So, China

China, why in the world would you go to China? well, would you turn down a $750 plane ticket to China? think about it.

As many of you know I am extremely excited about traveling and any opportunity I have to spend outside the United States I will jump at. So when I found that plane ticket to China for $750 I couldn't turn it down. (backstory, I have been wanting to travel as a means of income since I have returned from my trip to Vietnam in June) On top of the super cheap plane ticket, I was able to sell my old desktop computer, a set of PA speakers, save up about 3 paychecks, and on top of all this, I'm gonna be doing a lot of couch surfing to get free housing (spending time in hostels when I can't find a couch to crash). Basically I'm going to be traveling on the cheap so even though I'm going with a decent amount of backup cash, I'm hoping to use that mostly for larger scale travel in country (bus to Beijing etc.)

What am I going to be doing in China? well here's a bullet point list of what I'm hoping to do
1. spend some time in solitude (I've been needing a weekend, month, extended period of time meditating on God's word and praying
2. experience the world, travel, explore
3. take pictures
4. run a blog/build a community
5. do something really awesome that hopefully will lead to work outside of a typical 9-5
6. figure out how to get to the rest of Asia
7. build connections in China
8. visit a true underground church
9. needed a 9th point
10. attend the UBC (ultimate Barista competition)  

mainly this is my adventurer side of me going out in the world to explore.

you can follow all of my travels by liking my Facebook page mission possible
travel blog can be found at www.missonpossible.wordpress.com (I know I spelled mission wrong in the URL, didn't realize that until later :p)

Sidenotes:
1: seeing as Facebook is blocked in China I will do my best to post, though I might need to setup a person state side to post things for me on the mission possible facebook page (regardless, there will be posts)

2: China is a communist country, Christianity is very much not liked (like can be thrown in prison not liked) therefore, any info on me visiting a underground church, having opportunities to share the gospel, etc. most likely will not be spoken of until I am safely back state side. (this also means mentioning praying for me on a blog post could potentially get me in trouble as the government will be watching everything

I think that answers everything about the trip, if you have any other questions feel free to ask me.

final note
I'm going to have a ton of down time to spend praying, if you have anything you need prayer for ANYTHING, seriously, message me, email brandon.goodyear17@gmail.com, tweet @brandong17, post on the page, comment on this post, carrier pigeon, come up and personally talk to me (I'm carrying a notebook to write this stuff down)

Ok, for reals this time
until next time
Brandon Goodyear

Define: "home"

approximately two years ago (ok, so we're a couple month off, but let's ignore that right now) I wrote a somewhat organized blog post about my trip to Cambodia to bring speechless to the Cambodian people. Well, it was sort of about the trip, the main point about the blog post was the conflict that I faced when I returned home after our 12 days in Cambodia.

back then the challenge was returning was starting down the new road that lay ahead of me (recently graduating high school). I had my friends that I wanted to stay in contact with, figure out how I was going to get a job, which school I was deciding to go to, etc. etc.

fast forward a few years (to today) I've just returned from a trip (about 4.5 days short of a month) to Vietnam and Cambodia. This time around I'm returning to jobs (barista at Kéan coffee, part time freelance photographer, internship at post production studio) bills, and still figuring out what I'm going to be doing in my future. To clear some things up, school is looking like it's not going to be happening (unless a few million dollars fall into my lap and I am a complete failure at finding a decent career) I've decided to learn on my own because I don't have the money for school, and don't want to bother with figuring out the scholarship/student loan path (also don't want to have to pay off a student loan)

ok, baseline stuff aside, I've been trying to figure out exactly where I'm going to be going forward from now (the main concern is how am I going to fund all my grand plans). When I returned from this trip the biggest thing that is harder for me to get used to is being home, I'm so ready to be back over seas. Whether it's going back to the countries I know like Vietnam and Cambodia, or whether it's going to new places, there's this strange feeling that even though this house I'm living in has been my home for the past 12 years I feel that I left my home behind when I got on the plane to come back "home". It feels so natural being over there, people act like people should, kind, serving, always smiling.

I think the main reason for feeling like I was leaving my home is the relationships I have built up over the past 5 years of visiting Cambodia. It's really hard for me to explain all of the different feelings that are running through my head but it's like running through a ridiculously long roller coaster with no apparent beginning or end.

In the long run, it's really a challenge for me to accept the fact that this is my home, I really would like to go back, and spend all the time I can traveling the world while I'm young. Please pray that God makes it apparent where I'm supposed to go and how I'm supposed to get there

well, I can blog from half way around the world (because there were people interested in what I was doing) now lets see if I can keep it up while I'm back on US soil

until next time
Soli Deo Gloria
Brandon Goodyear

They still speak a language I don't understand

Having two days since we finished our last English class, it still seems to be a bit on the not quite real track. Our last day in Saigon was an awesome way to finish the trip, we started out the morning by going to a Vietnamese church (it was nice, they had a translator). We got to experience something pretty cool, there were 3 families that were dedicating their children to God, as well as a family of 6 Accepting Christ for the first time. =) Either the preacher talked a little bit too fast for the translator or the translator got caught up in the sermon because the translator would stop for a few seconds, then stutter in translation. 

After morning church we stopped at the hotel to get ready for some shopping at the central market. This market was very similar to the central market I've visited in Cambodia, lots of shirts, clothes, shoes, jewelry, food etc. I got a pretty good deal on some dresses, and an absolutely horrible deal on some "tom's" breaks even right? Didn't evaluate my assets and missed this opportunity to buy a ton of souvenirs, so I'm gonna have to get stuff in Cambodia (mainly cause it's cheaper). With our shopping itch fulfilled and bags stuffed to the bursting point, we stopped for a taste of home at the coffee bean, enjoying some shakes and air conditioning we caught our breath. We decided to head back to the hotel and rest up before we headed out for dinner. While the rest of the team was relaxing at the hotel Tuan (our local connection) and I borrowed the hotel's motorcycle and went out for a ride around the city (of course I brought my camera, took about 32GB of video). While we were on the far side of the city we pulled up to a moto repair shop, turns out it's Tuan's mother's house/repair shop. His sister runs the repair shop. Right across the street from the shop was a small market, we walked around a bit to see the market, then hopped back on the moto to take the tunnel under the river back into the city.

Our last dinner was quite enjoyable, I got to finally have some Phó (we had some once, but not on a regular basis). After dinner we went out to get some ice cream for a cold treat on the town. Following this I headed out with Tuan again on the moto, this time to a bridge on the edge of the city to get some awesome photos of the city lights at night.

We got all our bags packed then headed off to sleep, we have a long day of traveling ahead of us (the team heading home).

Breakfast was delicious as usual (got to have Phó again ^_^) packed our bags up on the van and headed to the airport. While at the airport we found out that our (my dad and I) flight to Siem Reap was cancelled, no worries, they automatically transferred us to what essentially was the exact same flight (not sure what the behind he scenes stuff was, but we had a flight). The flight from Ho Chi Minh to Siem reap was the shortest flight I've ever been on, literally just like the Tim Hawkins piece (google it) took off, cruised for 10 minutes, then began our decent. 

Once we landed in Siem Reap we got our visas, grabbed our luggage, then proceeded to the most relaxed customs clearing I have ever been to (seriously, even previous times to Cambodia were more patrolled) basically it was a small bin that you put your customs paper in, then walk out of the airport. 

Right outside the airports they have stands where you can pick up SIM cards for your phone (to make phone calls, text, data etc.) I picked one up so I can post on the go (and keep tabs on any important messages from home). 

We got lunch at the Red Piano, walked around the local market, went for a swim at the hotel pool, ordered our bus tickets, then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing (me finishing up importing pictures) 

Our bus leaves at 9:30 tomorrow for Battambang, looking forward to seeing our friends ^_^ 

Soli Deo Gloria 

Until next time 

Brandon Goodyear 

You guys can wait a couple weeks right? I've been going crazy trying to have at least one picture for the blog, I want to rest a bit while in Cambodia so pictures will come when I get home (back in America) 

Playing in the Rain

Well, The last two days have been sort of on the relaxing end of the scale, while at the same time, being the most busy days of the entire trip.

Yesterday we started out with our English club bright and early in the morning (breakfast at 6:30, class at 7:30) the last couple days have been a bit different because our teaching has mainly been classroom demonstration (presented by Kristine) this will be helpful for teachers who are still new to teaching (some of the teachers recently graduated from the University with their degrees).

We got to visit Mr. Ho Chi Minh's temple again today (we went there the first day we were here in Tra Vinh) This time we had teachers that were being our tour guides and explaining the points of interest practicing their English. While we were there we got caught in a rain storm and had to wait at the entrance until the rain calmed and we could walk down the path to Mr. Ho Chi Minh's house (his house is the main attraction of the temple, but is separate from the actual temple.

while at the house we got rained in again, but took the opportunity to have a little fun jumping around in the rain.

With a successful two weeks of teaching English we get ready to head back to Saigon tomorrow, can't wait plan my next trip back here

I know this was a shorter blog post, but my brain is slowly getting tired (it's almost midnight here) here's a plethora of pictures to make up for my lack of words


Please pray for Tyler (from Indiana, staying the whole 6 weeks) he got sick and has been laying down all day

Thank you very much for praying for us
Soli Deo Gloria
Brandon Goodyear

At least we don't stand out ;)

This morning we had a wonderful opportunity to visit a Khmer Pegota that is very close to our hotel with Sugarcane man. (the Cambodian guy who runs a sugar cane juice stand) we thought we were just going to see the temple on a normal day, cept today was a bit special. Recently (a couple months ago) a monk died in Tra Vinh, when they were cremating his body some special lights shone around signifying that he had reached enlightenment (not really sure about all the details, just typing how it was explained) so every wednesday they had a vegetarian meal and celebrated him reaching that state. Today was the last day in that celebration period so there was a ton of monks and people there for the celebrations. We made the mistake of eating breakfast before going to the temple, right when we got there we were seated down, given a bottle of water, then moved to another table where they had a full blown lunch set. I love the Khmer food, but I was so stuffed from breakfast, I nibbled on some rice and had a couple pieces of fruit, but eating any more and I would get sick. While we were at lunch we got to see one of the teachers, this would have been ok, except that this teacher is an avid buddist evangelist. Seeing us at the table she came over, said hi, then went right into talking about buddism. This too me by surprise, normally if you see someone at a restaurant you walk over, say hi, then move on so they can finish their meal. This wasn't on her agenda, she pulled up a chair and started a full theological debate. Abi did an extremely good job talking with her, though we decided that a debate on religion wasn't the best to be held at a buddist celebration in a pegota with 200 other buddists. We had to work really hard to leave and try to plan meeting with her another time at a coffee shop.

After our team meeting we went out for a late lunch at Jolibee's (apparently there's one in the states) it's a McDonalds style fast food restruant, not too impressive (though their ice cream was rather delicious).
with lunch over we headed back to our hotels to rest for a couple hours before our nightly activities (soccer & night classes)

A rather slow day today, tomorrow and friday will hopefully have much more in store

On another note: I've slowed down my picture taking ( though I've taken 8800) not much, but a little, can't wait to plan my return trip (dates and details still unknown)

Thank you for praying for us
Soli Deo Gloria
Brandon Goodyear

  You do realize everyone on the other side of the street is staring at us right?

Living a Life set free

well, Tyler and I are happy, we figured out how to order a full plate of pork at Porky's and we bought 35 sausages for dinner tonight, we have success!!

On a bit more serious note, the past couple days have been a bit enlightening. Yesterday we got a chance to help out in two of the English classes that are put on at the foreign language center (the classes that we officially teach in are on thursday and friday) that was a blast, especially helping out with the younger kids, their English is surprisingly good for being so young and growing up where knowing English isn't entirely necessary.

Today we got to meet Pastor Lo, who is a pastor of a church in Vinh Long. The bits and pieces of his story that I head were very interesting and are bringing to light the persecution in the church that is very real. It was great to hear the stories and see how God worked through all the experiences and suffering he had to go through, makes me think "if it came down to it, would I stand up like him". Like the song says All I have is Christ, is that really our song when we encounter times of trouble? This has really challenged me and I hope that when I return home that this will be my life story in everything that I do.

Again we got to work in the English classes at the Foreign language center this evening that was quite and experience. Tyler and I were floating around from classroom to classroom helping out while Abi was teaching her class with Lily. This was quite an experience in itself. The first classroom we walked into the teacher turned to us and said "I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU!!!!" told the class something in vietnamese, then told us we were in charge and could do whatever we wanted.

*sidenote: this was the second week of a beginning English class, so most of the kids didn't really even know any words in English (a little here and there, occasionally speaking in sentences that made sense)

we told them that they could ask us any question, the teacher walked around the room speaking in vietnamese trying to coaxe them to say something ask a question. Eventually some people asked where we were from, how old we were, how many people were in our families etc.

After the English classes we headed out for a cane juice with some of the students. We had quite a lot of fun as the guy who runs the stand is Khmer (Cambodian) but he also speaks Vietnamese, and extremely good English.

now it's Getting late, thankfully I get another opportunity to sleep in a bit tomorrow since we're visiting a local pegota (sugar cane man [the Cambodian guy who runs the stand] is going to take us)

One thing I almost forgot, yesterday and today in our team time we've been discussing buddism and how a lot of their religion is based on works and how there is no hope to ever be perfect. Also, we noticed that most of what buddism is based on is old stories and traditions.

one of the stories we talked about today is most definitely helpful because it almost directly correlates with the Gospel. here's the story.

There once was a prince in a kingdom (let's say it was in Asia) this kingdom was invaded by a foreign army, all the gates we closed, and the invading army was going to take all the people to be their slaves. The prince went to the ruler of the invading kingdom and told him. "There is a river under the bridge that leads out of the city, as long as I stay underwater you will keep the gates open and let my people go." The King felt that since the prince was human he could hold his breath for about a minute tops he wouldn't lose many people. He agreed and held the prince to his word. The prince walked over to the bridge, and when he got to the bottom of the river he tied his hair around a rock and never resurfaced. This meant that all of his people were able to go free.

One man sacrificed his life for all... Sounding a little familiar?

Thank you for praying for us the trip has been wonderful
Soli Deo Gloria
Brandon Goodyear

This is what it's like riding on a moto this si extremely light traffic, I have more pics of the heavier stuff

Swimming in Chocolate

Note before I post: This one is gonna be a little shorter as I really want to get some sleep tonight, so some details might nor make it in here, but you will definitely here them when I get back

Today was an extra special day as we got to take a trip to the beach. we woke up super early in the morning (at least some of us did) to be ready to board a 15 passenger van at 7AM. We kinda were running a little bit behind schedule, and to help things along, there was a problem with the van, so around 8:15 we were off, headed down to the beach. Our drive out there was a bit long, but we got to enjoy the Vietnamese countryside. On our way we stopped to pick up lunch, crab & shrimp. I kid you not, this time I literally watched my food squirming around, because all the crabs were tied up (though one lucky soul managed to escape the bucket, but he didn't get very far). We stayed at the roadside crab shack for about 45 mins while they cooked our food. Once we arrived at the beach we claimed a gazibo to set out our food.  Then we set to work cracking open crabs, peeling shrimp, basically just eating the food, but with a little bore more work since they were just whole cooked crabs.

The water down at the beach felt amazing (just got my feet wet)

after enjoying the food and the scenery we headed back to Tra Vinh where we had a couple hours to rest before dinner with Twii

*food seems to be a big thing over here (either that or I'm always hungry)

we got to have waffles and Ice cream for dessert back at the hotel.

now I'm getting ready for bed as we have an early morning tomorrow (visiting the english school)


Thank you for Praying for us!!
Soli Deo Gloria
Until next time
Brandon Goodyear

Speaking natively

wait, they're Bi-Lingual? I'm not even Uni-Lingual, Im doing good just to order a hamburger at In n Out...

Yesterday was a busy day. It all started with waking up super early to be at the school by 7AM for our breakfast, steamed buns w/ pork, duck eggs, and some other mystery stuff that we really don't know what it is. We started out our second day of English showing a video on how to make the "sh" sound, this was quite an interesting task because not only is the instructor in the video a little bit funny, but he also has a strange choice of words for teaching the "sh" sound. For example, the sentence that they came up with for the sound was "will the shy showgirl shake her shoes" made us giggle, thankfully the concept of making the sound got across. I discovered that it helps them to learn if they have a physical motion to go along with the sound. Like when you are trying to tell someone to be quiet you put your finger to your mouth to say shhhhhhh. This worked, but makes for a funny time when you see people trying to say "mission" and having to put their finger up to pronounce the "sh" sound.

we were on our own for lunch after class, so we went to a small place near the hotel and got some pork, rice, soup, a typical meal. Here's where things got better, we got to go to the Sunrise cafe afterwards and get coffee, orange, piña colada shakes. They were extremely delicious, I think we will be frequenting there.

Random Vietnam fact #1 Despite the extreme heat (it's been in the 80's but with the humidity, it feels really hot) the sun doesn't beat down and burn people like it does back home

Full with food and about an hour left until our field trip of the day we headed back to the hotel to rest up before the long moto ride (in a light rain). funny note, on our last field trip it began to rain on our way back, the teacher I was riding with didn't have a rain coat, so we had to stop for a couple mins to let the rain stop (he was concerned about my camera, super nice) I asked if I put my camera in my backpack (which has a rain fly) if we could just brave the rain and head back. We tried, got about 700 ft then had to pull over again cause the rain was too much. Back on track, so we were headed to our field trip, which was to a place called Ao Ba om which was a large pond with what looked to be an alter of some sort in the middle. This was an awesome field trip, the location was beautiful as we were surrounded by trees. While we were there we got to visit a pegota (temple where bhuddist monks live) right as we were getting ready to leave the pegota it started to rain (let me paint a picture, when it rains, imagine someone following you around with a hose, that's how it rains here) we all ran for cover to wait until the rain dies down (that's another thing, when it rains, it rains like crazy, but only for about 5 mins tops). Once the rain calmed down we headed back to our motos so we could go out for an early dinner with the teachers. Thankfully dinner was right across the street, because I know I was hungry. for our super early dinner we got to have Phô noodle soup. We got to eat some in Saigon, but haven't had much of an opportunity to eat it as I would like. I Like. Phô.

with dinner out of the way I headed back to the hotel (confusion about what our plans were, turns out everyone went to a coffee shop... the irony). It all worked out for the best because those couple hours gave me time to go through and organize a small portion of the pictures I have taken while here (approx 7500 in 5 days) after going through the pictures I re-grouped with the group and we headed out for out nightly cane juice routine. The main reason we go to this cane juice place is because one of the teachers that is in the class runs the stand at night after going to class and teaching during the day. But it is cane juice, who's gonna turn that down? After enjoying our sweet treat the teacher invited us to go to the beach. As I'm typing this I'm counting the hours of sleep I'm gonna get as we have to be up and ready to leave by 7AM so we can make it there (about an hour bus ride) and back in time for our team meeting etc.

ok, that was yesterday, let's move on to today

what can I put as a tagline... oh

you though people with bad shopping cart skills were dangerous in the market, lets try a moto ^_^

today was our "relax and do whatever" day, relax we did, kinda. The morning plans got a bit jumbled up in translation so instead of going to the market at 10AM some people were just getting out of bed at 9:55AM while some of us were up and ready to go by 7 as usual. I slept in until about 8 or so, sorted some pictures until 9, then went down to grab some breakfast in the cafe right outside our hotel (pork and noodles w/coffee grand total for the meal $2.50 (including buying Tyler's coffee) Once I finished my meal the rest of the guys showed up (probably out walking the town) we waited for the other hald of our team to be ready to go to the market (it's about 9:45 when all this is taking place) Ed slipped a note under the door of their rooms so that they would know where we were when they finally woke up to head downstairs.

Eventually they came down but were ready for food (since they hadn't eaten breakfast. So as a group we all headed over to the cafe around the corner that way we could enjoy a cup of coffee while they ate. Instead fo getting to the market by 10, we ended up leaving for the market by 11... oops, thankfully we didn't have a too strict a schedule for today. I always enjoy a nice day trip to the market, it's a great experience that everyone should at least see (and smell) once in their life. The Vietnamese market was very similar to markets I have visited in Cambodia, there was one difference though, People were driving their motos down the small cramped walkways of the market. In some cases there was barely enough room for normal foot traffic, let alone a full blown moto with a family of 3 on it.

my walk around the market got halted as I realized I had to use the restroom but had no way of asking where the restroom was (donde el bano didn't work). That's one problem that won't go overlooked next time.

we all met up at the vinitex market (kinda like a mix of walmart, and smart n final) got some snacks, then headed to Palace 1 (the hotel Bob, Tyler, and Abi are staying in) to have our team meeting/ devotional/debriefing/brainstorming. Our theme verse for the trip is 1 Peter 3:15, we've been reading through 1 Peter. New experience, since none of us are musically inclined (In the sense that none of us had a guitar or instrument to play) we played worship songs off an iPhone & my laptop and just sang along ^_^

After our team meeting we all packed up, dropped off our goodies at our hotel, then headed over to the sunrise cafe for some food and shakes. Honestly the best shakes I've had, so delicious. With just a little time to rest before our night time activities our group headed back to the hotel to rest, Ed, my Dad, Bob, Tuan, and I met Twii (the english teacher) at a cafe down the street for coffee. They discussed ideas as how to have more teams here on a regular basis, and possibly the option of having people come on extended periods (like what Tyler and Abi are doing)

Finally on to night time we had two activities to choose from, go down to the arena and watch Tyler play soccer (and play if we felt up to it) or go watch Abi in her English class she teaches.
I went to the soccer game tonight, it was a lot fo fun.

That concludes the evening, now I'm super tired, but looking forward to the beach tomorrow

Continue praying for the English teachers that an opportunity will com up to plant seeds
pray for health and safety
pray for wisdom and guidance for the ministry to continue on

Soli Deo Gloria
Until next time
Brandon Goodyear

BTW
I GOT A PICTURE WITH A COW!!!!!!!

Ready... Fire!!! Aim... wait what??

Today was our irst day teaching English, it all started off a little behind schedule as we were a bit confused about when we were supposed to be at our breakfast location (which just ended up being dumplings right outside our classroom). The first day of teaching was quite entertaining as we are getting to know the people while we are trying to teach them (Christine being the only teacher in the group). We watched a 10 min video on how to make the "th" sound both the voiced and voiceless versions. After watching that a whole new world of sounds was opened up when you think about how we use our mouths to create sounds. One of the things that makes learning English difficult is it is the language that uses the most movements of the mouth. Most of the Vietnamese words are spoken with very little mouth movements and even fewer facial expressions.

After our first teaching session we all headed over to the university Café to get some Ice Coffee (Vietnamese Ice Coffee is by far the best I have ever had... period) and continue chatting with some of the teachers. It is very interesting talking to people who know so much English, yet it is still a struggle for them to speak it (mainly because their mouths work differently than ours). Once we finished our coffee we headed back into the class room to finish up our last 2 hours of teaching. Our subjects that we were discussing today were Family and entertainment. I really enjoyed getting to talk about my little family (at work and at home) it really helped being able to show them some pictures of what I do in my spare time.

one thing that is pretty neat is that most of the teachers all teach at the same school. One of the guys in the English class has just recently graduated from the university to become a teacher, he has been teaching for three months now.

Now that we have finished all our teaching for the day it is time for us to head over to grab some lunch with the teachers. we took our motos from the school to the restaurant which was along a river that eventually joins the Mekong. Our lunch consist of the traditional beef, shrimp, rice, soup, fish, etc. I really love the rice soup that they serve at almost every meal (makes me want to be more proactive about cooking at home... Phô for everyone!!!!!!).

With our stomachs full and our brains exercised the next logical step is to go on a tour of Mr. Ho Chi Minh's temple here in Tra Vinh. Here's the thing, people don't normally get to tour Mr. Minh's house and temple, it's a very special thing that was put together by the English teachers. It was absolutely beautiful, you can ask any of the people on the team and they would tell you that they want a house like that (some might prefer a room with an air conditioner, but that's beside the point)

After the tour we stopped at this small roadside restaurant where we had DIY spring rolls. Basically they gave us all the fillings and some rice paper to make our own spring rolls. I'll be honest, Tyler and I preferred to just eat the meat (these weirdly delicious sausages that tasted a little like bbq sauce), this got us in trouble as our meat bowl cleared out twice as fast as the other ones. Thankfully it was no problem to order a bit more.

That's something I've learned here, despite that they seem to eat a ton of food (or they're bringing out more than usual because we're Americans) the Vietnamese are in very good shape and are very healthy.

yet again filled to the brim with food we headed back to Palace 1 (the names of the hotels are Palace 1 & Palace 2, our team is staying in Palace 2) to meet with Bob and the rest of the team to debrief from the day and discuss any ideas we had for class tomorrow. We prayed then headed out for our last event for the night, a sugar cane juice run. One of the teachers in our class also runs a small sugar cane juice cart. Sugar cane is the most delicious drink, but is only good if you get the fresh sugar cane (and in their case, add a little bit of pineapple for a litte bit of extra flavor). While the group was enjoying their sugar cane I got to take a walk through the night market with Tuan. It was mostly clothes, but still a fun experience.

looking forward to a good night's sleep ^_^

Keep Praying as we prepare for our next day of teaching, Thankfully we have two days off scheduled teaching (saturday/sunday). We will most likely be spending that time with the teachers, but also catching our breath and getting a little rest.

Soli Deo Gloria
Until tomorrow
Brandon Goodyear

P.S.  WiFi was not cooperating, so no picture this time around, if it decides to work with me tomorrow I'll edit this

A Day on the Mekong River

Is my food looking at me?

that's something you have to get used to over here, food that was probably walking or swimming around just 5 mins before being served on your plate.

anywho, this morning was a nonstop journey from leaving our hotel around 7:45 until now.

we started by having breakfast on the roof of our hotel (that's where the restaurant was) with the most beautiful view of the sunrise and the Mekong river right below us. With everyone well fed and ready to go we piled into into our taxis and headed for our vessel. This was totally radical, we basically got to go on a real life jungle cruise, except if we ran into hippos here, they might tip the boat cause a pop gun ain't gonna scare them off. or boat journey took us all along the Mekong river (central river that runs through Vietnam) we got to see the "floating market" which is a series of boats all floating together, you just have to pull up in your boat, grab your food, clothes, or other goodies, then you're on your way, kinda like a grocery run. Except instead of hopping in the mini van with all your kids, you pack up the boat and head out across the river. The view on the river was absolutely phenomenal. as pictured below, I got to stand on the bow of the boat. With the wind in my hair, sun at my back, and the beautiful trees lining the river, can't think of anywhere else I would rather be right now. It's really hard to put everything we've seen into words (or even take enough pictures to accurately represent it all, which I've taken 6000 pictures already)

The person responsible for putting this awesome tour together is Chi, she is a Vietnamese travel agent who has adopted Bob and Jeanne Smoker as her parents and is working with them as they speak conversational English with the Vietnamese English teachers. A couple of the places we got to visit were the candy factory and the popped rice factory (they were in the same building). Popped rice is basically a rice crispy treat, only it's made from scratch with rice instead of rice crispy cereal. Watching them make the candy (coconut based caramels) and the rice treats was very fascinating. The samples were delicious as well.

One of the stops we made along our journey was at a bee keeping place (not really sure the terminology for that) they had all the bees on the honeycombs making the honey right there. We got a small sample of the honey in some green tea, it was literally to die for, so good!! as with most of our stops there was a small souvenir shop. Something that set this one apart is that instead of the wallets sitting on a normal table, these ones were sitting on top of a cage... a python cage. This snake was huge!!! his body was approx 4-6" in diameter and he was about 7-8' long. A few brave members of our team got the luxury of holding this beast of a snake. While at the bee farm we discovered that Diana is deathly afraid of bees, this made for an entertaining time as anything that flies qualified as a bee as long as we were at the bee farm.

Part of our journey took us down a small river that branched off the Mekong, since our boat was rather large and was designed to brave the waters of the open river, it didn't exactly fit down this small canal so we boarded some sand pans and set off into the jungle. This was a lot of fun because the smaller boats were much quieter as they were rowed instead of powered by a noisy diesel engine. Also, it was like riding through the amazon with the low hanging trees and bushes growing out of the water.

After the mini-adventure with the sand pans, we docked a little ways up river and got to visit a fruit farm where all the Durian, lichi, jack fruit, and other fruits were grown. This was a lot of fun getting to hike through the tropical forests, walk across sketchy bridges (ok, in reality they were only about 3ft off the ground, but they were still fun) and get to see (and taste in some cases) the fresh fruit off the trees.

once the tour was over we headed back to port and had some lunch (probably our biggest meal to date) there was fish, soup, chicken, spring rolls, rice and all sorts of stuff.

*sidenote: Sand pans are typically the boats you see in movies where they have the long poles, so instead of rowing the boat, they push off the bottom of the river. However, these were a little different, since the water was a little deeper, they had oars (kinda like a Gondola, most had two though some only had one)

after our marvelous adventure on the Mekong we got to take our own bus to Tra Vinh where we will be spending the next 10 days talking in English for the teachers, creating conversation, talking about our families, entertainment, jobs, life, holidays, etc. We met Bob, Tyler, and Abby (Abby is interning with the Vietnamese teachers to teach English at the University) for dinner at a BBQ restaurant owned by a very nice Greek guy. After Dinner we headed out to a cafe to meet one of the teachers we will be working with (her name is escaping me, I'll edit this post when I get it)

That's all the adventures we had today, Thankfully we're all remaining healthy and having a blast (Though some might tell you it's a little on the hot side)

Pray for us to have the right words to say as tomorrow is our first day speaking
pray for continued safety, health, and sanity
pray that the heat won't get too unbearable
Thank you for supporting us

Soli Deo Gloria
Brandon Goodyear

Vietnam in words

GOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!!!

so I've been here in Vietnam (Saigon, Vinh Long, [headed to Tra Vinh]) for a grand total of 2 days. I've taken over 2500 pictures, several hundred video clips, and having the time of my life.

The day we landed was pretty relaxing yet exciting, one of our team members (Diana) is Vietnamese and her father used to live in Saigon in a little apartment building, all we had was an address and a local, but we set off from our hotel in the rain and the traffic to find where her dad used to live. This was a pretty awesome experience, armed with camera in hand I set off with Thun (pronounced Thûng), Diana, and Lauren to look for Diana's father's house. Let me preface this trip by saying that neither of the girls has been to a South-east Asian country, let alone crossed the street at a busy traffic circle during rush hour, I'm bummed I didn't catch the first experience on video, quite comical. After surviving the streets and walking many blocks we made it to the address we had, the only thing was it no longer was an apartment complex, but a department store. Once we had taken in the area we took a scenic route back to the hotel to see the rest of the city.

That night we got to have dinner with the team from Alaska that taught English at the university last week. That brought a whole new level of excitement to the team as they were sharing their experiences getting to meet with the Vietnamese and the relationships they built with them.

we were all super tired and despite how much we wanted to stay up late (to aclimate to the time difference and get over jetlag) we all were back at the hotel and asleep by around 9ish

getting to sleep early sounds really awesome (and it is) but with going to sleep early comes waking up at 2, 3, or 4AM. I'm pretty thankful that I was able to get a good night's sleep (makes me thankful for my crazy sleep schedule at home) Knowing that I was going to be running on minimal sleep I decided to look for good coffee when I woke up in the morning (usually about an hour or so before everyone else). One thing I learned pretty quickly is that coffee shops in Vietnam don't open early like they do back home, Everything opened at 7... Period. First day coffee adventure turned into getting to breakfast a little early. After a hearty breakfast we set off to visit all the touristy stuff in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) Starting with the reunification center. The reunification center was formerly the palace of the president of Vietnam. The palace has a long history of presidents that were either assassinated or forced to surrender their position in office. (more information about it here http://goo.gl/SE3UU)
Once we finished our tour, Including seeing the basement, helicopters, and tanks used in the war, we hopped in our taxis and headed to the Saigon Sky Deck (tallest building in Saigon). We discovered it when we were on our walk looking for Diana's father's house. The view from the 46th floor was breathtaking (I posted one pic from my phone on facebook) that doesn't really do it justice, better pics will come

*sidenote: taxis are rather small, so our team doesn't quite all fit in one taxi, Thankfully Diana speaks vietnamese so she can help give our driver directions  

Day two of the Coffee adventure however was a tad bit more successful (that's today) we were having breakfast at 7:30 so I woke up a little after 6, showered, grabbed my backpack then headed down to the end of the street to get myself a latte. quite delicious, I was throughly impressed.

*sidenote: I'll do my best to post pictures, but it's taking a long time to process all of them (some on phone, most on camera) also internet has been a bit slow (cept here where I'm posting from is impressively fast)

After a nice cup of coffee and the best Phó ever (yes, I get to have phó for breakfast and it only cost $1.50) we packed our bags and hopped from taxi to taxi (took I think 2 taxis to get to the bus station) and even when we got to the bus station, that was only a small bus that was transitioning us to the big bus to take use to Vinh Long,  while on the big bus I think I set a record for the fastest I have filled a blank memory card (competing with the time I photographed a concert at the House of Blues) there was so much to take in and the bus was moving so fast it was a huge challenge to take in as much as possible. hopefully out fo the 600 or so pictures I took on the bus there are a few good ones to show the experience of driving through the Vietnamese country side.

*sidenote: in Vietnam, bus passes you...

while we're here I'm going to do my best to do a Chronological update of our progress, I have been taking in so much of the culture, people, cities, the list goes on, while I won't have time to compose my thoughts into interesting stories, I'm going to be writing everything down, and when I get a creative spark I'll write up a little anecdote about something funny that happened. Like that one time when I got a small bottle of Tiger Balm for free because I thought it smelled good. Fun times, fun times ^_^

Continue to Pray for us

things to pray about

Rain (as much as we love it, it's rained quite a lot, makes traveling a little bit more of a challenge)
prepare us to mingle with the people we're going to teach
safety (while driving, walking, eating, health)
being a light an good influence to those who we come in contact with

Soli Deo Gloria
Until Next Time
Brandon Goodyear

Traveling the world, One country at a time

Back and ready for travel.

over the past 6 years I have had the most amazing opportunities to travel to mant places in our amazing world. The Domincian Republic, Cambodia, Mexico, downtown LA. This has given me a great passion to travel the world. This coming week I have the awesome opportunity to go to Vietnam for a few weeks to teach English at a university. Having an invitation from the governor of Tra Vinh to come teach English in a university town is pretty spectacular.

I'm sure that when I get back I will have loads of pictures to share as well as a thousand stories from our trip.

with this trip directly in front of me I am starting to set my mind on traveling the world to capture it's amazing beauty. Also, I would like to bring the different cultures of the world back to those at home, or with a 9-5 and no way to get out of the groove. Many of us have watched the CNN special, or national geographic shows on africa, china, and all the other wonderful places in the world. These are nothing less than spectacular, seeing the sunset on the African plains, fog over the mountains near the great wall of China, but when it comes to visiting the small villages and meeting the actual people in these countries they only occasionally follow one single person around, and it's usually in the "day in the life" format. 

I don't want to spill out too much if my plans until I get back and can properly put together a Kickstarter project and figure out funding for the trip (OH!! I've already said too much!!!!) 

anywho, now you'll just have to stop by and read my next post to find out where I'll be going next year ^_^ 

toodaloo!!! 

Raising money for Vietnam

Hello world!!

In my last post I threw out the plan that I was going to be putting together a gallery of my best photography. I did put it together and it was a great success!

it was a fun night of mingling, viewing the prints (which are much more beautiful than seeing the pictures on a computer screen) lots of people buying stuff there and even more people wanting to order stuff online (which is there this post will eventually be going) can't wait to get my work out into the world.

ok, so ordering online, here's how it's going to work (bare with me it's a slightly involved process)


you can go here: http://goo.gl/3Wjyg
to see all of the pictures that I had printed at the gallery.

after you have found a picture that you like, here's the ordering process

Email me at brandon.goodyear17@gmail.com

subject title: Vietnam Gallery Picture

Email content:

Name of picture (found on Facebook)

Quantity of print size

Method of payment (cash, check, credit card [using square for credit cards, so in person meeting required for credit card, also 2.75% cost for using credit card)

shipping plan: Pick up, mailed to house (shipping rates apply)

Cost per print is fixed, make checks payable to Brandon Goodyear
Any additional donation checks can be made out to Grace Church of Orange (tax deductable)

*I would have all checks made to grace church of orange so they can be tax deductable, but I need to cover the cost of printing/having the pictures shipped to my house. Thank you =)

here's a price list

8"X12" - $25

11"X14" - $50

16"X24" - $100

24"X36" - $250

Commissioned time $200/hour + printing cost to create a piece of art specifically for you

A Whole New World

I always have to start off my blog post with an anicdote from my life, to set the stage, I was sitting at a table working on my computer with my camera sitting next to me.

It was about 7:15AM at Kéan as I was constantly checking the time waiting for a friend to talk business. to help pass the time I thought I'd go through and work on some pictures I had taken but not quite gotten around to processing. I had my camera with me so that I could take pictures of people working cause the lighting was just perfect. The coffee shop started to get a little busier as people were stopping by for their morning coffee. still waiting for my friend, one of our regulars that I had served his 4 shot expresso countless times saw me sitting there with my camera, came over, and asked "have you ever done video with that? or just pictures?" talk about perfect timing, I had just filmed a short 45 second clip of one of our barista's making a latte. Answering yes I actually have really been interested in video, I pulled up the short clip as a demonstration. The following question nearly knocked me out of my chair. "have you ever worked with a RED camera?"

well, no only my DSLR

sidenote: RED cameras are super awesome cinema cameras that they use for like huge movies
here's a link simply to the camera (no batteries, lenses, memory cards, controls, viewfinders, anything, just the sensor)

http://www.red.com/store/products/epic-m-dragon-brain-only

when I hear that, my brain nearly exploded. So where does all this lead? I've been working at an internship where I'll basically learn all the ins and outs of the cinema industry, from cameras, to audio, to editing, compositing, storyboarding, script writing, the whole nine yards.

we just finished a commercial that turned out pretty good and now we're onto the fun projects ^_^

I feel like I'm leaving out a ton of detail, if you want to know anything more about it, just ask and I can fill in details, I need to move the blog post along cause there is other stuff I need to talk about.

I'm so blessed to be learning all this video stuff perfectly timed cause I am going to Vietnam with a team from my church this June. This is a much needed trip because I have been wanting to travel for about a year but with running/work I just haven't had the time or resources to do it.

as a fundraiser I would like to sell some prints of pictures I have taken. I'm going to set up a gallery at my house with all the pictures all of the procedes will go towards helping my team go to Vietnam

we need to raise about $2400 per person (7 people in total) I am personally responsable for raising $800 for myself (any extra will go into the team fund) all donations are tax deductible (more info on that will be at the gallery)

Thanks for reading/supporting
I will be trying to post as much as I can while in Vietnam
Brandon Goodyear

God's Most Loved Creation

I spent some time in Big Bear this past weekend on a college group winter retreat. It was a ton of fun, there was snow, laughing, sledding, the whole lot. The main event though was our lessons (saturday morning, evening, Sunday Morning. Last Year we were learning about the contrast between Adam and Jesus. How living in the flesh will lead to death and destruction, where as living in the spirit will lead to life and heaven. This year we were learning about the importance of reading your bible, praying, and walking in the spirit daily. God's word is supernatural, and will apply to what you are going through no matter where you are reading in it, God will use it. I cannot stress how important it is to read and pray every day, humbly asking God for wisdom and guidance as you go through out your day.

Now this all sounds good, but if we're honest, things can go perfectly until we run into that person that just can ruin our day. Weather it's a customer, cashier, server, guy who cut your off on the freeway, you get the picture. This is the one thing that I learned this weekend that hit me like a train, backs up, then hits me again. That one person, customer server cashier guy on the freeway, they are God's most loved creation. God is infinite in love, so you are God's most loved creation, and when you look at it in that perspective  how would you treat God's most loved creation? With respect, love, servent's heart, and even though they might not know it, God sent his son Jesus to die for them and save them of their sins. Think back for just a week, I know I can come up with a long list of things I have done that is less than pleasing to God, and that's just this week!! God paid for all the things that we have done in the past, are doing, and will do in the future. Now, how will you treat people knowing that they are God's most loved creation? 

just a little food for thought, it has definitely changed the way I look at the people I work with and serve =)

Enjoying the simple things... like Coffee

Wow, it just occurred to me that I have been working for almost 8 months at Kean Coffee. To answer all those who will inevitably ask, yes I'm a Barista. 

now, the reason that I'm writing this post is not because I totally forgot to tell the world that I got a job but because about a week ago I started composing a blog post on my phone while I was waiting for some friends in a hipster coffee shop in the middle of irvine to discuss our future filming plans (more info to come in it's time). As I was sitting there I realized that I need to get out and see the world, and if I can put together a big enough project I can get funding (through sites like Kickstarter/indegogo). My big mental block was what to do, what can I photograph, video, or simply document while traveling all over the world. Then it hit me, I was sitting in this small coffee shop (coffee wasn't the best, but I'm spoiled, so take my opinion with a grain of salt) that has a relaxed, comfortable aura to it. That's when I realized that I should photograph/film in coffee shops all around the world.

this is (in all honesty) a brilliantly crazy idea. I'm gonna start out by mapping out where some coffee shops are, then see about travelling as a "pre trip scouting" we'll see how this all pans out, if you need me I'll be praying and doing a little bit of research ^_^ 

have a wonderful day, and if you ever want to stop by, my latte art is getting a little better 

- Looking at life through a lens

Brandon Goodyear