Museum of Ethnology

This past Wednesday I went to the Museum of Ethnology with Thế-Anh, Nam, and a friend visiting from Saigon named Toàn.  It was very hot, just like most of this week has been.  As a matter of fact, right now it is 99 with a heat index of 117.  The hardest part is when the power goes out.  Many of the friends live in outlying areas that lose power frequently for long durations.  It's hard to sleep at night when it's this hot and you don't at least have a fan blowing on you.

Anyway, about the museum.  I actually went on my first visit to Hanoi with my mom and took a ton of pictures.  You're supposed to pay an extra 50,000đ to take photographs.  When I pointed to that on the sign Thế-Anh and Nam laughed and said Vietnamese people never do that.  If they want to take pictures they take pictures.  Then they thought about it and admitted that it was a lack of respect for others that caused that kind of thinking.

Only Toàn took pictures, so we paid the extra and went in with a clear conscience, LOL.  I still have a ton of pictures from last time, and nothing has changed at all.  Toàn took so many pictures that his battery died, so I let him borrow my camera to finish up.  There was a very pretty tree near the Bahnar communal house that ended up on my camera, so I'll post it up here.

While the guys were up in the Bahnar house checking it out I hung out in the shade under the building.  There were a number of students down there and they were so surprised to hear me speak Vietnamese that they all took out their cell phones and started taking pictures of me.  Then the kids started coming up and getting their pictures taken with me, LOL.  I got a picture with two sisters and their cousin who were there.  Thủy asked me how old I was, and when I told her she said "you're as old as my mom!"

Museum of Ethnology

The Indoctrination Begins

My friend Vựng came over the the other day and I was helping him with his computer. He saw the big going away congregation photo with the SpongeBob stickers on it and wondered what they were. So I explained how my taste in humor has earned me the eternal ridicule of all my friends (except the ones with taste that also enjoy the occasional SpongeBob adventure. LOL). I showed him one of my favorite episodes, "Rock Bottom". He thought it was hilarious, even though he couldn't understand it all, and he asked me to put some episodes on a few discs for his kids.

The next time I saw him he told me that the kids are begging to watch them and laugh like crazy, even when they can't understand what anyone is saying. So to all you haters out there...

Giant Box

I was trying to find a box with a lock that could be mounted on the back of my bike for carrying things a bit more securely, so I went to a friend who has a motorbike repair shop. We went over to Phố Huế where all manner of bike accessories can be found and looked. Unfortunately, we could only find two sizes: tiny and huge. Tiny was pointless, since I at least wanted to be able to put my helmet in and lock it up when necessary ( I already had one stolen, if something's not locked down say goodbye to it before you leave ).

So we got the big one and took it back to his shop. They didn't provide a key. When we called and asked about it they said they never do and we have to take the lock to a locksmith and have keys made. Huh? Anyway, we get the keys done and put everything together. Since it's made for a bigger bike, it won't mount with the clips that make it possible to easily lock it on the bike or take it off when you don't need it. We ended up having to drill a couple holes in the metal bracket and securing it with bolts.

On the plus side, I can now carry stuff. Lots of stuff. On the negative side I'm now carrying a giant box on the back of my little bike all the time, which is pretty hilarious looking. Oh well, when I'm able to resolve the license situation and get a bigger bike, I can use the box like it was designed, so it's not a loss. And I'm certainly used to being laughed at, just look at the comments on this blog. Sigh. ;-)

Badminton

I left my tennis rackets behind when I left for Vietnam. As a matter of fact, I think Jerry got my tennis bag. :-) There are some tennis courts here, but they're not public courts and it can be expensive to play. So today I went and bought a badminton racket and went down to Linh Đàm park with Nam and Thế Anh to play.

Since so many people like to play, what happens is you just find a net and wait. When a team loses you can rotate in with your partner. Thế Anh and I were partners and won 3 games in a row. :-) He's a quick little guy, and I picked up the game pretty quickly. Of course, next time we'll play against people that know what they're doing and get slaughtered, haha!

Badminton is so popular here, you can find people playing it everywhere. It's a common sport used to exercise in the morning as well. You'll find many people out playing at 6 AM, especially older ones. I didn't realize how competitive it was until I saw a match on television last year. It's a big deal! Badminton is the fastest racket sport in the world, with shuttles reaching speeds up to 206 mph (332 km/h). Now I'm wishing I'd asked chị Hồng for some lessons!