A random rant about balls tea

Technically called bubble tea this beverage is found all over Hanoi and it is AMAZING! Things that I love about it are:

1. The bubbles remind me of black frogspawn or black pearls or something else mysterious and I love the feel of them.

2. There are literally around 50 different flavours (I'm not exaggerating) including mint, chocolate and durian (bleugh!)

3. There is a cool lid machine which seals the plastic to the cup and there's always an adorable character on the lid.

4. They give you giant coloured straws  and who doesn't love those!

5. The place I go to is in the centre of town: perfect for quenching the thirst on a long excursion and I would never have gone and tried it myself (someone dragged me along and forced me to try).

I recommend everyone trying this Vietnamese drink as it's perfect any time of the year!

Fabrics

It was quite overwhelming with so many different fabrics stacked up but I got to practice my "too expensive" shouting in Vietnamese. I got some quirky rabbit material and some cotton for a dress but I have hundreds of potential items I want to have made!

You need about 1m for a top of 2m for a short dress so next week I'm popping to the tailors with some pictures from magazines and one of my dresses to try and get them to make it right.

The Lake ( one of many)

Around the lake it's the busiest part of town. Bustling with people all the time it's great to just sit on a bench (obviously a large ice cream improves this scenario greatly) and just watch people passing by. In my university application I'm considering putting people watching and daydreaming as two of my greatest passions in life. Let me describe the scene:

There are women marching round jabbering wearing floral pyjamas. This is quite a fashion statement actually especially with the patterned hats which I read in Vogue are all the range this year. Not the hats the contrasting patterns.

Then there's the countless people playing badminton and sports, there are people who are crouching on the side of the road chatting or more like jabbering to each other… in Vietnamese (duh yeah I know but it still annoys me I can't eavesdrop).

And finally a large part of the population is just doing things. I'm  actually not sure what they do all day but in February I am going to ask them about their lives, so I will be able to tell you.

Paper burning

People burn paper items to send to their dead friends and relatives in the afterlife such as money, clothes and even paper (miniture) cars.

"I burnt a paper  television for my grandfather but then I realised that I needed to send him the instruction book as well".

Keeping in touch

There are now so many ways you can keep in touch with everyone at home, however the hardest thing is the time difference which is about 6 hours between here and the UK (HOME :)) These are the best ways to keep in touch:

1.       Skype - you can call and leave messages however the time difference makes it a little harder unless you like calling people in the middle of the night.

2.       Emails - make sure you have an email account set up and have swapped addresses with everyone so you can keep in touch easily - I usually end up emailing

3.       Blogging - You can read each other’s blogs and see what everyone is up to, and make silly comments :p

4.        THE NUMBER 1 - Facebook - I never thought that I would use Facebook to keep in touch but it saves you hours of slow downloads of pictures, you can easily chat like msn and also you never receive humungous messages which I never seem to get around to replying to.

Don't worry if you have a busy week or feel too tired to write a really long message, just something short is better than nothing at all. I am a major culprit of forgetting to reply so it's best to do it straight away - yes I am a hypocrite.

I never use -

5.       Snail mail - nothing ever arrives or leaves Vietnam unless you have some sort of secure mailing system and I'm too lazy to investigate, so no parcels or magazines for me!

6.       The regular phone - It's more expensive so why bother!

"Tết Trung Thu"

The first time someone offered me a moon cake (bánh trung thu) was last year at morning break (and who can refuse food at morning break!) These circular cakes look like miniature moons and are stuffed with salty eggs, meats, lotus seeds and especially in Hanoi: green bean. In other parts of Vietnam there are variations of moon cakes such as in the south where they eat the extremely smelly Durian and eggs cakes and in the central regions where they enjoy green tea filled cakes.

Piles of treats stacked up for people to buy as gifts.

The moon festival is also called the children's festival and so parents present their children with gifts ranging from little toys, seasonal fruits, and slips of paper with sayings written on them ( my parents already to tell me to clean my room enough times during the year). It's almost like a Christmas dinner.

Lanterns light up the night sky in an array of vibrant tones, with the majority being red since this is the royal colour.  Close your eyes and you should be able to hear the distant beating of drums (or in my case the beating of drums is right next door so there's no need) from the musicians accompanying the dragon dancers.

A very bad shot of some dragon dancers.

The lanterns supposedly show Cuội  the way back to earth after he was banished to the moon because his wife urinated on a sacred banyan tree. I'm not sure why he had to go to the moon and not his wife, but this is the legend behind the celebrations here in Vietnam.
There is actually another version of the story where the tree could cure any illness but his wife was jealous so poured dirty water on the tree which promptly began to fly away. Cuội grabbed onto the tree and was taken to the moon.
Both these stories are about leading him home safely so that's the general idea.

Here is a picture of a sacred banyan tree and red lantern.

Here is a picture of some of the masks ( I personally find them a little horror movie-ish!

PROVERBS-

Look up at the moon tonight and see your future! (this may or may not be a very reliable horoscope however I'm inclined to include it since Vietnamese people obviously believe these things).

A golden moon- This year will be excellent for cultivating silkworm eggs

A moon with a blue or green tinge- Predicting disasters

An orange moon- National prosperity

Hopefully that's sorted out the course of your year for you!

Editing pictures

I have now officially started my Photoshop learning process! This is pretty exciting as I'm hoping that now all the horrible photos which I've taken of people can now be magically fixed. Here's my first one which I thinks a little crazy - but artistic. No you don't think so? Well nevermind, I do.

What do Vietnamese people think of Ho Chi Minh?

Sorry it's a day late!!

"He is a great leader who is virtuous. Everyone looks up to him like god and  he must be respected. You will find his face is everywhere - in the classrooms at school, in convention centres and also restaurants. You learn about him from a young age, and in history classes you learn about Vietnamese history which means the story of Uncle Ho. If you ask our parents  "Who is the greatest person to have ever lived?" they will always say "Ho Chi Minh"."

What is everyone doing this weekend?

I visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh by chance on this day last year and there were literally thousands of people waiting to go and pay respects to the body of Ho Chi Minh all in one giant line. All the children are also there in their school uniform with the red neck tie and blue shorts which reminds me of a sailors outfit.

Inside in a spectacular glass case his body is embalmed and appears creamy and translucent. Some people believe he is actually not inside the case but there is instead a figure made of wax.  

Guarded 24 hours a day it would be immensely difficult to break in, and well steal or destroy the body I suppose.

Annually takes a break from his hectic lifestyle to visit Russia where he is re- embalmed.

Question - Would you want to be embalmed?

Tomorrow - What do Vietnamese people really think of Ho Chi Minh?

Why do we have a day off school?

Well the reason is all to do with this man 'Ho Chi Minh' who I tell you about below. Friday 2nd September is the Vietnamese National day when they celebrate his victory.

Image from:

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2009/12/ho_chi_minh_1946_cropped.jpg

Name: Ho Chi Minh

Date of Birth: 1890

Date of death:1969

Why is he so famous?

Ho Chi Minh is so great since he led the communist revolution fighting against the rule of the French who had taken over Vietnam. If you want to know more about what Vietnamese people think of Uncle Ho then read my post on Sunday!

Early life:

He went to a French school and graduated with a teaching degree however soon decided to become a sailor. During this period he visited many other places which were also being exploited by the French. Which may have given him the first seeds of thought as to what should be done in Vietnam.

Deciding to fight:

Whilst living in Paris he studied the books of Karl Marx and other left wing (communist) writers. I will skip the part where he joined the French communist Party and lived in China until we get to 1945 when finally Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh (a revolutionary group he formed) announced the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Unfortunately halfway around the world Franklin Roosevelt (American President), Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister) and Joseph Stalin (General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party - try saying this fast, in Russia) had already decided the fate of Vietnam. 

Eventually the North and the South were reunited and it is the country we know today.

Did you know:

His father taught his children to love their country and his sister who worked for the French army stole weapons which she hoped the Vietnamese could use to banish the French from their country.

He wanted to be cremated.. But everyone ignored his wishes and just put him in his mausoleum in a glass coffin. No privacy at all.

Ho Chi Minh was apparently not his real name but the name of a dead Chinese man who he took the identification card of: something which was very common in China at that time.

I thought this was really interesting and if you want to read more interesting facts about him then visit this site:

http://www.vietquoc.com/0006vq.htm

Further reading (for all those smart people):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ho_chi_minh.shtml>

http://www.notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Ho-Chi-Minh.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhochiminh.htm