Areas for Further Investigation

In predictive memos for law school, you can conclude your memo with areas for further investigation. Since I accepted the fact that I am back in law school and am writing more memos, this will probably be the end of my major Vietnam entries for now. I have a feeling I will be referencing the trip for a while, but I feel like I've already done the majority of storytelling that I can do without boring people. So in conclusion, these are my areas for further investigation...

1. Why do the vast majority of Asian Americans that I know here in the States have glasses and/or contacts whereas the Vietnamese people in Vietnam did not?

If you go to my family reunions, almost everyone has glasses or contacts (and some lucky people had laser eye surgery). But as Alex pointed out, there is hardly anyone with glasses in Vietnam. I've thought about this question and pitched it to a bunch of friends. Some theories:

• Glasses and contacts cost too much for people who's average income is $1 a day.
• The academic ones, the ones who strain their eyes more because they have their heads in books, left the country.
• Asians Americans have greater access to the technologies that rot our eyes. Sure Vietnamese people have tvs and computers (I even saw these tiny kids uploading digital pictures from their birthday party onto their computer), they probably don't sit infront of those screens all day like we do.
  

In the end, its probably a combination of all of these. I just really hope that their eyes are less worse than ours, and that they don't have really bad eyes that they can't fix because of cost. Since my glasses broke the other day, I realized how bad my vision is and how I would not be able to function in society without my glasses.

2. Why Pho?

As my aunt's husband so poignantly asked, "Why in the world would a country with tropical humid weather...where its 100 degrees...have a hot beefy noodle soup as its national dish?" My only explanations were that 1) it tastes good 2) it might be hot but the clear broth and fresh vegetbles don't make it too dense for the hot weather and 3) hot countries just have hot food, think of India and curry.

3. Why mustard yellow?

The country likes to paint its buildings very "unique" colors. One of the most prevelant among these is mustard yellow. The Presidential Palace, a very beautiful building with French architecture is this awful color? In addition, Vietnam's nicest new buildings are its schools. They too are painted this color. I really have no explanation for this.

4. Why do Vietnamese soldiers protect the American embassy and we can't take pictures of the embassy?

Our tour guides said that most Vietnamese people have a positive view of Americans, and my interaction with people there seemed to indicate that. So my question is why does it appear that the American embassy needs Vietnamese protection. As I passed by the foreign embassies in DC yesterday, I never saw American troops guarding anyone else's embassy. Moreover, this Vietnamese protection is so serious (or strange) that you are not allowed to take pictures of the embassy. The guards out in front have even been known to pull aside cars and buses where people inside are taking pictures. Of course I did not know this tidbit of information as I snapped this picture of the embassy, and as you can see, there is a Vietnamese soldier blocking his face from the picture. Very odd.

5. Why eat durian?

You would think that something soooo stinky, so spikey, and so hard to get into would be nature's way of telling you "don't eat this." While some people interpret this as nature's way of preserving something really good, I find this hard to believe because of the close link between smell and taste. I may be a finniky eater but I can appreciate most fruits, and Vietnam has a plethora of wonderful tropical fruit. Yet people still love their durian.