Groupwork

I’ve never seen a group that can be effective as we were while the main means of communicating was email and cellphones. I really missed the time we spent outside schools on The Amazing race and Mapping. It’s like we were really close to each other. I wanted to have more groupwork meetings directly members in the team but personal businesses seemed not allow us.

However, I think that effective work allocation, online communication and attempts and responsibilities of each member contributed to our results. And we were quite satisfied with the interviews we did. We even finished 4 interviews in the first three weeks during the project which enabled us to go slow later on. Hanu students were more in charge of trancribing and translating and Ucers helped loads in editing and proofreading. It’s like we have small groups in our big teams and we did interviews ourselves without all gathering. I appreciate that everyone trusted confided in each other.

I love my project teams and I wish we had more time L

Nghe An

I was so excited about the trip to Nghe An and to be honest, I considered it a pleasant journey, in which deadlines and assignments are completely left at home. Indeed, Nghe An trip was quite relaxing. Other than moments of happiness among UCHANU folks, there were “awkward” times I shared with people there. Times I could hardly explained.

First impression, Vinh is a fine city. Looking at its road, buildings and space and hearing from the Vice President of People’s Committee, I felt that Vinh was on the way of “developping” and there’s little to worry about it. (Anyway, you can not believe a person like him when he deliver a speech of achievements, somehow those must have been exagerated). The only problem I might think about that time was that the rich would get richer and the poor would be poorer. Then I was so eager to see all the children we were going to, as thinking they were gradually left out of the “developping” society there in Vinh.

I was so surprised when we came to the schools. Teachers were wearing uniforms (seriously, that was never seen before in any big or small city I’ve been to). I wanted to ask them but I was afraid my cluminess would offend them. Maybe they were not as poor, or maybe those were Teacher’s day gifts. From whatver did they come, I felt a glimpse of joy to make my discovery. Those teachers actually deny discrepancies. They must have been different; they must have come from different contexts; some maybe richer, but they refused to show that. Uniforms mean that everyone’s equal, no one’s more imposing, no one’s inferior. That I have not been able to do in my life; I always wanted to be notice.

It was so so so happy giving jackets to children. Although the thought of not really giving right jackets to right children bothered me, I realized that everything would go around and no matter what, we‘ve contributed to wealth being; jackets would later be transfered to whoever need them. It was also joyful to put each and every single jacket on the kids, something filled up my stomach, still now it’s so hard to explain. The teacher kept making children to say how grateful they were and that these gifts we gave were godsend. I couldn’t stop her but in my mind, this was not a mercy action of mine to the kids, it was actually what calmed and pacified my heart. It was them that gave me happiness.

People there were so poor, I heard that everytime a group of UCHANUers came back from local houses. I went to one family that had only the son and his mother. The mother’s a cultivator for hire, and she had been away for 2 or 3 weeks, leaving his son on her own. He’s 10 years old. At ten, I was peacefully spending everyday in love of my parents. I avoided looking at him with hesitance and compassion, he needed stimulation and strength. When walking around with Lan, we noticed that houses there were all built out of wood; but most of people there managed to have a motorbike. Therefore, I assumed that landfield in Con Cuong was not suitable for building brick houses. A local citizen affirmed that they could not afford to build brick houses; woods were from the forest; they just had to pay a little in construction. Motorbikes were crucial now, they must borrow to buy one in stead of upgrading their accommodation. All must have been for the long term sake of lives there.

The South

UC folks just returned from HCM city, and I have been there several times. Since I’m going to work there in the next 2 or 3 years, I’d like to write about the city this week.

There is a fact people have concerned much about for a long time. Many northern citizens are moving to HCM city for job opportunities, I am included. These people, in the north, are always considered better than those in the south and generally speaking, there’s a widespread but inofficial belief among the Vietnamese that Northern people are smarter and they work better. This explains why most going to the South find a way to succeed. Even successful rate in HCM city is accounted by more of Northerners.

Northern people, in fact, are hardworking. Women are harder than men in their jobs. And they always have a heart for excelling. They always make efforts and sometimes they put work top priority rather than pleasure. So normally, they go out at weekends only; and they also come back home everyday before midnight, when most of whom in HCM city are spending time out enjoy nightlife. However, the business context in the North, as far as I know, has many problems. While workplace environment in HCM city is said to be very professional; people point out that it is more open and effective, employees understand fully their responsibilities and always take full charge of what they do, most of those in the North need observance and reminder all the time to finish work. I’ve experienced these characteristics when I had chance to work in some companies before. To be honest, I was really annoyed by the fact that my coworkers only care about themselves and they are not so ethical in minding others. Nepotism is what I really hate doing business in Hanoi or other Northern cities. Although some are much worse at their performance than others, they are covered by “ big shades” and remain still a liability in companies. This, in fact, rarely happens in the South. People are just more fair there; performance is the only benchmark for worker evaluation. Everyone has chance to espose themselves to equal opportunities. HCM city, seemingly, is more appealing and is talent magnet. Somehow, it’s not those who are Northerner are always better. It’s actually good workers that are mostly attracted to the South.

One more discrepancy which is quite interesting between HCM city and Hanoi is that HCM city attracts more tourists and investment because it is considered more “developed”(Vietnamese literal meaning). In reality, services in HCM city is way better than in Hanoi. Service providers there, pay a lot more attention to training their employees how to please customers. They show their clients that they need them. On the contrary, most services in the North keeps the perspective that customers come to them because they are in need, it’s customers who must find them; it’s not them who try to retain customers. Now that everyone is demanding more than they do in the past, bad service seems not to be a good “strategy”. I think I know two of the reasons that make difference: either Hanoi service players do not gain proper enough understanding of what is good or some of them think they are beyond good and don’t mind losing a number of consumers. In HCM city, infrastructure are better, people are more aware of their lives, at least they obey the rules while driving; those makes flow of everything in the place more effective and efficient.

Well, I may have complimented HCM city a bit too much, but this is also what Northerner like us should think about. Anyway, I’m going to work in HCM city and definitely I’m going back to Hanoi cause what I love is here. I hope to go back to a better place in the next few years.

It's been nearly a month since the 1000 anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi but I'm still keeping parts of my thoughts for it. Maybe the fact that I can still see posters, band rolls of the ceremony everywhere, I am reminded of it once in a while.
It gave me lots of impression; however, not all of them were nice. I remember a huge amount of money being spent, more than 90 thousand billion VND, a tenth of our GDP. And to be honest, not all of that amount went to useful things. I appreciated that people built and widened roads, that they built a museum, that they had activities with purposes of telling stories of Hanoi a thousand year and there were so many things I felt grateful for. Like, constructions were pushed up, the capital looked so glorious and everyone was expecting. Although I was not from Hanoi, somehow I was proud that I lived here.
But a celebration like that was hold, seemingly, the true value of a thousand year standing had been misunderstood. A thousand year was only treated as a number and nothing more. It was like an old man celebrating his 100 birthday and no one cared what he had done his whole life. There was one man with an article I read somewhere just recently; he suggested that in stead of counting from a thousand to one till the anniversary, they should put the number of national debt there and count. Of course, should that happen, the whole country would be even more eager to see it gradually go to zero. Why until an event like this did people decorate, did people try to increase productivity. So what actually lay within. Was it truly for the sake of the whole country, or was it because it was a thousand year. Was it the heart and the soul or the face and the clothes.
While a lot of people in the central of Vietnam suffered from flood, even now they haven't recovered; some was asking what was in it for them, what was for them from The Thousand. It'a kinda sad to me through the celebration. The only joy was to see Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung abandon Hanoi and travel to flooded areas

The interview with a translator

"You can not live by this job" - this was what the interviewee told me.
He's a translator. He translate German books to Vietnamese. He had a lot published, even one was a best seller for children last year, yet he can not live just by being in his job.

It was a nice chance to talk with a man like that because he was frank. He told me what a Vietnamese would not normally tell should they know their stories would be posted or even printed. Most Vietnamese people would not go again and again about publishers (big ones) as being slow and effective, or about Vietnam Literature Association as "stupid" and "ridiculous". I just thought: "Wow, I did a real Gig"

His talks revealed a lot of thing: that training at school was not proper enough for language students to do the job (this failed me considerably as I used to think language was one of the competitive advantage students in language departments of Hanoi university possess); that translators struggle because of fake books and no one has nothing to do with it.
I remember the old time, it was precious how to be given a book. Seems like books' value deteriorates in terms of quality. So many books regardless of suitability and content was translated and published. Last week, I went to a book shop and pick up a book with the title: "How to plan for your wedding" and it said about church or things that were not applicable and traditional in Vietnam. I realized that it was a translated book. I wondered was it a dilemma for translators: to translate what they want but hard to sell or to do easy reading type and earn an amount from that.

The Gap

The poor ...

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1.03.01

My amazing trip while UC buddies have theirs

I kinda want to keep this fresh in my head while I write it so although I'm flooded with works, more urging ones,now, I spend sometimes for the blog. I have to do it tomorrow anyway. So here is it, a week without my UC buddies.
It sucked till the end of the week. Living here for 3 years now, I thought I got used to seeing so many people everyday commuting to and from work and school. Maybe because of the coming 1000 anniversary of Thang Long, Hanoi becomes incredibly crowded, annoyingly crowded. I hate it when traffic jams are turned into norms, into something people start to endure and consider a must. The weather also should be mentioned. It was unbearable for me. I think I had eating disorder. My only rejoice of the whole week was to wait and expect for my trip to the North West of Vietnam. And I was right to go on the journey, it was really a peaceful and relaxing time.

I have a team, a traveling team and I love it every time I join them for a motorbike trip. We always travel on motorbikes no matter the distance. Vietnamese people call it "du lịch bụi" or "phượt". This time, we traveled to Yen Bai and Sapa to enjoy natural attractions on the way: Khau Pha - Khau Co - O Quy Ho and Mu Chang Chai. They are amazingly beautiful. I thought it was a wonderful coincidence I read about high lands and low lands relationships and exotic tourism just days ago and at that time, I could view the life there under different eyes as I had known more than I used to.
The sight, they are gorgeous. Never in my life have I seen such a beautiful picture. So beautiful that I wanted to throw my camera away. It could never capture such a thing with its rare and natural beauty. I wished that they could have invented a camera that was similar to your eyes, operated the way eyes and brain worked. I would rush to buy it if they had one. Terraced fields were what I enjoyed the most. Together with land fields, they made adorable shades of green and yellow and brown, but mostly green. Mountains were everywhere, they continuously headed off each other, it was like I was lost in Inception where all the cities were upside down. There, I didn't want to be on the road, I wanted to dissolve myself in the clouds flying around the top of those hills. And when we went higher and higher, the whole became so imposing, so huge, so enormous that I kept a surprising and indescribable happy look on my face.





People there are just nice. When I wanted to take photos of them, they kept running away or hiding faces. But when I went into the markets, they surrounded me with stuffs. They even complained if I bought too much of the Dao people but not anything from the Mong people (different minority groups). And what's really funny was that they wore clothes from China, but they sold their authentic hand made clothes, embroided and took at least a month to finish and were expensive, much more expensive. In the past, those used to be for their festivals, holidays to go out or even for weddings.

I came back Hanoi Monday morning. It took 3 nights and 2 days on the trip and I rushed to school the moment I set foot on the capital. To be honest, I felt a little tired and depressed as spending the time outside enjoying few-people-places with fresh and cool air and only green color, I just don't want to suffer again from congestion, from unbearable heat, from people who annoyingly horn through the traffic lights, etc. I just had no clues where life is taking us. Probably not to a good place.

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1.03.01

"Poor" and "Not poor"

How can you define poor? Well I have used the term before but only now do I realize I've never used it with care. I don't know how I myself define poor. For me, in the past, I guess, being poor is not having little money (How much is little, anyway?)
Liz: What is being poor?
Person 1: There're so many ways to tell. In the world, they have standards for it, like GDP per capital or average income level per person, if one has less money than average, he/she is poor. However, these rates vary among countries. (I did expect that she would say so because she's a knowledgeable HR manager so I asked for more insights)
The second time, she said: "If your demands for some certain important and basic needs are not met then you are definitely poor" (much easier to understand)
Person 2: Being poor is not being rich (Absolutely I don't agree)
Person 3: Having little money (Wow, I got the chance and I have to take it:"What is little?")
"Little" means the amount id not enough for a person to live a good life and to raise his/her family as well
Liz: Does a good life only mean prosperity in terms of material?
Person 3: Not really but mostly. If you don't have money, hardly you can be happy.
Liz: What about happiness? I can be poor and happy at the same time, can't I? I mean there are thousands of rich people out there in the world and they live in pain, sometimes they don't even realize that.
Person 3: Being rich doesn't necessarily make you a happy person. However, a happy person needs not to be poor.
Liz: ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liz: Are you richer than you used to be? By richer, I mean having more money and live a wealthier life for it.
Person 3: Yes, I have (I knew the answer and the reason for it even before I asked)
Liz: Do you think it's a trend that people get richer, does everyone get richer.
Person 3: Most of us want that, dear. Yes, people have more money than in the past, but it doesn't always mean they are richer, you have to look at others to tell, you also have to look at the market to see with more money, can you buy more things. If everyone has more money then you're going nowhere.
Liz: What about the gap between the rich and the poor?
Person 3: I don't know. But one thing I know is that many, nowadays, is getting richer not for they have done good things but they commit crime, fraud, corruption, etc and there're more and more of those worms. We're going down. They are richer, we are poorer compared to them. And overall, even more are wealthier, our nation is worse off because of them.
Liz: (sad) ... (and mad)

First impression in Kiem An

Finally we started with the interviews. It's like we have finished four but I am not so satisfied. Maybe I am a demanding person or maybe I just happened to do worse than I expected. I wished that I was good enough to make everyone open to me.
The interviews, of course, were full of questions, questions that I sometimes I doubted if they would ever get me to where I want, dig deeper into interviewees' lives. I guess that I failed.
I remember this girl I myself talked to. She is the same age as my cousin, who's living with me now but she looks a lot older. She's having her own business, well it's not really a big thing.
We walked into her store and asked her if we could have some questions to put on our project. And she said Yes reluctantly as she was saying she was not well educated, thus not being qualified for interviews. One funny thing about the experience was that we had to turn on and off the recorder about 5 times. One time was because the store was full of her customers (I mean, students like us) and they were too loud. Another time: she was having some daily conversations with her landlord - a lady and her sister. I caught something that made me understand more, too bad those she didn't tell me, or wouldn't. Well for the others, she was just too busy going inside and out cooking something, washing something or smashing something...
She kept on telling us about the story of her life while never letting go of tools she used for her jobs. One thing she repeated all over again as if we could forger was that her life was harsh before and especially on this job. Could be? Through my observation she didn't have any free time, no one to help, all alone. She shared with us that this once was her childhood dream but it turned out no so good. I felt sad as life was hard enough for this woman, yet she knew, still she had to hold on to it cause there was nothing else she could do. Look what a dream has become. A dream or just something to self encourage. I don't know and I don't have a clue. But if someone let her choose, I thought she would choose different.

Mapping 2 - The Manor, My Dinh, Hanoi

- "It's so beautiful!" - said Mary
- "Yeah, too bad no one lives here" - said I
It was part of the joke Mary and I had when we explored The Manor that Friday afternoon. And I guess others were having the same conversation topic. Well, the first thing I would say about the place is that: It's even QUIETER. But things here were so different from the other parts of the city. Although it was also quiet, like the underdeveloped site we came last time, I didn't feel any peace or calm or likeness.(Trees were used for just decoration, you could sit down under them, just that they had no shade)It was beautiful with French-style-building, and sometimes passing by the area in the past, I did want to live there. Now that I have understood more about the nature of these blocks, it's no longer a happy dream.
It was EMPTY, we hardly encountered anyone walking blocks to blocks (except for a guard who forbid us to go deeper inside). I kinda felt pity for the houses as they were standing there waiting to deteriorate, to be dust-covered and moss-grown before anyone can truly adore and get to know them.
It was ISOLATED, I'd expected before because of the article discussed in class and we'd known for sure that some items in the list would never be found in the neighborhood and within 2km around it. And we were right, it didn't take much time to testify that. Amenities like schools or hospitals couldn't be noticed nearby. There were only a kindergarten which costs more than $5,000 per term for a child. What a premium! Anyway, what high living standard means if people are not exposed to basic needs like seeing a doctor or having education and many other things.
Around The Manor lied some unfinished works. They were untidy and full of sand. This made me think of dis-unification which is not only in places like this but also made a fact in the whole Hanoi. Buildings keep appearing while the accompanied infrastructure system hasn't been developed at the same pace. These ended up being a waste of the society and in the end they become abandoned cement and "memorable" fortress that people, some of whom lost their houses and homes for exchange of them. For no better, I mean.
Who doesn't want their country to develop, to grow but not all agree such a price. The role of planning, sustainable and reasonable one, is really essential now

Mapping: Hai Ba Trung temple

Let’s just call it The 2nd Amazing Race. Except for this time, no one had to “rush”. It was such a busy Friday for me. After work in the morning, I was finally home at 12.30. Lunch lasted for 5 minutes and I rushed to school in the bus number 21. There they were waiting for me in front of building A. Our lovely project team. Traveling to our destination (Hai Ba Trung temple) took quite a long time (about an hour) and we had to catch 3 buses in total (number 1, 9 and 30).
We arrived at the place at about 3 in the afternoon and everything was so quiet at that time. Our team decided to choose a path which would be the shortest to go all around the square drawn on a piece of paper – our drafting and “clumsy” map.
That was the first time I’d ever set my foot on Hai Ba Trung temple although I had been living in Hanoi for 3 years. And unfortunately, it was not open for visitors. All could be seen from the outside was a rather big tiled-roof house and a large ground in front of it. The feeling of intimacy and restfulness possessed myself whenever I walked into places like this. It was like somehow you was isolated from the busy world out there somewhere that seem didn’t even exist. The temple looked out a small lake where trees and benches to sit down were available. One thing which makes sense to me all the time is that if you have a lake view house, whenever you open the window for some air, you know for sure you’re not going to face a big brick building or congested and dusty road but a calm and green surface of water. Well, either you are too rich to afford one or you are living in a under-developed neighborhood like this where these water grounds are not yet filled up for developing purposes. What a trade-off!
We went around the lake-side road and explored lots of things there. We found a lot of cafes, groceries’ stores, phone-card stores and others where most of things could be done as well. We only had to walk around 3 or 4 corners to complete all of the missions. Asking seemed to be nice as people were just as friendly as we needed. And it was getting crowded when we expanded the scale.
Most of the things on the list were available from small vendors and family businesses. Mary and Kristine kept exclaiming surprises as every other footsteps we encountered a small shop. I started to find myself more interested in what they were feeling rather than what I was. These were already so familiar to me. I guess they’ve noticed that instead of getting everything in a mall miles away from home, people here walk around, just like the way we were doing. Instead of having pension and resting somewhere nice and clean, some old men and women in Vietnam still have to work or I want to say still play an important roles in their children 's lives. And there’re so many other things. I found myself viewing the life around me that afternoon different. I recalled the article about “private” and “public” and wow! Look! It was exactly what’s happening and I was like a child having its new toy and I thought: “I truly understand it, just for now. I also understand that this somehow is a part of what my country is going through. People need to make ends meet and imagine if the big word “development” came tapping at the door right away, some would suffer.” Sustainability seems to be the hardest thing, always and everyone better-off, well, I just have no clue.
I don’t want to live there although I enjoy its peace. Sometimes I tell myself if you live quietly for so long, then you will always be invisible for the rest of your life because even if you try, you will miss what used to be so simple. I want to go out. I want to swim out the ocean shores and find my waves. I don’t want to wait for it to come.

Gig: Corporate head hunter

I expected to have my Gig. Now that I have it and am reading it, I really want to do my “Gig”, our UCHANU’s “Gig”. Each interview in Gig gave me different impression and it was pretty hard for me to choose one to write about. Finally, I think I’ll write about something that I feel close to, that I feel I understand because somehow I had experience part of the same thing.
I’m talking about a girl named Rose and an interview of a head hunter. To be honest, I’ve never imagined the mentioned occupation so hard to do before. If someone asks me what I think a head hunter do, I will just draw a picture of a nice and clean and spacious office with a big desk and a computer. Applications flood in and recruiting announcements full the in-tray. All he/she-the head hunter has to do is to match. Of course, what I imagine happens in the US. After this, I guess I’m no longer that easy-thinking. The same occupation in Vietnam, if ever exists, will not be the same, or not yet and there’re so many reasons. People normally look for jobs themselves and companies seek for the talented by their own means. Matchers in Vietnam, like job agencies, are not often effective and reliable. The result, most of the time, is not what you want. Wrong and careless matches are made, this causes you to lose your money for no reason.
Anyway, come back to the girl. She was a temp. That’s standing out. Even though, she never prepared herself as a head hunter, she possessed quality and achieved experience through many jobs she was put in. But the really impressive fact is how things are carried out in this profession. If anyone wants to excel, they have to have tricks and understand the nature of the whole industry. Imagine how far they can go to get the job done. The interview took me straight to reality, not that I‘ve never experienced jobs or witnessed people did this before. But this, this stood me out. It’s like everything you learn in school seems not to matter anymore. I’ve always understand that life teaches us more than any school does, and life really works here.
I was a bit confused when it came to lying in a job. Well, normally, lying is unethical. I had been a sales person before and to tell the truth, my boss did teach me to lie. A head hunter here, acts as a sales person, she has a product, she tries to sell it. The difference here is no one produces those and she has to find somewhere else. It was convinced that lying was not a bad thing here. At least, people hadn’t been harmed by that. But only if it stops as a means of getting phone numbers or getting to the right person. It’s tempting always for a lying expert to use her talent elsewhere, I guess. A professional in this job, either is a very smart communicator or he/she can become really mean and cunning and crafty and might lose the way if they don’t try to limit themselves to good. I like Rose for that, for she didn’t get lost. She knew how to take advantage of what she had and absorb fine skills on the way.
There’s one more thing I agree with Rose: “The world isn’t about companies. It’s about people”. If companies want to keep their employees, there’s no other way than to treat them well. People have the right. Talented people deserve. I just wish someday to see the society and business world in Vietnam that competitive, that selective and that professional so that more will benefit.

A happy person

I was born on November 3rd, 1989 in Hai Phong, Vietnam. My hometown is a small coastal city and is located 120km South East away Hanoi – the capital. I was a happy person there.
How I was brought up?
I was lucky enough to be born into an educated family. An educated family, as I understand, doesn’t necessarily be a long-standing one but a well-managed and directed one. In the time of turbulence, both my father and mother went to university and actually had jobs and had their house (the one they live in at the moment) bought by their own money. That was not much of a thing to say, though. But I consider that a reminder of myself how they struggled just to give us a life, a good life. My brother and I grew up being “polished” by my father. With great care, I guess. I adore him the most. He taught me most things in my life, not just to know them. He wanted me to do things properly as soon as I started to perceive the world around me. He cared if I had speech defect, if I was shy at school or if I was lazy.
One thing my mother and father made very important to me is that: “Learning is a whole life process” and that if I didn’t put effort in learning or better my knowledge and skills, I would not get what I want, I wouldn’t excel. Maybe that was the reason they tried to send me to good primary and secondary schools. (I was grateful). And also, I tried my best to be an on-top student. My parents were always satisfied for that. I was happy as a child. The happiness of a child, for now, when I can look back and finally understand, is as simply as having someone who loves her, going to school and playing with friends, going to the park at weekends, getting good marks, etc.
How I got on my own path? How I built it and is building it?
I wanted to be rich, I still want to (who doesn’t?) and not for once since I started this desire, I forgot the idea of an entrepreneur. The dream pretty much affected my decision in the past. And every steps I have taken, those that made me who I am today, aimed to fulfill my dream, I hope. Whatever it might be, mum and dad could never interfere as I think I was fine on my own and they believe me as I do just fine at the moment. I’m not sure if they know that I really want them to be proud of me.
I guess now you know why I chose Business Administration at the beginning and I never regret. University time, till present, is the most wonderful part of my life. I have progressed. Staying far away from home, I’m finally independent and confident. I go out and communicate. I make a lot of friends. I travel to anywhere I want. At the same time I learn to be the future-expected-person, I can get experience elsewhere for my own. I had been a sales person, a marketer, a pr specialist, a leader. I’ve met brilliant people whose greatness I wish to follow. I felt like I’m having a hierarchy in jobs and at the end, if I attempt enough, I’ll simply get what I want. Someone asked me before, if there were one thing I could change in the past, what would that be. I may have been better for that. Nothing. I didn’t mean I made no mistakes, my life was so not full of flowers on the way, there were unimaginably sad things. But each and every one gave you a lesson, lessons were not meant to be missed, I even might have done worse. There were always questions, they made me crazy for I couldn’t answer, and again when I get older, they gradually come into picture. Happiness now is to know exactly what I want, who I want to be, how to be there, who I want to stay with if I have only 5 minutes left to live even if the world collapses around me :). Life is unexpected, but the only thing it can do is to slow me down, I’ll always tell myself that thing. And that I create my own destiny. Who knows what’s gonna happen, just set the goal and keep moving toward it. Don’t sit down and don’t look back. I am happy as I am.
If we will meet again, hopefully we will meet where you and I want to be. You may tell me that but I’ll keep mine a secret. But remember, I will be a happy person. Happiness can be something else, then.

What I expect in the next 4 months?
I've talked so many times about this:
I want new friends, I want to discover new things, blah blah blah.
But you know what, being with UC students for a while, I feel like I really want to get closer to all of you. I mean I thought you were somehow Vietnamese or related, so I must have known you, the way you think and work and study. Now I realize there's a whole big world I want to know more.
And you know what, we have a big big big project, imagine when we work together, and I can help get you closer to this place, to people here. I am a happy person again to do that.