I stopped by the local Vietnamese market in Akron to buy some rice, and they had fresh, ripe lychees - quả vải in Vietnamese. They are so good – easy to peel, and juice just pops out when you pierce the skin. They are very sweet, and I think I got Parker An hooked – [...]
Last week we started on book 2 of the series I’m using to learn Vietnamese. The first 1/3 or so of this book continues presenting letter combinations and the sounds they make. Then, it moves on to some grammar rules, pronouns…those kinds of things.
Last week my tutor told me my pronunciation was improving – enough [...]
I started my lessons on March 22, ‘08. Every Saturday (except for maybe 3) for 2 hours my tutor, Hà, comes over to try to teach me Vietnamese. We started by using what is probably a 1st grade level text book that is used in schools in Viet Nam. It’s obviously designed to teach the [...]
And, one year ago today we officially became a family!
In some ways it’s like Parker has always been there, and like it was so long ago that I went to Viet Nam. But, in other ways it feels like it was just yesterday. It’s certainly been the best year of my life.
A picture from just [...]
I’ve never shared these photos outside of our family - but, to celebrate one year since I met my son I am posting a couple of the pictures from that day, today. He is 4 1/2 months old in these photos.
I remember that day so well. I held Parker An for a long time, and [...]
One year ago today was the day before I’d go meet my son-to-be for the first time. This was the day I arrived in Da Nang, from Sai Gon. I had the privilege to visit two other orphanages that my agency works in. Here are a few pictures from that day.
I was really touched by [...]
Last year I was about to leave Cleveland for the most awesome journey I could ever imagine. On May 9, 2007 I left for Viet Nam - for my then son-to-be. Some pictures I took while at the various airports that I stopped at from Cleveland to Sai Gon.
The two posts I made last year [...]
Whoa! This is so much longer than I originally intended it to be - which probably means it’s not very well organized and has some run-on issues and some disjointedness, maybe even some contradictions - but hey this stuff is a conglomeration of several very gray issues. Sorry, I’m not a writer
The AP [...]
I find the easiest way to put Vietnamese text into a blog post is to copy it from VDict. There are also programs for your computer that allow you to type in Vietnamese, but I find those are very slow for me to use.
If you know the Vietnamese word you are looking for, you enter [...]
An extremely rare turtle was recently found in Viet Nam, it may be the last wild specimen on Earth.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo today announced the discovery of a critically endangered turtle in northern Vietnam that previously was thought to be extinct in the wild. Experts from the Zoo’s Asian Turtle Program confirmed that they have identified [...]