An overdose of meat

Finally this week I handed in my copy of Lord of the Flies after analysing every symbol and line for what seems like a century, in my English class and now we're moving on to all fresh topics! I love having a new start and here it really seems like it as check out the weather forecast:

It's amazingly cold so we can pull out all our woolly winter jumpers and socks (a revelation after wearing  flip flops every day of the week) and get round to decorating for CHRISTMAS - more on this soon!

(Credit for photo goes to t_yos21 - works cited)

Yesterday I went to a Brazilian restaurant for my boyfriend Cian's birthday which was called "Au Lac do Brazil" as soon as you are seated they bring round the first salads and you think "oh good, salad starter" and you get a large portion and chomp through that, whilst all the experienced people watch you and smirk. Then there's the meat round so you add in some lamb, or beef or chicken or sausage to your plate as an accompaniment and even add some pepper sauce. Delicious meal, great company and Spanish music. But no they're not done they come round again and again with what looks like thighs of all sorts of seafood and then some vegetables thrown in. After about 10 rounds I was so stuffed with the equivalent of a whole cow that I didn't think I could ever eat meat again (until today around lunchtime). It was fun since we had a private room, the only thing I didn't love were the giant skewers holding the meat and the knives the waiters used for carving since I felt that if I experienced a violent sneeze and whipped my head round I could become skewered - just like the Lord of the Flies really. Oh dear… it seems that this book is really affecting my whole life!

Restaurant details:

Au Lac do Brazil

Address:

6A Cao Ba Quat,

Ba Đình.

Zumba!

This week I joined a new class at school called 'Zumba' which is a combination of different spanish styles of dance plus some modern movements. We danced crazily for an hour: kicking, punching the air, doing salsa movements etc. At the end I was exhausted but hummed the song for two days straight. Who knew excercise could actually be fun?!

This song is actually  in french, but it's really catchy (Mam)!

Can you hear those wedding bells?

(taken by me)

Everywhere you go there are motorbikes, pregnant people, and most often where I live: wedding photos being taken. The brides adorned in traditional white or red or less conventional florescent green dresses pose next to the statues of Ciputra as a symbol of their wealth. These pictures often costing around  $500 just show how much marriage means in a country where people are poor yet buy these ridiculous dresses. The hair is perfectly permed and sprayed into place and the make-up plastered on so their complexions glow ghostly white.

(taken by me)

This picture shows the traditional wedding costume.

In the west people are getting married later and later but here if you reach 25 and you haven't tied the knot you'd better hurry it up. In the countryside the Black Thai tribe women tie their hair into knots on top of their heads when they are married. The average woman get's married between the ages of 18- 25. The busiest wedding season is just after Tet where there are many wedding buses with the symbol of double happiness on them - an ancient Chinese character.

Moon bears

Last year I went to a bear sanctuary to learn about these beautiful animals which are almost critically endangered. The bears are often confined in cages disproportionate to their huge size and they have their bile removed. This bile is then used in the production of so called natural medicines which supposedly remedy all sorts of different conditions.

(Taken by me)

There is actually nothing chemically in the bile which is proven to be effective in aiding any of these conditions therefore the making of these medicines must be stopped.

(Taken by me)

In the sanctuary there were rooms stuffed with different types of foodstuffs including peanut butter, fruit and nuts. The carers are experts on each of the different bears personalities and there are even charts of what type of treat will provoke a bear to swallow a disgusting medicine (marshmallows, maple syrup and apple puree were very popular). 

(Taken by me)

The trees are covered in plastic so the bears cannot use their claws to climb them and therefore escape out of the enclosure.

(Taken by me) - This bear looks almost thoughtful staring out into the distance.

The zoo keepers provide medical care but also attempt to improve the well being of the bears by entertaining and training them using different games created from wood and other random items. This simulates the bears natural environment where they would have to scourge around searching for food. I'm hoping to go again soon since I here they have baby bear cubs freshly rescued!

DON'T LET EXTINCTION HAPPEN!

A funeral

Last year when attending a funeral I drank a little too much rice wine and my advice to all those planning to pay tribute to their Vietnamese friends dead relative... do not start drinking because one drink leads to another as you have to drink to every single member of the family and boy are Vietnamese families large!

Four funerals and a funeral...

When your Vietnamese neighbor loses a family member you will undoubtedly know by the sounds of the shrill wailing from the mourning relatives. There will later be a procession in the streets where family members are adorned with headbands of different colors (a different color for each different generation). One glance will tell you just how many generations of family are present if there's many they've obviously been drinking a lot of milk. People are not going to find this joke funny but it is - people in Vietnam think milk cures everything. 

Before the person has actually died the whole family must gather around their bed in silence and one member will lean in to hear the persons last words. The daughters and sons of the person do not accept the death and they place the body on a mat on the floor with a chopstick between the teeth in order to bring the soul back to life. Then the shirt is waved like a flag whilst the relatives sing for the soul to return to the body. After this the body is washed and cleansed, wrapped in white cloth and placed into a coffin amongst rice, gold and money - I suppose this is only for the rich. 

The colors of the flowers are also important and white flowers are the symbol of death especially the white lotus which symbolizes complete purification. 


The body is then buried - anywhere will do in the countryside. 90 days of mourning takes place where people wear special clothes and in the past certain things were not allowed to happen during this period of time such as marriage. 

Three years after the burial the body is dug up again and "cleansed". This involves washing down the bones with pure water, herb infused water and flower infused water. I don't know about you but I wouldn't really want to have to say hello to my dead parent or grandparents skeleton again...
Then the bones are rearranged back into order - they must pay a lot of attention in biology and the skeleton is placed back inside the coffin and reburied. This is actually quite a big issue in the city as every day there are people down at the grave yards digging up bones I suppose.


In Vietnam there are a lot of wandering souls from the war of people whose bodies were not put to rest and cannot be prayed to. 


If you have no family then your photograph gets taken to the local pagoda for the general public to pray for you. 

The difference between sửa chữa and sữa chua

The book I have just picked up entitled 'Vietnamese for Beginners' (Gioung) tells me that I first need to start off learning the alphabet. Well that sounds simple enough. In fact the learning of the alphabet may take me 6 months, maybe even the rest of the time I have here since I cannot devote my full time to learning it. When asking a friend who has lived in Vietnam her whole life the exact number of letters she said "well it's hard to know, ask the internet". ASK THE INTERNET! This seems crazy but on further research  even Google (yes I know Google is not a person, but it's nice to think that there is one system with all the answers I will ever need) cannot give a definitive answer. There are 29 letters and then letters with dots and squiggles and little hats. I think I gave up after that.

(taken by me)

When asking for milk it's "sữa" and yoghurt is "sữa chua". Well that seems quite logical doesn't it. Well sửa chữa means repair shop, I bet your thinking "Woah that's weird the same word for yoghurt and repair shop" but no it's like this for all of the words. Since most are very short there are multiple meanings depending on the tone, there is a lot of confusion in my daily life because of tones.

I would recommend being able to recognize but not speak. Especially since everyone wants to practice their English skills on you anyway; why waste that opportunity for them?

If you add accents to the word "ma" you get the following words (Gioung): Ghost, cheek, but, rice seedling, tomb and horse. A random selection of words with not much in common really. Imagine going up to someone and trying to say "What a beautiful horse you have" It could end up as "what a beautiful ghost/rice seedling/cheek or tomb" and still make sense (except the other person would think you were really weird).

The most useful words I recommend learning are:

Directions  for taxis-

(taken by me)

Left-  rẽ trái

Right- rẽ phải

Straight- đi thẳng

Stop -dừng lại

Food- check out my "Fallback food places post"
Shopping-

 (taken by me)

How much money (does it cost)? - bao nhiêu tiền

Too expensive - Đắt quá

Supermarket - siêu thị

Market - chợ

Numbers -

(taken by me)

One-một

Two-hai

Three-ba

Four-bốn

Five-năm

Six-sáu

Seven- bảy

Eight-tám

Nine-chín

Ten- mười

After this you put 10 then 1 for 11. 2, 10 and 1 for 21 and so on.
Thousand- ngàn
Hundred- trăm
Million- triệu

(taken by me)

Greetings and being polite-

Hello- xin chào - Actually a lot of Vietnamese people simply say "allo" whilst speaking on the phone.
Bye - chào
Thank you- cảm ơn