Christmas

Who would have thought that writing a blog about Christmas would be so labourious. Well it is. It is now New Year’s eve, and I am forcing myself to write such a blog. Well here it goes.
Christmas is not really a holiday in Vietnam. There may be ornaments and signs, and children dressed up in little Santa Claus outfits, but it isn’t ‘important’ in the same sense. In fact, it wasn’t even a holiday. ILA was closed, but my dear friend Alex MacIntosh in Hanoi, was forced to attend work on said day. My regards to him.
In preparation for Christmas, ILA had some Christmas decorations put up, and had a Santa go around to the classes to distribute candies and milk. They nominated me (Brandon) as Santa. Now most of you know Santa, and many of you know me, so you can imagine how ill-fitted I felt. However, after stuffing a pillow in my jacket, and putting on a beard, I felt a little more suitable. It was quite fun to be Santa. I must say it was difficult to keep saying Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas for 5 minutes as I handed out the candy, but I managed. My own students were of course enthralled to discover that I was Santa. I denied it, but I can only defend so much when Santa happened to show up at the same time I had taken an hour break from class . Some classes were quite boring, but some classes had children jumping and singing for me. This was all caught on camera for VTV9. I did manage to see the footage of myself. I was good.

On that evening (Saturday), ILA hosted its Christmas pageant of sorts. You may recall me mentioning that we practice/teach the children Christmas songs. Those who were good enough were chosen to compete at the pageant for prizes. I had two classes involved, as did Adam. I showed up (decked out in shorts, which were mocked several times throughout the night) and was mauled by my youngest class. I was dragged to a seat amongst them, and used as a climbing gym for the next 30 minutes (which offered a great opportunity to meet the sisters of some of my students, who happened to be more my age). Many classes performed, and many were quite good. Others were quite terrible. As it wound up, my elite class (4 16 year old girls performed for the class) ended up with second prize, which is 1 million dong to go towards a party. We are yet to have it, but it should be fun. The TA’s and I were taken out to dinner and had a joyous occasion. I felt surprisingly comfortable among 14 Vietnamese natives. They are wonderful people, and make such a great attempt to make me feel welcome. We laughed and joked in both English and Vietnamese, mostly them laughing at me trying to speak their language.

Christmas eve was definitely the strangest on record por moi. I spent the majority of the day teaching English, and then went home to celebrate an evening that is usually spent with my family. I had no family, so I comforted myself with some local friends and beer. As beers turned into more beers, we headed to a disco. Probably one of the last places on earth I would have predicted myself to be on a Christmas Eve. However, it was quite fun. A good time was had by all.

We made it home by 3 am, perfect timing to catch the 6:30 am phone call from Adam’s parents. My dear friend Adam turns off his cell phone at night (which has caused me phone call grief before) and it took me a while to figure out who I was talking to. After crashing through my haze, and looking at the overseas phone number, I made the connection to go down and wake Adam, and tell him to turn on his phone. After another short snooze, I was awoken by my own parents. Again after throwing off the haze I was quite pleased to be talking to my parents on what is normally a special and family oriented occasion. I may have been a bit groggy, but it was a wonderful way to start Christmas day.

With all of us awake (our friend Megan was down from HCM), we decided to get the day started. So we went for breakfast, and then to the most important destination of our day….. the beach. It was a gorgeous day. The waves looked a little small for surfing, but turned out to be quite spectacular. They were slow moving waves, that weren’t breaking too fast, which made them easy to catch, and easy to ride, and they didn’t toss you around like a doll if you feel, which was good for our state. Of course our state wasn’t static, as we had acquired a cooler, and kept it stocked with beer and ice. We managed to spend a good 4 hours at the beach. It was a strange feeling, mostly because it wasn’t Christmas. Several times Adam and I mentioned that it was cool, but we needed snow and family to really have Christmas. After our day at the beach, we had a dinner party to attend. Of course we hadn’t prepared for it yet, and we were already 30 minutes late. But late in Vietnam doesn’t really exist, and purchasing food is not a problem. We thusly went to Antony and Craig and Jan’s, and continued the Merry Christmas by watching a beautiful sunset on their beautiful third floor balcony. The party raged on for several hours, and I need not give details, as they would be no different than any other party, other than the fact that we wished each other Merry Christmas every once and a while with huge smirks on our faces, as many of us felt the same dis-association.

So it was an uneventful Christmas as far as strange things didn’t happen. But when the whole day is strange, how do you call it uneventful???

To my family, I missed you too. I had a blast, but I still missed you. We now trudge on into the new year of 2007. I wish you all the best for the new year. Mine starts 12 hours before most of you, 13 for some, 14 for others, and 15 before the stragglers on the west coast. May your weather be cold, and your drinks too. (And good luck to Simon who wants to shoot some squirrels. Knock ‘em dead!)
Love ya.
Brandon.

Scavenger Hung

So I’m in the middle of an Open Doors 3 test at the moment. Fortunately test days do not require me to do anything. So much so that I can bring my computer to class and type up another blog. The wireless network doesn’t appear to be available to me here, but I can type one up none the less.
I must keep on top of the blogging, because surely more things will happen. And the events of the past only get more and more vague as time goes on.
The most recent event was of course, the scavenger hunt. For this we headed to Saigon on Sunday night, and warmed ourselves up by staying out until 2 am for some, and 4 am for others. Why such an early night you ask? Well we had plans (unbeknownst to Adam and I) to meet for breakfast at 9 am. This got the kai-bosh right early in the morning when we locked Megan out of both her room and Suzie’s room, allowing the two of us another hour of rest, although sleep was out of the question because she haggled us the entire time.
Having only a vague idea of what was in store for us for that day, we decided to start it off with Bloody Mary’s. Some like them, some don’t. I don’t really like them, but at 10 am they are definitely a wake up call. We went to a place called Chi’s, which is where Adam bought his bike, and is also directly across from Bread and Butter, the bar that Quentin owns, and the starting point for our hunt. We started there with a crew of 5, which quickly grew to a crew of about 10. This large number of people ordering alcoholic beverages at such an early hour no doubt shocked Chi and her staff, but it didn’t stop them from creating amazing long island iced teas.
By 11:30 it was time to cross the alley way and meet the other competitors. Team Canada (as we were dubbed) had on matching shirts, although opposing colour schemes to improve the effect. And the print was, ingeniously enough, of a cyclo, which was our mode of transportation. I in grey with black print, Adam in black with white print. We also managed to attain firearms. Small pistols that shot little plastic pellets. Quite entertaining. Also to be part of our costume, were the little conical hats that traditional Vietnamese people wear. This item was given to everyone.
Twelve o’clock, and on our cyclo. The drivers weren’t too happy about riding two people, as they are designed for one, but they were forced to. We were handed our list and our egg (to protect), and so the 3 hour race ensued. Items on the list were given points, and the team with the most points wins. Items were things such as a pool cue, a toy from Lotteria (local burger joint) or KFC (yes it has infiltrated this country, one of the only western chains to make it), another teams egg, something to inflate, a block of ice, shampoo and slippers from a five star hotel.
I think Team Canada was a little leery at first about acquiring some of these items. But we had a big turn in confidence when we decided to go for the hotel items. You’d think that two young white men in matching t-shirts, sandals and board shorts, and conical hats, (not to mention Adams fake glock sticking out the back of his shorts) would raise some alarm and suspicion. However, there was no suspicion at all. In fact, there was even less suspicion from the cleaning lady that gave us both of the items we requested. This gave us an emotional boost. From then on it was a full on give’r, No holds barred.
After an hour of collecting some pretty good items, we went to the market to get some smaller items. ON our way we noticed the Johnny’s (some boys we know well) having a beer. So we joined in. Turned out that their cyclo driver took off on them after they entered the market. Their day was shot.
After enjoying the company, we continued on our trek. We deciphered the second to last destination as being the zoo, quite a way down a main road. We acquired some more items along the way, and made the checkpoint, where we and our driver were graced with a beer to get us through the final leg. It wasn’t very far, but Bop (our driver) had done tidy work of his beer.
We had to check in, which was sort of chaotic, but not nearly as chaotic as what was about to occur.
We had booked for us, the 9th floor of some building. It was a balcony of sorts. And there was a cooler and a barbecue. The cooler was always full. The barbecue lacked a little bit, in that it wasn’t ‘on demand’, but what was served was good.
If you’ve been following the times I’ve given, you may have noticed that we had a two hour hunt, and that it started at noon. You may also have noticed that when we arrived at the destination, there was a full cooler. This means there was a lot of beer being served to 40 ex-pats living in Vietnam at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I never thought I’d experience anything like high school again, but this came really close. It was a gang of hooligans set loose. Talking and yelling. Games and stupidity. It was utterly fantastic. Everyone at the party, whether 23 and 43, was 16 again. At 6 or 7 they brought a guy in the play some acoustic songs. We jammed along and sang our hearts out for about an hour. It was quite wonderful. And at around 8 or 8:30, the decision was made that all of us animals would disperse ourselves into the streets of Saigon. Where do you go when you want to keep partying…??? Go 2 Bar!!!! I think (in fact I know) that we were the topic of many people’s conversations. I ended up chatting with several people who were sitting around, and they all asked me whey so many of us were, well, so drunk, so early. Not to mention in matching outfits and brandishing weapons. I once pulled my glock on an American girl and she nearly fell off her chair. She clearly didn’t know it was fake. Her and her friends were really nice. Another girl from Vancouver, and a couple from Australia. Looking back I was probably imposing myself on their conversation, but at the time they felt like my best friends. I also met a couple Dutch people, and they were really nice as well, and came down to the Bia Hoi with us for a bit.
Speaking of bia hoi, our trek to bia hoi ended up brining us back to Canada. As we past an international phone booth, we decided to make a call. Sorry to our parents, but I think it might have been a little dis-heartening for any of you to have talked to us, not to mention it would have been 10 am on Monday. So we called our dear friend Shannon Noonan. I’m sure she was shocked to hear us, not only to speak to us, but to try and understand what kind of frenzy we were actually in.
From then on it was fairly tame. WAIT. No it wasn’t. I now recall some more. Mainly being our search for a kick thing. I don’t know what to call it, but it’s a game played by the Vietnamese, similar to hacky sack, but using a feathered item similar to a badminton birdie. We had been offered them earlier, but hadn’t purchased one, and now at 1 am we decided we wanted one. Thanks to being in Saigon, we can get one. And our leader on this mission was a little boy, no more than 10 years of age, who could curse better than any teenagers back home. He hangs around the back pack district all the time, and has done well on learning the slang. He was nice though, and tried to find us our item. He wasn’t very successful, and after 20 minutes of following him around, Adam went down a street by himself to get one. Then we tried to play, which was a bad idea. We aren’t very good. Maybe we picked a bad time to start learning, but we’ll get better.
From then on, things were tame. Right? Yes. By 2 or 3 we decided to head home. After 16 hours of given’r, it was just time to call it. For we did have to return to Vung Tau and teach the next day. Poor students.
Anyway. Now that I’ve wasted a lot of your time (for this was a long post) telling you things that probably worry those closest to us, I will sign off. My kids are still writing. They have been staring at me oddly half of the time, and trying to cheat for the other half. Thanks to Thuy, they get away with nothing!!!!!
I love you all, and just wait for the next post. Sunday is ILA’s Christmas dinner. It has been described with four words by our dear friend, and superior, Jake. The first one was ‘Mate…’ – you know, with wide eyes and almost in question from. Then he followed with Buffet (for it is an all you can eat, five star buffet), and Open Bar. If bedlam can ensue with just 40 teachers on a ninth floor terrace, I only wonder what will happen with 100 teachers, 100 TA’s, and 100 office staff, and an open bar.
So until next time…. As the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy states…….. Don’t Panic.
Dearly, Brandon.

P.S. As if it’s December 14th.

OH, and the picture website is http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/vandykandstevens/

PIctures

Although it might not be kosher to label these pictures 'exciting', they are. Living through this and seeing the devastation is interesting. The pictures are now posted. Not all of them. And I will try to add more when time permits, but for now I have posted some of the most revealing.
As for Team Canada, we get to participate in a scavenger hunt with 18 other teams on monday in Saigon. We will be driven around by a cyclo, and who knows what will ensue. Should be another good story.
Until then.

The winds of December

Well for those of you who don’t watch the news, or haven’t talked to my parents, there’ve been some interesting events transpire over the last few days. These events weren’t of a criminal nature, nor were they human in any way, shape, or form. This time we were affected by natural events.

Let’s begin Monday afternoon, the 4th of December. Dyk had made the trip down to the surf club in search of some waves. I had had a lively Sunday night and was still vegetating at the homestead. Shortly after arriving at the beach and witnessing the fabulous swell rolling in, Dyk sent me a message informing me of this good fortune. I dragged my lazy butt out of bed and tossed some clothes on to make the trip down. Upon turning the corner onto the beachfront road I too was able to see what magnificent luck we had been blessed with. Crashing into the shore were perfect looking, clean breaking, four to six foot waves, curling into barrels that were long and pristine. It was completely different from the wind generated, choppy whitewash that we’d been used to. Needless to say I gassed the bike and got there as fast as it would take me. For the next two hours or so, we bobbed about on a glassy sea, riding wave after wave as the sets rolled in. It was a spectacular day, and there was only one explanation for it; a typhoon. Further up the coast loomed Typhoon Durian, the fruitfully named storm that had recently barreled across the Philippines killing hundreds of people as it triggered mudslides and mass destruction. It was apparently poised to take a run at the central coast of Vietnam, following in the footsteps of its typhoon brethren before it. In Vung Tau, on the south coast, we thanked Mother Nature for this aquatic treat and called it a day, assuming that we’d seen all that Durian would throw at us. We went to bed later that night planning to head back to the surf club in the morning in hopes of a second go. Well, for one, our assumption was far from correct, and two, we didn’t make it to the surf club in the morning.

I was awoken at approximately 4 am to the sound of wind and windows against the side of the house. In a haze I realized they were my windows and they needed to be closed or else the wind was going to forcefully remove them from their hinges. Upon doing this it occurred to me that the power was out, as the fan in my room had stopped working, and the usual transcendent glow of the streetlight was not percolating through my curtains. It also occurred to me that it was raining, and perhaps I should close the other windows around the house as well. So, aided by the dim light of my mobile phone I stumbled to the living room, closed the windows and made my way up stairs to do the same there. At the top of the stairs I met Brandon, taking the same measures as I. We looked at each other and then took a look out the window, only to realize we had not in fact, seen the last of Typhoon Durian.

For the next two hours we stood by the door to our pool deck looking out over the South China Sea, as all matter of bedlam roared outside. The wind and rain gathered force and fury, whipping our mango tree about like a rag doll. Our vision was obviously limited, so we spent much of the time trying to decipher every crash and bang that was taking place around us. The general consensus was that we had no idea what the noises were, but this situation was bloody entertaining. After exchanging phone calls with Rudi and Antony up the street, we started to piece together the magnitude of the storm. Shortly thereafter we heard the biggest crash and bang yet, and it came from our third floor. Accompanying the noise was a few chunks of falling debris, which whizzed past the window in front of us on their way to the deck below. At that point the weather was too harsh to investigate the occurrence, but we would find out soon enough that the front wall of our outdoor solarium on the third floor had been shattered and the aluminum frame ripped from its place. This was the apex of the storm for us. By six o’clock the winds had subsided, screaming to a halt in what seemed like half a second. For a while we thought maybe we were actually in the dreaded “eye of the storm,” when in fact it was all but over. All that followed were some heavy rains and an attempt to get back to sleep, in a steamy bedroom which lacked functioning fans. When we rose again, around mid-morning, we went outside to check out the neighbourhood. It was a full on clean up effort at that point. Tin roofs and ceramic tiles had not fared well in the fury and resulted in a sufficient amount of cleanup for they’re poor owners. We walked up the street to check out Rudi and Antony’s places, finding them less scathed than we, suffering little to no damage at all. After a brief moment’s chat about the night, and a 15 minute wait for a passing rain shower we (Brandon, Rudi, Rudi’s mate Mark, and I) hopped on our bikes to do some rubber necking around town. From back of Rudi’s bike Mark shot over 100 photos of the wreckage, the amount of which was unbelievable. Durian had hit Vung Tau with a force that I doubt anyone predicted, and vast areas if the town was left in ruins. Everywhere we drove we saw trees uprooted, some measuring ten feet in diameter. There were homes and buildings flattened, billboards and signs removed from their moorings, power lines strewn about the streets like clotheslines in a Chinese laundry. The next day the newspaper would put the stats at 34 people dead and 6700 homes destroyed in Vung Tau province. As I said, it was not expected. We’d heard also that a storm of this magnitude hits this area once in 50 years, just like in Point Break starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze!!

All jokes aside, it was definitely something to behold, and I’m glad we were a part of it, that’s for sure. The past two days since it happened have been a mixture of interest and uncomfort, as we didn’t regain power for about 36 hours. This made sweating a ridiculously easy and common achievement, and the only real way I found to rid myself of the burden was to drive around on my motorbike without a shirt on. On the whole though, things weren’t so bad. The diligence of the locals was impressive when it came to repairing their businesses and getting them running again. There were no real emergency situations, like food shortages or water rations, although I did hear that purchasing candles was a rowdy task. In fact, the night after the storm ravaged us we even managed to consume cold beer at one particularly courageous public house which managed to procure a generator.

Things are almost normal now on Thursday night, power has been restored to a lot of the city, our house included (yay) and the majority of the streets have been cleared of fallen trees. It’ll obviously be a long while until the town looks the same again, but in the meantime we’ve still got our view. We’ll soon post some photos for you, so these words can be brought to life and no worries for us, we’re keepin’ on keepin’ on, and this time the cops aren’t involved!
Peace, love and roadhockey

Adam

Disassociation

Well I wasn't sure if I had anything to talk about, but I was going to post anyway. Then a couple things hit me. First is the disassociation I feel toward the lives in which all those in Canada exist in. It didn't occur me that living 23 years of my life in Canada would tie me so closely to the seasons. But being that it is December 1st, it is 28 degrees celsius, and my Christmas holidays will be a triumphant 3 days, I'm starting to notice some differences. In many e-mails I have sent and received, a major topic has been the weather. And despite knowing how cold -25 degrees celsius feels, I just can't imagine it right now. It can't really be December. Normally I would have hit the slopes at least one time, butt his year all I do is go to the beach (which I did today... it was gorgeous). And it occurred to me that this will be the first Christmas where I will be utterly pleased that it is green outside. I'll probably go for a swim in my pool Christmas morning. haha. Although I did mention that we only get 3 days off at Christmas, which is qutie the bummer. Not that I have much to accomplish during that time. So to those in colder climates, I hope it is bearable. I am a little jealous because I'd like to see snow again. And recently we have been teaching the children Christmas carols, and singing about white christmas' from long long ago, and sitting by a fire sound quite appealing. To those in warmer climates (only a few I know of).. isn't it wonderful??!!! hahha
Second thing I should comment on is the vietnamese alphabet. I found a good website that you can look at. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vietnamese.htm I only looked at it briefly, but it looks quite detailed and might even have sound clips. Mabye it will show some of the words that have four accents. Ridiculous.
As for me. I've got to plan my lessons. It's time to accomplish something.
Peace from the Southeast.
Brandon.