Getting Ready & Getting Excited Part 1
16:25:50.9070000 | 10.19.2010
New Haven has been official "sister cities" with Hue since 1994. It
predates my appointment as Director of Cultural Affairs for New Haven
but I remember it being a very controversial topic which was debated
for months before the Board of Aldermen finally voted to make our
relationship official. Feelings on the part of many veterans -
especially those who had experienced that terrible war first hand - were
understandably mixed. But members of the city's Peace Commission and
others believed that creating such a relationship would have a very
healing influence.I became intimately involved with New Haven
Sister Cities about 4-5 years ago and have served as its President for
more than 2 years now. New Haven currently has 7 Sister City
relationships (Amalfi, Italy; Afula-Gilboa, Israel; Avignon, France;
Freetown, Sierra Leone; Hue, Vietnam; Leon, Nicaragua; and its newest
member Tetlanohcan, Mexico). Early in the relationship with Hue,
engagement was very active, including a visit as the guest of Mayor
DeStefano in 1995 from the Mayor of Hue as well as the Vietnam
ambassador and his staff. But in recent years the relationship went
dormant with no official activities occurring for a number of years.When
the invitation came from Mr. Anh again this year that I visit during
their big international festival which celebrates Vietnamese culture and
brings the world through their doors, I was ready. I've saved my
money, I've done a little research and I'm not letting this opportunity
pass me by! My sister, Kelly, jumped at the chance to join me in some
exotic travel and we booked our air tickets a couple of months ago. We
have our visas and we're good to go. And there's a strong possibility
that the New Haven REGISTER may even link to this site to report on some
of the official meetings and greetings that occur.Hue
(pronounced "hway") is the old imperial capital of Vietnam. A coastal
city with a population of about 335,000 it boasts important UNESCO World
Heritage sites. It has five universities including a School of
Medicine and is considered the "cultural capital of Vietnam". Situated
on the picturesque Perfume River, the city is a mixture of old and new, a
major stop on the tourist route but still a relatively conservative,
quiet town filled with pagodas, palaces, tombs & temples.I
spent today shopping & packing, trying to figure out what to bring
in addition to the many New Haven themed trinkets and treasures I've
bought to share with the numerous dignitaries and government officials I
expect to meet. The weather is stifling hot - It's been about 95F
every day and it's very, very humid. Lots of warm weather cotton
clothing but none too revealing in keeping with the conservative culture
of this lovely land. We leave New Haven at 9am tomorrow for
our 1:15pm flight out of JFK. If all goes as planned, a short 21 hours
and 50 minutes later we should touch down in Ho Chi Minh City (the old
Saigon) in the south of the country - about 10pm Thursday night Vietnam
time. We'll be staying in Ho Chi Minh City until Saturday afternoon.
In spite of having two years to prepare for this, I'm really not
prepared! I've met several times with Yale Professors Quang Phu Van and
Erik Harms who are both intimately familiar with Hue and gotten a lot
of advice. As members of the SouthEast Asian Studies program at Yale, I
couldn't have found better advisors for my trip. But I'm relatively
unprepared. Even though I"m scheduled to be in Vietnam 12+ days, I
don't have much of my itinerary or reservations nailed down beyond the
day & a half in Ho Chi Minh City and the flight to Hue on Saturday.
I only know we should be getting to Hue in time for the "opening
ceremonies" - whatever that might consist of - starting at 8pm Saturda
evening. This will truly be an adventure!To be continued...Source: http://www.traveljournals.net
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