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Published: November 26th 2005
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Joe's Motorbike SUCCESSFULLY parked indoors - no running into furniture on the way in...
So, there's not really a place to park outside, so our house is slowly filling with motorbikes. We're now a four motorbike household, which can be obnoxiuos in terms of negotiating parking spaces... Quiet days lately, unlike the last journal. I forgot to mention that there was an earthquake somewhere down the coast and the tremors were felt in HCMC. I was in the process of defending my posessions from robbery when it happened, but Joe was up in his room in our house and felt them. He says it was like there was someone behind him shaking his bed. There was one during the night as well, but I missed it - don't know how! This Sunday is Teacher Appreciation Day, and apparently I will be receiving gifts from my kids - needless to say I'm excited! I went to a concert last night in celebration of TAD and saw some hilarious acts. The highlight was when a martial arts club got on stage in full gear and started dancing Brittney Spears style to Vietnamese Pop! The first part of their performance was dance, but the second did involve some actual kicking, etc, which was quite cool. THis mornning I played soccer with Americans and Brits from Marta's school. The pitch was literally all dirt, which made the ball more than slightly unpredictable. It's been 6/7 weeks since I've run, and it was
My Neighborhood
One of the many alley ways in my neighborhood... HARSH! Not to mention that the Saigon air is definitely taking it's toll on my lungs! Near the end I started to feel majorly dehydrated...we're talking, ready to puke, chills, not seeing straight, onthe verge of fainiting... it just crept up on me! So, I sat the rest out. I don't think it helped that we played at literally the HOTTEST part of the day...bygones...I'll be more accostumed to it next week.
The European Chamber Orchestra was in town on Friday night. Brian had picked up two free tickets and we were going to go, Joe was going to try and get a ticket at the door. I offered to cook dinner beforehand, so Brian was helping/watching TV. As I'm chopping vegetables, I hear an engire roar and Brian running to the door, yelling, "Hey, that's my motorbike!". I went to the door and sure enough, some guy had ganked Brian's bike. The shocking part is, it was parked in plain view, in front of the house, 15 feet away from Brian, and it was locked!!! As Brian stared down the dark alley, he looked at me and said, "well, lesson learned!". This is the boy whose motto is,
The Market
One of the local markets, literally 20 second walk from my house. It
s bustling between 6 am and noon - unfortunately I rarely get my act together in time to go there. It is what it is"; he really does live by it. We were helpless; neighbors started flooding out into the street, crowding around him as he tried to explain what happened. At first they thought he had left the keys in the ignition, but when he pulled them out of his pocket, they understood. Brian struggled to ask them about the police, etc (more for potential insurance claims than any hope of finding the bike). We started eating and the police came. Joe got Brian's ticket and he phoned a girl from Language Corps (organization I'm traveling with) to come help him communicate with the cops. WHile Joe and I enjoyed the concert, Brian found out (the hard way) that insurance doesn't really exist in this country. In the states if you rent a car, then you sign a contract and the company probably has insurance to deal with these types of situations. Not so in Vietnam....long story short, Brian has to buy his guesthouse another motorbike, which will run him a pretty penny - or approximately $450. The man at his guesthouse said that the perp(s) had probably been watching us for a while and knew what kind of
Me and the Motorbike
Me on the motorbike (still unnamed)- I've clearly attempted to reinact the classic Flint photo pose. bike Brian had. He also said our neighborhood isn't so hot, which I think we'd become privvy to. At any rate, Brian has suffered quite a bit in recent days, a bout of food poisening, directly after virus/bacteria, then this...The dude at his guesthouse also told him to have ONE embrionic duck egg - that's enough to turn bad luck away from you. (Two brings it full circle).
I guess I should mention that embrionic duck egg is something people eat every now and again here - it's pretty gross, I think, although the guys have already tried it. You're supposed to just pop the whole thing into your mouth - the bones are apparently soft enough that they're not an issue. Yesterday I talked to my neighbor's younger sister (she helped me get a new innertube for my bike). She said there were two boys in the nieghborhood that almost stole her bike too - but she realized what was going on. It's custom for people to park outside of their friends'/relative's homes, which is why we thought nothing of it. I had to wonder if they were the same two boys that hassled me? I also told
Sally!
Took the camera in so snag some shots of the kids - this is Sally. She's cute and the brightest in the class!! her about crashing into the couch - which she said her sister had told her...glad to see I'm the talk of the neighborhood, just as I'd hoped... she said it happened to her too, which made me fell SO MUCH BETTER! Michelle and Marta have also gotten bikes, and they've been having a bit of hard time getting them up the ramp and into the house. They haven't crashed into any furniture, but they have gotten as far as the doors (thankfully they're made of durable metal). Today is Teacher Day, so in theory we are supposed to get flowers from our students. So far I have received a showering kit...I guess this is a sign that my kids are not as happy as they could be with me. There are 14 bouquets in the teaching office, all for the gyru teacher, Miss Ann. Marta got a (potentially real) Luis Vuitton (sp?) purse from one of her students yesterday. She might give it to her mother. I'm holding out for my adult classes - I get along much better with them.
In Avian Flu news here, they are now longer selling eggs at the supermarket or serving egg dishes
Little Boyzzz
My little boys being good - it's a rarity! at restaurants. People are still taking it pretty lightly though - I talked with one girl today who said she's made an 'Avian Flu Game' that she does with her classes (pretty funny). You also can't get any chicken dishes, and I could try to push the envelope with that, but I work with a guy who lived in Cambodia for a while, and he said they just started grain-feeding rats and giving those to tourists...so I will NOT be trying to get my hands on an "ga" dishes. I'm trying to organize some sort of THanksgiving celebration with people here, maybe a potluck. I was really excited to cook up a feast for my Brit friends...until I realized we have no oven. That sort of killed the idea. Rice and vegetables it is!
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Vman
non-member comment
mhhhmmmm
are you wearing boots on that bike?? hahahahaha hot!