First time getting high

So while in Myanmar we had to do a service aspect, in this trip one of those service activities was painting a local school. We arrived at the school and were given instructions on how to paint. We put on mask that were bought locally (and they weren't very good quality) were given the paint and started painitning away. 10 minutes later I started feeling a little funny, my hands started tingling i started dazing off and everything was extremely funny. For the nextr solid hour I was laughing a literally everyhting and it was uncontrollable. I couldn't keep my balance and all my fellow classmates were high of the inhalent too so that didn't help. After an hour of painting I head a hughe headache and started throwing up. I only remember fragments of the event.

The Snake Scarfer

So, walking on the streets of Siem Reap in Cambodia, my father encountered a boy selling snakes, spiders, and scorpions as snacks. These delicacies were cooked but still were chilling to look at. My dad didn't think that the boy selling the creepy crawlers and slithers had the guts to eat one, so he dared the boy. The boy said he would eat one if he was paid one dollar. My father agreed to the bet. In less than three seconds, the boy then scarfed down a snake. My dad was shocked and disgusted but paid the dollar. The boy had to get his money.

Market Lady

So, In Vietnam, we were walking to the market for a cooking class. We had made some banana leaf salad and corn soup. We enter the market and there are fish heads, dead frogs, millworms, and the smell just hits you walking in. A lady chopping a chicken heart looked at my dad and yelled, "I hate you!" We were pretty confused. Then she said, "I love you!"Which was also pretty confusing. We paused, looked at the tour guide, and the tour guide asked, "You go with her now?" in a serious manner. We laughed at the occasion,  but I started to think. In Vietnam, if you say I love you to somebody, do you just go with them and leave your family for a stranger? I don't know. The occasion was hilarious though.

Beatboxing

After a long day of touring townships and visiting Robben Island (the prison where Nelson Mandela was held), we were waiting outside to be picked up by my dad. Being in a completely new place, it took a while for my dad to get there so I just began beatboxing. Prior to that, while visiting the townships I learned there was a tribal dialect referred to as Xhosa which consists of a lot of clicking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trq_gIe1v04 (Video on how to speak Xhosa). Anyway, I was beatboxing when a woman looked up at me, at that point, I just remembered that Xhosa existed. I thought I may have offended her, but then she just looked down and smiled. I was alleviated. The moral of this story is even when they're not words, be careful what comes out of your mouth, you might be saying something.

Fishing and Rice

Our time spent in Vietnam was incredible, especially when we went fishing. We were staying at a village and after we finished harvesting a sifting rice, we rode bikes over to a pond. Typically when you think of fishing you think of a rod and a fishing line, nope. In this village, we put on high waisted suits and gloves, to protect us from leeches, and were given baskets, we were supposed to plop down the baskets in hopes of trapping a fish. To my surprise, we caught about 5 fish which was later served to us at dinner along with rice we sifted. First, we put the rice in this machine which I this separated the outer shell of the rice grains, then we put in this simple machine that looked like a teeter totter, this mashed the rice into finer grains. Finally, we sifted the rice in a large basket, we were told that the white part's of the rice is what we were going to eat. When we got back to our temporary residence, the fish was brilliantly prepared along with very delicious rice. Kam Un (thank you) to all those who made this trip incredible.

    

The Rude Driver

We got onto a bus after a long day of cooking class in Phuket Thailand, the ride to the Marriot should have taken about 30 minutes to an hour, it should have. So we got in and after the first hour, we thought the ride was a little long, so we asked the driver where he was going, he didn't speak English. We sat in that car for another hour and then he stopped, someone stepped into the car. This man drove us to the other side of Thailand to pick up his translator, with us still in the car. When we would ask something he wouldn't even acknowledge us. We finally arrived at our hotel and took out our luggage. My dad talked about filing a complaint but we never did. The point of this story is, not every vacation is worry free.

The Talking Guy

We were walking to a mausoleum dedicated to Ho Chi Minh, who was pretty much the savior of Vietnam. People in small villages always had a picture of Ho Chi Minh hanging above their mantle to honor him. Anyway, though, we were nearing the entrance, everybody was telling us to stop recording, to be quiet, and to take off our hats, so my family and I, of course, abided by these rules. Meanwhile, behind us, there was a guy talking the whole time to each and every soldier, making them break character. Kind of making them a bit hypocritical. Even when we were in the room housing his body, the man kept on talking to the soldiers. I said one word and they shushed me. The moral of this story is, we are the guest in their country.

Vietnam Donut Story

My family was walking down the streets of Vietnam to get back to the tour bus. I woman sitting on the side of the side walk offered me a donut, I took it. My dad stopped me before I put my arm up to my mouth, "Don't eat that!" I then put it down, wrapped it in a tissue, and waited till we turned the corner to throw it away (We American are just too nice). Later, while we're walking to go an eat lunch are tour guide says that we should avoid the donuts on the street because they can give you food poisoning or be lethal. "Most of the donuts," he said, "Have been fried in dirty oil or have been sitting out for a long time. I was stunned but also relieved. The moral of the story is when in Hanoi, don't take anything off of the streets.

Crazy Man

So we were walking down the sidewalk of Thailand to go find a place to eat, and there was a man selling paintings on the side road. He looked at my sandals, and said, "Are you Michael Jackson?" I said no and continued to walk. Then my father and sister walked by him and the man stopped them to say, "look at the sun in the sky!" It was cloudy that day. The man then started laughing maniacally. We were talking about him over lunch, and we conclude that we had run into a crazy man.

Blogpost coming soon