the constitutive other.

Years ago my father would always say on the car ride to some destination, "không có người sấu thì làm sao biết được người tốt?", which loosely translates to the inability to identify a moral person unless present is an immoral. In society today, language, linguistics, lexicon, which are essentially one of the same, help individuals identity our surroundings and ascribe understanding to situations that exist before us. Often times it is this dichotomy of good versus evil which individuals look upon to forge this understanding. But by viewing our surroundings in such a dual way, a chunk of grey, the ham and cheese of the ham and cheese sandwich, is left out. But this claim of constitution is an interesting one.

What is man? Can we define man without defining woman? What is beautiful? Can we define beautiful if we do not know what is ugly? These questions can be asked the opposite way likewise. The ways in which we use to identify what is man is dependent on what is not man; woman. Thus, we must look at the qualities which fail to describe man in the forging of a woman's identity. What is for one identity is a consequence of what is not for the other. Thus we can view dichotomies such as this as co-constitutive. What derives from this idea of man and woman is the applications of masculinity and femininity. Although these are different dichotomized ideas, they often run parallel to one another. Man; strong, protector, breadwinner, leader. Woman; fragile, protected, housewife, supporter. Now does that not sound awfully familiar? Why it should!, because that's how the world, well America (damn the ethnocentric thinking!), views it.

The problem of this dualism of man-woman and masculine-feminine fails to recognize the possibilities of man-feminine, woman-masculine. Without a reasonable doubt, in society there exists individuals who possess both masculine and feminine traits, but such a dichotomized stereotype/label denies the recognition of these possibilities. Essentially, this idea can be seen with any dichotomies existing in society today. Viewing a woman as either gorgeous or heinous leaves out all the cute girls! (reference from picture above)

Qúy Hạc

Top ten things I miss about Viet Nam.

10. Pho Cuon
I was introduced to this meal by word of mouth. Many of the other students in Hanoi told me that Pho Cuon is delicious, and that I must try it! So I did, and I became addicted. Not only is it healthy, it really hits the spot. I miss my attempts to stay fit by eating these delicious treats on some days for lunch. "Chi cho em nam cai pho cuon". Oh I miss you so!

9. Bargaining
Although I often felt bad bargaining with the locals because I actually could afford their upped prices, I nonetheless engaged in this sport. It is not like you are disrespecting them or trying to rip them off, but you're trying to not let them rip you off. It is somewhat of a compromise. Being a Viet Kieu, I know I will not get the local price, and know that their first price is completely inflated. It somewhat reminds me of playing tag when you're little--tag with only two people--except this is just using words instead of arms. "Oi doi oi, 30 nhin thoi, em la sinh vien thoi ma chi, em khong co nhieu tien dau!"

8. Toilet Pub, Balcony Bar, and Dragonfly.

These three spots were where basically everyone of us went, on a constant basis. Prior to Viet Nam, never have I really hit the bar/club scene, mainly because I have prejudices against the ones in Chicago--maybe too showy, too flashy for me. But in Hanoi, these spots are very different from the assumptions I have of the clubs in Chicago. I miss sweating my ass off on the tiny dance floor at toilet, and just chilling and talking to the workers at Balcony--Anh Phuc, Dung, Hoan, and the Smirnoff girl! I also miss the good times spent with good company at Dragonfly. The wonderful battles of foosball with the group. I think Jimmy and Brenda were the top dogs.

Paris of North America.

Spring break is just around the corner--two months away--and I have decided that this year I want to treat myself to something nice. My good friend Kevin is studying in Paris, France now, and on STA Travel, they had some deal for 500$. But in further investigating that deal, it turns out to be false advertisement. Essentially, I am too poor to actually go to Paris, so I have decided to go to the Paris in North America. Or its official name--Montreal. I do not think that Montreal is actually referred to as the Paris of North America though, but it is a French speaking city, so why not!? The main reason why I am living at home is because I want to save some extra green to fulfill the desires of travelling. It is somewhat like a cigarette, or McDonald's, or even Lay's potato chips. Once you smoke or eat one, you just can't stop (that is unless you have a very strong will, which I do not).

I looked at prices and it comes to about 333$ after taxes. I suppose that is not too bad considering that would have been a little less than one month of living in the city. I am thinking four to five days there. I really know nothing about Montreal except for the fact that it is very representative of what a European city may look like, one in France. I have yet to step foot in Europe, so this is somewhat of a little preview, just like those Apple movie trailers. Here are some pictures stolen from lonely planet's image gallery for Montreal.



See you in March, Montreal.
(kevin, does this look like paris to you at all?)

english, the common language.

There was a sign in Thailand which I saw while I was over there this past summer. It said, "English is the language of the future". I somewhat laughed at the sign at the time, but after yesterday, it just might be true. It is an international language--people of different countries all use English to communicate with one another. Yesterday I went over to Judy's studio in boystown to enjoy some time with her and her international friends. As I arrived, I learned it was a celebration of her being single. South Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, and Malaysia are the locations these folks are from. Of course, English stood as the common language.

I arrived at ten past nine and Terry and Kweon were there already drinking and playing a card game. I joined in. The game they were engaged in entailed absolutely no usage of the brain. The rules:

Each person goes around, counting from 1-#. The cards are divided into the # of players, in this case, 4 people. The players go around placing their cards in the middle. If the card coincides the number you count, then everyone must try to slap the pile of cards. The last person to slap must take the cards. The first person to have no cards left wins.



We switched to circle of death after Carlos arrived. Playing that game gets one drunk fast. We were all pretty drunk after one round of that game. Jootsie, Smoonie, and her boyfriend showed up a little after that with their Malaysian mahjong set. I know how to play Vietnamese style mahjong, and thought that Malaysian would be the same, but in this version, half of the tiles are missing, and along with the flower tiles, there are animals & humans ones as well. To win, you must have four sets of 3--either three of a kind or a three number straight--and a pair. Beginners luck for me, I won the first round. Following this spectacular game, we engaged in truth or dare. As always, sexual topics are inevitable. We ended the night with a dare, where we all had to participate. You suck a playing card in with your breath, and pass it to the next person and they suck in their air, trying to keep the card above ground. After one full circle, it ends. Of course, because our lungs aren't that strong, the card fell multiple times on the switch. I left at around 2:30 AM. Hope your new days as being single goes well Judy!!




Slept at Steve Tran's apartment dorm at around 5:30. It was nice catching up and what not. This morning I awoke at 9:30 and headed to the metra soon after that. On the way to the train, a stand on Roosevelt caught my eye. It was a food stand!! Oh My Lord, a food stand on the street in CHICAGO!?? It reminded me so much of Viet Nam, but they were selling Mexican food. Of course, I had to purchase something, just to relive that feeling of buying some street food. It didn't exactly feel the same though because snow was falling from the sky. That somewhat changes the level of enjoyment of eating street food. Too cold!



Well, that sums up my weekend.