Vietnam Day 1

Hello all! NO excuses this time. I haven't fallen overboard. I just haven't been posting. I'm sorry.  To get down the things fresh in my mind first, I'm going to skip Japan, China and Hong Kong and go directly to Vietnam.

We arrived in Vietnam on the 12 of February, but you wouldn't have known it from the weather. It was humid must have been 29 Degrees (I prefer the metric system, deal with it) outside as we made our way up the Saigon River towards one of Ho Chi Minh's ports. I looked out the window and onto the river, and saw it was a murky brown, I felt saddened by the pollution. 

The plan for Vietnam was to, on the first day wander around Saigon (Most still call it that), get some tailoring done, and meet our Aunts, Amy and Kim. We arrived at the port and, after clearing customs and immigration, got on the shuttle out of the port. Arriving ten minutes later in the center of the city of Saigon, we got off and started wandering in the general direction of Amy and Kim's hotel. It was sweltering hot and muggy but we survived and wandered away. I ordered a suit to be tailored, and my mom ordered a Vietnamese dress. We met up with our aunts and wandered some more before going back to the ship to prepare for the evening.

The evening, in fact, held a puppet show in store for us. My mom had signed us up to go on a field excursion led by the other theatre teacher: a viewing traditional puppet theatre, followed by dinner. We had hoped to meet our relatives, but, upon arrival, they were nowhere to be found. We shrugged it off, The Rosenfields are not known for their punctuality. The show was quite nice, with lots of fox chases and dancing dragons and unicorns. Nothing compares, however to the finale, a scene where several dragons come out and dance. It seems a normal scene until the head dragon starts spitting fire. By the time the show ended, my dad was getting worried about his sisters. I called them and left a message about where we were going to eat dinner. We ate dinner, but still the Missing aunts did not show up. We finished a tasty meal filled with fish, spring rolls, fish, rice, and, did I mention, fish. We got home and immediately went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us.

-- 

Asa Rosenfield

Hawai'i Day 1

Okay, I'm going to skip some stuff because I had such an amazing time in Hawai'i and I want to tell you all about it right away (lest I forget the juicy bits)

On Tuesday I was awakened at 7:30 sharp to get breakfast and get ready for Customs to come on the ship, I got up and got dressed. As I groggily moved up the stairs and through the hallways, I thought about how I wanted to go to a beach. I got up to the dining room just as the boat came to a stop, and I sat down next to my parents and across from Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu. He was in conversation with my parents and several others at the table. I sat down, then got back up to get food. When I sat back down. I joined the conversation. The archbishop, it seems has an opinion on everything. And the conversation went on for quite a while. Finally, I got up and went to our room, I had a big day to prepare for.

I'll be frank. I wanted to go to a beach, and we didn't get around to it. That was okay though. My family and I did some amazing things on The Big Island, beach or no. The plan for the first day was to meet an old friend of my dad who lived on the big island. The shuttle to the airport to rent a car and then to the Hole-in-the-wall which served the best fish and chips in town, was uneventful. I was listening to a book on tape, mad that the plan for the next two days didn't include "Going to the Beach." I also happened to have a nasty cold and an awful sore throat. Either way, the fish were good enough to snap me out of it. After we had a discussion with dad's local friend we got on the road again, to head on a scenic drive to a waterfall twice as high as Niagara Falls. 

As we headed down the scenic drive, we stopped at a path down a cliffside to the ocean. When you think of Hawai'i often, you think of the large sandy beaches, with some palm trees and not much other vegetation. That's the dry side of the island. The entire archipelago is right in the middle of a trade wind route, and as such, each island gets several hundred inches of rain a year. All on one side of the island. Since all the islands are made up of large volcanoes that ascend 1500 feet in the air. All the rain drops as it is going up. The slopes facing south, are the dry side of the island, and they are the desert portion of Hawai'i. I was on the North side of the island though, and the jungle was deep, dense, and dare say I, beautiful. The jungle was filled with the sound of hundreds of birds, and the greens were all singing in harmony (Okay, too flowery a metaphor). We got down to the ocean and I felt a bit better. The surf and the rocks were to rough to swim in, but the rhythmic sound of the waves alone made me feel much better.

We hiked back up and went to the waterfall, it was an amazing sight, but the highlight of the day was still to come. As we came back through the farmland that came after the scenic drive, we stopped at a fruit stand. It was worked by a surf bum who clearly worked on the farm to feed himself, but he clearly also enjoyed meeting people working the stand and we spent at least half an hour trying all the fruits. Everything was delicious. All right, nobody liked the coconut, but the pineapple was to die for, and the Lillycoi (Hawaiian passion fruit) looked disgusting but might be the best fruit I've ever tasted. Mmmm. As we got ready to leave, we told him about the trip we were going on. He looked my brothers and me and exclaimed, "You guys have the best parents in the world!" My family smiled. Sometimes I don't realize it, but it's true.

Later that day, we went to volcanoes national park. We explored the lava tubes, and watched in awe as the caldera creaked and glowed in the late evening. It was an amazing experience. And I couldn't wait for the next day.

Touchdown!

Just arrived at SAN, we will be spending the weekend here, and will depart monday. Happy weekend, all.