No, i'm not in the Australian outback. I'm just in the down under in
California.... here in Garden Grove in the super conservative Orange
County. Bumping to 'Los De Abajo' (the Underdogs) - a mexican punk/ska
fusion with traditional latin upbeat/mariachi on this afternoon of
another new year.

Sitting beside me is my love Lan Anh. We havn't been on a computer
much, but were happy to listen to some tunes on Lan Anh's cousins'
laptop. We are staying with her aunt down here in a predominantly
Vietnamese community. The food is awesome, hehe, but the area itself
is not very impressive.

We came here to visit Lan Anh's aunt and check out Los Angeles proper,
and traveled by train from my mother's house. Christmas was very
enjoyable, though Sacramento is certainly boring unless you have a car
or a friend with a car. Well, you can get around, it just takes so
damn long. People just keep living to live.... like much of the Garden
Grove area, the suburbs surrounding Sacramento and even much of the
city itself is just strip mall after strip mall of mega corporations.
Luckily we came for the people and not the place.

Indeed.

We were happy to meet up with Mitu Doshi, a darling woman :-P. The
three of us braved ther monsoon like rain unseen before in this area
that any one can recall (Mitu thinks it is due to climate changes from
environmental pollution, I think that LA just wanted to give Mitu a
taste of home. Ok, ok, actually it was Lan Anh's idea.) but yeah, it
was raining quite ferociously yesterday and a few days ago.t did not
keep us away!!!!! Hazah!!!

Yeah we visited museums 2 days in a row. First the Armand Hammer
museum - which I thought had some impressive artwork - but was overall
not an impressive museum in my opinion (seconded by Lan Anh) - though
my fav. painting was a very political one depicting helicopters above
baghdad taking away the broken statue of Saddam Hussein. It was done
by an artist from Berkeley - Mari Eastman (according to Lan Anh, I
wouldnt know, i have a hard time remembering artists).

So yesterday we treked around UCLA - which seems like a pretty decent
(though expensive) place to hang out. We thought we'd escape the rain
by watching the Phantom of the Opera - but after some cheap mexican
food and some yummy hot chocolate the sun came out and graced us with
some nice walking (or bus finding rather) weather.

yeah the buses. We spent like 4 hours on buses just to get around the
city. But it was cool because we could talk on the bus. Lan Anh kept
taking a nap on my shoulder as she chimes in (she is awake now and
being a backseat writter, but hey, why not??? :-P). Annnnyyyy how....
we went to the Tar Pits - which were jus smelly and more of a kid
thing. Not worth it in my opinion. But then again, we were just at the
gates, we didnt actually go inside the museum. Hmmm....

Well yesterday we also went to a VERY COOL museum (Mitu's
recomendation) the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). There were many
buildings - we didn't get to finish them. My personal favorite was the
art from ancient civilizations - from Greece, Rome, Persia, India,
etc... Lan Anh enjoyed pretty much all of them but the contemporary
modern art in particular. She seemed to have a great time reading
about conceptualism, cubism and all those art forms. She thinks the
European crafts revolution as the response to the industrial
revolution was quite interesting. She had a coolest idea to making a
cute little blue purple pot for multi-use ( te,i, water container
j/k) for me when she has a chance to learn pottery hehehe.)

Oh oh oh!! Michael la con heo con luoi nhu hui heheh. So now lan anh
makes him type.

Yeah yeah, that was the cutie herself stealing lap top from me to type.

Mitu gave a very impressive and cool tour of the Indian art as well as
regaled us with the stories as well as other factoids and things both
of us didn't know about religions in India. For example the story of
Ganesha, who was named Nandi - the son of Parvati (one of Shiva's
wives) who was created from her dirt. So she wanted Nandi to guard her
while she was bathing, to not let any one in, including her Husband.
But he tried to go in and cut off Nandi's head.... and Parvati made
Shiva made him find the first living thing and take its head to
replace Nandi's - which was an elephants head. So there you go, and if
you want to read more, here you are:
http://www.webonautics.com/mythology/ganesha.html

Of course, as Mitu is quick to point it, this is Hindu mythology - her
family is part of the teachings of jainism - which is completely
different. Her name is very unique. Maitreyi is her full first name.
It is named after one of the two women who defied traditions and
customs of male dominance that excluded women from education, long
ago. It is a very feminist name, which is pretty cool and we think
fits Mitu very well. Lan Anh thinks it is a very beautiful name for a
feminist and cant wait to share the story at her Women's Center.

Hahaha.

I have enjoyed learning more Vietnamese here. The first day Lan Anh
and I were sleeping and her aunt came home from work, she had not seen
us yet, and I was the first to wake up. I immediately greeted her in
vietnamese and her aunt thought I was fluent and started rattling off
so fast and so much and I some how managed to respond with whatever I
know, waking up Lan Anh in the process. Her little cousin and she got
a good laugh at me ;-). so yeah, I also surprised Lan Anh's mother by
speaking with her on the phone. Just very simple stuff, you know, how
is the weather, how is the family, it is cold here, etc.

Well we slept in very late today. And now its time to go EEEEEEEEAT.
ok ok, Lan Anh wants me to write some vietnamese propoganda....

The foooooooooooood (ok its not propoganda, heh).

Food is so tasty - Goi Cuon which is traditional spring rolls is so
tasty....they taught me how to make it, wooohooo and nem - which are
more like egg rolls but much tastier is my favorite. Lan Anh's
favorite is 'bun mang thit vit' (bamboo and duck noodle soup) and she
tried to eat it every thing!!!

OH YEAH, a very part of last night was that it took us like an hour
and a half of bus hoping to find a restaurant. I was too picky and the
prices to steep and most of the food was not vegetarian (which Mitu
is). And then we saw it: 'VegiBite - Korean food' at the tail end of
Korean town in downtown LA.... it was a buffet of all veggie food. We
were so hungry and the food so good, so we ate toooo much and had to
roll out ;-).

ok, now its time to go eat, LOL.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - PROPERO NUEVO ANO - CHUC MUNG NAM MOI!!!!!