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Take Me to Zen Yen

By Aliza Goldberg

The young Vietnamese boy sat patiently at the Yen River’s edge, his hands resting lightly on the bamboo oars tied to the thin, red, metal rowboat. He looked up at us, wrinkles forming on his forehead as he raised his eyebrows, and waited until we had boisterously situated ourselves in his boat. Without a word, he began to back up his boat into the water and steer us out into the wide expanse of vegetation. No introduction, no complaints. Strong black coffee, the smell of burning incense, the startling clash of a metal gong, the gleam of gilded wood and lacquer statues, seven hundred and sixty two slick stone steps, the squeaks of bats, the dank wonder of an underground niche, and the tickling sensation of sweat trickling down our spines had energized us and we hardly noticed the thin boy, tan like the twigs floating aimlessly in the ripples.

He wore a maroon fake Dolce & Gabbana shirt with a white flap on the left shoulder and another white flap on the right breast. His uneven brown hair was carefully combed over his dark brown eyes, which gazed at us four American teenagers uneasily and with a hint of envy. Meanwhile, we joked around with our school friends in the other rowboats, taking pictures and splashing water. And then suddenly, all the boats were gone. That’s when we finally saw the boy struggling to fight the current.

The five of us were totally alone--no sounds but that of the oars dipping into the glittering water, nothing to see but mountains soft with tufts of green trees, tall grasses and pink lotus flowers, and the reflection of the grey and white clouds in the water. The river was ours. The silence was a peaceful break from the smoggy chaos of honking motorcycles that defined our new home, Hanoi.

His name was Trung. This was his first time rowing tourists from the Perfume Pagoda. He was sorry he was taking so long.

I was sorry he was our age, yet had dropped out of school to take us from one unfamiliar shoreline to another. I was sorry his arm muscles did not have enough strength to continue rhythmically circling the oars. I was sorry I could not help him.

He would stretch a tired smile whenever we did something silly to amuse him, like singing Santigold or daintily dangling slices of bread in front of his face for him to bite. Otherwise he wore a light-lipped grim line of a mouth, eyes squinting in pain.

Middle aged women in conical hats streamlined past our rowboat, laughing and teasing our faithful Charon.

He was sorry he was taking so long. I was sorry I could not help him.

As we inched along, I felt something puff up and expand under the bottom of my right ribcage. A sense of relief and satisfaction perhaps, or elation. After three weeks in Vietnam my regrets and hesitations had splintered and were being carried away by the river’s current. It occurred to me that we might never be reunited with the other Americans waiting patiently for us at the shore, that if the clouds decided to burst and send down rain our rowboat would fill up within minutes. But these thoughts did not worry me. I knew I would be all right. And I knew Trung would not be.

About Aliza

"I have spent a year studying in Viterbo, Italy and a semester studying in Hanoi, Vietnam. In the fall of 2010 I will attend Barnard College of Columbia University and try to study as many languages as I am allowed without becoming a language major." Read more travel writing from Aliza at www.alizid.blogspot.com and see see her video below:



Please read author Kristin White's blog post below outlining her new gap year planning book, and then follow link at bottom of blog to her site.

I am the author of a new book called “The Complete Guide to the Gap Year: The Best Things to Do Between High School and College.” As an educational consultant, I work with students who are applying to colleges and private schools and other educational options, but I found that helping students craft an exciting gap year program was my favorite part of the job. I ended up writing this book because there are so few good books out on the gap year. There are some that are focused on British students, on backpackers and travelers, or for parents, but there really wasn’t a comprehensive directory of structured programs, or a book that included chapters about the college admissions implications of the gap year. I spent a year researching and writing the book and I found a few facts which might be new or interesting information for you.

Two New England based student gap year programs, Dynamy Internship Year and Thinking Beyond Borders have teamed up to sponsor the 2009-2010 USA Gap Year Fairs. (See schedule below) Last year, 12 fairs attracted nearly 2,000 students, parents and education professionals across the country. The sponsors have added more fairs to connect students and parents across the country with the plethora of private companies and educational non-profits offering "gap years" for young adults who are delaying college entrance.

New gap year novel aimed at young adults

The article, Mind The Gap by Kayte Korwitts, appeared in Chicago's North Shore Magazine yesterday. It highlights the current 'gap year' trend amongst some high school graduates, and briefly reviews Cliare Zulkey's young adult novel An Off Year, an account of an acutely self-conscious and hyper-intelligent 18-year-old who arrives at a small liberal-arts college only to turn around and go home.

Click on Main Title Above to Read Entire Blog Post

Applications for gap year options on the rise

Was it all a dream…

I woke up this morning to the familiar sounds of my dad watching the news along with the scent of left over coffee my mom tends to leave behind as she rushes off to work. Was it just last week I was standing awestruck in front of the Grand Canyon, watching a purple sunset over the Arizona mountain tops, or perhaps it was just yesterday I was performing in Mexico for hundreds with screaming cheers for “Viva la Gente” in the crowd. Or perhaps, it was all a dream, because there is no way six months could fly by that fast.

Need information on the benefits of sending your student on a gap year before starting college, and easy planning steps?

Check out Mind the Gap: Taking a Year Off Before College by Julie Levine, of Enroutegapyear.com, a student gap year adviser in Missoula, MT.

We’re going to Camp!

You know that phrase “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, we’ve all heard it but this week the world handed our cast a huge batch of lemons. We were told we weren’t going to be able to go to Mexico due to the swine flu. Upsetting, I know. This news was shortly followed by a new travel plan. We were trading in our salsa music for some good old camp fire songs. That’s right. Up With People went to camp. Not just any camp, but a completely hidden away rustic camp up in the valleys of the mountains in Southern California, a place with no cell phone reception, internet, or TV. We had no idea what to expect and I definitely never would have expected my best week in Up with People to have turned out to be a week spent in summer camp.

Perspective. That’s it.

After tripping around the country in a 2009-era equivalent to a hippie bus (the 15 passenger van christened ‘Ste-VAN’), that’s one thing an AmeriCorps member can’t deny acquiring. I’ve written to some length about the various adventures, the various sights, and the various people I’ve met over the course of the past few months.

Good Morning to New Challenges!

I once met a girl from Sweden who asked me to explain life in America for a girl my age. It sounds like a simple enough question but until someone really asks you this question you never truly contemplate it. I jumped right into explaining what high school is like and the build up and the excitement of applying and going to a new university, then the reality of preparing for the job world. As I began describing the transition from University to career she stopped me, gave me a puzzled look and asked passionately why I would never take time off to travel, to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. As clever as I am with my usual comebacks this one left me speechless. I had no good answer and became overwhelmed with the realization that I had never even thought about that option. Then, I met Up with People.

I could go into the long drawn out history of how I joined and why and the whole process but in the end fate took its course, along with some serious fundraising, and here I am today. I am 3 months now a student of Up with People sitting in my apartment in Taichung, Taiwan attempting to be your version of my Swedish friend so long ago. I wish I could sum up everything I’ve learned about myself, other cultures, and life in this short paragraph but that would just be unrealistic but some brief examples couldn’t hurt. I’ve learned how to deliver a calf (baby cow), shoot a machine gun, salsa dance, cook Ethiopian food, and how to get around in a country where no one speaks my language. I’ve learned how to improve my leadership skills, become a better communicator, and how to adapt myself to every new situation whether it be finding my way home in a country where all the street signs are Chinese or helping take mentally disabled children on a field trip to a science museum. This program has been so amazing because every day I wake up with a new schedule, in a new city, with new challenges waiting just outside me door.

We started out in Denver, Colorado where I lived with a Chinese roommate, an older couple with no kids, and 5 cats some of which ate dinner every night at the table with us, plates and all in front of them. After that I lived on a farm in Greeley, CO. Then we continued on over to tour Florida where I was hosted by a special agent for the government. We had a day dedicated Up with People day there by the mayor too! I will never forget my host family in Dade City who flew us in their private jet to Key West for the day and rented us two-man bicycles for the day. Which by the way are not as easy to ride as you think. In Louisiana we had the opportunity to help with hurricane relief and see the damage left by hurricane Katrina. Then in Texas I will never forget the amazing times I had driving through the forest on a moped with Gregor from Germany and Johanes from Ethiopia beside me. It was a huge change when we got to Taiwan and met my host family who barely spoke a full sentence in English but that week in Taipai was unforgettable. Hiking up those mountains to find the hot springs and going to the top of the highest building in the world, Taipei 101 is something that is ingrained in my mind forever. As I finally get the chance to write all these experience out its almost surreal to read them myself. I never imagined my life leading me here but it has and I wouldn’t trade my gap year with Up with Poeple for anything else in the world.

Stay tuned for all the new challenges waiting for me as I say “Zi-chen” to Taiwan and “Hola” to Mexico!

I’m writing from Porter, TX, where Shuffle Round’s Water 3 has spent the past few weeks doing analyses of the remaining damages done by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav to Liberty and Montgomery Counties. Whenever possible, we follow up these analyses by repairing those damages. This has included debris removal, the uncovering and subsequent recycling of a former boat that now resembled a pancake more than anything capable of traversing water, and installing FEMA blue-roofs.