An Tet O Vinh Long
Celebrating Tet in Vinh Long
We just got here yesterday, and it's nice to be back. It's much quieter and more beautiful here than in HCMC. We're going to look into getting teaching jobs here in Vinh Long. There are now two English school here that have, or want to have, foreign teachers. Unfortunately, both are now closed for Tet. We think we'd like living here. We might get bored at times, but I think life here wouldn't take the extreme swings that it does, at least for me, in Saigon. There are days that I love Saigon and days that I hate Saigon.
It's especially beatiful here (and it Saigon too) because of the flower markets that are set up for Tet. The sidewalks along the streets around the guesthouse are now full of flowers for sale. The beauty is marred a little, though, by all the motorbikers cruising for flowers. In Saigon, the flower markets are in the parks, closed to motor vehicles, and are therefore more pleasant.
We just had lunch at the guesthouse with Uncle Han. I told him that I wanted to invite him and the rest of the men of the family to bia hoi -- the cheap draft-beer joints that sometimes also have pretty darn good food. Hoa reminded me to tell him that if we went to bia hoi, I would pay. This is important because they never let us pay for anything. Uncle Han responded by saying if we went to "bia om," he would pay. I'd never heard of "bia om," but eventually I realized that "bia om" is the alcoholic equivalent of "ca phe om," the coffee houses where you pay a little more than usual for your coffee to have a pretty girl sit in your lap. I asked if they have these places in Vinh Long, and he said there are many. I'm pretty sure he was kidding about us going.
I've been playing a little tennis. I went with the guy whose house we're living in to play again at the Reunification Palace. After we played, we all went to a restuarant ("Huong rung" -- something like "forest smell", but I think its sounds a little more poetic in Vietnamese; I haven't looked it up but "huong" may be better translated as something like "essense") that specialized in wild meats. We ate a number of different cuts of some kind of wild dog. And I can be pretty darn sure it really was dog, although not necessarily sure that it was wild dog, because I was fortunate enough to get the head, which was definitely dog-shaped, and perhaps terrier-sized. We also drank too much vodka and beer. I got to practice a little Vietnamese, but a couple of these guys spoke pretty good English so it was usually easier to speak in English. All the people, about 5 men and 1 women, were from Hanoi. So they were telling me that I should learn to speak correctly, meaning speaking with the northern dialect, for example saying "zuh" insteading of "yuh" for the "gi's" and "d's." Most people in the South seem to agree that the Northerners speak more correctly. But one of our teachers said that there is a "Vietnamese standard" taught in the schools that none of the regional dialects quite achieves. The Northerners I've met disagree. One of the men at dinner is a cop, who shares the cocky attitude and belief that he should be able to have as many girlfriends as he wants with many cops around the world. He's been telling me he would teach me how to get a Vietnamese girlfriend. When I told him I couldn't have a girlfriend because I already have a wife, he apparently thought this to be a common American attitude and said that we are a "backward people." I thought this was really funny, but he probably didn't intend it to be entirely a joke. The rest of the group is much more low-key and have told me not to listen to this guy.
We just got here yesterday, and it's nice to be back. It's much quieter and more beautiful here than in HCMC. We're going to look into getting teaching jobs here in Vinh Long. There are now two English school here that have, or want to have, foreign teachers. Unfortunately, both are now closed for Tet. We think we'd like living here. We might get bored at times, but I think life here wouldn't take the extreme swings that it does, at least for me, in Saigon. There are days that I love Saigon and days that I hate Saigon.
It's especially beatiful here (and it Saigon too) because of the flower markets that are set up for Tet. The sidewalks along the streets around the guesthouse are now full of flowers for sale. The beauty is marred a little, though, by all the motorbikers cruising for flowers. In Saigon, the flower markets are in the parks, closed to motor vehicles, and are therefore more pleasant.
We just had lunch at the guesthouse with Uncle Han. I told him that I wanted to invite him and the rest of the men of the family to bia hoi -- the cheap draft-beer joints that sometimes also have pretty darn good food. Hoa reminded me to tell him that if we went to bia hoi, I would pay. This is important because they never let us pay for anything. Uncle Han responded by saying if we went to "bia om," he would pay. I'd never heard of "bia om," but eventually I realized that "bia om" is the alcoholic equivalent of "ca phe om," the coffee houses where you pay a little more than usual for your coffee to have a pretty girl sit in your lap. I asked if they have these places in Vinh Long, and he said there are many. I'm pretty sure he was kidding about us going.
I've been playing a little tennis. I went with the guy whose house we're living in to play again at the Reunification Palace. After we played, we all went to a restuarant ("Huong rung" -- something like "forest smell", but I think its sounds a little more poetic in Vietnamese; I haven't looked it up but "huong" may be better translated as something like "essense") that specialized in wild meats. We ate a number of different cuts of some kind of wild dog. And I can be pretty darn sure it really was dog, although not necessarily sure that it was wild dog, because I was fortunate enough to get the head, which was definitely dog-shaped, and perhaps terrier-sized. We also drank too much vodka and beer. I got to practice a little Vietnamese, but a couple of these guys spoke pretty good English so it was usually easier to speak in English. All the people, about 5 men and 1 women, were from Hanoi. So they were telling me that I should learn to speak correctly, meaning speaking with the northern dialect, for example saying "zuh" insteading of "yuh" for the "gi's" and "d's." Most people in the South seem to agree that the Northerners speak more correctly. But one of our teachers said that there is a "Vietnamese standard" taught in the schools that none of the regional dialects quite achieves. The Northerners I've met disagree. One of the men at dinner is a cop, who shares the cocky attitude and belief that he should be able to have as many girlfriends as he wants with many cops around the world. He's been telling me he would teach me how to get a Vietnamese girlfriend. When I told him I couldn't have a girlfriend because I already have a wife, he apparently thought this to be a common American attitude and said that we are a "backward people." I thought this was really funny, but he probably didn't intend it to be entirely a joke. The rest of the group is much more low-key and have told me not to listen to this guy.
Tet is only a few days away, and I'll let you know how it goes.
Tom
posted by Tom Holz | 11:05 PM
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