June 4
Randomness factor: 7 out of 10. So a file on which I saved about 1/4 of my paper refused to open. I had to get up early this morning to retype the whole thing. Then I've been having ISP copying/binding/not printing issues up the wall. Baaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Then I went to have sinh to with Thu and her friend, an SIT student from last semester who's here for the summer. She's from Bulgaria, and for some reason we got to talking about the cold war and I realized that I actually don't know all that much about it.
What are the chances I would be racking my brain for facts about the cold war on a day I thought I'd be worrying about files on Vietnamese theater? Here in my life, excellent.
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
June 3
It's ISP writing season! Ah! Recently my life has been a mass of issues with files and such. Alas, not the best way to spend one's last days in Saigon. It still hasn't hit me that I am going home. Why would I? I already live here.
Last night I went out for coffee with male Thu, Trang, and Mrs. Canh. It was so great to see them again. Hopefully Trang will teach me to sing Cai Loung when I get back.
Last night I was up until 3, cursing, as I typed things out on Molly's computer. I ended up sleeping until 11 the next morning. When I woke up, I headed to VNN for some more typing. At this point, the paper is pretty decently written, it's just a matter of putting it together.
And what am I going to do without Thu as my righthand person? I realize in the states everyone can speak English, but it's so much more fun to have someone to hang out with!
On sunday Sarah and I hung out with Phoung, who is back from the north. She gave us bracelets. Ieeeeeee I will miss her too.
Today I realized my ISP presentation will be for an audience of Molly and Stu. How funny is that?
It's ISP writing season! Ah! Recently my life has been a mass of issues with files and such. Alas, not the best way to spend one's last days in Saigon. It still hasn't hit me that I am going home. Why would I? I already live here.
Last night I went out for coffee with male Thu, Trang, and Mrs. Canh. It was so great to see them again. Hopefully Trang will teach me to sing Cai Loung when I get back.
Last night I was up until 3, cursing, as I typed things out on Molly's computer. I ended up sleeping until 11 the next morning. When I woke up, I headed to VNN for some more typing. At this point, the paper is pretty decently written, it's just a matter of putting it together.
And what am I going to do without Thu as my righthand person? I realize in the states everyone can speak English, but it's so much more fun to have someone to hang out with!
On sunday Sarah and I hung out with Phoung, who is back from the north. She gave us bracelets. Ieeeeeee I will miss her too.
Today I realized my ISP presentation will be for an audience of Molly and Stu. How funny is that?
May 31
Last night, Thu and I went to see what I think is the last IDECAF play of my Vietnam career. It was really moving. In this play, Thanh Loc plays a man who was burned by fire. He's in love with a blind woman who's been abandoned by her birthmother as a baby. They plan to get married. However, one day her mother comes looking for her. He does what he can to keep them apart, believing she won't love him if she can see. The mother does come back and sort of tricks her into going to Japan to get her eyes fixed. He is devastated. The mother doesn't want her daughter to be with such an ugly man and tries to buy off Thanh Loc. We find out that the reason he is burned is he ran into a burning building to save the girl when they were children.
She spends a year in Japan, and the comes back and lives in the city with her mom. Thanh Loc watches her, and even goes to her house, but he won't speak so that she can't recognize him. When she goes to their hometown to find him, he pretends to be dead (makes a fake grave - it's theater) 15 years later, he's written a story about their lives and published it. She realizes he's not really dead and they reunite and it is GREAT!
Today I wrote a lot of my ISP, finishing the cai loung section and starting and finishing the Hat Boi section.
I have some clothes drying on the roof. It's the rainy season. It rained all day long. I'm beginning to question the wisdom in this. What happens is, it downpours, usually in the afternoon, but there are interludes when it is sunny. So I hang my clothes up at night, because it doesn't often rain then and I can take them down at 11 am before the rain starts. However, this system is useless if it just rains all day and all night. I got caught in a downpour on my way to dinner at the Bodhi Tree. The woman who owns it came and gave me a towel. She is so nice to me. They know me pretty well now; Hai, the 15 year old waiter, calls me "older sister". I hate that I have to say goodbye to the Bodhi Tree.
I bought one of the kids' painting for my room next year. Lovely!
I got an email from my mom saying that Elaina, one of my friends from high school, invited both of us to her wedding shower. I went down to Ben Thanh and bought her a Vietnamese tea service.
Also I am personally responsible for the extreme corruption of Nguyen Huynh Ngoc Thu. She was hanging out in my room the other day, and she found a Cosmo. One of the other Dai Ket guests had left it on the bookshelf, and I picked it up. She was very interested. This is not a country in which ideas about sex are exchanged frequently. This is a country in which girls my age ask if they can get pregnant from kissing. Thu's not that naive, Cosmo's still quite a bombshell. At least she didn't get the Australian edition was knocking around Dai Ket for awhile. ("Finding the right lesbian brothel for you: a user's guide")
Yesterday I asked what she's done with it. She said she'd finished it in one night and given it to her friend. I am such a bad influence!
Last night, Thu and I went to see what I think is the last IDECAF play of my Vietnam career. It was really moving. In this play, Thanh Loc plays a man who was burned by fire. He's in love with a blind woman who's been abandoned by her birthmother as a baby. They plan to get married. However, one day her mother comes looking for her. He does what he can to keep them apart, believing she won't love him if she can see. The mother does come back and sort of tricks her into going to Japan to get her eyes fixed. He is devastated. The mother doesn't want her daughter to be with such an ugly man and tries to buy off Thanh Loc. We find out that the reason he is burned is he ran into a burning building to save the girl when they were children.
She spends a year in Japan, and the comes back and lives in the city with her mom. Thanh Loc watches her, and even goes to her house, but he won't speak so that she can't recognize him. When she goes to their hometown to find him, he pretends to be dead (makes a fake grave - it's theater) 15 years later, he's written a story about their lives and published it. She realizes he's not really dead and they reunite and it is GREAT!
Today I wrote a lot of my ISP, finishing the cai loung section and starting and finishing the Hat Boi section.
I have some clothes drying on the roof. It's the rainy season. It rained all day long. I'm beginning to question the wisdom in this. What happens is, it downpours, usually in the afternoon, but there are interludes when it is sunny. So I hang my clothes up at night, because it doesn't often rain then and I can take them down at 11 am before the rain starts. However, this system is useless if it just rains all day and all night. I got caught in a downpour on my way to dinner at the Bodhi Tree. The woman who owns it came and gave me a towel. She is so nice to me. They know me pretty well now; Hai, the 15 year old waiter, calls me "older sister". I hate that I have to say goodbye to the Bodhi Tree.
I bought one of the kids' painting for my room next year. Lovely!
I got an email from my mom saying that Elaina, one of my friends from high school, invited both of us to her wedding shower. I went down to Ben Thanh and bought her a Vietnamese tea service.
Also I am personally responsible for the extreme corruption of Nguyen Huynh Ngoc Thu. She was hanging out in my room the other day, and she found a Cosmo. One of the other Dai Ket guests had left it on the bookshelf, and I picked it up. She was very interested. This is not a country in which ideas about sex are exchanged frequently. This is a country in which girls my age ask if they can get pregnant from kissing. Thu's not that naive, Cosmo's still quite a bombshell. At least she didn't get the Australian edition was knocking around Dai Ket for awhile. ("Finding the right lesbian brothel for you: a user's guide")
Yesterday I asked what she's done with it. She said she'd finished it in one night and given it to her friend. I am such a bad influence!
May 29 Saigon
The play last night was called "Beauty and the Mafia". It was a semi-comedy about a woman who is kept under house arrest by her husband. One day, he takes her on a boat. She jumps off during a storm and swims to shore. He thinks she's drowned. Her friends try to protect her, pretty hilariously, and she escapes. However, her husband begins to suspect she's alive, and he finds a letter from her in her friends' apartment. He then goes to her hometown and harasses her blind mother (played by Minh Hanh) She at first tries to evade him by dressing like a man, but then she decides to confront him. Her friends also arrive with guns, but theirs are fake. Hers isn't, and she shoots him. Then she calls the police and collapses. One nod to law and order.
Minh Hanh was really good, although she wasn't onstage much.
Today I got 5 pages done of my ISP - the introduction, methods, and limitations sections. Tomorrow is the cai loung part, which shouldn't be too bad.
The play last night was called "Beauty and the Mafia". It was a semi-comedy about a woman who is kept under house arrest by her husband. One day, he takes her on a boat. She jumps off during a storm and swims to shore. He thinks she's drowned. Her friends try to protect her, pretty hilariously, and she escapes. However, her husband begins to suspect she's alive, and he finds a letter from her in her friends' apartment. He then goes to her hometown and harasses her blind mother (played by Minh Hanh) She at first tries to evade him by dressing like a man, but then she decides to confront him. Her friends also arrive with guns, but theirs are fake. Hers isn't, and she shoots him. Then she calls the police and collapses. One nod to law and order.
Minh Hanh was really good, although she wasn't onstage much.
Today I got 5 pages done of my ISP - the introduction, methods, and limitations sections. Tomorrow is the cai loung part, which shouldn't be too bad.
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