Hello, Vietnam

In my classes, I am often asked to sing. This country LOVES to sing. I do not. Well, let me amend that statement, I love to sing in the car, while running and while listening to The Sound of Music (my favorite musical). Before people, however, I do NOT like to sing. At the wedding I attended, I was repeatedly asked to sing but declined, saying 600 people was a few too many for me.

My students sing two songs for me frequently: one I have already mentioned I Say Gold and the second, Hello, Vietnam. Hello, Vietnam is written by a woman whose family is from Vietnam but she did not grow up here and is about her desire to learn about her heritage. You can hear it here: http://music.yeucahat.com/song/English/36612-Hello-Vietnam~Pham-Quynh-Anh.html
and the lyrics are below:

Tell me all about this name, that is difficult to say.
It was given me the day I was born.

Want to know about the stories of the empire of old.
My eyes say more of me than what you dare to say.

All I know of you is all the sights of war.
A film by Coppola, the helicopter's roar.

One day I'll touch your soil.
One day I'll finally know my soul.
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello... Vietnam.

Tell me all about my colour, my hair and my little feet
That have carried me every mile of the way.

Want to see your house, your streets. Show me all I do not know.
Wooden sampans, floating markets, light of gold.

All I know of you is the sights of war.
Hello Vietnam lyrics on
http://music.yeucahat.com/song/English/36612-Hello-Vietnam~Pham-Quynh-Anh.html
A film by Coppola, the helicopter's roar.

One day I'll touch your soil.
One day I'll finally know my soul.
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello... Vietnam.

And Buddha’s made of stone watch over me
My dreams they lead me through the fields of rice
In prayer, in the light…I see my kin
I touch my tree, my roots,my begin

One day I'll touch your soil.
One day I'll finally know my soul.
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello... Vietnam.

One day I’ll walk your soil
One day I’ll finally know my soul
One day I’ll come to you
To say hello…Vietnam
To say hello…Vietnam
To say xin chào… Vietnam

600 Vietnamese and Erika!

Vietnamese weddings are huge- 400 to 600 people is standard. One of my students, Ly took me to her friend's wedding this past weekend. At the front there are people checking in guests and one of those contraptions used for picking lottery numbers. Guests fill out an envelope and add money for the bride and groom. No blenders here! They hope the money given will cover the cost of the wedding and provide something extra for the bride and groom to start their new life together. In many cases, however, the cost of the wedding exceeds the amount given to the couple, so they have to come up with the money themselves. Parents sometimes give some money toward the wedding if they have it.

The bride usually rents a few dresses for the occasion. This one, Cuong, started out in a cream dress (my camera was low on batteries so I wasn't able to get a photo of her in her dress), and then changed into a red dress. She and her new husband, Phung, are both 23. It is considered good luck to marry someone your own age.

The wedding begins at 11:00 but wedding guests trickle in until 12:00. At this wedding they had an emcee, dancers, singers and little fireworks next to the stage. Quite a production! The bride and groom were introduced then several men in costumes brought in 5 "cakes". The couple were given a knife to cut each of the "cakes" which are really just frosting and which no one will eat. Then the men in costumes produce bottles of sparkling wine and the bride and groom and their families will drink some of it. Then the couple and their parents walk around the room, greeting each table and taking photo and video with all of their guests. Meanwhile, all of the guests enjoy a salad appetizer, a corn and egg soup, a beef dish in gravy with peas and carrots, fried rice in the shape of a heart, fried fish and little cups of a jello-type dessert. Oh, and lots and lots of bia (beer). Soon, karaoke starts and a few brave couples dance in front. Within an hour people begin leaving, and the whole thing is over by 1:30. Quick wedding! Enjoy the photos!

My favorite way to explore a city- get lost in it

This weekend has been very eventful! Unfortunately my friends and I saw the negative part of traveling- having belongings stolen- but we also had a nice time. Yasmin, a volunteer from Perth, had her bag stolen when we were in Hoi An. It was right next to her, and someone came up and grabbed it at night. She lost her cell phone, camera, money and credit cards. I think we'll all be more careful in the future.

In Hoi An, we walked around the city, had delicious food and relaxed. I went for a run with Jen Cahalen from Adelaide, Australia and she kicked my butt. I realized I need to train harder because I haven't been pushing myself at all. When I got back from running a little more than 5 miles with her, I was ready to collapse! She's a police officer and in very good shape! That night we went to Hoi An Beach Club, a late night party at a beach a few kilometers from the city. I think I am too old for late nights! We got back to Hoi An at 2:00 or 2:30 and I slept in Sunday morning. It was fun to experience it because there were 10 of us volunteers but I don't think I need to do it again.

Last night I attempted my first bike ride, using the bikes available at the GVN house. It was beautiful. I live only about a mile or two from the ocean, so I rode out to the beach and then along the highway next to the beach. I cycled out to the Marble Mountains, about 10 or 15 km from where I live. I was taking photos when I saw a car pull up behind me. I glanced back, took another photo, then looked back again and realized it was our Operations Manager Jen and one of her friends! They were driving back from Hoi An and saw someone taking photos, then realized it was me because I was wearing a red shirt and a green helmet. No one wears helmets to ride bicycles here and almost no one wears shirts. My white skin didn't hurt either. I guess I'm pretty conspicuous here. I got lost coming home because I went the wrong way at a roundabout. My hour ride turned into a two hour ride. However, I'm starting to learn the streets a bit better and should be a pro before I leave!

Riding a bike here is quite a challenge. It's something akin to being a bee placed in an ant colony and trying to figure out how the h*ll it works! They have their systems perfectly laid out, I just need to figure out how to go with the flow. Intersections are really difficult because everyone goes at once. Some have stop lights, but most people don't obey them. Everyone just goes at once. Rather than yield or stop, they honk their horns and dodge other motorbikes or cars. I swear their horns must need replacing several times per year! It is nutty. I'm sure I will get used to all of this eventually, and may even feel confident enough to ride my own moto at some point, but we will see.

This week is a short week because we have a four day weekend coming up. I'm having dinner at one friend's house on Friday and going to a wedding with another friend on Sunday. It should be a lot of fun! We're still working out classes and arranging our schedules. I'm hoping to have it figured out by the end of the week, but TIV (This is Vietnam) so who knows.

TIV (This is Vietnam)

Xin Chao,

Ban co khoe khong (How are you?). If this sentence is addressed to an older man, I would say Ahn co khoe khong; to an older woman, Co co khoe khong; to a friend about my age, Chi co khoe khong; and to someone younger than me, Em co khoe khong. Of course there are various accent marks on several of these words, but I don't know how to create them in blogspot yet. I am slowly learning this language, or at least parts of it. One of the teachers at the vocational college, Chi Lien, is going to meet with me once a week while I am here to teach me Vietnamese. I'm quite excited. My students are also teaching me. If I can hold a basic conversation with someone by the time I leave this summer, then I will be happy.

Jen, our Operations Manager, said that if I wasn't careful, I would have plans 24/7 my entire time here. Once I purchased a cell phone yesterday, I realized that she was right. Last night I went with several teachers from Duy Tan University to sing karaoke. They said I'm a great singer. I think they need their hearing checked.

This morning, I visited Social Support, one of the poorest orphanages GVN (Global Volunteer Network) works with. My camera was out of battery, so I'll have to share photos the next time I go. They work with both disabled kids up to 24 and babies at this orphanage. Several of the kids have cerebral palsy and some are in extremely contorted positions. One little girl was fine until she was dropped by a babysitter and hit her head. Now she has severe brain damage and is very low functioning. A few kids also have Downs Syndrome. We play with the kids, hold them and entertain them. In the baby room, there are about 10 babies waiting to be adopted and most will be adopted by the time they are one year old. Unfortunately the US agreement with Vietnam to allow adoption has expired so the babies go to Italy, Canada and other countries who still have such an agreement. One of the volunteers, Kerry from New York, was in the process of adopting a girl named Yang (who is absolutely adorable) when the agreement expired. Now Kerry splits her time between the US and and Vietnam, spending the vast majority of her time in Vietnam.

The babies love to be cuddled, hugged and loved. They reach up to be picked up and bury their little faces in our shoulders. It is so wonderful to spend time with them.

Today I went for a beautiful run along the river, just as the sun was setting. The weather was beautiful, barely humid and high 70s-low 80s. The only thing I don't like about running is the stares. I am stared at all the time, no matter how I'm dressed or what I'm doing, simply because there aren't that many Caucasians in DaNang City. However, when I run, EVERYONE stares. Oh well, TIV.

Hope all is well at home. I'm enjoying another day in paradise!

I love teaching!

Xin Chao (Hello),

Today marks the end of my first week of teaching. Tomorrow I have the day off because it's a national holiday. I'll be going to social support (an orphanage) in the morning and having lunch with a teacher at noon. I'm sure by tonight, I will have plenty of other plans this weekend. I'm meeting with a large group of students from one of my classes on Saturday morning for coffee. The students are very eager to learn and take every opportunity to speak with me. They even presented me with flowers in my class at the vocational college this morning!

I absolutely love teaching. The first few sessions were really tough because I really wasn't sure what I was doing. Because I haven't trained in ESL (English as a Second Language), it was a bit difficult to determine what games I should be playing, what information I should be teaching and how best to engage the students. I think I have it down now. I try to play a lot of games with the students and encourage them to use their language skills. I am teaching 2-3 times per day for 2 hours. It is exhausting but absolutely rewarding. The students all ask me to come back for follow-up classes. I hope I can manage to teach all of them. The teachers are also wonderful. It's a bit intimidating to be told that I have a class to teach on my own for 2 hours, but I've managed. Each time I figure out a new game to play or a new way to encourage speaking, listening or pronunciation skills.

Vietnamese people LOVE to sing, so I've been practicing my (very poor) singing skills on a regular basis. Today, I taught my morning class the song "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. Apparently you could hear all of us from 5 classrooms over where the other volunteer was teaching. Oops. One of the biggest issues we have is encouraging our students to speak loudly, so even if we were a bit too loud, I'm still happy that my students are so enthusiastic. My afternoon class sang two beautiful Vietnamese-language songs for me. I really enjoyed those.

Several classes have sung a song for me called "I say gold". If you would like to hear it, you can watch the music video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7KuMtsf5D0. This song defines Vietnam for me. The refrain is: "You think yellow, I say gold, it's the color of my real skin, I am young but I am told that my history flows within. You think yellow, I say gold, feel the current of red river through my soul. You think yellow, I say gold."

The Vietnamese people are beautiful, hard-working, proud and happy. My students smile constantly and are eager to learn and understand. They ask on a regular basis what I think of their country, their music, food, traffic and their weather. I have nothing but good things to say about them (well except the traffic). I have been invited for coffee, for dinner, for lunch, to visit homes, to meet up anytime, anywhere. I have never felt so welcomed in my life. I just purchased a cell phone because all the teachers asked for my number. I imagine this is what being famous is like, without all the hassle of the paparazzi. I'm not sure why I chose Vietnam, I suppose I felt drawn to this country. After being here for two weeks, I can firmly state that Vietnam somehow chose me because I feel like I belong here. I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time in this beautiful country.

One of the things I like most, is discovering the people who live in my city. DaNang is the third largest city, with just over a million people. There are women in the traditional straw hats with two baskets balanced between a board that they carry over their shoulders. They walk all over the city every day selling from these baskets. I think I am tired from teaching but I can't even imagine how tired they are every day. Everyone has a motorbike, and I frequently see entire families on one "moto". EVERYTHING is carried on motorbikes, from groceries to children to washing machines. There are little stands everywhere, selling everything from bread to chickens. Many older Vietnamese people sit next to their family's stand, sitting back on their heels and watching the world go by. Most older people have no teeth or only one or two. Vietnam is developing quickly but their dental and health care systems haven't caught up yet.

I have a wonderful location in the city; right by the river. I only have to run 3 blocks to a sort of "promenade" on the riverfront. I thought 5:30 a.m. was early, but half (or more) of the city is already awake! There are people out playing badminton or shuttlecock, walking, doing tai chi or running. The running most people do is different than my running. They run 20 feet, stop, turn around, run 30 feet, stop, run, stop, run, stop and do this several times over. I have to be careful when I run, because yesterday I face planted when my foot got caught in an iron ring used to pull up manholes in the sidewalk. Jen, our operations manager, calls me "Grace", short for graceful... because I'm not.

Look for more photos today or tomorrow.

Tam Biet, (good bye)
Erika

______________________
If you would like to know more about what I am doing in Vietnam, here is a synopsis of my trip that I wrote up for my family's church newsletter.

Ten toi la Erika French-Arnold (My name is Erika French-Arnold). I am the daughter of Susan and Rich French-Arnold and I am volunteering and traveling for about 14 months in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

I am currently living in DaNang City in Vietnam. I will be here for the next three months, teaching at two universities (Duy Tan and DaNang) and a vocational college. I teach all different levels and classes, from beginners to rather advanced English-major students. I constantly need to encourage them to speak louder and articulate. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). I'll get there eventually!

I will also be spending time with orphans at the Center for Agent Orange Victims near my house. I'm working with an organization called Global Volunteer Network and they support several different orphanages in the city. Most of the kids either have parents who are too poor to care for them or their parents are deceased. A few of them are disabled, either from residual effects of Agent Orange or from other causes. When you come in, the kids run up and jump into your arms. Because they don't have parents, they aren't shy like other kids are. They just want love!

I live at a house GVN rents in the middle of DaNang city, near the river. I arrived about a week and a half ago and I'm having a great time! With GVN, I paid a certain fee (about $2200) for three months, which covers my room, board and supports some of the programs here.

In the US, I'm considered far too pale, but here everyone loves my skin! Several times, older women have come up and stroked my arm or my face. Light skin is prized and all the girls cover up to try to stay as pale as possible. Today a man who works for one of the universities asked me what was wrong with my skin. Our housekeeper told him I had freckles. He asked if I got them here and I had to explain that I was born with them. I guess he thought my freckles were some horrible disease! TIV= This is Vietnam.

Later this year, from August 15-November 15, I will be going to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to work with an organization called Harpswell Foundation. I will be living in one of two dorms built by the organization and will be teaching intermediate and advanced English and leadership skills and mentoring the the 84 Cambodian female college students who live in the dorm. The Harpswell Foundation seeks to train the future leaders of Cambodia and to help them recover from the genocide of the 1970s.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Look for more updates from me in upcoming months! My email address is msfrench001@gmail.com and my blog is erikasbigtrip.blogspot.com.

Tam biet, (good bye)
Erika

Keep on running (to the tune of "keep on swimming" from Finding Nemo)

Today, Sunday April 18, I went for my first long run. Normally a long run is 8-10 miles but today my 5-6 mile run just felt like 8-10. I felt like an old lady last night when I hit a wall at 9 and was in bed by 9:30. My volunteer friends came back from the nightly Hoi An beach party (starts at 11:30, ends at 3:00 or 4:00) at around 2:30 a.m. Getting up at 4:45 a.m. (which we did this morning) does not especially facilitate a late night. This morning I woke up (sans alarm) at 5:30 and was out for my run by 6. Running in humidity feels a bit easier than running in dry heat. I'm not sure why but I don't feel the heat as much. That being said, I still feel like I'm running through water. Usually 5 miles takes me 45 minutes and 6 miles takes around 54. I know it was at least 8 km round trip but I someone else said it was 10km. In any case, it took me more than an hour and 15 minutes to finish. After all the food I've enjoyed in Hoi An, however, I'll be running as much as I can. It's between 75-85, which really isn't bad, with about 75% humidity. We'll see how I do this summer though!

I'm getting better at bargaining, but I know I'm still getting charged high prices. Oh well, I now have some beautiful clothes for teaching.

Time to go eat breakfast, rent a bicycle and go lay on the beach with Eat, Pray, Love.

And the adventures continue

Good morning (well for me anyway),

It's almost 10:00 a.m. and I've been up for 5 hours. For all of you who know me well, I would normally choose to be up by 8 or 9. However, this morning my volunteer friends and I chose to get up at 4:45 and drive out to My Son, a Cham religious site for followers of the Hindu religion. It was still dark when we left but we were treated to a nice sunrise and cool (!) weather on the drive out there. If you want more info, Wikipedia "My Son". The temples were built out of bricks without mortar, and scholars are still trying to determine how they were constructed. Unfortunately the largest temple was destroyed when a US bomb hit it in the "American war" after withstanding more than a thousand years of everything else. The temples were built between 400-1400 AD by the Champa Hindu people. This group now lives in the Mekong Delta in the south.

In the past several days I've seen a good quarter of Vietnam from Saigon to DaNang, I taught my first lesson at Duy Tan University, I rode on a motorbike (driven by someone else, with a helmet), I moved to "homebase" in DaNang and I've had several items of clothes made for me in Hoi An, south of DaNang. My volunteer friends, all from Australia, and I are in Hoi An for the weekend. Today I'll be getting a good book and going to the beach. Life is rough.

I'll post additional photos in the next week, including one of me in my new Au Yai (the traditional long dress and pants outfit that I'm having made right now). Hope all is well!

~E

And I thought I was supposed to be backpacking!

Chào buổi sáng (Good morning),

I thought I was supposed to stay in hostels and "rough it" on this trip, but right now I am sitting on a chaise lounge at a 4 star hotel 


with an ocean view. I promised myself when I took this trip that I would take every opportunity (as long as it's safe) that presents itself.
So when Jen (the operations manager of Global Volunteer Network) invited me to travel back with her and 3 Vietnamese guys to map


the route for a charity bike ride they took last year, I jumped at the chance. One doesn't have many opportunities to see a country by
private car very often. When we arrived at our first destination, it turned out to be a 4 star resort that has only had a "soft" opening. 


Because they're trying to drum up business, they provide free rooms to tour guides. One of the guys is a tour guide who booked our
trip of the Mekong Delta and is Jen's Vietnamese "brother". So Jen and I have a beautiful "bungalow" with a view of the ocean, a


HUGE bathtub and a gorgeous pool. This is definitely the life.

In other news, I'm feeling very lucky because jet lag never really hit me. I think this is a good omen for my trip :-). It's quite warm here,


I think about 90 with high humidity right now, but many places have a/c and fans. I'm wearing a lot of sunscreen and a lot of bug spray!
One of the other volunteers who went on the Mekong Delta trip visited a city called Dalat in January and ended up getting Dengue


Fever from a mosquito. It was a fairly mild case but she was sick for several days. 

Let's see, the food is quite different than back home. If I see another MSG-flavored mushroom, I'm going to hurl. On my Mekong Delta

trip I was the only vegetarian and they made 10 or so dishes just for me each meal. SO MUCH FOOD! A lot more fried food than I 
anticipated so I'm trying to limit that. I think I'm really going to be craving some American (!) food pretty soon. There was a ham and

cheese sandwich on the menu last night and I was really thinking about getting one without the ham. I'm drinking a lot of bia (beer) and 
enjoyed several great cocktails. At one restaurant, margaritas were $2.50 each and buy two get one free. We all had a lot of fun that night.


Today at 9:00 we are headed to Nha Trang to check out another resort for the bike ride. While there, we will be enjoying "massage beauties",
the English translation for massage (but definitely not that kind of massage). I'll upload photos soon. Hope everyone is doing well.


Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo! (1, 2, 3, cheers!)
Erika

Arrived safely

Hi All,

I arrived safely on Friday after a long, but very easy flight. Thus far my jet lag has been minimal but my allergies are in full swing! So thankful for allergy pills. The first day I got here, I was picked up by Jen, our operations manager and a bunch of other volunteers. We drove around Saigon and visited a market and the War Remnants museum. The photos there are really hard to look at but necessary to see anyway. When I was waiting in line for the restroom, two women came up and started "stroking" my arm. They LOVE my skin. After 27 years of hating my blue-white skin color in the US, it finally has an advantage here. I guess I finally found the place I should be!

We spent the night in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) on Friday night and had Mexican food and margaritas. Not bad for a country 6,000+ miles from Mexico. The other US volunteers were craving it and I imagine I will be too. This past weekend we visited the Mekong Delta and spent the night at a house built in 1888 with open-air rooms (with mosquito netting). They prepared all our meals, which turn out to be much greasier than I had expected. As the token vegetarian, I was given enough food to feed an army! We also took a boat to a floating market, visited "factories" that make several types of candy and soy sauce, cycled around an one of the islands, fed alligators and held a python. Today I'm headed to Nha Trang and then will arrive on Wed. in DaNang for my orientation.

Hope all is well. Will write again soon.

Okay... so a few extra days

Well I was supposed to leave March 11th, but there's so much left to do on the thesis that I decided to push my leave date back a month. I'm applying to present my thesis at two conferences and publish in a peer-reviewed journal, so hopefully I'll be accepted. In the meantime, I decided I wanted to do some volunteer work in Cambodia and looked at idealist.org, which is an organization posting volunteer positions all over the world. One of them, posted by the Harpswell Foundation, sounded really interesting. The description is below. I applied on Wednesday and received a call on Friday from the founder inviting me to interview via Skype on Sunday. We had a great conversation and today (Monday) he called me and invited me to join them for 2-3 months this fall. I will start September 1st. For more information on the Harpswell Foundation, go to http://www.harpswellfoundation.org/.

I'm very excited about what this organization is doing and I look forward to contributing to it!

Leadership Residencies

In May 2007, we instituted a leadership residency. This position is awarded to non-Cambodian young women in their mid twenties and older who have had broad international and cultural experiences that they can share with our students. The "leadership residents" should be strong women who can serve as role models. They will typically come and live in the Leadership Center for periods ranging from one to three months, engaging the students in some project. Opportunities exist for teaching English, teaching other special skills, giving leadership seminars, organizing conferences and programs, helping develop our library, and helping to form contacts with other organizations in and outside Cambodia that might provide jobs and other opportunities for our students. Leadership Residents play a major role in helping to shape our students, who in turn will shape their country. Women interested in a leadership residency should contact our foundation.

41 days to take-off

Today is January 30th and I leave for my great adventure at 12:05 a.m. on Friday, March 12th. I will arrive in Da Nang, after stops in Tai Pei and Ho Chi Minh City, at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, March 13th. My orientation begins on March 15th, which gives me a day and a half to settle in and acclimate to the weather, time difference and Asia!

I just spent 9 days soaking up the sun, hiking and having a blast in Kauai. I can't wait to return to the "garden island". Photos are posted on Facebook but you can also email me if you want to see them on Kodak Gallery. It was a great opportunity for me to play with my camera's manual settings and figure out how to really capture the elements of each photo.

Next, I need to finish the interviews for my master's thesis, including CSU Chancellor Charlie Reed, CA Community College Chancellor Jack Scott, President of Hawaii and former UC Provost MRC Greenwood and several legislators. I'm getting excited to see what this produces!

I'll post again as the time to leave gets closer.

Two months to take off

Merry belated Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Hanukkah,

It's almost the new year and I'm so excited to be off on my adventure. It looks like my thesis will be done in late February/ early March but my human subjects approval was delayed so it's going to be a push to the end. I just cut my hair in preparation for the heat in Vietnam and will post a photo once I get a good one.

I'm completely moved out of my apartment, which is a relief, and one other thing to check off my list. Now I just have a week and a half left of work and my thesis... oh and planning the other parts of my trip. I guess I'll get to that when I leave for Hawaii on January 12th for 9 days of hiking, scuba diving and relaxing. I have my final half marathon before my trip on February 7th and my 27th birthday on February 12th.  It's been 7 years since I first started planning this trip, and it looks nothing like it did then, but I'm sure it will be an experience of a lifetime.

Inching toward takeoff

I've been asked for more details about my trip, so here is my itinerary as it currently stands:

February 21st- Fly from San Francisco to Auckland arriving February 23rd
February 23rd through March 15th, backpack around the North Island and north part of the South Island of the South Island
March 15th or 16th- Fly to Sydney, spend 10 days between Sydney, Hunter Valley and Canberra visiting friends and seeing that area of the (massive) country.
March 25th- Fly to Bangkok, Thailand
March 25th-April 29th- Travel around Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
April 30th- Arrive in Da Nang for my orientation
May 1st- August 15th- Teach at Duy Tan University
For more information about my placement, visit: http://www.globalvolunteernetwork.org/resources/guides/vietnam_uni.php
August 15- September 8th- Travel for three more weeks in SE Asia
Fly home
September 20th (or thereabouts)- Fly to Europe
September 20th-November 15- Backpack the Balkan states, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland (or some selection of these places)
Fly home
Look for another job :-)

Welcome to my blog

Well it's Thursday, November 5th and I have begun the countdown. I have given my notice at my job and started the tedious process of moving my stuff and my kitties back to my parents house.

Giving notice has been much harder then I expected because I'm realizing how much I'm going to miss my students, faculty and friends here at HRP and at Stanford. I've received so many wonderful comments and emails since I told everyone I was leaving.

I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming blogs. If you would like to get together prior to my trip, please give me a call or email me.

~Erika