out of the marvellous and volver to the normal

---

At the end of October, when it was still warm and leaves clung onto Madrid’s trees, my parents rang to say a large brown box had arrived safely in Cork from Vietnam. At the time they phoned, I was chewing down a jamon y queso asado near Calle Serrano, before racing to the first Colegio of the day at Santiago Bernabeu (where the Real Madrid stadium is) to teach nine eight year old chicas. I wasn’t sure at first why they were telling me about Vietnam and the mysterious parcel; obviously the mysterious box had been delivered to the wrong address. However, as my mother listed the contents, I suddenly remembered with extraordinary clarity that day in June, at Buu Dien Thanh Pho HCM.

I had struggled to carry all my worldly possessions across town on my Yamaha Mio. Even with the help of Vera, my now long lost housemate, plastic bags swung dangerously from mirrors and handlebars while between my thighs I supported a year’s collection of posters and trinkets, too tacky to believe it was I who had bought them yet too familiar to abandon. Even at the post office, the postal workers had been amused. One employee had even, after pointing and laughing at the ubiquitous luminous green Buddha statue, tried on the ‘spirit’ mask I had been extortionately ripped off for at Ben Thanh market. Things had turned more official upon him seeing my c.d. and d.v.d. collection. ‘You no send these’ he exclaimed, taping up the underside of the box. I wondered if it was because of the copyright laws in other countries that mu parcel would fly over, copyright laws non existent in the fantasy land of Vietnam. Later a friend told me discreetly that it was because the government doesn’t want foreigners to send secrets out of the country. My friend does harbour a penchant for espionage, but still, it’s one of those ambiguous bureaucratic policies of Vietnam that now, in hindsight, make me feel nostalgic.

It was this memory that has made me decide what the difference is between living in Vietnam and living in Spain. Writability. If that’s a word. Memorability then. Madrid is Dublin, only larger and with better facilities. And a different language. Walk along Banco de Espana and I swear you think you’re in central London. The only distinguishing feature is that the people are more tanned. No, no, no: this is too simplistic of course. It’s just that the differences are more subtle. Perhaps the unique aspects of Madrid are more familiar to a European citizen so they are harder to observe. This goes some way in explaining why it has been impossible to sit and write about life in Spain. In Vietnam, the culture is so radically different, everything is memorable. I could sit down and write a 2000 word blog about my noodle soup breakfast, my afternoon with my cleaner, my daily driving/death defying experiences or the never-ending shrill of neighbour’s instruments. In fact I think I wrote a whole blog on weasel coffee. (Which I later horrifyingly discovered was coffee made from the excrement of weasels). In Madrid, my day to day life is bland in comparison, or at least it will be if I don’t look harder for those elusive differences. I fear that if I fail to find the distinctive qualities here it will result in regretting the move. Should I just have stayed at home?
Last night, I went for the first time to CINE IDEAL, an English speaking cinema near Metro Sol. I saw ‘Julie and Julia’ and it reawakened the blogger in me. Of course, it wasn’t the multi-million dollar film deal that ‘Julie’ was awarded for her blogs about cooking, but the habitual, comforting routine of writing that brought me back to travelblog. I thought I’d update the story since Vietnam. I think that in doing so I’ll be forced to see the differences between the life I knew in Ireland to the life I have now. I’m hoping, rather optimistically, that the exoticism will shine through. This may not be the ‘Nam’ but it’s home for now. Let the ranting begin.

---

Comments

[Keira]

She's baaaaccckkk! it ain't nam but it will do!

[Jillery]

glad that the blogger is back!!
Glad that the blogger in you had returned!

[katetheyak]

why i´m back...
i think its symptomatic of nobody listening to my rantings!!!