On the way to work this morning, I saw a man playing a flute with his nose.  I guess it was more of a pipe than a flute, as he was playing it by sticking the entire end of the pipe directly into his right nostril rather than placing his nostril against the opening on [...]

I taught myself to type in tiếng Việt yesterday!  That may not seem like a big deal, but it is for me for two reasons:  (1)  I can type a lot faster than I can write, so it is great for taking notes and will also hopefully be useful for doing business here in Vietnam [...]

I just got to spend a few minutes chatting with my sister and her family on our respective webcams over Skype.  A’s new baby is due Tuesday morning, so that was probably the last time I will talk to them before Baby Noodle is here. O & C were as cute as ever.  I think [...]

So twice now during the just over two months I’ve literally had to dodge rats. The first time, I walked out of my classroom at good ol’ TDHKHXHVNV and, as I rounded a corner, a big rat was running toward me about to round the same corner. I picked one side of the hallway and [...]

R.I.P. 50,000 dong sunglasses. Maybe you really do get what you pay for, as the life span of these sunglasses was only approximately three weeks. I wonder when my $75 “Tag Heuer” will go belly up.

I haven’t posted as frequently as usual the past few days because I’ve been meditating nonstop. Not really. It’s because we’ve finally moved from our old office – which was really a spare bedroom in Tim’s house – into our brand new office, and my access to high-speed internet access has been disrupted until today [...]

When we were in Phnom Penh, Tim and I were having a conversation about self-improvement, physical and mental fitness, etc.  I asked Tim the following question:  “What if there was a pill you could take, and if you took it every day you would experience the following benefits:  reduced stress and anxiety levels, better interpersonal [...]

The Vietnamese word for nephew and niece is chau. (They don’t distinguish between nephew and niece – both are called chau.) I think I just might have the cutest and sweetest hai chau (two nephews/nieces) in the world: O’s Video C’s Video And effective next week I’ll have ba chau (three nephews/nieces)!!! You’ll hear O [...]

When I was in Phnom Penh (with Laura Stella (!)) in 2001, there were tons of guys riding around on motorcycles at night with AK-47s strapped on their backs.  It’s not like that anymore, but apparently at least some people – namely our Cambodian lawyer’s driver – still feel it’s dangerous enough to keep a [...]

Here is a video taken from the back of a Tuk-Tuk I took from our real estate agent’s office to the FCC (which is near the guesthouse I was staying in in Phnom Penh). You can get an idea of what Phnom Penh looks like – the majority of the ride is on Sisowath Quay [...]