Coming to America!

30th September, 2009 – It is all very exciting indeed for me going to the states to represent my workplace ICE and present at the 2009 South East Asian: Text, Ritual & Performance Conference, tap into and understand the creative economy here in LA (this region is renowned as leading in the arts in America), interact and conduct “vox pops” on the Vietnamese identity, particularly from the Gen 2.0.

So I spent the whole day, packing and unpacking, securing my passport and waiver visa numbers and video preparing of all the Vietnamese Stories clips to be showcased during my presentation.

Took a train to International Airport and met up with Joseph Hieu Dinh to board our flight vessel VA1 V Australia.

Flight Moments
• The flight was 12 hours long and let me tell you a very very bumpy rodeo ride. At one stage I was reading and re-reading the instructions in regards to brace positions just case I needed it.
• Dinner came at 10:28pm and sitting way at the end met that you get no choice in what you eat. Mains were Shepards Pie (what about the vegetarians), ciabatta roll, feta salad, cheesecake and a coffee portion. I love the minified food portions and my favourite diet coke wa also in smurf formation.
• 4.00pm finally arrived in LAX. A beautiful 21 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.
• 4.30pm – Going through customs and I was caught out to stay back to get my passport I.D reviewed as someone has reported it missing/ stolen. So that begins the story of 11/2 hours of waiting in their “official” customs checking area, denied toilet rights and looked down upon as a crim.
• 6:00pm – Released. Yes I’m free, but now where is Joseph?
• 6:00-7.00pm – major Joseph hunt and I became more worried by the minute of what I was going to do in the worse case scenario.
• 7:00pm – found him again we took the bus to Union Train Station and began our lost journey to our hotel.

Unforgettable….
• Little did we know that we were walking through one of the most dangerous sides of LA – Downtown. The side that we travelled through were the “ghettos” sent a chill down my spine as well quickly lugged our items through North Vignes St. We started to question why there were “Bail Bonds” at every corner, prison weddings and almost every walking person looked similar to Vin Diesel decorated in tattoos. We took a left and hit one of LA’s largest concrete wall male prison facilities and it had people checking in and out like it a hotel.
• We decided take a left into North Main St and bumped into a security guard officer who confirmed our intuitive fears that we should be lucky to have made it out alive pass that area because even security guards would not even drive down it. What’s worse is there’s not gun control.
• Not to mention JH & I were wearing our Made in China Australian green & yellow jersey – a big shout out to any night crawlers nearby to roll us.

So yes, we are reinforcing the stereotypes of us Australians as your typical land downunder checkered shirts, and ranger hats (Sorry, it was made in China though) and board the plane looking rather odd like Asian tryhards trying to assimilate into mainstream Crocodile Dundee, dinky di image, but once we landed in LAX (Short for Los Angeles International) we were accepted, inquired, and “exotic”.

Moment of the day:
Joseph to check in attendant: “Do you have any fragile signs for my luggage?”
She replies: “Yes we do. Is this for your wine?”
Joseph replies: “No, its for my biscuits”

Yes indeed, dinky di as it sounds, JH bought over those Tim Tams & two jars of vegemite.