The Iceberg

…that Viet Nam’s largest stock exchange is the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange?

Did you also know that the acronym for the exchange is “HOSE”?

I think they might want to reconsider the name, for there are two ways to perceive this. The first being, “If you invest here and end up getting hosed, don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

And the second being, “Get yourself some dong and try your luck with the HOSE…”

Childish. I know.

Upon further reflection I realized there could be some confusion here…the dong and hose reference is meant to be a (stupid) joke on the double-phallic reference.

You read that right. Nine tons!

The drugs - said to be the largest haul ever seized (in Vietnam, presumably) - were found in a shipment of blue jeans from Pakistan and believed headed for Canada.

Call me naive, but I had no idea that Canada was an importer of cannabis. Unless, of course, you count Canadian ESL teachers working in Korea.

Nice article (admittedly from a few months ago) in the LA Times on Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay - truly a site to behold.

If you’ve ever been there and were sufficiently impressed, you can vote for Ha Long Bay as one the “new seven wonders of nature”.

According to market research group GFK (Asia Branch) Samsung is the leading brand in Vietnam for LCD televisions and computer screens while LG is considered tops in home audio systems and air conditioners.

Nokia leads the way in the cell phone market, though that could change down the road as Samsung has unveiled plans to build its first mobile phone plant in Vietnam - with an estimated investment of $670 million.

(Yes, this is the first of what will likely be many Vietnam-related posts.)

in the Iceberg’s life:

Made another trip to Hanoi last weekend - this time for personal reasons. Don’t ask, it’s personal.

Started an NCAA pool with the other English teachers at work. Our staff essentially breaks down like this:

Three Americans who actually follow sports to varying degrees (myself included in this category).
One American from Northern California who is a vegan (enough said).
One Canadian who can’t even name five players in the NHL, let alone anyone in the NCAA tournament.
One Brit (Englishman…sorry M) who’s a massive fan of the Premier League, but has never followed basketball.

So naturally, the current standings are as follows:

1. The Brit
2. One of the Americans who follows sports.
3. The other American who follows sports.
4. The Canadian
5. Yours truly
6. The Vegan (picked Portland St. to the Sweet Sixteen…hyuk, hyuk, hyuk)

Guess I shouldn’t have picked Gonzaga for the Elite Eight. Ouch!

The good news is that, thanks to Davidson’s upset of Georgetown, the others in the pool haven’t been able to pull too far ahead and - with my other seven Elite Eight picks still alive - I can still win this thing. In order, Go UCLA, Kansas, Stanford, Carolina (though I’d actually rather see Wash. St. get the upset), Davidson, Xavier, Tennessee, and Memphis!

Found myself in the midst of a Photoshop war with the Canadian. Actually, it’s a war much in same sense that the U.S. invasion of Grenada was a war. Pretty one-sided. Evidence? You want evidence? Here is one of my gems:

My rival’s response? A photo of a guy kicking a soccer ball, only in place of the soccer ball is my head. Puhleeease!

Still debating whether or not to keep this blog going. I recently received an email from my webhosting service stating that I need to re-register my blog address by April 7. The fact that the news didn’t freak me out is not a good sign, but I do think I’m starting to lean towards making a little bit of an effort to get back into blogging. No promises, though. Like you care.

Oh yeah! I mentioned in my previous post that I would upload photos of the food I ate in Vietnam. I’ll do more than that. I’ll even upload photos of some sites of Hanoi (and other parts of Vietnam), including a hint into the reason I went back last weekend.

But don’t pry.

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It’s been awhile. For a variety of reasons (though mostly because I was bored with blogging and busy at the same time), I have found myself debating whether or not to continue with the blog. I’m still not sure whether or not I will keep this going over the long haul, but I figured I’d provide an update.

In a nutshell, I’ve been packing on the pounds.

Vegas was fun, though not as fun as it can be. I spent most of the time there with my parents, who are getting up there in age and therefore are not into the things that make Vegas fun. We did visit a lot of restaurants and I played a fair amount of poker. My mom, being a mom, cooked all my favorite dishes. That was great. What was not great was her propensity to buy dozens of bags of chips and other varieties of junk food. A common conversation back home:

Mom: I’m going to the store. Is there anything you’d like?
Me: No, I’m good, thank you.
Mom: Are you sure? Don’t you want some Cheez-Its or Cheetoes?
Me: No, thanks.
Mom: Ice cream?
Me: No. I’m good.

Two hours later the house was filled with Cheez-Its, Cheetoes, ice cream, chocolate cakes, potato chips, chip dip, and…you get the picture.

On top of that, the chicken fried steak at the Fiesta Casino in Henderson is nothing to sneeze at.

So, four weeks later I brought about six kilograms extra back to Korea.

Three weeks after that I was off to Vietnam.

I went to Vietnam for a “sister school exchange” with students and teachers from the school where I work. We visited Hanoi-Amsterdam High School, one of the top (if not the top) schools in Vietnam. We had a great time there. The Vietnamese are charming people. And gracious hosts. The teachers, parents, and students of Hanoi-Amsterdam took us to a water puppet show, an orphanage in the countryside, Halong Bay, a ceramics factory, a bamboo and rataan furniture factory, and a wicker store owned by the mother of one of the students. She was great. She told each of us that we could choose any one item to take with us…free of charge. Unreal.

Oh yeah. I should also mention that they took us to a wide variety of restaurants. I should also mention that Vietnamese food is fantastic. And I should also mention that our hosts never hestitated to keep our plates full. The result? I brought a couple more kilograms back to Korea with me. Time to hit the treadmill.

Seriously, though, the trip was quite special. I put together a video of the trip, which unfortunately I had to separate into five parts to upload to YouTube. I think it turned out quite well. Have a look.

I’ll be back later to upload some photos of the food I ate. Good stuff.