Summer 2009. What an Adventure.

This summer I set out on an adventure building a house with other teachers in India and travelling my way through Vietnam. I had wanted to go to Vietnam my whole life, and it really was worth it. I couldnt wait to make my way through the countries and see what else Asia had to offer me after Japan.

We had the first day of the house build today. The people here live in amazing conditions. I dont want to say bad, because they seem to have a lot, but not conditions you or I would ever consider living in. So we split into two teams because there are two houses that we are building. My team is me, matt thompson, adrian, jamie and bridget and em. So Matt, Adrian and I were moving the giant cinderblock bricks and Jamie was helping us. We work well as a team so we got a lot accomplished. The house is about a quarter of the way built of the walls. The family is really nice though, and the little girls wouldnt stop holding my hands and they really liked adrian too.

Theres so much interesting stuff here. I didnt get to go out too much yesterday because I was realllly tired but today Kristines tooth came out so I had to go to the dentist with her. He was kind of rude to us, but in the end it was ok. So we had to get that fixed. On saturday we are going to the maharajas palace and to a giant market. Im excited for that. Tonight we are eating pizza and beer for dinner from Dominos. Weve had a ton of curry and Adrian and I just suggested that we eat on the terrace and rest up since it was the first day.

Today was so tiring! We didnt do as much today as we did yesterday. Just passing cinder blocks and containers of sand. But it didnt get me down. Actually, a cinderblock fell on my foot when we were passing them cause it broke. fun right. Matt was so worried, but it just fell on my toes and it doesnt hurt that bad. Metal is stronger than bone, right? I am incredibly sore though. Tonight we are going out for dinner then will hit up a few pubs. We have an early day tomorrow though and so we will have to come back early. It will be interesting to see though. Oh, one of the people in the village that we are working in is getting married tomorrow. So we got to see her all painted up and she looked so beautiful. She was only 18 though! Amazing how different the cultures are. Theres this little boy too who hangs around us when we work. His name is Bulrahj. He translates for us. We asked him why he wasnt in school with the other kids, and he said he didnt like it. Then the other people in the village told us how he gets bullied at school because hes poor, but he is so smart. He wants to be an engineer. So he studies at home and does all the work the other kids do. I feel bad for him. He looks at us like he wants us to take him with us because he only has a mother who doesnt work, and no one else to support him. His English is so great though, and I think he is happy to be such a help with the community.


Yesterday was such a long day. We left here about 630 in the morning and didnt get back until midnight. We went to the Maharajas palace in Myesore and visited a church and a botanical garden with a fountain show. It was about a 3 hour bus ride, and the roads here are hilarious. No one stays on their side of the road and everyone gets so close to each other. But it seems to be ordered chaos. We didnt see a single traffic accident since weve been here. We saw the church which wasnt that exciting, and then we went shopping for some silk and went to the palace. The palace was pretty, but we had to take our shoes off and werent allowed to take cameras in. We got a lot of good pictures of the outside though. So we saw that and ate lunch and then went to another shopping place. Apparently Myseore is the only place in India known for sandalwood carvings ( they told me the only place in the world but Im not sure if I believe that. Ill have to wikipedia it) It was expensive though, but they had stuff that was really beautiful. Then we headed over to a fountain show in the gardens. It was nice, but short. I liked the music. After that I was so exhuasted. My ankle was killing me too. So I enjoyed the ride home. It was a long day of being all together and I was tired of being with everyone.

Were off to the worksite again today. I hope everyone is feeling better. Im having some back pain from lifting bricks, but I took meds and should be fine. I hope everyones stomachs are ok. I think that we are visiting an orphanage tonight. I think that visiting that is going to be so heart breaking, because its the orphanage thats directly related to the area we are helping. The stone quarry ( did I tell you that?) is the area that we are working in, and the orphanage will deal with kids that lost their parents in the illegal mining or whose parents cannot take care of them. The families by the mine live in these huts, that have no doors or windows, and definitely cant be dry when it rains. So it will be interesting to see. I feel bad though sometimes, because everyone takes pictures, and I think its rude. I almost wonder what those people think of us. I know the people in the village half are happy to have us there, and the other half look at us in disdain like, why are you here and why arent you helping me too.

The orphanage today was actually alot of fun. The kids were really well taken care of and the facilities were good. Except for the fact that the kids all had to share a room. Like there were four units, one for small girls, one for small boys, one for big girls, and one for big boys. The kids there were ages first grade to 9th grade. They slept on the floor and learned in the same room. It was their classroom too. The kids were happy to play with us and were so sweet. I had a little group of girls that clung on to me. They told me they swore they saw my face on TV before. And that they swore they knew my name was Carrie because I was on TV. It was so amusing. They kept telling me how beautiful I was. Cant complain when people are calling you beautiful, right?

Today I stayed home from the site. I was feeling crappy and they were only going in the morning. So I stayed and slept for 5 hours and im still exhausted. But feeling a bit better. I just want to be better so they let me off the plane, you know. This afternoon we went to a bazaar and went shopping. It was so dirty though. I am not into the dirtyness of this country, and I dont usually mind. I actually got a sari tailor made, and so did Jami and Akemi. I will never wear the pants but I think the top will be really pretty as a dress. It was so cheap I couldnt say no. I still have to get some souvenirs for people but I dont know what to get. Im feeling a little better now, but I dont want to push myself.

VIETNAM

First day in Vietnam is finished! Today I went to the reunification palace, the war remnants museum, the ho chi minh mueum, two pagodas, and then met my group and went out to dinner. All day long I was whisked around in a bicycle pushed cart. It was really interesting. I really liked the war remnants museum. It was heartbreaking though seeing all the pictures of the people deformed by agent orange. Even people born in 2007 are still suffereing the effects of it. And they call us ( americans) the white devils.

Yesterday we got up early and we went to the Cu Chi tunnels. They were these tunnels that the Vietnemese people dug and lived in during the war. It was kind of creepy how anti american they were, and also that all the stuff that we were touching actually killed people from America. They were like, oh yeah, these are the original ones. Strange. And we got to go down inside the tunnels. It was so creepy too because they were so small. You could have never fit in them, I even had to stay bent over. There was no light and it was dirty and bats and spiders everywhere. And incredibly narrow. I was glad to get out of there, but also glad to have seen it. Being called the "white devil" isnt all the fun its cracked up to be. Theres only one other American on the trip, so it was strange for us.

Just got into Hoi An and our rooms arent ready. That sucks because we were on the train last night and it was horrible. I didnt sleep at all. So Im exhausted! I walked around a little bit this morning already, and it is such a hot day here today. This town is known for the tailoring and the old world charm. I think I am going to get a suit made here since I dont have one cause of my strange body measurements. Well see depending on price. I forgot to tell you that I saw ecco gear all over the place. If I come upon something I think youd like Ill grab it. Its all so incredibly cheap. It is kind of lonely sometimes here, but Im trying to talk to everyone. Theyre all nice, but almost all of them are brittish and they are all really young. But Im making an effort.

So what have I been doing....Im trying to think where I last left off. Well, we travelled from Nha Trang to Hoi An on a terrible overight sleeper train. Then in Hoi An it was beautiful. It is the tailor capital of Vietnam and people come from all over to get stuff made. I got two dresses and a suit made. It was so cheap. The town was really beautiful as well. Lots of old french colonial architecture and there was a great river that flowed through the town. Ate at this amazing restaurant for like every meal just because it was that good. From there we took a bus for three hours through the seaside mountains and are in the imperial capital which is Hue. We passes through the Hoi Van (sp?) pass, which is one of the highest points of VIetnam. It was cool that you could see so far into the ocean from there.

They let me check my bag in 8 hours early for my flight. Im back in love. And in air conditioning. Im worried it will be delayed though cause the weather is crappy in KL. Im ready to be back! My roomie got her purse taken first, while they were in and out of the room. Then she saw it and they returned it to her without the wallet. She compalined to the management but he said that if she wanted to talk to the police it would take three hours. THen she said fine, ok, lets do it. Then he said the waiter was the police, then he said he was the police. Then he was trying to intimidate her and say she wasnt in England anymore, she was in Vietnam and thats how they did things. THen the other girls went over to a nearby nice hotel to have them ring the police, and they did, and the police said that it wasnt their problem, then they called another police, who also said that it wasnt their problem. Apparently this happens to tourists a lot.

The entire trip was a life changing experience. I cant wait to do another one next summer. All the people I worked with and the people that I met were so cool.

Its the Final Countdown.

So the end is here. I can really hardly believe its been a year. As much as I complain about living in Japan, I love it too. Ill be happy to come home to the land of Mexican food, 24 hour atms and my car, but will miss my kids so much. They put such a smile on my face each and every morning. Ill miss my who are more like family. And Ill miss the beautiful view of the Japanese mountains out of my window. Where do I go from here? Its a question Ive been asking myself for weeks now....with no answer yet.

the above picture is my second graders on the day that they found out I was leaving. Such TEARS I have never seen.


My friends and I at the beach in Fukushima Japan. The sand is gray in Japan.


My 5th grade girls, Marin and Manami. Too cute. They love Wicked.

Visit to Hiroshima

Hiroshima Castle.

Although it was mostly destroyed in the bombing ( I think) its completely restored now.

Me with the Miyajima gate.




Me with the temple in Miyajima.

Miyajima gate. The most photographed spot in Japan, after Mt. Fuji.

The deer here are known for being friendly. But theyll eat anything. Theyre domesticated. This one tried to eat my paper our of my purse when I turned around.

Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima, known for this iconic image.

View of the river from near the Atomic Bomb Dome.

View from a riverside cafe waiting for the ferry to take me to Miyajima.

One of the memorial monuments for the Atomic Bomb

The Atomic Bomb Dome. The Dome was left as a reminder of the destruction the Atomic Bomb did. Also, it is near the epicenter of the blast. Everyone in the building died.

This is the bell for peace.

The memorial for the Korean victims of the blast. This memorial was errected years after the others. There were thousands of Korean laborers and others who were effected by the blast. Japan had invaded Korea and it is still a difficult subject today.

Atomic Bomb Dome

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This is the Childrens Peace Memorial.
The memorial at the top is a picture of a girl, Sasako Sadaki. She was two at the time of the blast. When she was 12 she became sick with cancer. As per an old folktale, she believed that if she folded a 1000 paper cranes, she would be well. Unfortunately, she died before she accomplished this. But the students in her school finished them for her,and brought them here. This monument was errected in her honor. Students from all over Japan fold paper cranes and bring them here for peace. You can see these in the cases behind her.

Sasaki Sadako

These are the cranes folded by students. My students traveled here in May, and they had been folding the cranes since last year. It was surprising to me, even the students who were never interested in school and were not always behaved were very dilligent about creating the cranes.

The Flame for Peace

Me in front of the Memorial. We were lucky, we got there before the crowds rolled in.



The Memorial for the Atomic Bomb Victims. This was right behind the museum in Hiroshima.

Photos in the Museum for the Atomic Bomb of the Blast in Hiroshima


Hiroshima was a beautiful city. The waterways and general calmess during the day made me fall in love with it. It was hard for me to imagine that, not so long ago, the city was completely destroyed by the worst weapon ever used on mankind. It was truely touching walking through the streets and realizing the history that runs through the city. It was humbling. As I watched all the schoolchildren go through the museums, and looked at the pictures and models of the destruction from the bomb, both done to people and done to the city itself, I felt a strange feeling. It was exactly a feeling of being ashamed that my country did that to the country that has treated me so warmly here, but it was more that I hoped it would never happen again. I saw, maybe for the first time, the true terror that this weapon caused. And that just cemented my conviction about nuclear disarmmament. You dont have to feel the same, but once you visit the city, youll come away with a different opinion. Without seeing it firsthand, anything you say is all well and good, but it was an amazing experience. The city has rejuvinated itself into such a beautiful place. It is truely somewhere that I could see myself living. Near the water, with such a historical feeling running through the veins of the city. Something about the water makes me so calm, and I hope I can find another place like that somewhere else in the world too.

It was so hot during our trip. At least 92 degrees and humid! It was nice to get on the train in the air conditioning.

June 14, 2009

Flower watching in Ibaraki with some new friends that I helped with English. It was a really fun day. Surprisingly, I enjoyed looking at the flowers a lot. Also, my new friends were hilarious. They tried so hard to speak English, it was really wonderful. I got to practice my Japanese a bit as well. I traveled with women and men from ages 52 - 83. I had such a good time!

6 Weeks and Counting

Oliver, Me, Michiko and Michiyo outside in the tradional japanese gardens.



Oliver and I in the garden. We both really liked the kimonos.


This is me getting dressed up in a summer kimono. We did a tea ceremony and had a traditional dinner. The summer kimono was so comfortable!


Hard to believe that Ill be going back to the states in 6 weeks. I just think back to the days where I thought a year was so long. Now, Im looking back and wishing I had more time. More time to travel, to master the language, to finish the things that I have become so attached to. The future is coming so fast,and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

Spring in Japan

Asakusa , Tokyo, Japan

Hilary and I

Okonomiyaki!!!


Cherry Blossoms


View from the BBQ in Japan
Yummy food at the BBQ

Cherry Blossoms in Shiroyama Park in Sano



My crew that took me to the hospital the night I broke my ankle.