This Friday afternoon, we returned from our six day mid-term trip to the North of Vietnam. Altogether, we stopped at five cities and visited countless historical sites, ancient pagodas, and various museums. Traveling through the countryside by van was perhaps my favorite aspect of the trip, as barreling down the back roads offered the chance to catch snippets of every day life(to Ariel, Katie, and Cleo, if you are reading this, you know the voice to use) in rural Vietnam, which I suppose is much more similar to what life must have been like here before and during the war--hard,simple,and heavily reliant upon nature's good graces (more on this later in coming posts).

In addition to the joy I derived from the scenery and the people-watching, my friend Map made me a really awesome neck pillow that greatly improved our longer driving jaunts. Yes, made. crafted. sewed. I cannot remember the last time someone has given me a handmade gift, especially one of this caliber and suited perfectly to my tendency towards practicality; expect a loooong blog post sometime soon on why,not only based on her bad ass sewing skills, I have come to believe that Map is one of the most spectacular human beings I have ever encountered! Life is just BETTER when your head is kept from banging against the car window like a watermelon bouncing on pavement. Also, on a completely different note, it really helps if your friends and family are musicians, as listening to their music while you travel serves dually as entertainment and companionship when the company you are with might not be the company you wish. At this point, my sister Nan and my friend Sophia Wortzel have performed pre-recorded one person concerts all across Ecuador, Mexico, Israel, and now, Vietnam. If that's not getting your music out into the world, I don't know what is.

Due to the rapid fire nature of our trip, never staying in a city longer than one night save for our two day excursion in Hanoi, I find it a challenge to summarize my thoughts and feelings about the past six days in a logical and interesting manner without resorting to rambling; even though I have been keeping this blog for a few months now, I still find myself unaccustomed to the unprecedented pressure of coming up with insightful things to say. While my mind keeps reaching for phrases such as "___ was my most favorite place I have been to in all of Vietnam" or "___, what a beautiful city!" , I know that these kinds of empty words do little to convey tangible meaning and to tell you the truth, after all of this traveling and our first day of classes and volunteering after two weeks of no structure, I am a little bit too tired for meaning (the fact that I purchased seasons 1-3 of both Breaking Bad and Mad Men while in Hanoi does little to help my lack of motivation to fully express myself). Thus, while the writer inside of me loathes to do so, for now I will let my pictures speak for me; maybe this small concessions is a sign that it's time for my dormant photographer to punch the writer's lights out to get her turn in the spotlight. Over the next few days, expect a trickle or maybe a deluge (depending on the speed of my internet connection and my given mood) of photos of our trip.

HUE

Inside the main gate of the Hue Citadel.
In the past, this gate could only be used by the emperor and his family.

A few of the Nine Dynastic Urns cast between 1835 and 1836,
each one dedicated to an emperor of the Nguyen dynasty.

A site not often seen in the United States or other countries where tourism is markedly more developed: partially ruined architecture that has yet to be restored. This past January, I visited the pyramids of Teotihuácan in Mexico with my mom, my best friend Lauren, and a family friend Joan. I was surprised at how well preserved the site was, only to learn from our trusty tour guide that certain portions had been restored. I hate to be such a purist because the overall aesthetic was breathtaking, but something about the reconstruction did not sit well with me, stirring up memories of visiting Old Bethpage Village Restoration as a kid. While I won't deny that, in the case of Old Bethpage, the eighteenth century buildings were pretty cool, as were the "homemade pretzels" and "real root beer" available for purchase at the good ol' "General Store", the crafting and meticulous movie set staging of a reality that was once real and actually lived but is no longer sort of freaks me out.

Buildings within the Hue Citadel destroyed by bombing during the War. While it is undoubtedly unfortunate that such a beautiful piece of architecture was unnecessarily demolished, I find some solace in the fact that its decimated shell remains as a visible testament to the connection between the long gone past, the more recent past, and the present.

Ceiling mural at the elaborate tomb of Khai Dinh, the twelfth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty(1916-1925). As an emperor, Khai Dinh was very unpopular, as he collaborated closely with the French colonialists; this widespread and public disfavor is evidenced in a poem written by a young Ho Chi Minh, where he refers to Khai Dinh as "a bamboo dragon", a man giving the illusion of power with no real muscle behind his words. The painter of this mural was also aware that Khai Dinh was an essentially weak individual; although the emperor insisted that all of the artisans working on his tomb, a project that took 11 years to complete, wear a strict uniform, the muralist chose to wear whatever clothes he wished, as he knew that Khai Dinh could not complain about his wardrobe when he came face to face with the beauty of the mural being painted in his honor.

Mosaic inlaid with glass and ceramic tile at the Tomb of Khai Dinh.

An exterior view of the Tomb of Khai Dinh.

Warriors protecting the tomb of Khai Dinh.
(I am not sure if this is a picture of the particular artistic phenomenon I am thinking of, but on our mid-term trip, I learned somewhere along the way that beings from the land of the dead are frequently depicted as being very short, as it is believed that the no longer living are small in stature. I wonder if this means that I will finally be comfortable
wearing heels when I kick the bucket...)

In stark comparison to the Tomb of Khai Dinh, the Tomb of Tu Duc was modest and naturally beautiful. Tu Duc, the fourth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty (1847-1883), is known for his humility and his love of poetry. While it is questionable whether or not these qualities manifested themselves in his rule of Vietnam (Tu Duc was staunchly opposed to modernization, sought to murder his own brother, and oh, 3,000 workers died during the construction of his "simple" tomb), his final resting place is really beautiful.

Gate surrounding the stele (commemorative stone inscribed with important or commemorative writings) where Tu Duc wrote of his successes and failures as a ruler.

Tu Duc's Tomb