Hitting Close to Home

I like reading Vice as much as the next 20-something year old male, but I often have to take a moment to breathe after finishing their articles. They write a lot about things like government corruption, illicit drugs, and the black market for underage sex slaves. That's why I was glad to find a far more lighthearted, if not still eye-opening, piece the other day.

The article that hit me was about a reporter's experience in Vietnam. Click the picture to read about the new White Man's Burden.

The article hit home because I realized the reporter's experience was not solely "white," but was one experienced by Westerners in general. Those feelings aren't completely unfounded. My grandma's pastime is reminding me about Viet girls who have taken advantage of Viet guys for their money, and I suspect that at least one must be true. Still, one must be as careful with prudent foresight as one must be with indiscriminate trust. Maybe that's common sense, but when you live your whole life with privilege, I think it's deceptively difficult to see outside the walls.

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Chinese Chess - Cờ Tướng - 象棋

The latest interest I've taken in my quest to learn more about my Vietnamese heritage is the game of Chinese chess. It is a bit ironic to look for Vietnamese culture in a game that has the word "Chinese" in its name, but I found that it is only so for the sake of translation. I have taken to this game for a number of reasons. 1. The game has cool historical references that have survived even today. Let's start with the board itself. Unlike a chess board, which is played on the squares, Chinese chess is played on the intersections of lines. What is most recognizably different from normal chess boards, however, is the large gap in the middle of the board as well as the lines that form an "x" on opposites sides of the board. The square that contains the "x" is known as the "fortress," or 宮(gōng ) in Chinese. The center divider is the river where s ome Chinese words are visible. The words on the left say, 楚河 (chǔ hé ) , mean...

As a person who's done a fair amount of traveling, I couldn't agree more with this:

Paradise Falls wouldn't even hold a candle to this place.

Waiting and Waiting

March 1st. Now every day for the next two weeks will be agonizing torture. Have I been accepted? Have I been rejected? Will my career advance? Will I be right back where I was this time last year? I've been told to be patient, keep my head up, to not worry about things that aren't in my control. That's tough going, but I'm trying. How apt, then, that I'd come across this quote again: “I wanted you to see what real courage is...It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” I thought my chances were small in the beginning, but I did see it through. Now back to waiting to see if this time is my "sometime."

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