Why Are There So Many Asians Out There???

On Sunday the 19th of November, the two Canadian boys decided to head up to Saigon to celebrate our friend Suzie’s 23rd birthday. It was to be a joyous and raucous occasion, like any other time we head to Saigon. Not surprisingly, we were once again successful. The first item to take care of was a card and a gift. The gift was easy, a bottle of whiskey for a good Scottish girl. The card should have been easy, but all we could find were cards that said ‘Only You’. However, we were able to turn on our creativity, and create a beautiful poem about things that only our friend Suzie (and her counterpart Megan) could do. And they have given us enough fuel to make quite the beautiful poem.
Once gifts were given and plans were made, we made our way to a dim sum restaurant for some good food. On the way we were informed that our dear friend George W. Bush was in town, and that Saigon was trying to put on a good face, and would therefore be shutting the bars down at midnight. Such an activity was not welcomed by our crew, but we knew we could overcome it. Saigon can’t actually shut down at midnight, it’s just impossible.
The dinner was one of the most exciting and ridiculous occasions I have experienced. Things were tame for the first while, but then we got into a rousing game of ‘I have never’. The four of us are usually quite ridiculous, and this game gave us a great launching pad into chaos. Comments of the most ridiculous nature were spewed, culminating in the comment which has been the title of this blog. It was meant to be a random topic changer, but it spiraled into a laugh fest, to be repeated time and again, only to spur a full on laugh fest any time it is spoken.
As we got bored of I have Never, we somehow managed to sing several songs from the musical Grease at the top of our lungs, much to the amusement of our waitress, and the many other employees of this restaurant. We had many a smile cast in our direction, and I’m sure we will be remembered.
It was approaching 11 pm when we finished dinner, so we only had an hour on the town. The first bar we went to, ‘Pub’, actually obeyed said curfew, and kicked us out at midnight. We had other locations in mind. Go 2 Bar being the main one. As we show up, we notice that the gates are closed. They are however, open just slightly. All you had to do to break curfew was make it look like your bar was closed. So the three of us, (minus Adam who made a detour earlier) mounted the stairs to the infamous Go 2 Bar. After trying to phone Adam a couple times, and sending him some messages without reply, our dear Megan was frazzled as to what happened to her boyfriend. She was becoming worried. I tried to comfort her, knowing that he was on detour, but she couldn’t grasp it. He, of course, was okay, and joined us after a break at Bread and Butter, a bar owned by one of the ILA elite.
I must admit that Bush did a swell job at scaring people into meeting the curfew. Although it was not a midnight curfew, Go 2 Bar died out pretty quickly, and we decided to leave at around 2 am. However it was not home we were looking for, it was just a busier place. So we returned to Bread and Butter, where the ILA staff had no regard for the curfew, and we jammed to a guitar, singing anthems from our youth.
We eventually called it a night and headed home. I was more tired than the others, and was the only one not to see the sun rise, but despite my early bed time, I managed to sleep until 1:30, finally seeing my friends at 2.
This day was to be the day I buy a motorbike, while Adam went out to find a guitar. The mission to find the biek was intense. Hopping on a Xe Moto (motorbike taxi driver), I gave him the address, but as to him actually knowing where it was, was not happening. I was on the back of that moto for a good 30 minutes, not to mention that it was raining, so I was huddled under the back half of his poncho, while he tried to find the house. I swear we must have talked to 15 people before he actually found the place, but he found it. I had thought that Huong (the lady who has been helping us out with our problems, and the sister of the owner of the bike) would be there to help with the transaction. Nope. And her brother was not even there when I showed up. So I was sitting in the living room of a strange house, with strange Vietnamese people, and a limited ability to communicate. The highlight was when the daughter (about 5) came running out all excited about the rain, and then saw me, stopped dead, and turned around and started laughing and running to her mother. Good times.
The little I know about bikes gave me the impression that this bike was alright. And for the price I was paying (2 million at first, but then talked down to 1.8 million, or approx. $112 usd) I was okay with a few problems. I did not however, want to try driving a clutch bike for the first time, while in Saigon. So we decided that Adam would come with me Tuesday and drive me our of the city, where I would take over.
Adam and I met for lunch, and he showed me his new guitar, which is quite spectacular for the price paid (a balmy $50 usd). The rest of that day, for me at least, consisted of lying around and sleeping. Adam and Megan made a solid night of it by going back down to Pham Ngu Lau (the strip we frequent) and apparently saw the sun rise again. So no doubt they weren’t to happy when I woke them at 10 am so that we could hit the road. However Adam did quite well, and agreed that the bike should be bought, and tripped me to the edge of town, where he Xe Moto’d back to the boat, and I drove on the nasty nasty highway all the way to Vung Tau.
The highway is interesting. You could say it is normal. It is 6 lanes, 3 per side. However, it’s different because one of those lanes is dedicated to bicycles and carts pulled by oxen. And seeing oxen on the side of the highway is not uncommon. Neither is dust being blown in your face, or thick black smoke emitting from massive trucks. It is quite the experience. In fact it is probably the worst experience I have had in Vietnam. It was hot, it was dirty, it was busy. However it was a nice way to get used to riding a bike, and using a clutch.
The final note is how Tuesday went. Adam was worried on his boat ride, that he would beat me to the house, and not be able to get into the house. Why would he not be able to get in?????????? well… because he locked his keys in his room. On Sunday, just before class at 2:30, I got a call from Adam, who needed me to pick him up because his keys were locked in his room. And there was no time to fish them out between class end and catching the boat. So they stayed there all weekend. I did arrive before him, and he was able to skip work in order to fish out his keys. It took him a while by the sound of it, but he managed to do it.
So after an interesting weekend, things have returned to normal, whatever normal is. Now it’s all prepping for the cyclo race in Saigon on December 11th. This is when teams of two get a cyclo driver (a bike with a two person seat on the front of it) to take them on a scavenger hunt. It should prove to be another exciting time in Saigon.
Until next time, keep fit, and have fun.

Peace, love, hang ten

Dyk is right, surfing grabs a hold of you and doesn't let go. Ever since that fateful day in San Diego almost two years ago now, I've had a constant longing to be permanently surfside. And now, as luck would have it, I more or less am. Over the last fortnight there has been nery an occasion in which 48 hours has passed without me surfing. I've been lucky. Lucky to have waves, lucky to have a board available, lucky that the owners of said board are two stand up Russians who've become good friends. Lucky. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to call a board my own, but their presence are scarce here for the most part, so such thing could be a while coming. In the meantime, I'll continue with what I've been doin', cause it works pretty well.

On another positive note, I recovered the majority of the VND that I shelled out for my stolen motorbike. This morning I received a payment of 4 million dong. The remaining million went to two places. One was the cops, who apparently require a payoff of 500,000 dong to do their job. (Gotta love a developing country). The other half went to the repair of the bike. Might sound like a raw deal, but it was the best I was going to get, and I'll take it. That chapter is closed now, thank bhudda, and I can forget about it. Next is to wait the eternity that it'll take for the cops to actually do some work in finding our perpetual night time visitor. As they say on the other side of the atlantic however, that is "not bloody likely" (to be said with a single malt soaked highlands accent).

So, for now I'll take solace in the fact that from my seat at this restaurant I can look to the ocean and see a small swell rolling in. A small swell here more than likely means a decent swell around the headland at back beach. This means it's time for a surf. Farewell friends and family, things are back on track.

From Adam with love

Monday Off

My monday off was quite exciting. It may not have had the same importance to Adam, but the day was spent surfing. And for me it was my first time surfing. In life, there are always things you long to do. Surfing was one of those things for me. And in life, there are some things you like, and some things you don't. Until you try them you are never sure which it will be. Surfing turned out to be one of the things I like. I figured I would, but it's the realization that feels good. Sitting out in the water, on a floating board, waiting to see a nice wave coming at you, while the sun burns you skin. Beautiful. And the paddling for all your worth, trying to gain enough speed to stand up and coast down the face of the wave and get propelled into shore. Wonderful. Now of course when you are learning, it doesn't always happen like that. In fact it rarely happens like that. It often results in failed attempts. Some without even trying to stand up, others with you being tossed around in the fury of the wave. Any way though, it still is enjoyable. The water here is warm, there are no rocks to hit, and the waves are not very furious.
The cost of renting a board is a little much for my liking. I understand why, since there is not a big market amongst the Vietnamese for surfing, but the prospect of buying a board suits me much better. Hopefully soon we will be able to get some boards, and then surfing becomes unlimitlessly accessible. Except of course for the need for waves, which are not always present.
May the waves keep rolling.
Brandon.

The Language

Well, Adam and I have begun to take Vietnamese language lessons. We have done pretty well for ourselves in terms of picking up important phrases, and even being able to pronounce them correctly, however there is much more to the language than please, beer, soup and rice (haha). I just had my second lesson today (Adam missed it as he is feeling ill) and it was qutie intense. There are two major differences between english and vietnamese which make things difficult. First is the alphabet. In the vietnamese alphabet, there are 3 A's, 2 E's, 3 O's, 2 U's, and I and Y sound the same, except I is a little be 'shorter' than Y. Oh, and S and X are the same sound (S), but the S is more of a Sh, and the X is a shorter S sound. The rest of the letters are somewhat similar except for Q, which is more of a 'wha' sound, and they have a second D. The D that we useis a 'yuh' sound, and the other D has a dash through the stem (so that the straight line would look like a small t if you stood it by iteslf). This D is the actual D sound. And when you say the alphabet, you don't say the letter, you say the sound. (which is a good idea, and makes me wonder at the english alphabet. I mean seriously, we have one letter, but it can have many sounds. At least in vietnamese, you say the sound that the letter makes, and that's the only sound the letter makes). However it is really difficult to pronounce some of the sounds.
The second difference is that each word has a tone. So there are 6 accents on the words. There is a no accent, and up accent (accent agout), a down accent (accent grave), an accent that is a . under the word, a tilda (~) on the word, and a question mark on top of hte word. Each one represents a different accent (obviously). This is where the real difficult comes in. You must remember all of the sounds of the alphabet, and then apply the accent to the word. So you must be able to manipulate the sound of the letter to sound proper while using hte accent. Quite strange.
Then there is another difficulty. The vietnamese vocabulary is very small. I've heard several different numbers on the amount of words, but it is somewhere around 5000 as far as I can tell. That's a lot less than the 400,000 in the english language. You may think SWEET. Well keep this in mind. Almost every word (the spelling at least) can mean 6 different things, depending ont he accent. So if you accidentally put an upward accent on a word that is supposed to be flat (no accent) you've just completely changed the meaning of your sentence.l And then whoever you are talking to bursts out in laughter, becasue they are forgiving enough to not take it offensive that you can't speak their language. In the phrase book we first got from Rog and Vicki, they showed these accents with the word Ma. Which ironically with no accent does mean mum. However, it also can mean goat, and several other words that I cannot remember. The word Ba, with no accent means 3, with an upward accent means old lady. The list is qutie extensive of mistakes that can be made.
OH, and here's the difficult thing for english speakers. Think abot how you speak. When you get excited you start talking louder. When you are tired you speak slower and quiter, and pronounce things differently. When you'r being sarcastic, or when you're angry, you say the same words, but you pronounce them differently, but essentially the MEAN the same thing. Here, if I get excited, and I say a sentence, most likely it's going to change the accent, which means I'm going to change the word meaning. So because I"m happy, I just said "I want old lady of these". So we have to learn how to control our tones. Which was a great revelation to my teaching. These children aren't used to being able to put different emphasis on words. They just read because there are no accents and so everything is bland to them. Teaching them to get excited or talk interoggatively is extremely difficult.
BUT. it is rewarding. I've said hello, and how are you and I want this in conversation to people and they actually understand and it feels good. Eventually I will be able to have a conversation which is good to know.
As for now, I just keep repeating this sounds to myself and hope that I get them right over time.
Good bye (tam biet) (The a has a . under it, which means you end the word really abruptly. The e has a ^ on it which makes it and Ay sound, and it also has a . under it which means to cut it short) Interesting.
Good luck,and good night.

some news

Xin Chao y'all, it's Tuesday and I'm parked at my desk at work, killing time 'til my class of 13 year olds relieves me of my personal freedoms. Here's the skinny on the last few days.

As far as justice in the case of the attempted break in last week, it's either very slow moving, or non-existent. I thought, after my bike had been found following the first robbery, that there was in fact functioning a law enforcement agency prevalent in this country, but that notion is deteriorating with every passing day, as nothing seems to be happening in the way of an investigation. Despite the open and shut nature of the case as we the victims see it, very little is being accomplished. Luckily for me progress is slowly being made in the effort to redeem the money I shelled out for my stolen bike a couple weeks back. The manager at the restaurant who provided the bike for me has organized another meeting witht the owner of the bike tomorrow, at which point I hope to receive the cash. So we're still waiting on the authorities for now, and when more develops we'll be sure to let you know.

On a more cheerful note, our sunday night party was fabulous, something straight out of hollywood it seemed. There was a large house, with a large amount of people, a large cooler of beer and other drinks, a not so large pool, containing a large enough amount of people, and a very large amount of food. All of this added up to an exceedingly large amount of fun. Everything went off without a hitch as well. Nothing was broken, stolen or otherwise, asides from one small potted plant, which fell victim to the crushing blow of an Australian foot, being set with great force upon the plant's top side. All told I'd say that about 40 people were there over the course of the night and I doubt that one of them had a lousy time.
This post was left unfinished by Adam, so I will try to add to it a little.
The clean up was a little intense. It's amazing how much water and dirt and alcohol can be trucked around a house by a group of drunken fools.
The party started out slowly. It looked like we had overstocked both the beer and the food. Eventually there was a strong group of people eating and being merry on the pool deck. Enjoying the sight of it, but no one enjoying the feel of it. I decided to go for a swim and splash a few people. That got the excitement up. Then a couple people joined me and we had a jolly time. I hopped out and did the social thing, and next thing I know there are 10-15 people in the pool. I think that was the same time that I realize that not only had we bought a lot of beer, but most everyone had brought their own supply of alcohol. Things began to spiral from there. It was a wonderful feeling to be such a young man, throwing a party were a group of my elders (many are not too much my elders, but none the less they are older than I) are having a blast. There were many people who have seen and done much more than me, enjoying the house that Adam and I have so luckily been able to rent.
It was good. That's that.
The stories of the night will unfold in time. We paid our 'party' dues as hosts, and now we get to relax and be hosted for a good length of time.
Au revoir
Tam biet
Hasta luego
Goodbye

Back at the controls

Ok here we go. It's been quite a while since I've put fingers to keys for the purpose of purveying my recent experiences here in the land of 'Nam. So what's new, you may wonder. Well quite a bit I'd say. Like Brandon mentioned in his last post, we attended another wedding. And yes it was a rather enjoyable affair. There seems to be a logic lurking in the shadows of the thoughts of people who've been here for a while that weddings are a waste of time. To me this logic is nonsense. I've been to two weddings in the last month and both were raucous jovial events with plenty of fare, fluids and cheer. Perhaps the aforementioned logic sets in with time, or perhaps it is an affliction of the ill-fated veteran teacher which may someday infest my brain. But for now it is the furthest thing from reason when I receive a wedding invitation. Imagine this: A co-worker invites you to their wedding. This does not require an appearance at the ceremony, which no matter the culture, are for the most part notoriously boring. This simply means that you are invited to dine like royalty and drink your fill, while being waited on hand and foot by pleasant staff in one of the finer hospitality establishments in town. All of this comes at the "price" of about 100,000 dong, which is dispensed by you in the form of a wedding gift, to be neatly tucked into your invitation and placed in a basket shortly before you sign the guest book. By the way, 100,000 dong is equivalent to 6 dollars and widely considered to be a substanial offering to the happy couple. Oh and one other thing, you are invited to enjoy all of this in the company of your friends and other co-workers as well as a few hundred boisterous vietnamese folk and one beaming newlywed couple and their families. A rather easy invitation to accept if you ask me. But, to each their own decisions and more often than not, westerners seem to choose to decline the invite.

In other news, and Mom I'm sorry you're finding out about this on here again but it just happened. We had another fella in our hacienda looking to take us for all we're worth. This time however we are happy to report that we were the victims of an attempted robbery and not a robbery. The story is incredibly complicated and will be difficult to relate clearly on here, but nonetheless, I'll do my best. The other night we were invited to a birthday party by a Vung Tau girl who we've been friends with for a few weeks now. She had rented the patio at a local hotel and also arranged for them to serve us an elaborate dinner and all the beer we could handle. A very nice gesture considering it's usually the birthday girl who has things bought for her, at least in Canada anyway. Here however, she took care of everything and it was a good time. Myself, Brandon and two other teachers took part in the dinner. The birthday girl lived up to the onus associated with birthdays and drank her limit by 12 o'clock, at which point we decided to move on. The wind blew myself, and the two other teachers, John and Dave to another bar or two while Brandon took the Femme Fatale as she would turn out to be, back to our place for a lay down. In an hour or so they made another appearance, catching up with us at one of this town's many watering holes. After some games of pool and a few more beverages we called it a night. I arrived home slightly behind Brandon and the birthday girl and found her snoozing on our couch and Dyk listening to some tunes. We had a night cap and shut it down around 4 am. (Now, the rest of this story takes place in Brandon's world and was related to me the following morning, around 10 am.) Dyk was not yet asleep at 4:30 am when he heard the sound of the door leading to the balcony from our prayer room being opened. This prayer room is off of his bedroom on the second floor of our house and is rarely used. The door leading outside from the prayer room is never used and stays secured under a padlock and latch. On this night however, the padlock had been deftly removed and the latch opened, leaving entrance to the house a task that even the simplest of children could accomplish. So, seconds after the opening of the door, a dark figure emerges from the prayer room into Dyk's room and pauses at the foot of his bed. Remember, Brandon is wide awake. At this point he reaches for the knife which he had hidden under the corner of his mattress for cases such as this. But alas, the knife is gone. It had been there that afternoon when he changed the sheets on his bed, but now, when he needed it most, it was gone. So, weaponless, he yells at the figure, spewing expletives and leaping from the bed. The figure vanishes from where he appeared, scampers over the railing and makes his descent of our front wall before running down the street. At this point the birthday girl, who had been sleeping in Dyk's bed, arises from slumber acting bleary and confused. Dyk explains the situation and quickly puts the puzzle pieces together in his head. She was there when he changed his sheets that afternoon, most likely noticing how he had tucked the corner of the bed where the knife was carefully, and although not seeing the actual blade, was aware of the existence of some object. She was the only other person in our house that day and night, and he knew that neither he or I removed that padlock and undid that latch, leaving one remaing suspect. Was the entire night of celebration an elaborately crafted ruse? Did she in fact perform the greatest feat of acting any of us had ever seen? Had she been setting us up for the last three weeks or more? Was she involved in the first, more successful break in? None of these questions have been answered yet. And the police are now involved, which means they may never be. All Dyk new at the time was the aforementioned facts. She was the only other person who could have removed the knife, lock and latch. So, he quickly decided to take her home.

Now, shift your focus to the first floor of the house. It's 4:40 am. I wake up to the noise of our gate opening. Half asleep I peer past my curtains to see Brandon escorting the girl out on the back of his bike. I think nothing of it and go back to sleep. Six hours later I am bombarded with information as I awake again to Brandon and our Neighbour, Huong, discussing the events of the past several hours. Soon the Police arrived and an "investigation" commenced. A simple solution would be to fingerprint the lock and see if the girl's are present. Who knows if that is actually possible. Time will tell the results of this one. For now we lay in waiting. And don't worry, we'll make sure to keep you posted.

Other than that I can't think of anything that's overly newsworthy. Oh, on sunday the 5th we're hosting a large gathering in honour of our fellow Canuck, John who is moving on to new pursuits in life. If you leave now from Canada you should make it in time :) It would be worth it, haha.

Ok, my wrists are burning and people need me, so I must depart, but don't worry about us, we've thwarted the enemy, and if our hunches are proven correct then our little burgalury problem should be exterminated. Have a happy Friday and enjoy the snow, those of you in northerm climes. For the rest of you, in the tropics and elsewhere, a new mother nature's taken over, and ain't it a ball!

Best of the best,

Adam

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Well Sunday was an interesting day. First of all there we a lot of Halloween parties going on for the little kids, which was a lot of fun. Then there was another wedding for us to attend. Ironically Adam and I were two of maybe 5 or 6 teachers invited, and 2 of the 3 that went. We weren't alone though, as all the TA's joined us. So there are Adam and I, two young guys at the front table of the reception, with 6 females. It was quite a fun event. Agian the food and drink were endless, and this time we had endless vietnamese lessons as the TA's were more than willing to help us with our language. it was quite fun. I must say I didn't learn all that much, but it was the start and will hopefully lead me to being able to communicate with people. ***Just found out that we are now getting Vietnamese lessons with one of the TA's and our boss on wednesdays and fridays. Sweet***
So we finished up at the reception and the Ta's wanted to go bowling, so we did. And I think Adam and I have played more games since we have been in VT than these ladies had in their entire lives combined. They were pretty bad. Luckily bowling isn't extremely difficult, and some did quite well, but the majority struggled, especially when it came to hurling a 10 pound ball down the lane in a somewhat straight direction. Some had a real tough time throwing the ball. They aren't exactly the butch type our here. It was a blast though. They get really really excited over hitting down the pins, so it was a melee of high fives.
Apparently there's another wedding happening in November. Another TA. Hopefully it's just as fun. This is wedding season. October to December is wedding season, apparently so much so that people are having trouble finding places to host their receptions. There were two receptions in the same builidng on sunday. Popular.
Anyway. I'm ranting and not thinking straight.
Until next time.