I’m still tired. 2008 has been a crazy 8 year for me. So what happened in DN after all? I played house: I finally bot materials for my curtains and although I wanted a turquoise-ish colour, I ended up with a foam/sea green instead…..I’m so excited as I’ll receive the new curtain tomorrow afternoon Yipee!

AND I bot my lamps, all five of them! Now my room has lost its dingy, hospital green-yellow tone. It has ambiance!

When I go back to DN for work, I never get to do all that I hope for. I rarely go to the beach. I don’t eat all my fave snacks. But I always manage to slot a few Cathy-joys in.

This time, I had lunches/means with my fave peeps: Korean avec onhi Hye Jong, fruit shakes and yummy Vnese avec Amy W., Mediterranean in a new resto avec Marie-France, Cargo Club pastries avec Melissa and her mom by random meeting, and delicioso thit heo cuon banh trang avec Nam, my Vespa-driving colleague! I sat on the back of a bicycle with MF (wobbly and exciting) and crashed at my pals’ pads.

I love this girl:

I went to church at the DN International Fellowship which was uplifting and so welcoming and also bit sad as they said goodbye to some of my fave peeps who are leaving for the USA….and I would’ve had lunch and pool-time w/them as well if I hadn’t gotten s-i-c-k! Too much AC made fresh-breath spray an unlikely remedy. Good times were had as I was gladly back in Danang, a home in my past. And I was able to make plans to see my peeps again in a very short timespan. I’ll be having a mini-retreat in Mui Ne w/Amy and seeing my onhi off to Korea etc.

Visitors, vacations, random thoughts, and reports await…..in this blur of a year, I can hardly keep my head straight! Pics to come once I stop procrastinating!

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I have a 6 am flight. Now that I’ve missed one before, I am NERVOUS! But all will be what is it meant to be, AMEN

This meal was a result of missing a flight: not exactly punishment but you know….

Ahhhhhhhhh! So I am excited actually! I can’t wait for some beach action and good times with dear friends of mine It’s just a short lil trip: 3 days BUT 3 good friends in one place! Non, ce n’est pas vrai: en fait, c’est faux: elles habitent dans 2 endroits, DN et Hoi An. But who’s counting? Whatever! Yippee!

If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll go to Bana and chill out at the waterfalls. If not, I’ll just buy my two lamps and teapot accessories and watch Narnia part II.

OK attendons-nous les resultats! Oooooor at least, I’ll be waiting to see what’s up in DN

ciaoness! Quick question: who else out there loves Korean dramas and KBS? Sooooooooo good!

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I do forget but after one has lived in a place for awhile, there are ties and reasons to go back.

My roomie got married and I caught the bouquet! She threw it directly at my chest so I had no choice but to catch it….You can see my “joy” above. Here’s to the sisterhood of support!!! Yipee!

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On the night of January 24th, 2008, I moved from DN to HCMC. During the days that led up to this event, I spent some time thinking about the things that I would miss about the city.

I met a lot of great ppl here and I really wish (as always) that we could just transport all the ppl we love into one fabulous location to live in forever and forever…but alas, that’s just a dream that will not happen

Highlights that I will miss dearly include:
–my motorbike repair shop…These guys fix up Cathy (aka my motorbike) like nobody’s business and they’re so cheap (overall pre-SGN repairs = 100,000 VND = $7) and friendly and trustworthy. Tis always service w/a smile. 43 Hai Phong Street

–my church and ENGLISH mass!!!! The priests, choir, and sisters have always been so kind to me. IT’s at 10:30 am on Sundays at the pink cathedral FYI.

–my Korean roommate and the delicious and cultural enlightenment she’s brought into my life = movies, celebrities, and food!
Did I mention that I love Korea? Onhi Hye Jong and Boram-shi are the absolute best-est ppl

–motorbiking sans traffic! The ride to Hue is kinda, ok super, dangereux but the village and beach roads to Hoi An can hardly be beat….no more cows in my paths I think

–the darn good DNian breakfast! My fave is bún riêu (tomato-crab-based broth w/noodles) and a side of cold sữa đâu nành (soybean milk..correct me if my VNese accents are off…I still suck!). All this goodness for about a buck! Gotta luv it

There’s more stuff but I must jet…my mommy’s in town so can’t be blogging while she wants to par-tay n’est-ce pas?

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I “killed” it. Not really my fault but as I opened the bathroom door, he hit the floor and SQUAT, dead there he lay. IT was kinda nast but I didn’t really know if it was dead or if it was just lying on its backside like those nasty cockroaches with their legs flailing all over. So I waited a day to see if he would just go away….

“MURDERER!” chanted my roommate when I told her the news. Really supportive she is.

On the second day after we determined that no, he would not just go away, I had to sweep him up and dump him out. That was gross cuz he was stuck to the ground and so I had to flip him into the dustpan and saw his dead lil eyes and soft, creepy body…why do these things die so easily? Now he’s in our garbage bin…I refer to it as the gecko head.

Eieyyyyyyyyyyyyucckers! Anyway, what’s done is done. PICS to come…just bot batteries and need a blasted card reader and then I can upload again.

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Cheerio! May I just say that life is a funny thing. When things are so distant, when you happen upon them again, they are just so fantastical…why exactly am I talking about?

Well, for starters, let’s take happiness. We’re all searching for it, and it takes many forms. Today, I found it at the foreign “gourmet” grocery shop in town. I go here to shop as in window shop cuz it’s got all these goodies and some I can buy and others are just not worth the marked-up price.

MY dream wish list (that I’ll only buy if in a really foul mood and need a pick-me-up asap)
-canned artichokes = $5
-capers in the humongo size (I didn’t even look at the price)
-canned cherries = $8
-rice cakes = $5
-walnuts = $7

These goodies are a bit $$$ but sometimes I do crave them. We’ll see when I crack.

I left the shop with sauerkraut, granola, canned white asparagus, and feta cheese — all for just under $10. Not too bad :0

Anyway, back to happiness, once I got home, I had granola, bananas, and yogurt, and since the last time I had this simple snack was absolutely ages ago, it was sooooooooooooooooooooo delicious. Add to that some Rufus Wainwright (he’s got an amazing voice!) and tell me who’s the happiest gal on Earth (well, not quite….)?

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! And so that’s how life goes…………..

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It’s my second Christmas in a row away from home….Last year, I had the best time cuz my sisters were in town, but this year, all the comforts of a good ol’ Canadian Christmas me manquent!

Although it’s nice not to be in the shopping malls hunting for gifts, I miss Christmas parties, seeing friends, snow, eggnog, Christmas trees, warm and cozy living rooms, snowshoeing with the gals, and on and on!

But I can’t dwell on all that or else I’d just be sad all the time.

I’m a fighter, and I can get through this. I’ve done it before, baking pumpkin pie from scratch (crust n all) and eating turkey chops instead of a bit of the whole bird.

This year, I’m about to embark on a baking bonanza. I’ve been looking up recipes and asking friends to “import” foreign baking essentials (ok, from HCMC, but still!) so I can make cookies and scones and pretend that there’s a goody exchange at work. I’ve got my Christmas carols and measuring spoons and pestle and mortar (= rolling pin!) and my awesome toaster oven too.

What’ll be baking for the next lil while? –Gingerbread, raisin, cinnamon cookies, maybe sweet potato pie and perhaps even macaroons if I’m feeling ambitious.

I’m tempted to start right now but I need my brown sugar and baking soda from HCMC…..

Happy holidays and cheers (w/frothy eggnog or hot choco) to you!

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Newsflash: Danang has a new grocery store: Big C!

The goal: find all the new fabulous foreigner-friendly products and hoard them at home

The new features: fresh baguettes, a salad bar (albeit, w/Vnese pickled veggies rather than a Cathy-style deli), RIBS, boneless chicken, canned ravioli, candy in bulk, fresh milk (I don’t even remember what this is anymore), smoked salmon, Energizer batteries, and other delights

Les resultats: crowds worthy of a rock concert, ppl stealing/grabbing locker keys from each other, a frenzy that Danang has not seen in a very long time (not even when the big theatre hall opened last year)

On my first visit, I got burned…literally, MY THUMB GOT BURNED when I went to buy some bread. In order to accomplish this, one must have both hands free, so I took off my jacket and scarf, gave my basket and wallet to my friend, and dove into the crowd (it was a bread-crazy mob). I’m telling you, it was wild….I was elbowed, squeezed, and yelled at…you’d think we were lining up for some freebies. Luckily, I made it to the front of the crowd just as fresh baguettes were coming out of the oven. I got two but w/o a bag and so my fingers were feeling the pain as I yelped for a bag….at the end of the ordeal, I emerged triumphant, but it was all for two small baguettes that cost maybe 25 cents each. Ouch!

And that’s the headliner from my world in Danang today. Over and out.

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Doesn’t it sound like a great idea? A peaceful and calming indoor garden…. actually, I almost got one FROM THE DIRT which resulting from my moldy dresser! I have a moist room which is a bit challenging to deal with (dehumidifier, mosquito repellent plug-in, incessant clothing and shoe washing), but I had no idea what really was going on behind my dresser. All I knew was that my clothes were moldy and wet. Turns out that the entire backside was corroding away and creating a fine black dust that probably would have been delightful in a real garden. Unfortunately, the scent of musty soil doesn’t work so well in my room, and the presence of multiple types of mold really doesn’t cut it for me. At the moment, my clothes are all stacked upon my bed (probably molding even more now that they’re out in the open) and I am waiting for a repairman to replace the “wall” of the dresser. Initially, my roommate and I thought we could wipe the wall and sweep the soil/mold and scrape the rest off, but after our cloths became thick w/sludge, we decided to call it a day. Ahhh the life in the “wet” room. My roommate has the sunny side but she also has the cranky roosters and our volume blaring, always repairing neighbours who wake up at 5am in the morning. I’m just thankful we didn’t find any worms or spiders in the moldy compost/soil!

Just for the record, here’s what’s moldy at the moment:
- my eyeshadow brush
- my wide leather belt (was brown but now has a nice greeny white spotted pattern added to it)
- my glasses cloth
- my straw bag from Japan…I tried to “burn” off the mold with the heater…didn’t work

Obviously, the next moldy thing will be me!

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Sizzle, squirt, burrrrn!

How’s that for some kitchen action? On Dec 1, I was cooking in a VNese kitchen! After realizing that my culinary skills are all Western and in great need of the oh so wonderful toaster oven (which is still one of my very best friends), I decided that my Asian flavour skills needed some improvement….well, actually, one of my colleagues was semi-incredulous at my lack of frying/seasoning/quick meal-making talents and pulled out the guilt factor: well, a gal’s got to know how to cook if she wants to get married. I can cook but just not like the ladies in VN.

Relaying this story to another colleague resulted in an offer to get down to frying business in her kitchen. How could I refuse? I do really want to learn how to cook VNese dishes and this was the perfect opportunity.

PROBLEM: We must start at 9am on Saturday which means no sleeping in…on the only day that I can…boo!

PERKS: Market shopping with a local means I learn how to pick good shrimp, veggies, and meat (and not freak out at the meat juice flying everywhere).

Normally, I don’t buy meat in the market because I am scared, but with a guide, everything’s better and so I saw how to bargain and choose tasty cuts w/o getting dirty or pushed around or swindled.

MORE PERKS: I got to drive her her kids to school and they are cute, cute, cute. It was the first time that I actually had VN children on the back of my bike so I had to be very careful but it was totally fun. And children speak such rapid VNese that I just have to concentrate and still, I can’t understand it all.

the menu: canh which is broth-based soup (I’m going to put accents on all these words once I get the software!)
ca va thit kho = braised/stewed fish and pork
thit bo xau ca va thom = fried beef w/tomatoes and pineapple

We were supposed to complete all this in half an hour but with the normal distractions of a Vnese neighbourhood (construction, dog chasing, I bought a back scratcher), we were done in about an hour. Then we had lunch with the kids.

So fun and so easy too….I can definitely replicate these meals at home for my roommate to decide whether the cuisine tastes VNese or not….in any case, a totally great couple of hours learning smthg useful! Yah for VN cooking class and I hope that I can keep it up.

ciaoness

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