Nui Achuuuuu!!!!

At this exact moment in history, my classmates at Carleton are surely celebrating the last day of Fall Term classes, my father is gearing up for his BIRTHDAY in about 2 hours and People Magazine is slowly, but surely, picking their "Sexiest Man Alive 2010." And I am sitting in an office building. This may make some think that I am getting homesick, ready to sit in a plane and come home and see them, or celebrate with them. After all, ALL of these events are very important (Who will the sexiest man alive be?? I don't know if I can wait any longer!!) HA! That would be false, I do not want to be in the U.S., well except for a one or two reasons. Such as, Ellen Peterson so cruelly pointed out that on Monday, she will be sitting in her home in Fargo...on a COUCH...watching TLC. Guess who won't be doing those things? Me. I will now inform you of one of the worst things about Viet Nam. There are NO couches. NONE. Don't even try to look, because they don't exist. The only comfy things we have to sit on are beds (sometimes, but sometimes they are just entirely too soft) and office chairs (but only in my homestay, my chair at Nui Chua is a plastic chair).

But I wouldn't trade anything for the things that I mentioned above. Why? I am currently at Nui Chua National Park and am doing my independent study project with the help of Mister Vinh and the Institute of Tropical Biology. My project includes the geology of the park and presenting their formation in visitor friendly language and the legends/history of the Raglay minority in the Cau Gay village. So some reasons I wouldn't trade anything in the U.S. for my time in Viet Nam at the moment are as following:

1. My independent study project is geology based. I get to be a geologist and run around the park on the days we are in the field looking at rocks. And collecting rocks. And admiring rocks. Basically anything to do with rocks, I get to do it. I LOVE it. 
2. There are beautiful mountains in sight from Phan Rang (where Alex and I stay) and a beach only 10 minutes from our hotel. 
3. We did a 3 night/4 day stay in Cau Gay, one of the Raglay ethnic minority village in the national park. Alex, Mister Vinh and I conducted interviews on the history of the village through out the French Colonial time, the American War and post-war, legends of the people and also the ethnobotany of the village (Alex is looking at the ethnobotany for his independent study project).
4. Soon, we will be climbing the tallest mountain in the area, or partially climbing. It's really up in the air. It rained cats and dogs when we got here almost two weeks ago, and it has started to rain cats and dogs again. (It also rains small frogs. We have seen like 900 million baby frogs, or frogs that are approximately 1 cm long. Alex informed me that he heard a theory that frogs/tadpoles and fish actually do fall along with the rain. We agree with this, except how would they get up in the clouds? I hear evaporation is a big problem among the tadpole population. Check it out: It's Raining Tadpoles in Japan!!!)  We were to go to the mountain today, but it was raining too hard. But hopefully, while on the mountain we will see some awesome rocks, spiritually significant trees/plants and MONKEYS. 
5. Alex and I live in a run down hotel about 2 blocks from our office. The bathroom door doesn't really close anymore and it is really, really stuffy inside all the time. But, they cook us the best dinners EVER there and the balcony is a really nice place to just sit and relax at night. And all for $3 a night per person. Who could complain??

Our host in Cau Gay, Mr. Yen (pronounced Ian) holding homegrown oranges. They smell so good, I wish I could wear their scent as perfume. Mr. Yen will be one of our guides when going up onto Nui Chua Ong, the tallest mountain in the area.

The "front yard" of Mr. Yen's family's plot. He has 4 dogs, a cat, some chickens and a pigeon that all run around this area. Plus, his 3 year old granddaughter, who was adorable, but LOUD.

The inside of Mr. Yen's house. Although we slept in his daughter's house, it was set up very similar. We slept on bamboo mats on the floor with mosquito netting over us. It doesn't sound that comfortable, since the floor is concrete, but surprisingly it is very comfortable. Also, notice Uncle Ho in the middle of the room where everyone can see him.

Rocks and the beach! It was great. One the left-hand side is ancient coral reef that has been compacted down, and on the right-hand side are granite cliffs.

This is a view of "Meat Beach," named for the sea turtles that used to be hunted on this beach. Now there is an extensive volunteer program set up for the conservation and protection of the sea turtles. The granite boulders in front have wonderful weathering designs.

P.S. Thanks to my partner in crime, Alex Greene, for helping me with the title of this blog post. For those of you who have read the entire post wondering who the hell "Alex" is, he is the only other SIT students still at Nui Chua with me. He does girl talk very well and likes to people watch as much as me. Basically, we are becoming besties who tell each other constellation stories.