Christmas in the Village! Chúc mừng mùa giảng sinh!
OK obviously tardy! But I need to describe this for recordkeeping’s sake. Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse! Ummmm yeah rite, this is VN and it’s a noisy place even in the village.
From 430am to 7am, I would wake multiple times due to a variety of oh-so-wonderful sounds 🙁
–Early church bells
–Blaring coffee shop raver music at 6ish
–Auntie’s loud voice/snores/jingle jangle
–Mosquito terrors
No wonder I was cranky when I finally got out of bed at the obscenely late 8am…ok once I did sleep til 10…sue me!
Last Christmas, my fave gals were in town. This Christmas, I was among family, just not the ones I usually see at this time.
Here were the notables of the visit:
–Construction outside gram’s….of course they don’t use safety barriers so they were swinging that jaw-like contraption that breaks up dirt and scoops it away until I hollered that I needed to get in the house! (No alternate route to the ppl’s homes either)
–Midnight Mass, no, not really! It was at hmmmmmmmm 7ish til 11ish? It was loud and outdoors and the temperature was slightly warm with a cool periwinkle sky and stars to match…I noticed that many ppl were staring at me on this evening and I thought “ok, I’m obviously a foreigner but whatever.” Reasons: I was like the only person apart from a toddler wearing glasses, and I had on a delicate dress which didn’t fly with the fact that there were no benches and so everyone except me was sitting on their sandals…that was a bit painful! And yes, I’m a foreigner who thought we might have church inside the actual building.
It was a nice service with lots of storytelling and VNese dancing…
–Prices slashed down to zero! I don’t usually pay for much when I visit grams cuz auntie and all lo (take care) of me. This time around I also got a sweet haircut and nails painted for less than a buck! Sweet!
–Family! I hung out w/grams, 2 aunties and 1 cousin and parents’ friends etc. Highly notable: present from Daddy = cornichons, or should I say N.American style pickles, packed in a plastic jar and wrapped tightly to avoid leakage. Now, that’s a gift from s/o who loves ya!
All in all, not a bad way to spend Christmas away from home!
Chere caTHY,
May I make a suggestion?
Here is an interesting story and filmed documentaary about a man living in an IKEA store
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/01/08/living.ikea.ap/index.html
http://www.marklivesinikea.com/
I think it may be exciting for your readers, family and friends if you could post some video clips of your day to day life in VN. You will also treasure such memories captured on video for a lifetime in about 228 sleeps from today.
Anyway, take care and God bless.
T.T.
oh yes, the pickles. i forgot that dad sent those to you. btw, the anti spam word is a very good feature to have. tell your blog master that he’s onto something good.