternative development, or de-growth] too often trade in non-sequiturs (the failure of development project A, B or C condemns development in all its manifestations), in unhelpful binaries (Modernity is bad, anti-modernity is good), in false deductions (the problems of poor countries are always and everywhere the result of a surfeit of capitalism or development and not their relative absence), in wobbly romanticism (only the rich get lonely, only the poor live hospitably and harmoniously), in self-righteousness (only the simple life is a good life), or in implausible politics (we can all live like the Mahatma, or would want to)."

Quote reference:
Corbridge, S (1998). "Beneath the pavement only soil": the poverty of post-developement, Journal of Development Studies, 34 (6): 138-149

I really enjoy this kind of discussion...I am considering starting another blog to focus specifically on "Development and its Discontents" (I forget who I'm quoting here). Something like the AidWatch blog....only Canadian ;) This blog could have tags...I could find examples of each critique (they apply to both common development and post-development misconceptions). e.g.

- Non-sequiturs (Dambisa Moyo's claim that all foreign aid is bad comes to mind)

- Unhelpful binaries (All capitalists are bad...all activists are good. Or vice-versa.)

- False deductions (All I see on TV is war and poverty and kids with extended bellies in Africa...therefore all of Africa must be in war and poverty and all kids must have extended bellies.)

- Wobbly romanticism (Jeffrey Sachs' claim that we can `fix` what `ails` developing countries...basically by treating them like a disease to be "cured".*Um, hello,...notice how we love technical solutions to everything*)

- Self-righteousness (Countless examples...also known as the White Man's Burden (re Bill Easterly), or "Whites in Shining Armour")

- Implausible politics (I could be a pessimist and say that Ché's famous "Soyons réalistes. Exigeons l'impossible." is an example of implausible politics. But I really like that quote, so let's go instead with Lennon's Nutopia project. Sorry Lennon, I like you too, but do you really think this is good foreign policy? Just sayin').

"Une heure sur terre" au Vietnam!

2010-11-16T18:44:00.000-05:00

Salut! Ça fait tout drôle de revisiter mon blogue...mais je ne peux m'empêcher de partager ce lien vers l'émission du 12 novembre d'"Une heure sur terre" qui est consacrée au VIETNAM!

À la minute 10, entre autres, vous verrez qu'ils sont à Trà Vinh!

http://www.tou.tv/une-heure-sur-terre/S2010E07

xox Miss Engagée au Canada

Lettre d'amour à Tra Vinh

2010-03-31T11:57:00.000-04:00

My Guesthouse!

La fin de mon séjour à Tra Vinh approche. Il me reste encore tant de choses à faire ici: revisiter Ao Ba Om; manger du nem nuong encore une fois; finir mon rapport de stage (il faut bien!); faire mes valises; dire au revoir à mes nouveaux amis; et peut-être même une autre soirée de karaoke....

Badass Buddha

Voici quelques images de Tra Vinh...je commence déjà à être nostalgique!

Sunset View from my Office

Ao Ba Om, où j'ai flâné plusieurs après-midis.

Simply Perfection

I'm famous!

2010-03-31T02:25:00.000-04:00

Check out this article that I wrote for WUSC! (with some input from colleagues, pictures curtesy of the Gender and Community Department)

Ne me reste plus qu'une semaine a Tra Vinh!

La poésie de Hanoi

2010-03-29T03:00:00.003-04:00

Les jours continuent de filer à la vitesse de l’éclair ! J’ai profité de mon avant-dernière fin de semaine au Vietnam pour faire un saut à Hanoi, la capitale du Vietnam. Après la débauche de consommation (magasinage et bouffe à l’américaine) à Bangkok la semaine dernière, j’ai affirmé à qui voulait l’entendre que mon weekend à Hanoi serait purement culturel.

Promesse d’ivrogne, hélas. Hanoi est certes la capitale culturelle du Vietnam (tandis qu’Ho Chi Minh ville est plutôt la métropole commerciale), n’empêche qu’on peut y faire beaucoup de magasinage également ! La Cité indigène, où j’ai passé beaucoup de temps, regorge de coins intéressants, autant des attrapes-touristes que des magasins style « Dollar ou Deux », que des boutiques haute gamme.

Vendredi matin, j’ai filé directement de l’aéroport de Hanoi jusqu’au bureau EUMC-CECI. Je savais qu’un accueil chaleureux me serait réservé, et effectivement les filles du bureau m’ont amené déjeuner (c’était également l’anniversaire du chef de la section EUMC-Asie) et ont ensuite organisé une petite visite guidée. J’ai visité le temple de la littérature et le lac Hoan Kiem, accompagnée d’un jeune étudiant qui voulait bien pratiquer son anglais.

Puis, vendredi soir, j’ai soupé en compagnie de quatre autres bénévoles (cinq, si on compte la petite fille de deux des bénévoles) dans un bon petit resto indien. C’était vraiment agréable de rencontrer d’autres Canadiens et d’entendre parler de leurs propres expériences.

Hoan Kiem Lake (The Lake of the Restored Sword)

Samedi matin, je me suis levée tôt pour faire le tour du lac. Mon hôtel était super bien situé (si jamais vous allez à Hanoi, Especen Hotel est un très bon choix) à deux pas de la cathédrale Saint-Joseph et du lac. Je me suis bien amusée à observer les Hanoiens qui faisaient de l’exercice – la plupart très âgés (un des messieurs à qui j’ai parlé en français était âgé de 86 ans), tous en train de faire des « exercices » assez bizarres selon moi, par exemple se frapper la poitrine à répétition…et tout cela autour d’un lac enchanteur. Le lac Hoan Kiem est magique – la preuve, il y a une légende arthurienne qui raconte comment, après une bataille importante, une tortue géante a attrapé l’épée de guerrier vainqueur pour l’apporter au fond du lac….jusqu’à ce que Hanoi ait besoin d’un autre héro. Et devinez quoi ? J’ai même vu une des tortues géantes qui vit dans le lac ! C’est un peu comme si j’avais aperçu le monstre du Loch Ness.

Funeral Tomb of the Gia Rai - or Jarai - people

Ensuite, je me suis dirigée vers le Musée d'ethnologie du Vietnam. C’est un endroit super intéressant, avec beaucoup de photos et d’expositions sur les 54 groupes ethniques du Vietnam. J’ai même eu la chance de voir un spectacle de marionnettes aquatiques ! Une expérience à ne pas manquer.

Water puppets (the puppet handlers control them from behind the bamboo screen)

Puis j’ai mangé à KOTO (« Know One, Teach One »), un resto/école de formation pour les jeunes de la rue. C’est un endroit réputé, Bill Clinton y a mangé par exemple, et je fût très satisfaite de mon repas (du bun cha, mélange de nouilles-porc-légumes marinés).

Au marché de la Cité indigène

L’après-midi, je me suis promenée à travers la Cité indigène ou « Vieux Quartier » de Hanoi. Wow ! Tellement de monde, tellement d’histoire, un mélange de vieux murs (à la Vieux Québec) et de nouveauté. Ouf ! Après deux heures à me sauver des motos enragées, j’ai eu des ampoules au pied.

Heureusement que deux des bénévoles de Hanoi m’ont emmené prendre un café, faire un peu de magasinage, et enfin souper (de l’italien…mmm pizza).

What a great weekend ! I definitely wanted to stay in Hanoi longer, but I`m also happy to be back “home” in Tra Vinh. Less than 2 weeks left and there is still so much to do!

Lost in Translation

2010-03-28T23:22:00.002-04:00

I have been relying on Google Translate a lot lately, since I try to have bilingual Vietnamese-English slides for my English club. Ms. Condom always has to review my slides, though, because Google Translate, while a mighty handy tool, is far from perfect.

Consider this translation of the TVU website's article on International Women's Day:

School DHTV honored to welcome her Son Thi Anh Hong - Deputy Chairman of Tra Vinh, Nguyen Thi Hiep - Chairman of the Tra Vinh Women's Union, representatives of the Departments and enterprises; on the school has DHTV MA. Nguyen Tien Dung - Vice Rector with your teachers, volunteers, the youth union members with you to attend.

During the workshop, your delegates and the students were listening to Mr. Nguyen Thi Hiep review 100-year tradition celebrated on International Women's Day in 1970 and the uprising of Hai Ba Trung the same time as high if role and responsibilities of women in modern society, traditional review magnanimous, indomitable spirit, resilience against foreign invasion of the female national hero of Vietnam, as well as the loss of the sacrifice the mother, the sister, the children in wartime and in peacetime for the children of students, youth union members understand the role of women in society, arouse the children's gratitude for Ms. Vietnam heroic mother, and her, and she ... from which the children have the engine rose to strive in learning and labor

This is only slightly more understandable if you have been working at TVU for a while. So "School DHTV"
actually means "Tra Vinh University = đại học Tra Vinh = DHTV". Mr. Dung (pronounced like "Yoon") is our Vice-Rector who likes to *encourage* me to drink 100%. And Hai Ba Trung are the two Vietnamese sisters who defeated the Chinese invaders about a thousand years ago (I think I might have mentioned them before).

On a related topic, I have recently begun to feel more comfortable "speaking" Vietnamese - i.e. I can ask "Where is the bathroom?" and *try* to negociate taxi prices in Vietnamese. "What a pity", as my British-English-trained Vietnamese colleagues would say, that I am leaving Vietnam in 12 days! just as I am starting to feel a little less like a fish out of water!

Deux nuits à Bangkok

2010-03-22T10:57:00.000-04:00

Je reviens d'une fin de semaine de folie à Bangkok! Bankok is crazy, yes indeed. Il y a tellement de monde, de chaleur, de bruit...mais en même temps c'est un oasis pour les moines vêtus d'orange. Tant de contradictions!

Notre vol de HCMC à Bangkok s'est très bien déroulé. Nous sommes arrivés vers 19h30 vendredi soir avec très peu de problèmes (j'ai dû abandonner mon couteau suisse à l'aéroport et j'ai eu un moment d'inquiétude lorsque l'agent aux contrôles de passeport a décidé de s'informer auprès de son superviseur si mon visa vietnamien était valide...mais sinon tout a bien été!). Nous avons pris un taxi jusqu'à l'auberge de jeunesse, avons posé nos valises et ensuite avons pris le métro jusqu'au marché de nuit. Premier choc: à tous les 3 pas, on se fait offrir des services sexuels à la carte! Hmmm...definitely not in Tra Vinh anymore!

Night life outside Hua Lampong metro station

L'objectif principal de notre fin de semaine était de faire un peu de magasinage et de bien manger. Je peux dire que ce fut mission réussie! Nous avons effectivement passé la journée de samedi au marché Chatuchak, une véritable Mecque du magasinage. C'est si immense, on dit qu'il peut contenir 200 000 personnes à la fois! Il faisait très chaud et humide, donc nous étions obligées d'arrêter aux deux heures pour manger de la crème glacée...ah que ce fut pénible. (;

Saturday night (after a nap), we went out for supper and found a great little place to eat hot soup, seafood hot pot, crab and spring rolls. We ended up at the night market again and agreed that we definitely contributed to Thailand's economy that day.

Sunday morning we slept in a little so only had a few hours to tour Wat Po. This wat is famous for its HUGE reclining Buddha. Frankly I wondered if the Buddha measured the length of Chatuchak Market....it's a distinct possibility.

Giant gold Buddha at Wat Po

Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to tour the Grand Palace...maybe next time? We had to catch a plane and the airport was waaaay out of the city (we ended up spending a fortune on taxis...again I felt that the good people of Bangkok were probably sad to see us, and our wallets, go). The rest of the journey went fine, although we took a sketchy unmarked taxi from the airport to Ben Thanh market in HCMC. Ah well, part of the joys of travelling through South-East Asia is, you never know where you will end up, and whether your money is fuelling the drug industry, but generally (in my experience) you get home before midnight!

With that I am now planning my next weekend in Hanoi. Should be another awesome trip!

Wedding Belles

2010-03-14T09:37:00.002-04:00

It's wedding season in Vietnam! And I have been lucky enough to be invited to both a wedding and an engagement party. Monday we were invited to a wedding (one of the TVU professors was getting married) and today, Sunday, we headed out to one of the districts to an engagement party. The bride-to-be actually wore a white wedding dress and the house was beautifully decorated, so it felt just like Monday's wedding.

La maison de la fiancée, tout joliment décorée

Le party a débuté vers 9h le matin et nous sommes restés environ deux heures, à manger, boire et complimenter la fiancée et son chum sur leur belle apparence. Un très beau couple! Nous avons pris plusieurs photos de la maison de la fiancée. Puisqu'il y a un étang autour de la maison, deux personnes ont également fait un petit tour de bateau.

Pour sauter du coq à l'âne, samedi matin, j'ai re-visité la pagode Khmer qui est située à côté du pond Ba Om. C'est toujours un lieu qui m'inspire et me fascine. Les moines sont habituellement des jeunes garçons âgés entre 15 et 25 ans, qui quittent la vie monastique une fois qu'ils ont complété leur éducation, mais il y en a qui sont moines toute leur vie et sont plus âgés.

Monk laundry out to dry, pagoda by Ao Ba Om

English Club

2010-03-12T02:20:00.001-05:00

Wednesday was the first meeting of the English club that I am coordinating. At last! I was expecting to start about a month ago, but several things delayed the start of the club (most importantly, the fact that students were given two or three weeks off for Tet holidays...). The silver lining in all this is that I had lots of time to prepare activities for the students, and to recruit English students to help me out.

There are 43 students signed up, all from the Khmer culture class. The main goal of this club is to give Khmer students an opportunity to practise their English, and to boost their confidence in a third language (after Vietnamese and Khmer). Unfortunately, since I am only here for another month, I don't know how much I will be able to help these students...but it's a start.

As with many universities, TVU is suffering from a lack of classroom space. We were given a classroom in Campus III, which is all right (none of the campuses are very far from each other). I even have access to a projector, so I can use PowerPoint presentations. Wednesday night, we started with introductions (my name is...I have # brothers and sisters...I want to learn English because...and the most difficult one, my dream job would be...). I divided the group into 4 or 5 smaller groups so they could all have the opportunity to practise presenting themselves. Then we moved on to "2 truths and a lie" which turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Most students were okay with composing two true sentences (such as "My name is..." "I have # number of brothers and sisters..." Two popular sentences!!) but coming up with an untrue sentence was more challenging.

I wanted to schedule two meetings per week, but tonight's meeting has just been cancelled (the students have an exam...how come I always find out about these things at the last minute?). Then I will be traveling the next two Fridays, so I'll only be able to hold meetings on Wednesdays. We'll probably only have four or five meetings before the end of my internship at TVU, which I know is not enough...but hopefully, someone (such as the English majors who have been helping me) can continue coordinating meetings. Being able to speak and understand English is an important skill if these students want to find higher-paying "white collar" jobs. It is especially important to promote English speaking skills for Khmer girls who seem to have fewer opportunities. To paraphrase a report I read recently (entitled "Equal opportunities and youth employment"): Gender discrimination can be subtle. Girls' occupations are often segregated from boys' occupations. This is known as gender tracking. One solution is to "address the bias that limits them [girls] to traditional skills, and train them in nontraditional sectors like welding, carpentry, plumbing, child care services, photography, personal services, and computer languages, rather than in sewing, weaving, embroidery or crafts".

Visite de EUMC

2010-03-10T05:10:00.000-05:00

Aujourd'hui nous avons eu la visite d'une délégation de EUMC (une personne de Ottawa, une personne du bureau a Hanoi, et 2 personnes du Népal). J'ai recu un très beau cadeau - des gravol, du Purell et deux boites de biscuits a l'érable!!

Merci maman !

International Women`s Day

2010-03-08T00:39:00.001-05:00

HAPPY WOMEN`S DAY!

I am pleased to report that International Women`s Day at TVU went off with only minor (okay, major) technical glitches. We were told on Wednesday that our event was being moved from Hall 1 to Hall C, which turned out to be a brand new building tucked away at the far end of campus. I was a little worried that the building would be done on time - the construction crew was still putting up windows on Saturday - but I shouldn't have been. Saturday afternoon, we (the IWD planning committee) organized a run-through of the gender equality game, went to the market for last-minute supplies, and then we were up until 11 pm on Saturday night, to finish decorating the hall and wrapping the prizes for the cooking competition and fashion show. Everyone pitched in to help, the other volunteers even postponed their karaoke night to come help blow balloons and cut paper flowers to decorate the stage. What an awesome gang!

Stage in Hall C. Setting it up was a joint effort!

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny. I was a little late setting up (technical difficulty #1: balancing a big red bucket on the back of a bicycle) so the cooking competition was well underway by the time we had set up the gender equality game (around 7.30 am). The game - a relay race where the participants had to tie a helmet around their bellies and put on a maternity dress, thus simulating pregnancy and hopefully sparking some meaningful reflections about women's reproductive roles... - was a lot of fun, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, we didn't have many participants - the Vietnamese like to do things en masse, but clearly the masses were congregating around the cooking area - but it turned out to be okay. It made for some pretty funny pictures, anyways!

Then it was off to the hall, where we had a jam-packed schedule of Khmer dancing, speeches, presentations, panel discussions, "ethnic minorities" diversity fashion show, and the all-important prizes. Technical glitch #2: we were informed a few days before that we would have a town-wide blackout on Sunday. Luckily someone managed to secure a generator. Unluckily, the generator power was rather intermittent, so the microphones only worked half the time. We also didn't have the fans going, so the room heated up pretty quickly. At the same time, the students got creative and we had music blasting from a cellphone into a microphone for the fashion show. One of our fabulous Masters of Ceremonies entertained us with some impromptu a capella singing, and we probably had about 200 students in attendance. All in all, a good showing.

TVU students posing after performing a Khmer classical dance

After all that hard work, our Vice-Rector treated us to a nice lunch and we all went home for a nap. Then we went to see the kites again, went out for supper to celebrate a colleague's birthday, and ended up....at the karaoke hall. A perfect ending to a very full weekend.

Flying kites, a traditional thing to do in the dry season.

Let's go fly a kite

2010-03-05T21:10:00.000-05:00

With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You`re a bird in flight
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite

Oh, oh, oh! Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest hights
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite! -From the Mary Poppins soundtrack

Jeudi soir, je suis allée faire un tour à l'extérieur de la ville pour aller voir les cerf-volants. Ce temps-ci de l'année est idéal pour les cerf-volants (il ne fait pas super chaud et ce n'est pas la saison des pluies), et donc c'est une tradition annuelle...pendant environ un mois après Têt, m'a-t-on-dit. C'était vraiment beau à voir, toutes les familles avec leurs cerf-volants...ça m'a rappelé le Festival des mongolfières à Gatineau (fallait juste remplacer le bouchon de circulation automobile par un bouchon de circulation formé de motos).

Blackout

2010-03-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

In general, I've been quite impressed with electricity, Internet and audio-visual resources at TVU. They have Wi-Fi (although it's never worked when I've tried to lug my laptop) and projectors, and even cameras (we are going to have some teachers make a little documentary for International Women`s Day). However, ever so often, we have a day of power outtages...like today! Luckily, it's just TVU Campus 1, so Internet is working fine at Campus 2 where I live. I am working, or trying to, from home today, although mostly my "work" for today involves going shopping for supplies for our gender equality game on Sunday.

Really, I don`t know what I would have done without my daily Internet (email, Facebook, blogs) fix. How do the other students, the ones doing an internship in the remote parts of Ghana, Malawi and Nepal, deal with what I imagine is very poor and sporadic Internet connections? At home in Canada, I don't mind spending a few days without checking emails, but when you're in another country it seems so much more important to keep in touch with friends and family.

In other news, the English club has been delayed...again. It's mostly because of red tape!! Apparently we did not get approval from the Finances office (why do we need financial support for an English club, you ask? good question. I have no idea.) so cannot proceed until things are cleared up. It's a shame because I was all ready to go yesterday (had even made photocopies and had my PowerPoint presentation double- and triple-checked by my three colleagues), and about an hour and a half before my first meeting with students was supposed to start, I was informed that we had to cancel the meeting. Ah well, there's not much I can do (and complaining doesn't do much) but wait. Instead, I had an ice cream cone and a chat with one of the English students...very sweet girl. We had an interesting conversation on beauty...here in Vietnam, you are considered beautiful if you have white skin.

La légende de Ao Ba Om; ou, Deux héroines

2010-03-02T05:23:00.000-05:00

Depuis que je suis au Vietnam, deux récits qui parlent des rapports homme-femme m’ont marquée. D’abord, un tout petit peu d’histoire : le Vietnam a été sous occupation chinoise pendant 1000 ans environ. Il y a très longtemps, on raconte que deux femmes – Hai Ba Trung, ou les deux sœurs Trung – ont mené une guerre contre les Chinois et ont réussi à reprendre le contrôle du Vietnam pendant trois ans. Aujourd’hui il y a des rues et des statues à la mémoire des deux héroïnes.

L’autre histoire qui m’a touchée est une légende propre à Tra Vinh. On raconte que le petit étang carré qui est situé à quelques kilomètres de la ville (qui se nomme Ao Ba Om, ou l’étang de Madame Om) est le résultat d’une chicane entre les hommes et les femmes. Il était une fois, les hommes et les femmes du village voulaient s’épouser, mais personne ne voulait poser LA question aux autres à cause du cout des noces. Au même moment, il y a eu une sécheresse et on commençait à manquer d’eau. C’est alors que la mère Soc a eu une idée saugrenue : pour faire d’une pierre deux coups, les hommes et les femmes devaient participer à un concours de ‘creusage’ d’étang. Le concours devait débuter à la tombée de la nuit et terminer à l’aube. Les perdants seraient obligés de demander les gagnants en mariage…et de payer les dépenses des noces.

Madame Om, astucieuse, a commencé à saouler les hommes dès le coucher de soleil. À minuit, elle a accroché une lanterne tout en haut d’un arbre. Les hommes ont pensé que c’était l’étoile du matin et sont allés se coucher (Les femmes ont gagné le concours, bien sur.) Depuis ce jour, les hommes doivent demander les femmes en mariage et en assumer les frais.

J’en retire quelques idées de ces légendes. D’abord, les hommes au Vietnam aiment bien boire! Deuxièmement, les femmes sont la moitié du monde, et il y a beaucoup de respect pour les femmes ici. Par contre, il reste que le Vietnam est une société patriarcale, aujourd’hui, et les femmes provenant des minorités ethniques demeurent en bas de l’échelle, niveau qualité de vie et revenus…

Chaud et froid: Changements climatiques au Vietnam

2010-02-28T23:32:00.003-05:00

Ai-je déja mentionné qu'il y a une bénévole ici (de l'organisme allemand, GTZ) qui travaille sur les changements climatiques au Vietnam? Je dois avouer que je ne m'y connais pas vraiment, mais je garde l'oeil ouvert parce que c'est un sujet qui m'intéresse.

Climate change (or climatic change as one of my former colleagues would say) is affecting Vietnam in a BIG way. According to an Asia Development Bank report, Vietnam is one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

It [the report] predicts that by the end of the century rice production will decline dramatically and rising sea levels could submerge tens of thousands of hectares of cropland, forcing thousands of families in coastal areas to relocate. More than 12 million people could be affected by increased water stress.

The ADB, of course, is not the only well known organization that has expressed deep concerns about climate change in Vietnam. OXFAM released a report in November 2008, outlining their findings from field research in Ben Tre and Quang Tri provinces. Their main findings? Not surprisingly, that poor women and men are the most at risk from the likely increase in extreme weather events (for example, typhoons in Ben Tre province, neighbour to Tra Vinh). Women, in particular, are vulnerable because A) they can't swim, B) they have no money or alternate means of earning an income when their crops are destroyed, and C) they have fewer employment opportunities away from home. The OXFAM researchers recommend a number of things; I found it interesting that "There is a pressing need for a much greater knowledge base of the possibilities of salt-resistant, flood-resistant or drought resistant crops, which should be developed with the active involvement of smallholders on their plots." Reports like this often make me wonder how realistic the recommendations are, but in this case I think training farmers to adapt to a saltier water environment is pretty basic and should be done immediately.

This article in the Courrier du Vietnam also explains a little more about the threats to the Mekong:

En général, la température moyenne dans l'ensemble du pays a augmenté de 1ºC à 2ºC par rapport à la moyenne des autres années. La rigueur du climat a entraîné de nombreux problèmes pour le monde agricole, surtout au Nord et au Centre. Les faibles précipitations, qui ont fortement affecté le débit des cours d'eau, au grand dam des riziculteurs.

....Actuellement, la sécheresse et l'invasion de l'eau salée menacent le delta du Mékong. Des milliers de foyers vivant sur le littoral manquent d'eau douce. L'invasion de l'eau salée dans les rizières met la production rizicole en danger. Environ 6.000 ha de riz d'hiver-printemps seront affectés plus ou moins durement. Full article here

Rice production is being threatened, not to mention that there have been reports of 13 forest fires in the month of February alone. Pretty terrible stuff, for a region that depends on agriculture. The volunteer from Spain (Ms. not Mr.) is working with the agriculture department at TVU for the remainder of her term here...she was actually at a conference on climate change, up in Hue (in the central part of Vietnam), before Tet. I will have to ask her what she learned...Am a little frustrated at times with my complete lack of Vietnamese (I know, partly my own fault for not trying harder), English language newspapers are not available in Tra Vinh Town so I have to get news from online sources.

And complete non sequitur here...But CANADA WON! Men's and women's hockey won gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Of course you already all know that, I just wanted to say WE ROOOOCK! LET'S GO CANADA!

Karaoke (bis)

2010-02-27T20:55:00.000-05:00

Eh bien devinez quoi...je suis retournée au karaoke hier soir! Cette fois, c'était avec un groupe de "plus jeunes" - avec les deux Américains, les deux Espagnols, deux amies vietnamiennes, et nous, les deux Canadiennes! Un karaoke international, quoi. Un peu plus fou cette fois-ci...nous avons hurlé "Bohemian Rhapsody", et d'autres chansons du genre.

Hier matin, je suis allée à l'université pour assister à une compétition de décoration de gâteau, de cuisine et d'arrangements floraux (florals?). Les hommes étaient les seuls compétiteurs, puisque le but de l'événement était de souligner la Journée internationale des femmes (le 8 mars). J'étais vraiment surprise et émerveillée de constater avec quel sérieux les hommes se sont appliqués à créer des bouquets et des plats impressionants.

Fleurs pour la Journée internationale des femmes

Dragon fait de fruits (les 2 fruits roses se nomment "dragon fruit")

De plus, c'est officiel, j'ai acheté mes billets d'avion, et je pars à Bangkok du 19 au 21 mars, et ensuite à Hanoi du 26 au 28 mars!

Karaoke

2010-02-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

Karaoke comes from two Japanese words: kara - meaning "empty" - and okesutora, meaning "orchestra". Apparently, Finland holds the world record for the largest number of people singing karaoke at the same time (over 80,000 people singing "Hard Rock Hallelujah"). But Asia is surely the continent where karaoke is the most popular. Any excuse is good for bringing out the karaoke juke box, really - parties, weddings, going out with friends, a long car or bus ride...

I've had at least 3 nights of epic karaoke so far. Tonight the WUSC volunteers decided to treat our offices to a night out - we ate nem nuong, picked up some che ba ba (yummy sweet pudding and beans for dessert) and then headed to the only karaoke place in Tra Vinh that has English songs. Early on I picked Radio Ga Ga by Queen...and other people followed up with a mix of Vietnamese and English songs. My voice is gone now - belting out "Total Eclipse of the Heart" really maxed out the vocal cords!! But it was totally worth it. Plus, it was educational - I'm getting better at speaking Vietnamese thanks to the only Vietnamese song I know, the "Uoc gi" song.

Manger comme des rois

2010-02-25T10:06:00.000-05:00

Typical Vietnamese spread

Mmmm...one of my Cambodian lunches

Nem nuong - roll the veggies, bun (noodles) and meat all together in a rice paper, dip in fish sauce and voilà!

J'avais promis à mes frérots de leur montrer des photos des festins que je déguste au Vietnam. Impossible de tout décrire dans un seul billet, hélàs! La nourriture au Vietnam est tout simplement délicieuse: les ingrédients sont frais, les sauces sont excellentes et les saveurs sont...inhabituelles (mais habituellement elles se marient bien!). J'hésite à "parler gastronomie" car je ne possède pas tout le vocabulaire nécessaire. Pour cela, je vous invite à parcourir l'excellent blogue de Gastronomer. Ou tout autre blogue qui parle de bouffe vietnamienne!

More Pictures of Tra Vinh

2010-02-25T04:22:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we met three photographers - 2 Americans and 1 German - travelling through Tra Vinh for the weekend. They gave us their cards and told us to go on their websites to see the photos they had taken during the weekend. Have a look at Christian Berg's photos - they are stunning.

Some Thoughts on Gender

2010-02-24T20:50:00.007-05:00

From the Facilitator's Guide for Gender Training:

Men and women are different biologically and socially. The former is called “sex” and the latter “gender”.

Difference in itself is not the problem; the problem is that because of these differences, men and women are valued differently and in relation to each other. This is called social relations of gender.

These differences are manifested in a number of ways: gender division of labour, gender needs and access and control of resources.

These differences are inter-related and affect each other. They also shape society (in terms of who is valued, who gets to do what) and, in turn, society reproduces these differences creating, as a result, gender subordination.

Vietnam seems like a society where gender equality is important. For example, women are a valued part of the labour market (all the vendors at the market are female; they are very money-savvy) and generally seem to have an important status within the family. Vietnam has signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and has passed marriage and family laws granted women equal rights in the case of divorce.

Fruit and flower vendors on the way to the market in Tra Vinh

However, as the following quote from a Cambodia gender profile attests, men and women are far from equal in South-East Asia.

Although women representation in local government has increased, 15% in 2007 compared from 8% in 2002, female commune councillors (CC) still face obstacles in terms of participating in local government. Low levels of education among women mean that many feel they do not have the skills, experience, or qualifications to act as representatives of their community. They feel unable to assert themselves during council meetings, and they know that this has an impact on their ability to raise issues of concern to them as well other marginalised groups and poor people. High levels of poverty force many women to focus solely on supporting their families and also means they do not have sufficient funds to stand for election.

Some women also feel politics is simply men’s work in which women should not be involved. Perceptions that women are not capable of serving as councillors and that women’s participation in government is ‘inappropriate’ also discourage women from standing for election and entering political decision-making. Some female councillors have reported being marginalised by their male counterparts. In addition, female CC members are also worried about how they can balance their council duties with their traditional household, family, and child-care responsibilities.

I personally think that the first step to take in order to achieve greater gender equality is to admit that there remains structural (and behavioral) discrimination against women. Most of the people I have talked to at TVU about gender insist that men and women are equal. It is true that salaries are equal for male and female teachers, and there are many women in positions of authority at TVU. However, there is a remarquable "gender segregation" when it comes to the labour market - employers admit that they seek women to do a certain kind of job (generally a job that requires a meticulous nature, e.g. working with knives at a food canning factory, or working as an administrative assistant) and men to do another kind of job (security guards, construction work, IT, engineering). Furthermore, women continue to hold the lion's share of family responsibilities as well as managing the household accounts and doing income-generating activities, despite some advances among younger men taking over household duties.

I also wanted to share this statement - a quote from Ann Whitehead at the Institute for Development Studies:

One of the specific forms of oppression which women suffer, and which other oppressed social categories share, is the inability to be in social relationship and social situations in which gender is not present. Our experience as women is of being always perceived and treated as members of a gender category about which there are all kinds of stereotyped beliefs, and which is inferior to the alternative gender category, that of men. [...] Gender then, like race, is never absent.

Food for thought, indeed.

Animal Farm

2010-02-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

I went for an early morning bike ride (it was 6:30 when I left my guest house - early morning for me, grasse matinée for the Vietnamese) today, and started to think about all the animals I've seen in Vietnam. Farm Girl might be used to animals (she did grow up on a farm), but for me it's still a novelty to see cows on the side of the road, roosters in my backyard, and chickens on the university campus.

I often see people driving by on their motobikes, either with 20 chickens tied up by the legs all around the side of their motorbike, or pulling a wagon with one or two pigs in the back. It always strikes me as funny...but I'm also amazed at the resourcefulness of people here (I should really take more pictures of people carrying all kinds of stuff on their motorbikes).

Plus you see all kinds of interesting things at the bus rest-stops here. The other day, coming back from Saigon, we stopped for a 10-minute break and I got a banh bao to go (looks like a cha sue bao for those who like to eat dim sum with me). At the checkout counter, where you would normally have little chocolates and gum in North America, I saw this thing:

Yup, that's definitely snake wine! A powerful aphrodisiac for men, apparently.

I almost want to bring some home...except that I think immigration control wouldn't let it through. You just gotta love Vietnam!

Siem Reap

2010-02-19T03:45:00.001-05:00

Part 2 of my Cambodia tale

So after visiting the Royal Palace, we had to hop on a bus to get to Siem Reap. I counted about 30 hours on the bus for our whole journey, by the way - so we were looking forward to two full days and three nights in one place! The bus ride was quite scenic, again. I had to laugh at the karaoke being played on the TV screen up front, though: I mean, where else than in Asia do you get karaoke on a bus?

Arrivées à Siem Reap, nous avons eu l'agréable surprise du Thunborey Hotel - un très bel hôtel, très luxueux après l'auberge de jeunesse, et pour $12 la nuit. Il y avait même des draps sur notre lit! et une douche avec une porte! et du papier toilette rose! et de l'air climatisée! Le comble du luxe, quoi. Nous sommes parties à la recherche d'un restaurant - avons mangé du cari pas mal bon - et avons ensuite fait du magasinage au marché de nuit.

Dimanche matin, notre guide et notre voiture privée nous attendaient à 8h. Le guide était très intéressant: il travaille pour les Nations Unies, et a participé au "monitoring" d'une élection nationale. Il nous racontait que le Cambodge demeure un pays dangereux malgré ses charmes - deux de ses collègues ont perdu la vie à cause d'une mine terrestre.

Nous avons visité Angkor Thom (`Big City`) en matinée, puis passé l'apres-midi à parcourir les ruines de Angkor Wat (`City Temple`).

Angkor Wat

Apsara Dancers carved into the stone at Angkor Wat

The next day, we spent the morning with our guide. We went for a walk in the mountains, up to Kpal Spean (River of a Thousand Linga) to admire the carvings of Vishnu and Shiva, submerged in a river.

River of a Thousand Linga; "Kpal Spean"

Ensuite, nous avons visité Bantay Sreai, d'autres belles ruines, encore plus vieilles que Angkor Wat. Nous avons ensuité diné et remercié notre guide et notre chauffeur pour leurs services. En apres-midi, nous avions l'intention de visiter un des villages flottants, mais, faute de temps, avons simplement passé un apres-midi à relaxer. En soirée, nous avons rencontré une jeune Hollandaise (dont le père est impliqué avec l'OMS et la lutte au tabagisme, tout comme mon père) qui travaille à Siem Reap comme professeure d'anglais. Elle était très sympa et nous l'avons invitée à nous rendre visite, un jour, à Tra Vinh.

Mardi matin, notre dernier matin à Siem Reap, Farm Girl et moi avons décidé de nous séparer et chacune faire à notre guise. J'ai loué un vélo ($1.50 pour la journée, une meilleure aubaine que les locations de vélo à Rent-a-Bike à Ottawa! mais la qualité du vélo était proportionellement moins élevée) pour retourner à Angkor Wat. Trois quarts d'heure plus tard, j'étais rendue à destination, et j'ai passé deux belles heures à explorer les ruines un peu moins fréquentées. Sur le chemin du retour, je me suis perdue (mon sens de l'orientation n'est pas fantastique) et suis enfin arrivée à notre hôtel, trempée de sueur et avec un beau coup de soleil, 10 minutes avant notre heure de départ pour la station d'autobus.

Le retour à Phnom Penh, et ensuite à Ho Chi Minh-ville, s'est déroulé assez bien. Farm Girl est retournée à Tra Vinh mais j'ai décidé de rester à Saigon pour explorer la ville d'avantage. C'était vraiment trop tranquille (à cause de Têt, tout le monde est parti et la plupart des magasins sont fermés) mais idéal pour un peu de tourisme. J'ai passé jeudi à visiter des pagodes, une mosquée et une église dans le quartier chinois (Cholon). J'ai très bien mangé, avec les recommandations du Lonely Planet! Malheureusement je n'ai pas trouvé de dim sum...ça sera pour la prochaine fois!

Ong Bon Pagoda or Nhi Phu Hoi Quan: built by the Fujian Congregation and dedicated to the guardian of happiness and wealth

Holiday in Cambodia

2010-02-19T02:35:00.002-05:00

I'm baaaa-aaack!

Quel voyage magnifique! Le Cambodge est un pays très charmant, malgré son passé sombre. Il y a plusieurs ressemblances avec le Vietnam, mais la culture et l'histoire du Cambodge sont uniques. Une différence importante est que les Cambodgiens sont les descendants de l'empire Khmer, qui a dominé l'Asie du sud-est pendant très longtemps, englobant le Cambodge, la Thailande et le Laos (autour de l'an 1000-1050, environ). Le Royaume du Cambodge dépend aujourd'hui du tourisme (Angkor Wat est le site le mieux connu) et de l'agriculture (le riz, le bois, le poisson et le caoutchouc).

Our trip went quite smoothly, thanks in part to our travel agent who was an angel of patience and sat through at least 5 changes in our plans. We finally left Tra Vinh last Thursday and stayed overnight in HCMC (we wanted to get an early start on Friday). Left on the bus at 9 a.m. along with Dr. A's family (also spending Têt holidays in Cambodia). I was kept well-entertained by the youngest daughter, K2, four years and a half and smart as a whip. As I got my hair braided and asked K2 about Vietnamese kindergarten, I saw beautiful scenery out the bus window: flat, dry land (it is the dry season and there have been reports of drought), occasional patches of muddy water, water buffalo, cows and families hard at work on their farms.

I was wondering how easy it would be to get a visa into Cambodia (do they take bribes here?) but turned out to be a smooth process. We handed over out passports, $20 USD and two very photoshoped visa photos (ask me about my visa pictures when you see me back in Canada!), and got a shiny green Cambodian visa with a picture of Angkor Wat in the background.

Angkor Wat is a huge source of pride here, by the way; it's even on the Cambodian flag.

Puis notre autobus a pris le traversier, où j'ai eu ma première expérience avec les enfants de la rue qui sont si débrouillards et si astucieux mais font également pitié. Les enfants sur le traversier nous demandaient de l'argent ou de la nourriture; nous leur avons donné des petits pains mais avons par la suite deviné que les enfants prennent la nourriture donnée par les touristes, pour ensuite la revendre dans le marché.

Children begging or selling things is a common sight in Cambodia (more so than in Vietnam, or maybe it just seemed that way to me because we were only seeing the touristy parts of Cambodia, whereas we are living in a small town in Vietnam). We had many encounters with children trying to sell books or trinkets to tourists. Although I don't like it one bit and think they should all be in school, the children I talked to said that they only go to school for half a day, and are free to sell things for the other half of their day. I hate giving money to kids because often the money will go directly to an adult; but again, it's maybe better to have the kids selling things rather than be sexually exploited. Child prostitution is growing in Cambodia and Vietnam; even as the government in Thailand has cracked down on it. There are lots of signs begging people to "Respect our National Treasures" - meaning the children, not the ruins - and I took some pamphlets that warn tourists that exploiting children is illegal (I will be working this summer on the topic of child sex tourism with the International Bureau of Children's Rights).

After that we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital and in many ways quite similar to HCMC. However Vietnam has no tuk-tuks whereas tuk-tuks rule in Cambodia! A tuk-tuk, by the way, is a four-person carriage drawn by a motorbike. Pretty much the best way to get around if you are a tourist with a heavy backpack. Accordingly, Farm Girl (I've renamed Fellow Canadian) and I took at tuk-tuk to our Grand View Guest House, which has...you guessed it...a Grand View of Boeng Kak Lake. It had Internet and air-con, too, so a pretty good deal. We were too tired to do much that night, so ate at a little place right in the backpacker area (the Lazy Gecko café - incidentally there was a real live gecko above the sign as we were sitting down for supper). We met a really nice guy from Holland and he gave us a few tips about what to see and where to go in Siem Reap, where we headed out the very next day.

But first we had the next morning to explore Phnom Penh. We decided to have breakfast down by the waterfront and see the Royal Palace. Quite a grand place, and so different from European palaces (to say nothing of the Chateau Laurier). Cambodia is still ruled by a King, although, much like Good Ol' Liz, the sovereign plays a mostly symbolic role. The real decisions are taken by the Cambodian People's Party. Anyways, the place was swarming with tourists but Farm Girl and I got a good look at some amazing gold Buddha statues and some beautiful gardens.

Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Têt and Flowers

2010-02-11T00:37:00.004-05:00

I received a beautiful greeting card from TVU today - wishing me a happy new year! The card had an illustration of a cherry blossom tree, which is supposed to bring good luck if it blooms for the New Year. I was just coming back from the market this morning (had the day off - the university is mostly empty anyways, with the students gone for 2 weeks) and couldn`t help comparing Têt holiday with Christmas in Canada. You know I like to make lists, so here is my list of similarities and dissimilarities between Christmas and Têt:

1. FAMILY TIME: At Christmas, most Canadians will travel to spend some time with their family(ies). Têt is also all about spending time with your nearest and dearest. As an example of the travelling thing, tickets to Hanoi from HCMC were completely booked for Têt at least one month in advance (which is why I`m heading to Cambodia instead of Hanoi).

2. "MON BEAU SAPIN!": Even if you`re not Christian, chances are high(if you live in Europe or North America) that you bring out the Christmas tree around December 25 (be it a real tree, a potted tree, or just a plastic one). As I mentioned, Têt in Vietnam would not be the same without an abundance of vegetation: flowers, mini trees, cherry blossoms in particular. I find it quite amusing to see everyone on their motorbikes, trying to balance one or two (or more) plants on their laps. Of course some people are smart and invest in a wagon to carry all that vegetation home.

3. NEW STUFF: Christmas is the most lucrative time of year for most businesses in North America. Gift-giving is common, especially for children. Têt, on the other hand, does not focus as much on giving gifts (although gift baskets are common). Instead the focus is on "new" stuff in general: it`s the time of year to buy new clothes, get your hair cut, get your house painted and cleaned from top to bottom.

4. RELIGION: This is where the similarities end (or maybe not). Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus (or the arrival of Santa Claus hah). On the other hand, I don`t think Têt has any religious significance. Maybe someone can correct me?

5. HOLIDAY FOOD: Turkey, stuffing and Chinese food are common Christmas foods in my family. For Têt, there is also lots of cooking to do if you are hosting your family. I am still pretty ignorant about how Vietnamese food is made but I have heard that special `cakes` and other goodies are prepared for Têt.

Ìf I think of anything else, I`ll edit this post. You won`t hear from me for a week now, as I`m off to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap for my holiday! Chuc Mung Nam Moi, tout le monde!

Une nuit à Saigon

2010-02-07T23:47:00.005-05:00

Les préparations pour le Nouvel An vont de bon train! Ho Chi Minh-ville (Saigon) est de plus en plus décorée. Nous commencons l'année du tigre (ce qui s'annonce bien pour la companie qui gère les profits de la bière "Tiger", très populaire ici!).

Tigers made of fruit, in the park near Pha Ngu Lao

We went up to Saigon early on Saturday, planning to do some shopping and general sight-seeing. I definitely was not expecting to spend so much - after Tra Vinh, though, any city is bound to seem expensive. Food and drinks are double, sometimes triple the price in the Big City of Vietnam. Anyways, no matter, compared to London, ANY city is a good bargain.

Upon arrival, Fellow Canadian and I hoped onto the Number 2 City Bus (dodging taxi drivers offering their services) and headed straight to our hotel in the backpacker area (which Mr. America had kindly booked for us - since he was going to Saigon too). We left our bags in our room (which had 3 beds and a private with Western toilet, but no toilet paper or towels unfortunately - gotta remember to bring toilet paper next time!) We decided to head to Ben Tanh market and do some souvenir shopping. I managed to restrain myself for the most part, but ended up buying a gorgeous blue skirt by a Japanese designer...all the while thinking "ok, the price I paid for this could feed a family for 2 or 3 weeks in Tra Vinh!"(this was in one of the boutiques, not in the market).

After the shopping experience (we were getting really good at bargaining by the end of the afternoon), we walked around for a bit & then headed back to our hotel for a nap. For supper, we picked a place just down the street from our hotel, an Indian restaurant called Mumtaz (apparently, the local Indian community really likes this place. So do the tourists). Had a delicious fish masala curry and a glass of mango lassy. The naan was great, too.

Following the Lonely Planet's recommendations, we decided to head to the Acoustic Bar (after debating - I also wanted to check out Apocalypse Now, a well-known bar in the upscale Dong Khoi area) for some live music. We had to stop for directions a few times; when we finally got to the address, we found a nice café down an alley with a jazz singer, keyboard & violin - not quite the Jimmy Hendrix hommage we were expecting, but still kinda nice and relaxing after a long day of walking.

The next day, we decided to have pho for breakfast, then head to the Annan Gourmet Market and then to Cholon (also known as District 5, or Saigon's Chinatown). We met with Mr. America and discovered that he had been to the Acoustic Bar the night before! Turns out we were in the right spot but we should have gone all the way down the alley to get to the right place! Still kicking myself, we headed out for some more sightseeing & shopping. We ended up not having enough time (or energy) to go to District 5, but did manage to get our fix of Western food at the Gourmet Market. After debating (do I REALLY need this?) I got some oatmeal...yummy! Had lunch at a Wrap & Roll (I ordered two main courses - delicious spring rolls and beef wrapped in grape vines) and then it was time to head to the bus station.

Prochaine destination: le Cambodge! Nous partons jeudi soir et y serons jusqu'à mercredi.

De tout et de rien

2010-02-04T06:41:00.002-05:00

Voici quelques observations sur le Vietnam et les Vietnamiens (un peu pêle-mêle):

- Moi lorsque je sors dehors, j'enlève mon pull pour profiter du soleil (et parce qu'il fait chaud à mon avis). Les Vietnamiennes, par contre, lorsqu'elles sortent au soleil, se couvrent la tête d'un chapeau, se couvrent le corps de gilets, se couvrent les mains de gants et se couvrent même le visage d'un masque...tout pour se protéger du soleil/rester le plus blanches possible. (Le masque est peut-être aussi pour protéger de la pollution, mais à Tra Vinh il y a très peu de pollution!)

- Les Vietnamiens boivent beaucoup (surtout les hommes). Lors des fêtes et des soupers, toutes les excuses sont bonnes pour crier "Tran Phan Tran" = 100%!

- Il n'y a pas beaucoup de conscientisation face aux problèmes environnementaux. Par exemple, les déchets sont jetés par terre et on utilise beaucoup de sacs de plastique. Par contre les gens aiment la nature et la verdure...

- Les Vietnamiens détestent marcher. En conséquence, tout le monde se déplace en moto ou en vélo (ou en voiture pour certains). Si on marche, de toute manière, c'est très désagréable car 1) il fait chaud et 2) les trottoirs sont faits pour stationner les chaises et les vélos/motos, donc il faut marcher dans la rue.

- Les gens sont très curieux et aimables (dans le Mékong, en tout cas). Par contre ils n'ont pas peur de rire de toi! Et ils n'aiment pas s'embrasser ou se donner des câlins. Par contre, se promener main dans la main est tout à fait acceptable.

- Les gens ADORENT: le karaoke, être bien habillés, leur famille (en général), les couleurs et les "gogosses" colorés, les fleurs, les photos officielles, l'Oncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh), les jeux Internet et les motocyclettes.

Bon, ça fait juste à peine 3 semaines que je suis ici, et mon Vietnamien est vraiment mauvais à date, donc je suis sure que cette liste sera différente dans quelques mois.

Santé maternelle

2010-02-02T19:17:00.003-05:00

Le premier ministre du Canada, Stephen Harper, a annoncé récemment que la santé maternelle serait une priorité au prochain sommet du G8 au mois de juin (oui, je continue de lire les nouvelles canadiennes !). Mais dans un article du Globe and Mail, on se pose des questions a savoir pourquoi cela a pris aussi longtemps.

Les statistiques sont effrayantes: 10 million de femmes sont mortes des séquelles de la grossesse et de l'accouchement depuis 1990. Le trois quart de ces morts auraient pu être évitées. Mais c'est un sujet pas très "sexy" et donc on en parle peu.

Au Vietnam, heureusement, la situation semble s'améliorer: selon un article du Ministere des Affaires étrangères, le Vietnam serait capable d'atteindre son objectif de développement du millénaire de réduction du taux de mortalité maternelle de 3/4 d'ici 2015. Pourtant, il reste des obstacles avant d'atteindre cet objectif, notamment l'accès aux soins de santé pour les minorités ethniques vivant dans les régions montagneuses éloignées des grandes villes.

Ben Tre

2010-01-31T22:53:00.005-05:00

I had a fantastic weekend. VK and Mr.America, the 2 Americans here, had guests over from Montréal who had contacted them through CouchSurfing. Mr.Quick-Dry and Miss M are travelling here for 2 months and are electrical engineers from Concordia university. My fellow Canadian and I liked them immediately and they invited us to join them on a boat trip up the Mekong River! Of course we said yes (Mr. America and VK declined because this weekend they were coordinating getting clothes for the 40 kids at the orphanage).

So that is how I spent my Saturday, on a cargo boat which does the Tra Vinh- Ben Tre trip every two days. Miss M was able to negotiate a very reasonable price and we were able to enjoy a fantastic view of coconut trees and people busy at their work for the 7-hour trip. Even hiding below decks, away from the scorching sun, we all got a little sunburnt and managed to attract the usual curious stares.

Ben Tre is (or at least seems) bigger and more prosperous than Tra Vinh and it has a gorgeous waterfront/port – it has a feel of a summer retreat for rich people from Saigon (which is only about 60 km away I think). We checked into a hotel (again letting Miss M do the negotiations), met a funny and rather eccentric old guy from Spain and explored the city`s sights and smells for the rest of the day. Those included: great vegetarian food, a lake right in the middle of town, and lots of shopping at the night market.

Getting back to Tra Vinh was a breeze - we decided to splurge and hired two xe oms (motorbike taxis) to take us back home. And a very good decision that was as A) we avoided a cramped and long bus ride home and B) got to enjoy the country scenery, rice paddies, etc. Sometimes, it really pays to splurge!

TVU pic

2010-01-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

Picture of TVU campus! I work in this building.

How to spot a foreigner*

2010-01-28T19:03:00.003-05:00

People watching has become a favourite past-time of mine. Since I feel constantly observed (as a foreigner in Tra Vinh, you get noticed a lot), I agree with Ms. Valencia who says, "So why shouldn't I stare back?"! And really, it's quite amusing when you are scanning the crowd and see something (or someone) a little unusual.

Yesterday, we went out for supper at a seafood place on Dien Bien Phu (the main shopping street). Scallops, soup, fried chicken and clams - Yummy! Really awesome stuff (but pricy in Tra Vinh terms - it came to about 65,000 dong per person, or 5 dollars canadien!). Towards the end of our meal, we hear someone serenading us on a karaoke-type of machine on the streets. At the table next to us, a guy turns to my American friend and starts talking to him - in English? with a New Orleans accent?! Turns out the stranger is from Louisiana and married to a Vietnamese woman.

Am I the only one who finds it weird to be weirded out by other Westerners? It's like seeing an alien with two heads now - every time I spot a blond or brown head, I turn to my fellow Canadians and poke them in the ribs: "Look! A foreigner!"

*Hint Hint: They're usually either walking or driving in a car. Plus they are generally surrounded by people smiling, pointing and saying: "Hello! Whatsyourname?"

Shopping!

2010-01-28T01:21:00.002-05:00

Internet ne marche pas chez nous en ce moment, donc je vous écrit du bureau! Je vous ai parlé des pauses de 2 heures? Eh bien, ce midi, j'en ai profité pour finalement aller au marché! Et laissez moi vous dire que, avec le Nouvel an qui s'en vient, le marché est un endroit super intéressant a parcourir...

J'ai donc flané un peu et acheté 2-3 affaires (a manger, puisqu'il ne me reste pas grand chose a me mettre sous la dent dans ma petite chambre!). Je m'en viens pas pire, je peux comprendre *presque* lorsque les gens me donnent un prix! En autant que c'est entre 10,000 et 90,000 dong, je suis capable de comprendre, hihi.

J'ai également croisé ma voisine VK avec deux Québécois! Elle a, en effet, eu beaucoup de visite dernierement (en fin de semaine, elle avait deux amis de la Californie en ville). Ces deux Québécois (de Montreal, un couple anglophone, elle est Vietnamienne d'origine et lui est non-Vietnamien et mesure une tete de plus que 99% des gens a Tra Vinh!) ont contacté ma voisine a travers CouchSurfing. Ils sont en visite pendant un soir seulement, alors je crois qu'on leur fera gouter aux specialités fruits de mer de Tra Vinh.

Bon, je devrais me mettre au travail!

A Typical Day...

2010-01-21T21:41:00.002-05:00

Here's what a normal day in Tra Vinh looks like for me:

Up at 6 am when my 3 alarm clocks ring (my cellphone, watch and travel clock). Obviously I could get up early to go for a walk and enjoy the cool morning air, but so far I've been too lazy. Shower, get dressed and hop onto my trusty, rusty old bicycle. Do the 5-minute bike ride to campus and hope the bike chain does not pop off yet again. Dodge the trucks, other bikes and motorbikes. Pick up breakfast along the way, perhaps a sticky rice bun, or pho at the cantine.

Work starts at 7 a.m. and goes until 5 p.m. normally, with a two-hour lunch break between 11 am and 1 pm. I get to my office and greet my three lovely colleagues, Dr.A, Ms.Condom and Ms.Stylish. This week, they have been preparing a gender workshop for the teachers, so it's been very busy.

A word on my colleagues: Dr.A is also a WUSC volunteer, but has been in Vietnam for a few years now. She is a former Grade 8-9 schoolteacher and has a Master's degree from the University of Sussex in England (a coincidence, that's where I would like to do my Master's as well, perhaps). She is a sunny, blond Vancouverite, married to a tall German and they have 2 little girls, K1 and K2. We've had a few chats and I feel pretty lucky to have her to explain things to me!

Ms. Condom is my supervisor. She is Kinh (of Vietnamese origin) and very lady-like. Her English is quite good, so we've talked a little but so far I don't know much about her personal life. She has been working at TVU for a year or so and studied English here, I think. The nickname, by the way, comes from the fact that she was in charge of getting the box of condoms for World Aids Day (I wasn't here but heard about it).

Ms.Stylish is half-Kinh and half-Khmer. She is very small and cute, likes to sing to herself and laughs at me a lot. We have a lot of difficulty communicating, since my Vietnamese and Khmer is non-existent and her English is at the beginner level. She has also chauffered me around a bit on her motorbike and has offered to give one hour of Khmer culture per week to the foreign volunteers.

We generally spend the morning working on different files or meeting people (for example, yesterday I did a few interviews with the Heads of Department on gender and hiring practices). Someone will go out for ca phe sue da (iced coffee with sweet condensed milk) or we'll all go to the cantine at some point. People drop by to say hi, or check their hair in the mirror on our door (without realizing that we can see them checking their appearance).

Then we generally all go home or go out for lunch. I like to nap a little, read or chat with my neighbours at Khu II (Campus 2, where I live). Yesterday, my neighbour from Valencia invited some monks over for lunch, so I dropped by and also schmoozed some lunch. The monks from the Buddhist Pagoda are very nice, although I still find it strange to talk to them and see them walking around talking on their cell phone or checking their emails.

After lunch, back to the office for meetings or workshops. We've been staying late this week, not leaving work until 5:30 or 6 p.m., and by that time the sun is setting. I've been going for supper with the other volunteers around 6-6:30pm, for seafood, pho, num num, and other things that I don't know how to pronounce or spell. The food is always delicious, of course. Then I'll go home, watch American Idol if it's a Wednesday night, read or check emails. I'm usually asleep by 9 p.m., unless the noise from the evening classes keeps me awake (Campus 2 is where English classes are taught, among other things).

This week has gone by so fast, it seems that time moves differently here, or maybe it's just because I'm not used to my new schedule. Next week should be less strange, I'm slowly adjusting. Frankly, I thought that I, with my black hair and medium height, would blend in more than my tall blond fellow Canadians and Americans, but I was wrong on that point. It's still a novelty, but I'm sure I will get tired of people calling out "Hello! What's your name? Hello!" after a while. But the people are so nice and friendly, and so far I like being the centre of attention.

I am excited about upcoming travel plans: we are planning a weekend in Saigon soon, plus a whole week up North for Tet (Lunar New Year) and possibly a weekend in Bangkok!

TVU

2010-01-16T01:08:00.003-05:00

Il est temps d'écrire en français maintenant!

À vrai dire, il y a très peu de français au Vietnam. J'ai rencontré quelques touristes francophones, mais les Vietnamiens que j'ai rencontré ici à Tra Vinh veulent tous apprendre l'anglais. Soit, je vais devoir dialoguer avec moi-même si je ne veux pas que mon français s'érode! Fin de la parenthèse.

J'ai eu une journée magnifique hier. Nous avons eu une visite guidée du campus de Tra Vinh University (TVU) ainsi qu'une visite à moto de la ville de Tra Vinh. C'est vraiment incroyable comme université: Tra Vinh est une des provinces les plus pauvres du Mékong, et pourtant c'est le seul endroit (à part Can Tho, la plus grosse ville de la région) à être doté d'une université. Basé sur le modèle des "community colleges" canadien, TVU offre des formations techniques (construction, techniques de couture), générales et professionelles. L'accent est mis sur la formation pour le marché du travail. D'ailleurs, mon rôle à TVU est en partie lié à cette fonction de facilier l'accès au marché du travail pour les étudiants khmers.

Mes tâches seront les suivantes:

1. Organiser un groupe de conversation en anglais pour les étudiants khmer (deux fois par mois)

2. Faire de la recherche sur les rapports de sexe et d'ethnicité dans le marché du travail (les étudiants khmers sont-ils désavantagés par rapport à leurs camarades Kinh - Vietnamiens - et si oui, que peut-on faire pour y remédier?).

3. Aider à la planification d'ateliers sur la santé sexuelle et de reproduction; peut-être aider à partir un concours de sketches sur l'égalité des sexes; planifier des événements pour la journée internationale des femmes.

J'ai bien hâte de commencer lundi! Cette fin de semaine, c'est tout simplement le ménage, le magasinage et l'apprivoisement du quartier.

Traffic and Green Spaces

2010-01-14T08:42:00.002-05:00

Saigon, seen from the Presidential Palace

Tra Vinh

2010-01-14T08:19:00.004-05:00

Tra Vinh is a lovely little town in the Mekong delta. We arrived this afternoon after a wonderful drive down from Saigon. The distance is about Hull-Montréal (200 km) but it took us about 4 hours to do the drive. It went by really fast, though, since I had so many things to look at! We crossed at least 4 bridges, hundreds of motorbikes (it goes without saying now), a few cows and quite a bit of vegetation.

We were greeted at the University by one of the long-term WUSC volunteers and taken to meet Mr.Z who formally welcomed us to Tra Vinh University (TVU as they call it). We also met most of our colleagues at the International Collaboration Office and of the Gender and Community Development section. I also got to ride a motorbike for the first time! Much smoother than I expected, although I did feel quite dashing and reckless. :D We were shown our sleeping quarters for the next 3 months - quite nice rooms with our own private bathroom and mini kitchen, and very well stocked with irons, pots, bowls, plates, washing machine and even a rice cooker!

We were also treated to supper at the hotel. We ate lovely fat prawns, hot pot, fish and lots of things that I could not pronounce. We also learned the Vietnamese toast - "Cham po Cham" or "One Hundred Percent!". Now I am listening to karaoke and just thinking, "This is the life. How lucky am I!"

Welcome to Saigon

2010-01-12T09:14:00.001-05:00

Well I made it to Vietnam in one piece! The flight was long but uneventful, thank goodness. We arrived at the airport and were greeted by a cheerful driver with a big WUSC sign. Our first sight of the city was quite something – we gaped at the traffic as our van weaved in and out of lanes, sometimes sharing one lane with another vehicle, all the while as motorbikes and regular bikes attempted suicidal darts between cars, lanes and sometimes sidewalks.

Saigon is a HUGE city. At night it looks a little like Times Square with billboards and lights everywhere. And the noise is amazing – honking non stop. After the first night at the Dong Do Hotel, we got the chance to walk around District 1, also known as the tourist district (I probably saw equal numbers of Western tourists and native Saigoners). There are some lovely buildings, such as the Opera House, and some very imposing ones, like the Presidential Palace. And despite the noise and traffic, all the Vietnamese seem quite laid-back and friendly.

The first challenge of the day (after ordering breakfast) was learning how to cross the street. As the Vietnamese don’t really seem to believe in traffic lights, they keep up a constant “flow”. So you really need to learn how to go with the flow! Cross the street if there is a little gap in the incoming traffic. Walk slowly but surely. Do NOT run or stop abruptly and you will make it safely to the other side!

I'll try to post some pictures of the city later. Tomorrow we are walking around some more. I may have a bargaining story to tell if I manage to complete a purchase in Vietnamese!

Encore 4 dodos!

2010-01-06T21:03:00.002-05:00

AAAAAH!

Ça, c'est moi qui crie! oui oui car je pars dans moins de 5 jours! C'est trop incroyable!!!

D'accord, j'ai utilisé mon quota de points d'exclamation pour ce petit billet. Voici ce qui me reste à faire avant le grand départ pour le Vietnam:

1. Faire mes valises
2. Refaire mes valises, cette fois-ci pour y enlever des trucs
3. Nettoyer ma chambre pour le frérot qui prendra ma place pendant que la chambre est vide
4. Finir ma réflexion personnelle sur "le privilège" et le remettre à mon prof
5. Dire au revoir à mes amis et ma famille
6. Profiter de la neige

Le point #6, c'est fait, je suis allée faire du ski alpin aujourd'hui (et par le même, j'ai rempli #5, dire au revoir à mes tantes qui y sont allées avec moi). Et je compte faire un peu de ski de fond demain ou vendredi. Voyez vous, c'est mon premier hiver sans neige - je ne sais pas si je vais survivre sans pelletage, slush et autres intempéries! *Roulement des yeux svp*

Pour le reste, je crois que j'y arriverai. Je commence à avoir SUPER HÂTE ! (ah non, encore un point d'exclamation?) Je communique depuis peu par courriel avec deux filles qui sont déjà à Tra Vinh et l'une d'elles viendra nous rencontrer à l'aéroport, donc niveau de stress = 0 et niveau d'excitation = 110% !

Soon it will be: Tam biet (goodbye) Canada, Xin chao (hello) Vietnam!

Lectures intéressantes

2009-12-19T16:22:00.002-05:00

Je prends une petite pause (j'écris une lettre de motivation pour un stage l'été prochain...il faut bien compléter les exigences du bureau coop) pour indiquer quelques liens pour en savoir plus sur le Vietnam:

-Vietnam Gender Assessment 2006: Un rapport de la Banque de développement de l'Asie sur les rapports de sexe au Vietnam

-Lonely Planet Vietnam: Mon guide de voyage préféré. Dit à peu près rien sur Tra Vinh mais présente un très bon survol du pays

-Wikipedia article on Vietnam

-Profile BBC du Vietnam

Bonne lecture!

Des tuyaux d'une ancienne stagiaire

2009-12-13T16:38:00.002-05:00

Vendredi, j'ai eu le plaisir de rencontrer une ex-stagiaire au Vietnam. Elle avait plusieurs conseils à nous donner. J'en partage quelques-un ici:

- Utiliser le guide Lonely Planet...à la folie!
- Un ordinateur portable est super essentiel. Il est recommandé de le cacher ou le barrer lorsqu'on le laisse dans notre appartement au Vietnam, par contre.
- Apporter beaucoup, BEAUCOUP de crème solaire et de chasse-moustique. La stagiaire en question n'en avait plus après quelques semaines !
- Apporter des draps type "auberge de jeunesse" lorsqu'on voyage. C'est utile pour éviter les "bed bugs".
- Le pho a du "MSG" donc il ne faut pas trop en consommer. Plutôt diversifier notre alimentation. La viande de chien et de chat est également consommée au Vietnam donc gâre aux âmes sensibles!
- Apporter du linge chaud si l'on veut voyager au nord (à Hanoi et encore plus au nord) car il peut faire 5 C pendant l'hiver.
- Les choses sont habituellement pas très chères, mais pas toujours de bonne qualité. Ne pas hésiter à marchander, car les prix "pour touristes" sont parfois 3 fois plus élevés que les prix pour les gens de la place.
- Enfin, être prudents et user du gros bon sens!

Plus que 29 jours avant le départ !

Pre-departure training

2009-12-07T21:43:00.002-05:00

Had a very busy weekend with training at the University and with WUSC-Uniterra. Saturday was our "ethics and course work" training at the Uni, where we talked about our expectations and hopes for the internship. Most students are going to Africa (Botswana, Ghana, Sénégal, Burkina Faso, Malawi) while the rest are some future Peruvians, one potential Nepalese, one prospective Indian and two hopeful Vietnamese girls. :D It was a really great session, our prof is just great and had some funny anecdotes to tell about getting robbed and making children cry because they thought he was going to eat them.

Sunday was the WUSC orientation. I'm going to Vietnam through Uniterra which is a program jointly run by WUSC and CECI (à Montréal). It was really good to talk about all the logistics, had some questions answered and got to hear some truly moving presentations from former WUSC interns. Unfortunately, none of the former Vietnam interns were there, but I got an email from two of them and we'll be meeting soon to talk about their experiences.

I'll also be blogging on the Uni and WUSC blogs, will post the links once I get my first blogs up!

Compte à rebours: plus que 34 jours avant le grand départ!

Details on the trip

2009-11-29T18:05:00.003-05:00

It is my intention for this blog to be bilingual, especially for my unilingual family members on either side. So this blog post en anglais details what I will be doing in Vietnam.

When I applied to Uniterra, my cover letter specified that I wanted to work with groups that address issues for "marginalized" populations - women, children, disabled, or ethnic minorities. But I wasn't expecting that my internship would actually end up being what I wanted it to be (and that's not such a bad thing in development studies!) So I was quite happy to be informed that my posting at Tra Vinh University (TVU) will involve getting to know the Khmer student population.

The Khmer in Vietnam [here I am conscious that I may be grossly misinterpreting the situation, especially since I am basing my asumptions on the few papers and articles that I have read so far] are an ethnic minority, closely related to Cambodia's Khmer population. Several factors make it hard for Khmer youth to complete a post-secondary education. For example, English is their third language after Khmer and Vietnamese - so if languages aren't your thing, good luck studying or working abroad. Literacy rates are already lower for the Khmer than for for the Vietnamese majority. The "poverty trap" cycle kicks in - I won't go into details since development students tend to blab about this stuff all the time, even in their sleep. But basically, the Khmer have several obstacles to overcome when it comes to boosting literacy.

My job at TVU will (inch Allah) include participating in the English discussion club and working on a research project on "Gender, Ethnicity and the Labour Market" to examine ways of improving the average Khmer youth's chances of getting into university, completing a degree and getting a great job.

I'll close by stating that this job description might change. And also, sincere apologies if I am getting things wrong here, I'd welcome comments from people more familiar with Vietnam and its incredibly rich and complex history and society.

Vaccins et paperasse

2009-11-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

Alors nous avons eu notre deuxième atelier de "formation pré-départ" à l'université aujourd'hui. Essentiellement, c'était sur les mesures de précaution à prendre - se payer une bonne assurance, toujours avoir sur soi les numéros d'urgence à contacter, toujours être alerte, etc. De judicieux conseils, certes, mais puisque j'ai eu la même présentation avant mon départ pour la Suède l'an dernier, c'était quand même plate.

Mais là je commence à stresser légèrement ! En discutant avec les autres stagiaires, je me suis rendue compte que je suis bien paresseuse/ en retard dans mes démarche! Il faut que je prenne rendez-vous pour les vaccins (typhoïde, "Japanese Encephalitis" et malaria, ouille!) ; je dois finir de remplir mes formulaires pour Uniterra; pour ce faire, il faut que je me procure une vérification de mon casier judiciare; je dois payer l'université; sans compter le fait que je voudrais bien faire quelques travaux à l'avance, en préparation pour le cours intensif au mois d'avril!

Mais au moins, j'ai fait prendre mes photos de visa - c'est un début!

Le commencement

2009-11-13T23:47:00.000-05:00

"Je ne pars jamais sans mon journal de voyage.
Il nous faut toujours quelque chose d'intéressant à lire dans le train."
- Oscar Wilde

Je remercie tout d'abord ce cher M. Wilde pour cette citation oh combien appropriée. Et puisqu'il faut commencer par le commencement, je dois également citer ma grand-mère paternelle, qui m'a donné mon premier vrai journal de voyage en me sermonant d'y écrire mes souvenirs de vagabondages, afin de pouvoir me relire par après.

Lundi on m'annonce par courriel que j'ai officiellement été acceptée pour un stage au Vietnam! J'ai donc décidé (en fait c'est une idée qui me trotte dans la tête depuis que ma copine D. a parti son propre blogue) de contribuer à la blogosphère et de raconter mon voyage par voie électronique. Ainsi, si par malheur mon *vrai* journal papier se perd en cours de route, j'aurai un souvenir de ma grande aventure à l'autre bout du monde.