Goals for the next four months

For the next four months, I hope to achieve as much goals on my list as possible. I didn’t really make a list of goals exactly, but had an idea of how changed of a person I would be when I returned to the US. And in order to change into that better person there are a few goals I should accomplish to get there. The first and main goal for being here in Ha Noi is to improve my Vietnamese. Improving my Vietnamese is very important to me because I feel incredibly unattached to the language and the people. On Friday, when we were split into groups to act out scenarios, I felt very uncomfortable speaking in front of the class, practicing my Vietnamese. I sometimes do feel embarrassed while speaking in public, but it was nothing like speaking Vietnamese in front of Vietnamese speaking students. It felt awful and humiliating and at this point I know to overcome my failures and fears, I know I have to practice more and immerse myself more into this culture here in Vietnam. I hope in the next four months, I will practice my Vietnamese and improve dramatically by the time I come home and speak to my grandmother. Another goal of mine is to learn more about Vietnamese history and basically the social and economic life that is here in Vietnam. I grew up not knowing much about the history of Vietnam and I honestly don’t know much about the war. Around my house, we didn’t really talk a lot about Vietnamese history because my family doesn’t have a lot of ties to this country. I really want to learn more about Vietnamese history from the point of view of Vietnamese educators but most importantly the locals here in Ha noi. And lastly, another goal of mines that I hope to achieve in the next four months is to make a connection with this country. I’ve only been here for about three weeks and the first two weeks were awful. Everyone in the program’s really nice, but in the first two weeks I felt like going home almost everyday and it was quite difficult adjusting to this country. I kept thinking what most likely everyone in the program was thinking, the weathers too hot and humid, it smells everywhere, the food gives me diarrhea, I get the flu and feel sick and gross, and my family and friends are miles are an ocean away! With all these awful thoughts in my head I really considered leaving, but after the second week and after feeling better, I’m at a good state right now. I’m not completely in love with this place, but every week I’m growing to appreciate the little things here. Everything is so incredibly cheap and I’m starting to like the food. My stomach’s feeling better and I’m in the beginning stages of adapting to this new environment. I also met my family last weekend which was a lot of fun and really helped with the transition. My cousin Diep picked me up from school on her motorbike and took me shopping which was a lot of fun. She was sweet enough to drive all the way from our village to pick me up which took about an hour and twenty minutes on her motorbike through traffic. My first time on a motorbike was with her and I felt like I could trust her completely. She was the best driver I’ve seen yet in Ha noi and I plan to spend more of my free time with her and visit the village more often. The whole village was very kind towards me and I felt very welcomed and safe. My only problem was that they all spoke Vietnamese with a northern accent and it was a bit difficult understanding them completely as I grew up speaking with a southern accent. Another problem I experienced with them was also how they all kept trying to feed me. It was a lot of fun following a simple day process that began with eating breakfast then sitting around then lunch followed by an afternoon nap, then waking up to drink tea at the local café, followed by dinner and then off to bed. I felt very unproductive, more so then usual, and somewhat bored. The village is in a very remote and rural area outside of Ha noi but being there for the weekend, I felt very warm and full. I just hope I can survive here for the next four months and I also want to become more independent especially from my family. I spend a lot of time with them, I value that time very much but I do need more space so I can transition better without talking to them every single minute. I am already a very independent person, but for the most part I depend on my family and friends. I feel like that isn’t necessarily a terribly bad thing, but I know it has to be done sooner or later as we’re not kids anymore. But my ultimate hope for the next four months is that I will grow to love this country and be able to pass on some knowledge and language to my children.

Obituary Response

I honestly chose the Ali Bongo obituary quite randomly from the list of available on the website, but he was one of the few people I didn’t recognize and I also thought his name was interesting. I thought it was interesting how the economist chose to write an obituary on someone as simple as an ordinary magician. I’m not very familiar with the obituary section of the economist, so to me I liked how ordinary William Wallace was indeed. I enjoyed reading how he had a character on stage that was lively, amusing to kids, and basically spectacular in the numerous ways a magician should be. But off stage, he was a simple shy old man with glasses and a gray suit. He did most of his magic off stage with his innovative inventions of great magic tricks. I enjoyed reading how his first contact with magic was when he was 3 and has been in love with magic every since. I thought it was a bit peculiar for someone to have a career in something as silly as magic. But I realize now that whether real or pure fiction, he still loved his job and that’s really what I find interesting the most, the fact that he did his job, not for fame, but out of the pure love of entertaining others. I also just thought that was awesome that he spent possibly 76 years of his life before his passing loving magic, his job and for that I think he is a great role model.

Autobiography

Before I came to Hanoi, I had a life and a family back in California that I dearly miss. My name is Tracey Xuan Nguyen and I am about twenty years old. I am a third year at University of California, Irvine and I’m working on a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics. I still have no idea what I will be doing after I graduate but I feel like I still have a lot of time to figure that out, but till then I will take classes and internships/jobs in fields that I may be interested in to help along the way. I’m from Hawthorne, California which is in Los Angeles County and I live pretty close to LAX airport. I was born in Gardena, which is the city next over and my family and I have moved around a lot but in the same general area. I live at home with my mom and three sisters. I also have a huge family back home with tons of aunts, uncles, and cousins and I love it! I love my family very much as many people would typically love there’s and I feel I am incredibly close to them. Because of our close relationship, I know I will have some difficulty adjusting in Vietnam while away from them. Being away from my friends will also be difficult for me as I will have to adjust from seeing them everyday to possibly through webcam once every few weeks at best, depending on how much time I have available. I feel like I can adapt pretty well in a new setting if I try hard enough. I am very easy-going person with little to no drama in my life, which is how I like things. Back at school, I like to try out clubs that I may be interested in and go to those meetings. I now have realized that I’m not really into school clubs, but I really much enjoy hanging out with my old hall mates. I have only a few pet peeves like people talking during a movie and those who smoke around me and choose to inflict secondhand smoke on me. I enjoy working out, whether it be running laps or using the elliptical machine, and I love the feeling I get after I finish working out. I never played competitively in school teams because I was never interested, but I enjoy playing sports like volleyball, baseball, and football. I’ve had many jobs in my life so far. I have worked at the FAA, CVS/pharmacy, Chuck E. Cheese, Forever 21, and I am currently a student research assistant for a professor at UCI. I have also done tutoring when I was in high school and I have taught as a youth leader at my community church group. Some of my favorite work has been with kids as has some of my worst experiences, but I do see myself possibly having or adopting kids in the future. In my free time, what I love doing most is basically going out with my sisters. I love shopping with them, we usually never buy much so we love browsing at the mall and going from one Ross Department store to another location, looking for shoes or purses on sale. I love bargain shopping and I hate buying things retail price when I know I can find it somewhere cheaper. I’m a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl and I’m not really into brands. I can be pretty thrifty sometimes, mostly for myself and I love splurging when it comes to buying gifts for friends and family. I have grown accustom to shopping at the local flea market to buy most of bare essentials. Going there every Saturday morning bright and early has become a family ritual that my sisters and I have grown up doing with my mom and I enjoy it. I use to hate it as a little kid because I would have to get up so early on Saturday and miss my cartoons, but I’m over it now. Just this past summer, I have also developed a love for the outdoors. I have gone camping, hiking, and rock climbing. My favorite would have to be hiking because I enjoy the steep walk up the side of a mountain and the phenomenal views. The first time I went rock climbing, I made it all the way up a 5.8 level rock, which is somewhat difficult for a beginner, but before getting all the way up, I fell and scraped up and down my left elbow area. It hurt and stung a lot but once I made it to the top, I felt accomplished and overwhelmed with life to be honest. And the last time I went hiking, I was panting and struggling for the first half hour and immediately after getting use to the elevation, it was a breeze and I had a great time. I feel like the outdoors is a great place to overcome hurtles and exercise your resilience. I’ve also been going with my sisters, so they definitely make it more interesting. What I love most about my sisters is there sense of humor. All of them have a different sense of humor but we are all able to make each sister feel comfortable enough to laugh and I just love the dynamics of it. I feel like I can talk to all of them about anything and I know they would forgive me as easily as I would with any of them. Which I think is the reason why I have better relationships with my sisters than my close friends. I also come from a devout Catholic family and we regularly attend mass every Saturday night. I grew up a very religious little girl believing in everything everyone like the priest, my religion teacher, and my mother, but after a few years I have been a little disconnected with my religion. My beliefs and morals are all generally the same, but there are a few aspects of Catholicism I still have issues with. I try to be as friendly as possible to people I just meet and whenever I come across someone who’s not very nice, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and I’m usually right. If anyone reading this has met my mother you would understand that I am exactly like my mom, minus the raised voice over the phone. I try to emulate my mother’s greatest traits, like how she can be so content and peaceful. I don’t come from a wealthy family or even a middle-class family but what’ve learned particularly from my mom is that you shouldn’t be greedy and get a well-paying job to buy luxury items, all you really need is to make enough money for security, donate whatever your not using to do something good for your community since you don’t need it, and just be happy since your blessed enough not to be going hungry. I could’ve probably phrased that better, but it sounds better coming out of her. That was just one of the few lessons she’s taught me through the years. She was also very sweet to me when I told her I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. She didn’t pressure me to become a doctor or lawyer, but only told me to do anything in this world I wanted to do as long as it didn’t hurt anyone. I talk a lot about my mother because she has really shaped me to become the person I am today. I try very hard to be sweet and polite to people I come across and I know I can sometimes get very emotional as I am pretty sensitive. I cry in sappy movies and when I talk candidly about something I feel very emotional about. I can also be a very indecisive person when it comes to picking a restaurant, movie rental, and also when it comes to career choices. I can get pretty passionate about certain careers I have my eye on for that time period, which may last as little as a week. When I was a kid, I first remember wanting to be a police woman. Then I remember wanting to be a fashion designer, then a artist, then doctor, then photographer, then back to fashion designer. When I began my second year at UCI, I finally decided to major in Business Economics with a Minor in Management. After my first quarter, I remember being inspired by a movie and then wanted to minor in Drama and take Drama classes! It was quite sudden but I felt like it was meant to be so I took a Drama class winter quarter. It didn’t count for much credit but I enjoyed it. And then just this past summer, I wanted to get into the Nursing field. And with all these new career choices arising, I still maintain interest in the prior career choice I was just interested in. And to this day, today, I still have no idea what my future holds for me, but what I do know is that I will be happy with whatever career I choose.