thanhtam

It’s a bit difficult when he hasn’t responded to any of the e-mails I have been sending in the last month. :-(

Maybe he’s just busy.

Have you had one of those moments where you feel an intense love for your sibling(s)? I experienced it a few days ago. Perhaps it’s because I’m away from home, but then it doesn’t make any sense. Why now, all of a sudden? I moved away for college 3 years ago, and since then, my relationship with my brother has been quite distant.

We were never that close to begin with. The 11-years age gap between us often makes me feel like he’s the younger version of my dad than an actual brother. Plus, we didn’t actually live under the same roof until I was 9 years old – so, I spent most of my childhood feeling as if I were the only child.

Up until this point, I was okay with our sometimes cold/sometimes lukewarm relationship. However, a few days ago, I started to feel that I need to put more effort into improving my relationship with my brother.

I have to at least give it a try.

One more:

• Longitudes and Attitudes [Thomas L. Friedman]

This is one of my favorites. It’s usually the big fish eating the small fish, but in this case, the small fishies unite to eat the big fish.

On the bottom it says, “Union is strength”

It’s no surprise that the airfare to Lima, Perú from Panamá City is quite expensive at this time of the year. To make matters worse, we waited until the last minute.

So far, it appears that we will bus from San José, Costa Rica to Panamá City, Panamá. Stay overnight in Panamá City. The next day, fly from there to Quito, Ecuador. Stay a few days in Quito. From Quito, we will bus to Lima, Perú.

The airfare from Panamá City to Quito, Ecuador is 511 USD [tax included].

We’re going!

San Jose, Costa Rica

I love the gloomy and foreboding background.

Antigua, Guatemala.

This is part of my “Globalization Project”.

I hope that it’s just a fad and will eventually be forgotten. Perhaps ten years from now, people will be saying …”Remember back in the days when MySpace/Friendster/Facebook was so cool?”

I had this done a year ago. After reading stories about how painful it is, I was quite scared. But, guess what? You won’t even feel it, not at the moment when the needle goes through your cartilage. It’s quick and easy.

However, afterwards is a different story.

I had to soak my entire ear in sea salt with distilled water for 5 minutes each day. It’s quite an uncomfortable experience, having to tilt my head everytime I go through the cleaning process.

And sometimes, I forgot and slept on it. OUCH!

Overall, it’s totally worth it. DO IT!!!

It is quite easy to figure out what the current hot topic in Costa Rica is. All you need to do is take a stroll on Calle Principal and you will come across numerous graffiti about TLC [the Spanish acronym for CAFTA].

At the moment, I’m trying to find more political ones about the U.S., but so far I haven’t had much luck with that.

English: Take the bull by the horns => “face and tackle a difficulty without shirking”

Español: Coger el toro por los cuernos

Just spent my lunch money on 2 more books:

• The Business of America [John Steele Gordon]
• The Rise of American Democracy [Sean Wilentz]

Tengo 6 meses más en Costa Rica y espero que cuando yo salgo el país, conseguiré un nivel de español que me permite comunicarme con fluidez. Es una meta grande, verdad? Sin embargo, creo que es “doable”...

Antes de salir de EE.UU. compré un libro se llama 501 Spanish Verbs por Christopher y Theodore Kendris. Quiero aprender como conjugar todos los verbos en ese libro.

Los primeros diez:

1. abatir
2. abrasar
3. abrazar
4. abrir
5. absolver
6. abstenerse
7. aburrir
8. aburrirse
9. acabar
10. acelerar

The original plan was to bus from San Jose, Costa Rica to Lima, Perú. However, at this point, we have to settle with flying from Panamá City to Bogotá, Colombia because there’s a gap in the Pan-American Highway. What does this mean, exactly? It means that between the border of Panamá and Colombia, there is a stretch of land that is uninhabited – save for drug smugglers, guerrillas, and jaguars.

This stretch of land is known as the Darién Gap – aka “no-man’s land” or place to go if you want to be kidnapped by Columbian drug traffickers.

We want to be adventurous, but we also want to be alive. So, next step …look for cheap airfare.

Books I already have in my library.

NON-FICTION

International Studies

• Globalization and Its Discontents [Saskia Sassen]
• Globalization Reader [Frank Lechner, John Boli]
• Diplomacy [Henry Kissinger]
• The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers [Paul Kennedy]
• International Politics on the World Stage [John T. Rourke]

History & Culture

• The Reformation: A History [Diarmaid MacCulloch}
• Sources of Chinese Tradition Vol.1 & 2 {William Theodore de Bary]
• An Introduction to Confucianism [Xinzhong Yao]
• Confucianism for the Modern World [Daniel A. Bell]
• Nobility and Civility [William Theodore de Bary]
• China Transformed [R. Bin Wong]
• The Hot Zone [Richard Preston]
• The Rituals of Dinner [Margaret Visser]

Contemporary US politics

• You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You [Molly Ivins]
• Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot [Al Franken]
• Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America [Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose]
• Who Are We? [Samuel P. Huntington]

Ethnic Studies

• Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America [Rubén G. Rumbaut, Alejandro Portes]
• Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity [David G. Gutiérrez]
• Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the Big US City [Mike Davis]

Auto/Biographies

• Ho Chi Minh: A Life [William J. Duiker]
• Mao: A Life [Philip Short]
• The Private Life of Chairman Mao [Li Zhi-Sui]
• Long Walk to Freedom [Nelson Mandela]

Religions

• Why Do Catholics Do That? [Kevin Orlin Johnson]
• Dictionary of Saints [John J. Delaney]
• Catholicism for Dummies

Vietnamese American literature

• Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora [Andrew Lam]
• Monkey Bridge [Lan Cao]
• The Unwanted [Kien Nguyen]
• The Gangster We All Are Looking For [Le Thi Diem Thuy]

FICTION

• Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels
• The Daughter of Fortune [Isabel Allende]
• The Lovely Bones [Alice Sebold]
• The Da Vinci Code [Dan Brown]
• Angels & Demons [Dan Brown]
• Digital Fortress [Dan Brown]
• Memoirs of a Geisha [Arthur Golden]
• Dogeaters [Jessica Hagedorn]
• A Prayer for Owen Meany [John Irving]
• M. Butterfly [David Henry Hwang]

[more will be added]