Erik's Travels: the past few days...(pics at the end)

Military museum and temple of literature-

The military museum one of the many strange things I have encountered so far in Hanoi. Even though it is a Vietnamese museum most of the artifacts, weapons, and vehicles are american. There tanks and planes all captured from the US, and a huge monument built out of US planes that were shot down. It a very uncomfortable sight to view as a American. There was also a huge tower with a narrow stair case that you could climb up and view the entire museum from above. It was so hot that I nearly passed out when I got to the top. Even though there were signs that said it was a camera restricted area I still took some cool pics.

The temple of literature was quick xe om ride away from the museum and had significantly less American plane wreckage. The temple dates back to 1070 and served as vietnams first university. The doctors who graduates from the university had their names carved on to slabs that are on the back of big stone turtles. The entire temple was beautiful and relaxing even though it was hot and full of tourists.

More teaching-

I was able to teach for an entire day. There were several of us, so were took turns and tried to help each other. It was a lot of fun. I was able to experience my first official 2 hour lunch break. We ate lunch, got iced coffee down the street, and still had time for an hour nap in the library. I only get to teach one more day, I’m going to try and gets some pics of the students if the teacher will let me.

Ho Chi Min Mausoleum and Museum-

This is by far the craziest, most surreal thing to do in Hanoi. You stand in a huge line side by side and slowly move toward the huge mausoleum. You have to check your camera and if you are not wearing pants you can’t come in. It took about 20 min of waiting to get to the entrance. They have inside of the mausoleum super cold. As you walk in armed guards in white uniforms make sure you don’t stop moving. I had my hands cupped behind my back (which I though was a respectful way to walk) and a guard smack my are and make me walk with my hands at my sides. You get about 20 feet from uncle Ho. He is light with strange orangish lights so it looks like he almost glowing. It is extra weird because he specifically requested to cremated and instead he is embalmed behind class for thousands of people to see everyday.

The museum was even weirder. The entire second floor a strange modern art take on ho chi min, and the history of vietnam. The entire place was filled with overtly symbolic statues and installations that would not be out of place in the museum of modern art in nyc. There were lots of references to picasso and other well known artists and it made wish that I remembered a little more of my art history to figure out what the hell the connection was. At every turn all I could say was “I just don’t get it”. I may not have gotten it, but I loved it. What cool modern art and architecture has to do which the father of Vietnamese independence is beyond me, but if they decided to build a Jackson pollock inspired George Washington museum, I’m sure I’d visit it.

Political compass with Laum-

Me Morgan and Laum sat and took the political compass survey last night. The survey asks a bunch of opinion questions and then puts you on a chart to show where your political views lie. We had to explain most of the questions because they are pretty complex. I was surprised by a ton of the answers. There were some clear cut communists questions that Laum was against and quite a few that were pro capitalist free markets that he was in favor of. When we finished the survey he ended up be just slightly left of center. He clearly values hard work and respects personal wealth as good motivator for hard work (super capitalist for someone who studies marx) but also is clearly dedicated to fighting for the average person and a deeply patriotic and proud of his country. I think that there is whole generation here in vietnam that are clearly looking for progress and change. If they can keep the tourist coming to this country then the standard of living is going have a massive increase over the next decade or so.

I still have not figured out what I’m going to do this weekend. I do not want to stay at peace house. Wish me luck finding something exciting to do.

military museum