May 27
Last night I ate seafood. Clams and mussels and a billion other things. Bleh. It turns out there is an excellent reason why I've had a life-long aversion to seafood: it really doesn't agree with me. I won't be doing that again any time soon.
But I digress. The reason I was at the seafood establishment in the first place was Co Minh Hanh called Thu and asked us to meet her at a particular seafood restaurant that a friend of hers runs. So we went, and stayed for about 2 hours. She brought her son, who's a year older than I am. She kept trying to get him to speak English to me. His English is actually decent, but he was being shy. She was son funny about it. At first, she was sitting next to me, and he was diagonally across from me. Then she made him switch seats with her "so he could hear me better". Poor guy. That's almost as bad as my mother trying to set me up on a 'networking luncheon' with her co-worker's son. "He's a journalism major too!" I felt real sympathy for the guy. He seems nice enough. He's an IT major, so I talked to him about computers and Solitaire and things like that. However, as much as I'd like to have Minh Hanh as a mother-in-law, I don't think it's going to work out. I did talk to her a little, and I taught her some English theater words. Some evil person has taught her to say "I go crazy for ______" and now she says it all the time. Oh well.
She invited me to her office today, and then to a rehearsal. In her office I really just plays Spider Solitaire and looked at some pictures. Unknown to me, she's also arranged for Anh Tri, the English speaking fire actor, to stop by, but he cancelled and she was stuck with me.
Then she took me to a rehearsal of a play of hers. She introduced me to this guy who's apparently a huge movie star. Thu knew him, and he gave a decent interview. She also introduced me to the director of her show, and it turns out I kept him too long and the other actors were mad. Iee.
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
May 26
Last week, I gave Sarah some art supplies for the children's shelter. I'd brought them for my host siblings, but I didn't stay in their house long enough to give them to them. So I gave them to Sarah. A few days later, she told me she'd noticed that the artwork at the Bodhi Tree had changed. The Bodhi Tree is a vegetarian restaurant where we often eat. They sell art done by children at the shelter where shw works. She said their pictures had suddenly gotten more detailed, and some of them were now drawn with marker instead of in crayon. They used my art supplies. :) I went to the supermarket and bought them more.
Last week, I gave Sarah some art supplies for the children's shelter. I'd brought them for my host siblings, but I didn't stay in their house long enough to give them to them. So I gave them to Sarah. A few days later, she told me she'd noticed that the artwork at the Bodhi Tree had changed. The Bodhi Tree is a vegetarian restaurant where we often eat. They sell art done by children at the shelter where shw works. She said their pictures had suddenly gotten more detailed, and some of them were now drawn with marker instead of in crayon. They used my art supplies. :) I went to the supermarket and bought them more.
May 25
Today I was quite productive and I got my ISP journal in order. Last night Thu and I went to a play that had a bunch of hilariously sleazy people, including one of the actors I'd interviewed dressed in drag. He looks better in a dress than I do. Anyway, the servant of one of the sleazy people swindles them all and winds up with all of their money. It's delightful in a Chicago-esque way, until he announces at the end that he is actually a good guy and will give all the dirty money to charity. Bah.
Today I was quite productive and I got my ISP journal in order. Last night Thu and I went to a play that had a bunch of hilariously sleazy people, including one of the actors I'd interviewed dressed in drag. He looks better in a dress than I do. Anyway, the servant of one of the sleazy people swindles them all and winds up with all of their money. It's delightful in a Chicago-esque way, until he announces at the end that he is actually a good guy and will give all the dirty money to charity. Bah.
May 23
Later that night, I went with Thu to a play that was just hilarious. The main character was a boy who worked his way up into an aristocratic Hanoi family, basically by flattering the women. The play took play during the French domination and was mostly devoted to making fun of the generation that adopted really stylized Western clothes and manners. It was most excellent. The family has a grandfather who's sick. They're waiting for him to die so they can have an elaborate funeral and inherit things. They send the boy in to pretend to be a doctor, and somehow the old man thinks the boy's cured him and give him half his estate. He also winds up with the beautiful daughter. Go figure.
Later that night, I went with Thu to a play that was just hilarious. The main character was a boy who worked his way up into an aristocratic Hanoi family, basically by flattering the women. The play took play during the French domination and was mostly devoted to making fun of the generation that adopted really stylized Western clothes and manners. It was most excellent. The family has a grandfather who's sick. They're waiting for him to die so they can have an elaborate funeral and inherit things. They send the boy in to pretend to be a doctor, and somehow the old man thinks the boy's cured him and give him half his estate. He also winds up with the beautiful daughter. Go figure.
May 22 10:30 am
Saigon
My life just continues to get more and more surreal. Earlier this week I was struck with an attack of severe laziness, from which I am just starting to recover. It's terrible. It's forced me to drink coffee and go shopping instead of doing work. Life is tough.
On Tuesday, I went to the cafe where some of the Cai Loung students I've met work as singers. It was this place where you could drink overpriced drinks and listen to singers. They didn't sing Cai Loung songs, they sang regular pop songs. Vietnamese pop is every bit as full of complex ideas and searing insights as American pop, so it really didn't matter that I didn't understand the words. The singers were talented, although they didn't know what to make of the table of Americans.
There was a large Vietnamese-American guy in a Hawaiian shirt who told us we could go up and sing if we wanted, although I decided to spare the clientel that. The strange thing was, although this was a fairly nice club, in terms of decor and singers and prices, it wasn't in a nice neighborhood. It was on the Saigon River, kind of near Pham Ngo Lao. Across the street was a vegetarian restaurant where you could get dinner for only 2500 dong.
On Wednesday, I was supposed to go to a Cai Loung show. It was originally supposed to be on Monday, but Trang, one of the actresses, called and told me that it had been moved to Wednesday. When I showed up at the theater Wednesday, there was no one outside the building. (I later found out that they'd been waiting for me at the store nearby, I just went to the wrong place. Which makes me feel like life is slightly less random.)
Actually the only person I knew in the building was Co Minh Hanh, who was delighted that I'd come to visit her. She was rehearsing some actors for...the fire play. This is just following me everywhere. One of them spoke pretty good English and translated a lot. I asked about the Cai Loung shows, and she told me they're all currently touring in the provinces and that there wouldn't be any shows in Ho Chi Minh City for the next 2 weeks. Of course! But since Minh Hanh is my god, when I asked her about seeing Cai Loung, she wrote me a letter of introduction to a nearby theater on the back of her business card. She also invited me to a play she's in next week.
Also she's trying to set me up with Anh Tri, the guy she was directing who speaks English. He's 24 and very nice. She was saying to me in English. "He's very nice, and he can take you around and translate for you."Then to him in Vietnamese she said to him "This is Katie, she's 21 and NOT YET MARRIED." She also said something about boyfriends and girlfriends but my Vietnamese was too bad to understand. She also said she's going to have her 22 year old son call me. I tried to tell her I already have a boyfriend, but I don't think she understood. I have a feeling that if I were to spend a significant amount of time with her I would be married in no time. She is completely fabulous and gave a ride home.
Then because I unexpectedly had free time, I went to Sarah's English class at Thao Dao, the street boy's shelter. She wanted them to interview me in English (Hello. What is your name?") and we did a bit of that. Then we taught them some English animal names and played charades with them. We gave them some English animal names, and they went in front of the class and acted out that animal. It was by far the most fun language class that I've ever been to.
This morning, I got up early and went to the fire prevention thing that Minh Hanh invited me to. It was actually a huge exposition of fire equipment. I had NO idea what to do; I just wandered abour aimlessly for about an hour, looking at all the nifty silver fire suits. Finally, I ran into a policeman I'd met at Co Minh Hanh's office. He showed me a row of seats in front of a makeshift stage. I sat down and soon a presentation began. First, they gave awards to people who had worked for fire safety ( I think that's what they said) and then they had performances. It began with an interpretive dance about the origins of fire that was half ballet and half Hat Boi. In the beginning, the actors play primitive people who disvoer fire; then they switched over and portrayed modern people who were caught in a fire, which was represented by some ribbons that were stretched across the stage. Fortunately the interpretive dance fire department arrived and put out the fire with a hose, also represented by a ribbon.
Then my fire people came on. Their scene is about people who carelessly start a million fires. And then I went home.
Saigon
My life just continues to get more and more surreal. Earlier this week I was struck with an attack of severe laziness, from which I am just starting to recover. It's terrible. It's forced me to drink coffee and go shopping instead of doing work. Life is tough.
On Tuesday, I went to the cafe where some of the Cai Loung students I've met work as singers. It was this place where you could drink overpriced drinks and listen to singers. They didn't sing Cai Loung songs, they sang regular pop songs. Vietnamese pop is every bit as full of complex ideas and searing insights as American pop, so it really didn't matter that I didn't understand the words. The singers were talented, although they didn't know what to make of the table of Americans.
There was a large Vietnamese-American guy in a Hawaiian shirt who told us we could go up and sing if we wanted, although I decided to spare the clientel that. The strange thing was, although this was a fairly nice club, in terms of decor and singers and prices, it wasn't in a nice neighborhood. It was on the Saigon River, kind of near Pham Ngo Lao. Across the street was a vegetarian restaurant where you could get dinner for only 2500 dong.
On Wednesday, I was supposed to go to a Cai Loung show. It was originally supposed to be on Monday, but Trang, one of the actresses, called and told me that it had been moved to Wednesday. When I showed up at the theater Wednesday, there was no one outside the building. (I later found out that they'd been waiting for me at the store nearby, I just went to the wrong place. Which makes me feel like life is slightly less random.)
Actually the only person I knew in the building was Co Minh Hanh, who was delighted that I'd come to visit her. She was rehearsing some actors for...the fire play. This is just following me everywhere. One of them spoke pretty good English and translated a lot. I asked about the Cai Loung shows, and she told me they're all currently touring in the provinces and that there wouldn't be any shows in Ho Chi Minh City for the next 2 weeks. Of course! But since Minh Hanh is my god, when I asked her about seeing Cai Loung, she wrote me a letter of introduction to a nearby theater on the back of her business card. She also invited me to a play she's in next week.
Also she's trying to set me up with Anh Tri, the guy she was directing who speaks English. He's 24 and very nice. She was saying to me in English. "He's very nice, and he can take you around and translate for you."Then to him in Vietnamese she said to him "This is Katie, she's 21 and NOT YET MARRIED." She also said something about boyfriends and girlfriends but my Vietnamese was too bad to understand. She also said she's going to have her 22 year old son call me. I tried to tell her I already have a boyfriend, but I don't think she understood. I have a feeling that if I were to spend a significant amount of time with her I would be married in no time. She is completely fabulous and gave a ride home.
Then because I unexpectedly had free time, I went to Sarah's English class at Thao Dao, the street boy's shelter. She wanted them to interview me in English (Hello. What is your name?") and we did a bit of that. Then we taught them some English animal names and played charades with them. We gave them some English animal names, and they went in front of the class and acted out that animal. It was by far the most fun language class that I've ever been to.
This morning, I got up early and went to the fire prevention thing that Minh Hanh invited me to. It was actually a huge exposition of fire equipment. I had NO idea what to do; I just wandered abour aimlessly for about an hour, looking at all the nifty silver fire suits. Finally, I ran into a policeman I'd met at Co Minh Hanh's office. He showed me a row of seats in front of a makeshift stage. I sat down and soon a presentation began. First, they gave awards to people who had worked for fire safety ( I think that's what they said) and then they had performances. It began with an interpretive dance about the origins of fire that was half ballet and half Hat Boi. In the beginning, the actors play primitive people who disvoer fire; then they switched over and portrayed modern people who were caught in a fire, which was represented by some ribbons that were stretched across the stage. Fortunately the interpretive dance fire department arrived and put out the fire with a hose, also represented by a ribbon.
Then my fire people came on. Their scene is about people who carelessly start a million fires. And then I went home.
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