Steampunk is neither steam nor punk. Discuss.

Dear 11 subscribers and the others who keep checking the blog even though I've posted all of 5 times,

You rock.

Thank you for your patience. I have finally emerged from the fog and am ready to be my creative self again. And so, may I present to you, an industrial steampunk weaving tour from a nearby 'village' outside of Hanoi.

Collecting ideas on travel in Northern Vietnam

Before leaving the US, I had many offers of visitors from everyone and their mother. And I'm not exaggerating, even my friends' mothers want to come. (Erin, you and your mother and very welcome and your room awaits you :)

So now that I have my first confirmed visitors arriving in April (a double high five to brother Andy and sister-in-law Amber and to Dad and Jean for watching A&A's children for over a week), I thought I'd start to put together some websites for you all to check out as you think about where you'd like to go.

Northern Vietnam trip ideas

1. Ha Giang is a plateau complete with hill tribes, mountains terraced with rice paddies and tourists are just starting to come.

New York Times travel article on Ha Giang

photo from New York Times article
Justin Mott for The New York Times

Place to stay--Ecolodge Pan Hou Village

from Pan Hou Village website

from Pan Hou Village website

2. Sa Pa--the most popular place Hill Tribe area, whose inhabitants the French called les montagnards.

 H'mong Mountain Retreat

from Trip Advisor tourist photos

3. La Vie Vu Linh--in Yen Bai province, a 4 hour drive from Hanoi (much closer than the others). A Canadian friend has been here twice and can attest that it is a sustainable tourism project and has good treks in the area.

the 'studio' from the La Vie website

the stilt house communal accommodations from the website

4. Cat Ba (discovered by A&A)

travel agency/outfitter Blue Swimmer Adventures

All the Single...Zombies

Last week, the landlady and her daughter took me to their gym "N-Club" for two exercise classes--Sexy Dance and Yoga. I was a little nervous about what Sexy Dance might entail but it really wasn't really all that provocative, according to American standards. Especially when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and got more of a zombie-vibe (like the dancers in Michael Jackson's Thriller video) than I did a Beyonce vibe. There was one part of the dance where we dropped to our hands and knees and swished our hair around. Then as quickly as we got down, we had to spring back up. I looked over at the landlady (who's six years older than me) and realized we were both holding our knees, struggling to get up. Not sexy. 

Then came the yoga class where I earned back some of the face I had lost in Sexy Dance. I was the star pupil as the teacher from India taught the whole thing in English and I was really the only one who could follow him.  He did some things that made me question his yoga credentials, though.  He had us do a lot of exercises that reminded me of 1970s calisthenics. Arm circles, bicycling kicks and head rolls. And then he would have us start 'sun salutations' on the right leg 3 times in a row and never give the left leg a chance. Other exercises we'd do 5 repetitions of one thing and 7 of another. Did he have an aversion to even numbers? Does Vietnam import random Indian people to teach yoga the way they do native English speakers to teach English?

All in all, a successful outing and if the price is right, I'll be joining the gym. Bring on the arm circles and hair swishing!

Princess Bride, a keynote address, and asking "why?"

I gave my first keynote address on Friday. I was asked to speak to a group of 150 teachers and trainers at a conference on TEYL (teaching English to Young Learners). Right up my alley! I thought I’d talk about the issues that teachers face—being so busy with the day-to-day work, plus the work they do at home as well, that there’s no time to think about and apply the theories and research they studied when they were in university. Then I would propose a simple solution—to start asking why. Why do we do things a certain way? Why do we use groupwork? And so on.

I researched what makes a good keynote address—a repeating refrain, humor, stories and inspiration. I spent hours incorporating these into my speech, plus decided to experiment by adding some interactive activities to bring home my message. I spent another hour or two creating a powerpoint with illustrations to support my points. I endured frequent requests from the organizers without complaint, sending them everything—my bio, my resume, my abstract, my powerpoint and even a copy of the written-out speech.

Here’s how the speech played out:

When we arrived, the program had already begun and I was handed the schedule--a revised schedule. I was now sharing the time slot with another keynote speaker and had half the time. After about 5 minutes to mentally prepare, I was introduced with just my name. Wondering what became of the bio I sent, not to mention the resume, I went up to the stage with my speech in hand, big black Xs chopping out the activities and cutting the speech to about 20 minutes. From the stage I realized I couldn’t see the screen on which my powerpoint would be shown. I moved to the floor. More awkwardness ensued as I tried to get a handheld microphone. I started but the slide changer didn’t work and had to stop. Again. Thankfully, it was quickly fixed and I launched full force into the speech. 

The humorous anecdote actually got a few chuckles and the one British man in the room was taking notes as I talked. It crossed my mind that perhaps he was making a list entited “Things to Avoid When Giving a Keynote Address”. 

I stumbled over the parts where I had removed the activities, giving a summary of what it would look like. The clock was ticking away and the audience watched me in silence. I jumped to the ending, gave my biggest smile, and slinked back to my seat. During the next address, I glanced through the materials handed out, including a book of all the presentations.  I was hoping to gain redemption by seeing my speech in its full, un-hacked up version.  Mine was not in there.

Afterwards, several people came up to speak with me and get a photograph. Comments 1-9 were compliments about the sound of my voice. (Comment 10 was that I didn't speak long enough.) Here’s how one conversation went:

Vietnamese teacher: I liked your voice!

Jill: That's nice. Did you like the message, too?

Vietnamese teacher: Yes...Coffee in Vietnam is very good, isn't it? (In all fairness, we were drinking coffee during a coffee break.)

I felt a bit like Buttercup in this scene in The Princess Bride:

[Buttercup kisses the senile King]

The King: What was that for?

Buttercup: Because you have always been so kind to me, and I won't be seeing you again since I'm killing myself once we reach the honeymoon suite.

The King: Won't that be nice. She kissed me, ha, ha, ha!

We stayed for the whole day and ended with a prolonged photo session. Everyone wanted a picture with me.

Jill, you have such lovely sounding English, isn’t that nice? Let’s take a photo, ha ha ha!

Looks like I’m the one who needs to start asking why.  

Note to my readers--Don’t worry, in spite of the last line, I am NOT regretting coming to Vietnam or even agreeing to the speech. Lesson learned is that I need to spend less time on composing my speeches and more time on styling my hair for photo opportunities.  Joking aside, this was a good reminder to be even more flexible, prepared for the unexpected, and gracious always.

With love from Hanoi!

A Voyagette in Vietnam

I love it when my worlds collide, or at least overlap.  I have a favorite Japanese wood block print of the cherry blossoms surrounding the Tidal Basin with the Washington Monument in the background. It’s a reminder to me that though Japan was a different chapter in my life, it is not boxed up and put away in a mothball-filled drawer for safe-keeping, but always will be part of who I am.

And so it was when I joined an amazing group of people known as the Washington Revels.

I should let you know, dear reader, that all of this is leading up to the explanation behind my blog title.

I was on a rebound, but not in the way you might imagine. I was looking for the next show, as the Hot Mikado (a fun jazzed up version of Gilbert and Sulivan’s “Mikado”) folded due to lack of available males in the area who could sing AND tap-dance. I was crushed, as I had a role that involved some solos, great dances and…I actually had a real character name (Peep-Bo). One that was in the script! I didn’t have to make it up myself as an anonymous member of the ensemble. But alas, the good director finally cancelled the show and I was heart-broken. I picked myself up and turned to the internet—to find any and all auditions and there it was—the Washington Revels, that very week.

I made it to the audition with a very poorly timed margarita coursing through my bloodstream and proceeded to forget the French lyrics to my song. No worries, they let me hold my music and I began again and was actually cast in the French-Canadian Christmas show of 2008. Again, my worlds were colliding—this time my current world of DC with the world of folk music, French (I minored in French at university) and a story about voyageurs who trapped and traded furs in Minnesota and to the north.

My stage husband, Gaston the Voyageur, and sweet stage daughter little Sylvie

(In)famous rendition of Lord of the Dance at the cast party

The Eight Voyagettes

Rehearsals and time back-stage and in the dressing room brought eight of us women closely together so much that we started calling ourselves the “Voyagettes”.  We certainly left our mark with our silly rendition of the Morris dancers’ “Lord of the Dance” at the cast party. No offense intended to the Real Lord of the dance, of course. 

The village of Trois Rivières

Though we’ve embarked on other journeys, crossing paths at times, I look back on the sweetness of our time together as we shared our struggles with life beyond the magical world of Trois Rivières on stage.

In the story of our show, a group of voyageurs (voyageux?!) left their home, their families and their friends to go out into the world of trapping and fur trading to earn a living. 

The parting scene was a tender one and each of us on stage had a moment when our eyes teared up, even though we knew the joyful return that was to come. The voyageurs were gone quite a long time, but it was Christmas that made them long to be home with their loved ones.

And that brings to this present moment with me, a Voyagette in Vietnam, answering the call to be out in the world, but missing her friends and family with all her heart at Christmastime. I look forward to a joyful return of my own.