As an addendum.....

.....to the last post -

I had attempted to research more about Mister Kitchen......

....but, sadly, most of what I found was in Vietnamese, and my Vietnamese language ability isn't really that sharp this week.

Sooo.....talked to some of the members of an English Language club that my friend runs here in Hai Phong.

• The story of Mister Kitchen goes back at least a coupla thousand years. The holidays official name is Ông Táo chầu trời...which, taken word by word, means "He apple court sun" "Ông Táo/He Apple" I assume means "Mister Apple." I think the student that said "Mister Kitchen rides a fish to the sky" was referring to THE PLACE where this mysterious "Mister Apple" tends to hang out.....

• Mister Apple's place is indeed the kitchen. The way I have pieced together the stories that I have been told by several different people is that this kitchen spirit (Mister Apple, I'm presuming), hangs around your kitchen and observes your house. And, on his holiday (which is five days before Tet), he goes and rides a fish (although some sources say that he mounts three fish) to the sky to report on if your family has been naughty or nice during the past year to "The Boss" (I have STILL not had it made clear to me WHO EXACTLY this deity is that Mister Apple reports to). Sound familiar??

• Mister Apple then spills the beans to "The Boss" and the good households are the ones who will have their kitchen well-stocked all year long, while the bad households are the ones who will get a lump of coal in their kettle!

And that, children, is the story of Mister Apple.......

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Coulda used some apples as prizes........

OK, so I had a class tonight of seventh-graders. After we trudge through what I am told to instruct them in the wild and crazy Government-Approved textbook, I'll usually have some sort of fun competitive game involving the English language......then the top five students OR the students on the winning team (depending on if it's a sort of individual game or a team competition) will get a pack of gum for each winning student (or something like that) and the rest of the kids will usually get some sort of small pieces of candy (or something like that).

Well, today, I bought a roll of about 14 Oreo cookies and three packs of two of WHAT APPEARED TO BE cookie-like biscuits or shortbread or SOMETHING along those lines.

So, I offered the winning team the choice: They can divide the roll of Oreos amongst themselves, or they can take the three packs of cookie/biscuit thingies (two cookie/biscuits per pack) and divide those.

Well, usually, all the kids leave happy, and fun was had after all!

This time, the winning team selected the Oreos and so the non-winning team got the cookie/biscuit thingies.

Class ended.

"Errrmm.....look, Hon - the kids on the non-winning team left their biscuit/cookie thingies behind. Whaaa....?? Why?"

"My Anh yêu ơi......why would you buy those things for children?"

"WHAAAA.....? I thought that kids like biscuits and cookies and such.....??"

"Uhhhh.....yeah, but those things that you bought aren't biscuits and cookies........they are Army food."

[Blank expression on my face accompanied by silence]

"Yes, they are solid biscuits of rice, meat, and vegetables....pushed down into a small form. Army fighters eat this when they take long walks....."

"So waaaai a sec here - you're saying that I bought the kids M.R.E.'s??!!??"

"Hon, I do not understand - what is an MRE? Is it like an enemy?"

"No, Hon....that is a British pop music newspaper.......though I'm sure they'd have appreciated THAT a lot more than these thingies...."

....you'd really hafta see this -

Emmm-Kay....so, it looks like a normal packet of cookie-biscuit thingies.....

But upon further review........

Yeah, I think of all six M.R.E.'s, one girl, out of the Vietnamese custom of politeness, ate 20% of one of the things.......

Pics, pics and more pics.......next post....

-E-

Errmmm....can I please have some of those 'shrooms that ya got there......?

Was teaching a class tonight on festivals and holidays, and we were going into various US and Vietnamese festivals and holidays. So, to get the kids actually speaking (always a chore), I had them ask me about different holidays observed in America. Then, I randomly picked a couple of Vietnamese holidays offa Wikipedia that I had never heard of before and I had asked them questions about those holidays.

One of them was something called Giỗ tổ Hùng Vương, which was created to honour the Hung Kings, who ruled Vietnam around 250 B.C. or so. The second was an unofficial holiday (like Halloween or Valentine's Day) called Ông Táo chầu trời. Now Wikipedia called this "Kitchen Guardians" (which is what I am when I am cooking and Tam walks in and tries to force me to stop cooking and instead eat some lovely, mouth-watering Vietnamese food that her mother has prepared).

So I ask some girls in the class to tell me what this translates to and what this holiday is about.

After a few minutes of silence, one of the girls said "Mister Kitchen rides on a fish into the sky"

SEVERE Jerry Brown-look......

....I sat there, silent, for, like two minutes digesting this....all the while having flashbacks of when Dewey Cox meets The Beatles in India and was inspired to do some artwork on the board.....

So, what I got was that back in the day (last week, meebee....I dunno), they used to burn straw to heat and cook foods in kitchens in Vietnam. This created much smoke, and therefore, Mister Kitchen was a sooty-faced character (kinda like a chimney sweep, I'd imagine) and he would ride a fish (no, not a shark) up into the heavens to report on people to the higher powers........

.....sounds fascinating.......weird, but fascinating. I haven't been this captivated by folklore since I read about Skunny-Wundy......

....although, if I ever write a book about my experiences residing in Vietnam, it's gonna be titled: "Mister Kitchen rides a fish into the sky"

Still, though, later.....after class sitting down with a pint, I thought about it: I mean, imagine some Vietnamese person coming to the U.S. with NOOOOO idea of American/Western folklore, and some person tells him how, over there, they celebrate a holiday where a fat, old Cracka guy with a flowing white beard flies through the sky on a sleigh pulled by flying deer, dropping off presents to good little boys and girls.....so, it's all in perspective, I guess......

-----------------------------------------------

Saw a website that just really pissed me off.......

I mean, the sheer and utter arrogance and ignorance and lack of personal accountability by placing blame on others that this guy displays is unreal! Dude - it's a third-world country! You claim that you've travelled all over the planet!! Is it the fault of the Vietnamese that you are either too ignorant to actually bargain and negotiate or just simply walk away to the next vendor (and they're all over the Goddamm place....'specially in Ha Noi) if you don't get the price that you desire?

Is it their fault that by, being dirt-poor and trying to save on property taxes (that happen to be based on the length of street frontage that your building faces....thusly, the skinny houses), they made their houses and hotels high and narrow for that reason?? Is it their fault that you knocked up your wife and they should accommodate YOU and ONLY YOU by building lower, wider hotels???

Hate their language? How the fuck you think YOUR language sounds to them? (As an aside, my wife has told me that when Hai Phong's few English speakers get together and talk over beers, that it sounds to her like a live lobster being spun in a blender while 500 sewing machines are going full-speed in the background). And to compare their spoken language tonal patterns to a developmentally disabled person?

Christ - I'd compare your (in)ability to write an objective, narrative piece to that of a developmentally disabled person......but that would be insulting to the mentally-challenged.

I mean, oh, no doubt - I got my issues with Vietnam.....several of 'em as a matter of fact....but it's part of the adventure....ya learn to live and deal with stuff like this (and a lot of additional things that this wankshaft didn't mention) on a daily basis! IF I were to ever say that I hated Vietnam, well, shit - I (and several others) have earned that right by residing here for longer than two weeks!

I could tear this brain-surgeon's points apart piece-by-piece........but I fear I've wasted enuff time and given this wankshaft enuff undeserved attention, so I'll leave it at that.

Later on, did a bit of looking around on this guy's web production, and found out that he's some sort of I.T. geek. Figgers, I though to myself......here we go with the entitlement mentality.

I had resided in a High-Tech boomtown during the height of that bullshit, and watched rents in my little Bohemian hipster neighbourhood go through the fucking roof as these artificially over-paid I.T. dipshits were moving in (they somehow found time to move into my 'hood when they weren't busy playing foosball and fucking ping-pong at work all day) and driving up rents with their $80,000-plus/year salaries (which they would incessantly defend over trendy-ass martinis about how they deserve every penny, if not more)....

....needless to say, as much as I asbo-fucking-lutely despise Capitalism, I was dancing on the streets when the market self-corrected this artificial over-valuation and created the dot-com "crash" of '01 and rents started coming back down to more reasonable levels.....

-----------------------------------------------

OK, rant done.....not enuff pics on this blog recently. Next post, in a few days.....nothing but fotograffs.....

-E-

As most of you already know......

....(via myself telling you directly, hearing from friends of friends, stalking me, Facebook or whatever other medium), I got married a couple months ago and we gots a shortie on da way. So last week, I was at my wife's parent's house during a gathering of the family on the anniversary of my wife's grandfather's death. ONLY NOW are they just starting to celebrate birthdays in Viet Nam as, in the past and still today, it is important that all family and friends of a deceased relative gather together on the anniversary date of the death of said relative.

I had first encountered this when I was in my homeland of Portlandia and I was going out with a bunch of co-workers of mine back when I worked for the City of Portland. I had enquired as to where one of my co-workers was, a Viet-Kieu (Vietnamese-who-resides-overseas) and why she hadn't joined us. I was told that she is with her family, as this was the anniversary of her grandmother's death.

Knowing nothing about Vietnamese culture at the time, I was aghast - "How fucking morbid is THAT??? Jesus, that gathering's gotta be a laff-a-minute!" I thought to myself.

Well, having been to a few in Hai Phong, it kinda is, actually. Basically, what occurs is a feast is prepared and placed before the family altar and incense is lit and prayers are said......

.....and then everybody goes downstairs and eats like a porker and smokes packs of cigarettes and drinks beer and does shots of vodka. This is no shit! And it's usually scheduled around lunchtime.

Now, our foto albums of both, our engagement ceremony and our wedding both reside at Tam's parent's house. So folks were browsing through them, and the discussion came to the subject of weddings.

Now, in Viet Nam, the way it goes is that the gypsy fortune teller advises the parents of the bride and groom the LUCKIEST DATE on which to hold the engagement ceremony and the wedding. Then, you have an engagement ceremony. Then a few months later, the wedding is held at a restaurant, usually during The National Nap time (11:00AM - 2:00PM), and people come and eat like porkers and drink like hell.....and it's all over around two-thirty or so. The only weird thing is that the bride and groom and parents have to personally visit each table to make sure the guests are having fun and then the bride and groom hafta stand at the door for about an hour saying good-bye and thank you until EVERYBODY has departed....then the family and very close friends retire upstairs and drink and eat on their own!

So, during the hanging-around-and-drinking part of the gathering to honour Tam's grandfather, one of Tam's uncles had asked: "What are wedding ceremonies like in the U.S.?"

Now, one of the many things that I love about my wife is her ability, through translation, to make The E appear to NOT be such a complete asshole when, without translation, his statements and actions go straight past the highest limits of the ole' Asshole-O-Meter.

Example -

E: "Hon, tell this wankshaft that there is noooo fucking WAY in highest hell that I am going to (do/say/pay) that! Tell him that he can go straight to hell and that if he has a problem with my (actions/statements/offer), then I will (no longer shop here anymore/go to the relevant authorities/kick his ass)!!"

Tam [speaking in Vietnamese to the other party]: "I am very sorry, sir, but, it is with much sadness that my husband feels that he must gently disagree with your position. Perhaps a suitable counter-offer can lead to a mutually satisfying agreement and much happiness for all involved :-)"

So, after several pints, in response to this question, I had answered to her uncle: "Ahhhh, yes, the American wedding. Well, sir, I have been to many (actually, I haven't missed a single one that I have had the honour of having been invited to), and they can generally be broken down into two components. The first being 'The Suffering' and the second being 'The Fun'. The suffering is where you get all dressed up in a monkey suit and you go to a church and you endure anywhere from one to three hours on a painfully hard wooden bench and, for some of that time, depending on the religion, kneeling on a hard wooden ledge, all the while listening to some guy preach to you about what a fuck-up you are. This is meant to make you feel like you are taking part in an actual re-creation of the same degree of suffering that the Christian icon, Jesus Christ, is said to have gone through."

"Then, much like how religion in America says the afterlife is, after the suffering, you get to attend 'The Fun' as your reward for your eternal patience and unyielding faith!! 'The Fun' is where everybody departs from the church and goes to a very large room and eats like porkers and drinks like fish. IF the bride's family (since all of this is on their tab) is of the true genuine Christian spirit of giving, the drinks will be gratis. IF they are heathens disguising themselves as Christians, then there will be a ca$h bar.....but either way, a good time is almost always had by all. There is much merriment, and entertainment is provided by a person we call a 'disc-jockey' who will play a sacred song called 'The Hokey-Pokey' where everybody stands up and gathers in a circle and performs a bizarre ritualistic dance to this song. Additional entertainment is provided later in the evening when the best man mysteriously slips off somewhere forra couple hours with one of the bridesmaids (whilst his wife frantically asks everybody if they have seen him), and when a fight or near-fight breaks out, and the bride ends up in tears."

Tam translates this to her uncle.......

....and I have NEVER seen a Jerry Brown look on a Vietnamese person's face until that time.

A strange and awkward silence permeates the room forra few minutes, and then her uncle tells us that he is very sorry that he could not attend our wedding, as his daughter got married on the same date in Hanoi (must have the same gypsy fortune teller as Tam's family).

"Oh, gosh! Don't worry......no need to apologise! Of course we understand." I said. "That is wonderful!!! Congratulations!!!"

"Yes, it was." He responded. He then proceeded to whip out his digital camera - "Here - here are some photographs of her wedding."

He hands me the camera, and I have a look at all the foftgraffs. Something seems off, though, about the whole thing....can't figger out WHAT exactly........

......then it comes to me: His daughter got married IN A CHURCH!!!

"Errrmmm.....Hon??? You....uhhhh....didn't translate what I just said to your uncle in verbatim, did you?"

"Yes, of course, Honey....why do you ask?"

I could tell that she was just loving this.......the twinkle in her eye......the smirk on the corner of her mouth........trying not to laff whilst observing the look of panic on my face......

A total horseshit website that I saw that really pissed me off, beers with the Dali Lama, and headin' outta 'Nam.....coming up in a few days....

-E-

More blatherings.....

Went back to The States for about five weeks this past December/January to spend Christmas with my parents and siblings (since pretty much from here on out, I'm only gonna be making it back to The States once per year....so five weeks was ample).

Had what was a severely cheap air ticket from Hanoi to Portland (like, a grand incd. ALL taxes and fees....and that was from December 9th thru January 15th....right during the holidays). This, of course, always means that you will have a 16-hour layover in Bumblefukk, Mongolia followed by a 13-hour layover in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.

Dude - there's a reason why you paid only a grand for that ticket.....

But, seriously: I ended up with a nine-hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan on the way to PDX. "Well...ya gotta do what ya gotta do...." I thought to myself. So, I figgered that I'd hunker down and become really well-acquainted with Taipei's airport.

So, I git off of the plane at the airport and blindly just follow the crowd which leads me to the Immigration and Customs section. So, for the pure hell of it, I decide to ask a lady in a uniform if I can get a visa-on-arrival at the border (airport, in this case) like some countries offer.

"What country are you a citizen of?"

"The United States....."

"Oh! No, no visa needed. If you have a passport, you can go right through."

"NO SHIT????" I thought to myself.

Got some instructions, took a bus to their bullet-train, and hopped that into central Taipei City. Walked all over the place, rode their tube, went to the top of Taipei 101 and just had an amazing time. VEEEEERRRRY first-world, polite and friendly people, clean, VERY orderly (traffic isn't going in ten different directions including the wrong-way down a one-way street and also ON the sidewalk with a cacophony of about 50,000 car and motorcycle horns blaring at the same time like in Vietnam) and lots to see, eat and do. Yeah, it was only nine hours, but I really, really got good vibes from the place. Next time, it'll be a DESTINATION trip, not a layover.

Like Taiwan A LOT! Having a few pipe dreams of relocating there in the future.....further investigation is warranted....

In a few days - A faux-pas, thoughts about maybe heading out of Vietnam, and beers with the Dali Lama......

-E-

No, Facebook DID NOT kill this blog.....

....rather, excessive laziness just disabled it.

OK, back at it.....now, shit - WHERE was me again?

Right.....allright - let's go back to the random blatherings format and return to....oooooh.....October 2009?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In lieu of nothing else to do amidst the skull-crushing boredom that is Hai Phong, I decided to go and do something reserved for the very stupid or the very foolhardy (or reporters from The Weather Channel).........
I attempted to chase a hurricane.

Between June and November, I would keep a close eye on the
website created by the domestic terrorist group that Barack Obama's
buddy used to be associated with (The Weather Underground).
Apparently, they've now reformed and gone mainstream and they
produce a website devoted to fans of meteorological studies.

Anyways, they got a really comprehensive hurricane tracking page,
and, in mid-October, it appeared that one such storm was headed
directly towards Hai Phong. So, Tam and I took a bus down to Do Son
beach (about 20 KM South of Hai Phong and the only spot essentially
surrounded by water on three sides).

Well, THAT was a waste. It diminished into a tropical storm and made
landfall about 80 KM south of were I was. No REAL wind, no storm
surges.....nothing. Christ - it's so boring here that even the hurricanes
tell each other to stay away from Hai Phong due to lack of anything
interesting to do whilst there!

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Was introduced to my next-door neighbour (finally, after, like, six months of residing on Pho Chua Hang) who runs what appears to be a bookstore out of his house (literally, thee vast majority of businesses in Vietnam are run outta people's houses). Well, it kinda is a bookstore....

I'd see throngs of kids there in the early evening, riding their bicycles or their parents would drive them there on the family scooter. I thought to myself, "This guy must really be raking in the coin!" Well, kinda-sorta.....

As Tam would explain to me, apparently, the way his store (and many others like it) work is that these kids actually RENT books to read (at, like, 10,000 Dong/fiddy cent for three days to take it home or 5,000 Dong/a quarter to read it there for the most recent paperback comic books). Apparently because they crank out two or three new paperback comic books per week and it saves a ton of money to rent them instead of buying them (as the average Viet kid can rip through it in a day or less) and, since many parents here actively discourage kids from reading comic books, the kid can afford to drop 5,000 Dong to read the latest comic book at my neighbour's bookstore.

So, my neighbour told me that his name was Do (pronounced "Zshu" - if his name had the little stroke through the "D" [ Đ ] it'd be pronounced "do" like, to do something). Tam told me later this was very sad.....

"Why, Hon? He seems like a rather happy fellow!"

"Because his parents gave him a very ugly name. This is done so
that evil spirits will stay away from and not curse their child."

"Ahhhhh.....errr.....OK. Sounds perfectly normal sounding to me..."
(*NOTE* - A lotta shit now sounds "perfectly normal" to me after
residing here for over a year)

"Yes, but honey, every name in Viet Nam has a meaning. My name,
Tam, for example, means 'heart', Minh means 'intelligent one', and
so forth"

"Right...so what does Do's name mean, then?"

"It means either 'spare parts' or 'disaster preparation'"

"Fuck me!!! I want HIS name!!"

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Saw a pretty interesting sight on To Hieu street the other day. It was a brand new Toyota SUV. Nothing special about that, but upon closer inspection, it still had the sticker on it. Read the sticker......

"Final assembly point - Georgetown, Kentucky manufactured with 80% parts and components of US origin"

THAT was heartening......seeing a Made In USA label on something sold in Vietnam...too cool.....

But then again - the Vietnamese crave stuff manufactured in The States and take a very dim view of stuff made in China....

Maybe thass why Vietnam receives the vast majority of their apples from Washington State instead of from China.....hmmm....can't figger out WHY: I mean, stuff from China's all right and good an' safe....right.....?

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Visas for being in Vietnam have become a severe bitch suddenly. It USED to be (up 'till, like, October 2009) where you'd fill out this little one page form, give them two fotograffs of yourself and tossed them anywhere between $25USD and $250USD and they'd give you a multiple-entry B-3 Business class visa lasting one, three, six or twelve months and a pat on the back telling you to go have fun and enjoy their country.

Not anymore....

.....they have locked it down now to a maximum of a three-month visa.

NOBODY seems to know EXACTLY what the fuck's goin' on....and, from all sources, going to the Vietnamese Immigration Bureau GUARANTEES you a different answer every day as to WHAT SPECIFICALLY one hasta do to obtain longer-term stays in Vietnam (surprise, surprise). Rumours are flying rampantly on ESL teacher bulletin boards online.

The most plausible story that I myself have heard is that, because of the economic depression that grips many parts of the world and China's hard-core export-driven economy that is taking a bit of a beating now, that there are large numbers of Chinese illegal....errrmmmm.....I mean, "undocumented" labourers flooding over the Northern Border (to Vietnam....where things ain't so bad, comparatively speaking).

"Emmmm.....OK - so what does that hafta do with ESL teachers in Vietnam??"

Well, the thing being, is that these new regulations are for ALL foreigners in Vietnam.

"Oh....so why don't they just issue special visa regulations ONLY for Chinese nationals??"

No can do...you see, let's face facts here: THEE only (or at least, the primary reason) that Vietnam established friendly diplomatic relations with the United States is simply because they felt that the U.S. would be a bulwark against China. The Vietnamese are (and with very good reason, given the past history of China constantly invading Vietnam) scared shitless of the Chinese, so, no - they're not gonna risk antagonising the Chinese by placing visa restrictions ONLY applicable to Chinese citizens. I mean, hell - this country used some very vague accusations about "mistreatment of our nationals residing inside Vietnam" to invade in 1979 (the Chinese said they withdrew....the Vietnamese said that they were repelled...neither the twine shall meet), so they had to apply the new immigration restrictions to citizens of ALL nations because of this history with China.

Well....I mean....it's not like the U.S. Calvary would come rushing to Vietnam's aid should China ever decide to (again) invade....I mean, just ask our close friends in Georgia (the nation, not the state) about how the U.S. came charging in when the Russkies decided to pay them a little visit last year.......

More soon....I'm off to bed....

-E-

Well, I DID figger it out.....finally.....

OK - as mentioned in the most recent post, there was some rather weird activity on my Blogger account in terms of certain people looking at the page.

As I suspected, I was correct -

It turns out that somebody launched a spam-bot program on mine and several other people's blogs which places spam adverts on the "comments" section of blog posts. Thusly, if you happen to look at blog posts I have posted many months ago, you will find thee best place on the Internet to buy high-quality, yet inexpensive, handbags.

Cute, eh?

Ahhhh....whatever......

In any respect, I'm heading outta Hai Phong shortly.....dates for the E Winter 2009-2010 U.S. Tour are below (pronounced in an obnoxious New Yawk accent):

December 10th - December 15th: Portlandia, Ora-gaaaan

December 16th - December 19th: Las Vegas, Nevaaaada

December 20th - January 1st: Buffalo, New York

January 2nd - January 4th: Lexington, Kentucky

January 6th - January 12th: Portlandia, Ora-gaaaaaan

January 15th - End of tour party: Hai Phong, Vietnam.


More tomorrow from the airport.....

-E-

SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY........

There appears to be some dodgy shit goin' on wiff my blog. Until I can get more information....I'm gonna refrain from posting forra bit.

(No, it's nothing life-threatening or dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just did a bit of research regarding this blog, and something weird is going on that may involve hacking and/or spamming......so until I find out WHAT exactly is going on.....please stay tuned)

Which kinda sucks - 'cause I had a fair amount that I wanted to write......but all in good time....

Thanx,

-E-

Random Blatherings.....again....

Sitting at the the only Wi-Fi Cafe in a town whose name I don't even remember (Cẩm Phả or something like that – about 20 miles East of Bai Chay/Halong City) at what appears to be thee only public Internet spot in this town. The Internet is not working, they tell me......guess I'll write this and cut-and-paste it into blogspot later. Still though, an OK margarita in a glass with salt and a little umbrella for 30,000 Dong (about $1.70USD) makes up for this place's lack of Internet......

It's an interesting-looking cafe....a kind of décor that's a mixture of bright orange and mustard yellow and avacado green vinyl booths (unintentional retro attempt at something that was hip in the mid-90's) and tables that have thee ugliest lavender-and-brown-and-white chairs in recorded history.

Damm me – I sooo wish that I had brought my camera. Instead, I brought my new laptop so I could watch The Bills-Carolina game in my hotel room in Bai Chay (and they won back-to-back road games....Christ, will wonders ever cease??).

But it's got these bizarre, little miniature sharks in an aquarium on the wall....dunno whether these are baby sharks, or if they only grow to a maximum of one foot long.

WAS gonna go to Hanoi (Geographically, thee closest thing to Hai Phong that MIGHT count as a “real” city), but I figgered that I MIGHT have three, four weeks left of decent beach weather this year, so I went to Bai Chay.

Left Bai Chay this afternoon because I was tired of being someplace I'd been four, five, six times before and had I known that Tam was gonna tell me to take Tuesday off from the school, I woulda went to Da Nang this weekend (Vietnam's fourth-largest city and a place that I have never been to and I really want to see – ESPECIALLY with an 800,000VND [$50USD] round-trip airfare from Hanoi airport).

So, when I got the info that I was relieved from work Tuesday, I wasn't sure what to do. Anytime away from Hai Phong is a nice time, but Bai Chay was getting tiresome, and hanging out at the beach alone drinking Tiger beer (buck twenty-five forra sixteen-ounce bottle served to you ice cold at your beach chair) wears thin after awhile, so when I woke up at 2PM (Bills game ended at 6:00AM Vietnam Time), I felt ambitious! What the hell? Me is gonna ride my scooter to the Chinese border.....maybe try to cross...whass the worst that can happen?

Well, THAT was a quick nix when I got about 40 miles east of Bai Chay/Halong City as the road turned into something that a fucking mountain goat couldn't traverse, and I could only safely manage 20 miles an hour on this road that looked like it never quite recovered from The American War (or, The Vietnam War, as we call it), and the sun was gonna set at 5:30pm, and it was 4:30 now.....and this was a rather narrow road with big-ass trucks and busses all over it.....and with 80-plus miles to get to Trung Quoc (or, as we call it, China)....this really wasn't gonna happen!

So, turned around, and went back to thee nearest decent sized town (Cẩm Phả, in this case), grabbed thee nicest-looking hotel that I could see (which wasn't difficult – look for any structure that's over 4 stories and that appears to be fairly clean) and decided to camp out there for the night. Decent small room with TV, fridge and Air-Conditioning for 220,000 Dong ($13USD) for the night.

And here I am.....

Right...so, let's go with the random blatherings......

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Doing a lot of free-lance work. This is where a group of parents will get their children together for a private class and contract with you to teach them. Being the communist that I am, I TRY to make Tieng Anh (“The English Language”) accessable to as many people as I can by making my per-hour teaching fee reasonable.

Yeah, freelancing DOES pay me slightly more than teaching at an established school, but I don't exploit it. For example, if a group of parents got their children together for a private English Language class taught by a native English speaker from one of the Big 7 (England, Ireland, Canada, The USA, New Zealand, Australia or South Africa) and approached one of the larger, established English Language schools to provide the classroom and the foreign teacher, shit – they are looking at ONE MILLION DONG ($60USD) PER HOUR! Thass about one-third the average monthly salary of a typical Hai Phongian (Hai Phonger?)!!

Then the established school turns around and pays the native-speaking English instructor his or her standard rate of 250,000 Dong ($15USD) per hour, and fucking pockets the rest!

There are some folks that actively DO exploit this, charging 575,000 Dong to 650,000 Dong ($35 - $40USD) per hour to freelance a private class. But because I'm one of only about twenty Americans in Hai Phong (and ten of those twenty don't teach – they work for U.S. multi-national corporations) and because I keep my rates reasonable.....well, work's been knocking at my door.

Hey – it keeps me busy......

Naw, I ain't into freelancing 'cause it pays me slightly more than working at an established English Language school.....nope. I do it because I don't hafta put up with bullshit and politics and back-stabbing and having to wear a shirt and tie and all the good stuff that goes with it that one deals with working for an established English Language school! Believe me, English as a Second Language teachers abroad (and ESPECIALLY in Vietnam) can be a really scary lot. I was blessed in the respect that I got along quite well with most of my fellow instructors (and many of those are still friends of mine where we go out and socialise and the like), but if you wanna see an example of the extreme, check this forum and start reading......Jesus.......

The best freelancing gigs are the one's where your client just says: “Just simply have at it!! Do as you will!” and then YOU create the lesson plan. Established schools have you read “Hoa went to the market” and teach that over-and-over (rote-style learning) from the fun, thrill-packed and wildly creative Government-approved textbook. Still, when I HAVE to teach from that.... I ATTEMPT to make it as fun and interesting as possible.

Sometimes you get kids who want to do nothing but learn....and, well, sometimes, you get a group of kids who are Vietnam's next generation of street-sweepers and panhandlers and herion addicts (a pretty big problem here).....but still – can't imagine what else I'd rather be doing! LOT better than all (except for two) jobs that I've held in the past.....

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No Internet here in Cẩm Phả ......roads that a M-1 Abrams tank couldn't ride over, and cultural misunderstandings. As my friend (and the guy who was kind enough to cover for me at my school when I was Stateside for seven weeks this past summer) Dave explained to me - “T.I.V.”

...or, “This is Vietnam”

Things work a LOT differently here than they do in, say, The States. I could write volumes about this, but I'll tell you a couple quick examples.

On one freelancing gig, the client and I DID agree on the RATE of pay, but I had made certain that he understood that I wanted to be paid AFTER EVERY CLASS (as, I did NOT know this person at the time, and I also wanted some spending money for the week). Tam passed this information on to the client, and they agreed. Or so I though.....

Apparently, they never DID want to pay me after every class! No, they were NOT trying to scam me, but felt it a bit insulting (somehow) to them that they pay me after each and every class!

I say they “somehow” felt this insulting because A HUGE AMOUNT (like, maybe 75+%) of services in Viet Nam (like class fees/tuition, contractor/construction, and MANY other services) ARE DEMADED to be paid for AND ARE paid for UP FRONT BEFORE the service is provided. So, based on this common practice, I could not understand WHY they felt insulted by my stipulation!

I mean, I have one private tutor student that I have had for quite a while now. What I do is I tutor this student for a month's worth of sessions. Then, the first week of the next month, I send a bill home with this student for their parents, and the student comes back with payment at the next class. I know the student, this student's parents have always been cool......so I bill them after-the-fact (which is standard in The States). Never had anything resenbling an issue.

Anyways, WHERE the cultural misunderstanding came in is directly after I performed my first class for this client. After the class (which was at a Public School way out in B.F.E....and the client drove Tam and I out there so I'd know where it is exactly for next time), when the client dropped us off at my house, Tam and I were getting out of his SUV and I said: “Oh, shit...forgot.....uhhhhhhh.....uhhh....the payment?”

“Oh, yeah.....I'll explain that to you when we get inside” Tam stated.

I almost blew a gasket......smelt a scam coming here.......BUT, I got out of the client's SUV and thanked the client, and walked inside my house.

“Errmm.....Tam? Sure hope you did get my money for this class I just did like was agreed upon?”

“Uhhh....no, actually, it's like this......”

I felt the fun feeling of just having worked for free creep up inside of me and I almost lost it.

“WHAT THE FUCK, Tam? This client AGREED to pay me after EACH CLASS!”

“E, do you want your money now?? Fuck it – I'LL pay you now........”

“Wait....so, I DID get scammed....???”

“No, no.....Jesus Christ.....sit down.......”

THIS is basically what went down: Tam explained it to me that Vietnamese people (AND, from what many sources have told me, Asian people in general) have severe difficulty in saying the word “no”! This is thee most bizarre thing that has ever been explained to me, but it is a fact!! So, when this client agreed to pay me after each class, he actually APPEARED to agree.

This is HOW a Vietnamese APPEARS to agree to something – what occurs is that you are in negotiations with a Vietnamese person. You will put in a condition that the Vietnamese person finds objectionable, but since they have tremendous difficulty saying the word “no”, they will say the Vietnamese equilvent of “Yeah....OK....sure.....whatever....” in a deadpan voice (like we do).

This is NOT meant at all to be disrespectful (unlike how it is used in English – where it disrespectfully dismisses somebody and their intentions and/or ideas), but rather it is intended to make all things during the negotiations go harmoniously and to keep a happy feeling of cooperation. This is no shit – this is a fact! It creates boatloads of misunderstandings between Tay and Viet.....but it IS thee way things are done here.

And what about the Vietnamese equilivent of “yeah yeah.....sure....whatever”?? What THAT ends up meaning literally is that “We'll hash out the details later – I am happy now that we have reached an agreement-in-principle....please do not disturb my happy feeling with what I feel is nit-picking.”

Anyways, this client paid me after the second class and, since I am now doing two classes per week for him, he has paid me after the second class of every week. A good guy, actually, and we plan to expand our working relationship to do even more classes in the near future!

BUT....BUT.....NOW that this HAS INDEED been explained to me, it does make me realise how, in in my past dealings with Vietnamese here, that I was NOT being scammed, but rather, it is the culturally-accepted norm of executing negotiations over here.......

…..which, sadly, begs the question: Does this mean that when an American person enters into an oral agreement with a Vietnamese person in The States, that the American person can change things that they INITIALLY agreed to, because they did not wish to disrupt the feeling of harmony during the negotiations? Or are we just way too litigious and uptight as a society?

Another T.I.V. Moment came when I had two students of mine at my school come up to Tam and I and explain that they could no longer attend out school. When I asked why, they stated that they have to attend another class at this time.

“WHAT other class? Is it another private English school?? Are you unhappy with the way we've been teaching you?”

“Khong! Khong! ('No! No!'). This is a different subject, in a class held by my Public School teacher”

“??????”

Tam nodded and understood immediately!

Basically, Public Schools, their teachers, and how students achieve a passing grade work a LOT differently here than they do in The States.

These two students were victims of the “Sooooo-HOW-badly-do-you-want-to-pass-this-class?” scam!

Uhhh, E?? What the fuck is the “Sooooo-HOW-badly-do-you-want-to-pass-this-class?” scam??!??

OK...works like this. Teachers in Viet Nam command a great deal of respect. Even non-performing ones. And passing classes at Public School and University is not only important, but it brings MUCH dishonour to a student AND their family to bring home an unacceptable grade. There is a LOT, a LOT more societial pressure for a student here not to fuck up than there is in The States.

So why not take advantage of this intense socital pressure and use it to make a few extra Dong?

Soooooo......what Public School teachers do is they teach their normal class during the day (which is EITHER: 7am to 11:30am OR 1pm to 5pm, depending on the grade. Because of severe school overcrowding, older kids go half the day and younger kids go half the day - six days per week) and, in the late afternoons or during the evenings, the Public School teacher will hold a special sort of “helper-tutoring” class.

Oh....and this class is held at an additional tuition/fee.

And you WILL buy your special texts and materials from the Public School teacher herself!! Not from anywhere else.

Now, even if you are Albert-Fucking-Einstein.....you WILL attend these classes.

What?? You feel that you easily comprehend the material in class and you don't feel that you need to attend this “supplimental education”? Or that you have better things to do with your evenings??

Again: “Sooooo-HOW-badly-do-you-want-to-pass-this-class?”


T.I.V., baby....T.I.V.........


More in a few weeks....

-E-

SORRY.....SORRY......SORRY.....

Naw, I'm still here....

Been rather busy with routine, uninteresting stuff.....a few new developments...but nothing that is really worth writing about. Hai Phong is a really dull place....and I haf been too busy with woirk to really travel the past two months or so.....

So, I've decided to update and write on this board once every month. Look for a post next week (November 2nd-ish)......

-E-