Friday of last week, the last day of the term at my school, all the students went to watch the film Baraka. I had heard of this film before but hadn’t seen it, and I was impressed. It is made somewhat in the mold of Koyaanisqatsi, if that’s familiar to anyone. I’m not sure what exactly to say about it, but if you like simple but remarkable photography, and mesmerizing music, check it out. Here is a link to the associated website. The students thought most of it was too boring. Sometimes I think that my students are sadly sheltered and maddeningly immature. Sometimes I think that I am old and peculiar and staid. I’m probably right on both counts.
The terms at my school are only five weeks long, so they go by pretty quickly. My new class this term has seventeen students, which is rather larger than usual. I had one class last term which was fourteen or so, but remembering their names was a challenge. There were two Ngas - Thu Nga and Thanh Nga, three Trangs - Thu Trang, Quyen Trang and Huyen Trang, two Hungs - Manh Hung and Trong Hung, then a Huong and a Phuong and a Phong... I knew most of their names by the end of the term but it took most of the term to get that far! Anyway, my new class is a lower level than I have taught before. So far it is going pretty well, I have to amuse them a little more than the upper level students, but on the other hand I don't have to explain subordinating conjunctions!
Having been back in Vietnam now for almost six months, I have finally realized that my Vietnamese is not going to improve much by osmosis. Sad. So I am back in language class, at the same university I studied in the first time I was in Hanoi. I enjoy it, although that class is quite noticeably above my level in terms of vocabulary. To offset that I am also taking a sporadic Vietnamese language class at the school I teach in, which is free for teachers, but is noticeably below my level since the other teachers taking that class haven't studied Vietnamese at all, or not until two weeks ago. So I come back from one class confused, exhausted and thoroughly convinced of my monumental inability to accomplish much, and from the other class slightly amused by my colleagues (language professionals, all of them) who can't remember, much less pronounce, the Vietnamese tones... Maybe with the combination of both classes I can move forward!
Tonight I found, behind a very small door on a rather large street in the middle of town, a German restaurant. The Kaiser Kaffee is appealing, if for no other reason, simply because it is called The Kaiser Kaffee and it is in Hanoi! It actually looks sort of German - old fashioned low ceiling with (fake but tasteful) exposed beams and straight-backed wooden chairs like any proper PA Dutch restaurant would have at home. The lady who seemed to be in charge of the place is, well, an unusually German-sized Vietnamese lady who kept on speaking German to me... I guess my Vietnamese was bad enough she couldn't tell what language it was! Anyway, BRATWURST, they have bratwurst. How cool is that! I had bratwurst and Vietnamese fresh spring rolls... The silliest things make me happy!
And speaking of the silliest things, here are my favorite news stories recently:
Man Bites Panda - cute and NOT cuddly
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5364058.stm
The Ancient 26-year-old Terracotta Warrior
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5355546.stm
Vendredi heureux a tout le monde :)
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Ba Vi - Rhymes with La Vie - Rhymes with My Tea (in Mississippi)
Motorbikes are ridiculously efficient. My motorbike cost me roughly $600. The last time I bought a car for that much, I spent one solid day every week squirming around underneath the car, kicking and cussing and generally insulting it and myself in as many ways as possible. After that, and buying gas in America (…), I had transportation.
I’ve had my motorbike for about two months. I fill it up with gas maybe once a week, for about $2.50 or $3.00. I had a flat tire last week. It cost me almost $4 to have the tube patched by someone sitting on the sidewalk with a screwdriver and a bucket of water, about 30 meters from where it blew out. It was making a funny noise so I took it to a shop where they washed it, changed the oil, greased and adjusted the chain, and replaced something that was missing which made the chain noisy. That was almost $4 too. That means I’m up to like $30 in maintenance. I just thought I should say that for anybody out there on the other side of the world who is living on ramen noodles to preserve gas money…
Anyway, last weekend I went to Khu Du Lich Vuon Quoc Gia Ba Vi – Ba Vi National Park. Allegedly about 60-70 km west of Hanoi, I figured it shouldn’t take so long to get there. Well at the edge of Hanoi there is a road which, for about an hour, is a solid mass of parked trucks and cars flooded by beeping revving smoking sweating motorbikes. Motorbike traffic jams are truly annoying. You breathe smoke. You try not to burn your leg on your neighbor’s exhaust pipe – and you really can, that is how packed it gets. You constantly bump into folks next to you, although usually nobody cares. Well after that is smooth sailing for a few minutes, then you have a long stretch of road construction. That was mostly too dusty to see anything, bumpy and missing bridges and all that. Well. Whatever. According to my map this is a reasonably serious road, I guess I just picked the wrong day to try it!
Ba Vi, on the other hand, is really cool. Almost cold, in fact. It is green and lush and flowery and switchbacks are fun on a motorbike. Thanks to my freshly greased chain I got up the mountain with no real complaints from my motorbike. I hiked a bit more to the actual top. The day was slightly hazy, but the place was beautiful anyway. Living in Hanoi, I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoy solitude. It is so rare to have actual silence here. It was only a day trip, maybe too short to really enjoy the place, but good anyway. And on the way home I went a longer way which involved and very nice road, paved smooth straight flat almost empty, and two hours flat instead of three and a half … go figure.
So, here are some photos of the park, as well as a thrilling video of cycling down the mountain… Enjoy!
I’ve had my motorbike for about two months. I fill it up with gas maybe once a week, for about $2.50 or $3.00. I had a flat tire last week. It cost me almost $4 to have the tube patched by someone sitting on the sidewalk with a screwdriver and a bucket of water, about 30 meters from where it blew out. It was making a funny noise so I took it to a shop where they washed it, changed the oil, greased and adjusted the chain, and replaced something that was missing which made the chain noisy. That was almost $4 too. That means I’m up to like $30 in maintenance. I just thought I should say that for anybody out there on the other side of the world who is living on ramen noodles to preserve gas money…
Anyway, last weekend I went to Khu Du Lich Vuon Quoc Gia Ba Vi – Ba Vi National Park. Allegedly about 60-70 km west of Hanoi, I figured it shouldn’t take so long to get there. Well at the edge of Hanoi there is a road which, for about an hour, is a solid mass of parked trucks and cars flooded by beeping revving smoking sweating motorbikes. Motorbike traffic jams are truly annoying. You breathe smoke. You try not to burn your leg on your neighbor’s exhaust pipe – and you really can, that is how packed it gets. You constantly bump into folks next to you, although usually nobody cares. Well after that is smooth sailing for a few minutes, then you have a long stretch of road construction. That was mostly too dusty to see anything, bumpy and missing bridges and all that. Well. Whatever. According to my map this is a reasonably serious road, I guess I just picked the wrong day to try it!
Ba Vi, on the other hand, is really cool. Almost cold, in fact. It is green and lush and flowery and switchbacks are fun on a motorbike. Thanks to my freshly greased chain I got up the mountain with no real complaints from my motorbike. I hiked a bit more to the actual top. The day was slightly hazy, but the place was beautiful anyway. Living in Hanoi, I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoy solitude. It is so rare to have actual silence here. It was only a day trip, maybe too short to really enjoy the place, but good anyway. And on the way home I went a longer way which involved and very nice road, paved smooth straight flat almost empty, and two hours flat instead of three and a half … go figure.
So, here are some photos of the park, as well as a thrilling video of cycling down the mountain… Enjoy!
These are flower pictures for all the flower people out there!
Ba Vi Xe Say
For anybody who is both reading this, and understanding Vietnamese, neither I nor my motorbike were exactly "say" at that moment, but it sounds better to pretend that one or both of us was, after looking at the video!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Fruit-of-the-day
Na. That's the fruit. Na. Want some na? Na. I'm waiting to discover the fruit called Nope. Or Not-today-thanks.
Ho Soc Son. There is a reason this lake is not on the tourist trail - no Coke machines. No kitch vendors. Not much of a road. Not much shade. Plenty of cows, though, that's always a good sign!
Hang Bac Street. Nighttime in the old quarter. Blackness and neon, hot food and gold shops without customers.
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