Living Abroad

Typhoon Ketsana arrived the 28th of September. We were well prepared, fully stocked up on food, water, candles and a torch. Electricity wiped out on day one, which preceded two terrible nights of no sleep while the wind creepily 'wooed' outside my bedroom window. Little rain fell, but the winds of up to 185km/h kept all awake and alert. Houses flooded, roads were blocked and trees bent, snapped and fell. Some neighbours boarded up their houses and relocated to another place, while others camped out at home by the candlelight with their family.

In 2009, having no electricity is a rather boring experience. My room mate and I tried to come up with some ideas to keep us entertained, and our mind always wandered back to a game of scrabble or a crossword, but we had none of those. We read, read and read by candlelight, while hoping that the lights would suddenly turn on again. Phone services were blocked (text worked!!) so almost all forms of modern communication were eradicated from the entire city.

Maybe I'm exhaggerating the situation, however for me, it was, well, scary. At night the house felt like it was rocking, while in the day the hours just slowly passed, basically giving me many opportunities to study, read, study and read. Anyway, Ketsana eventually passed, people slowly emerged from their homes, and the clean-up began. Trees and rubbish were strewn everywhere, but nothing was hit as badly as the beach. Huge tree trunks washed up ashore, along with tons of sticks, leaves, branches in the brown murky waters.

Thousands of homes were destroyed, and thousands more people were displaced. Please think about the people, unlike myself, who weren't so lucky. Some were injured and some were killed, while others have lost all they have ever owned. Please also think of those in the Phillipines, who were effected far worse. There are various charities accepting donations online to assist those in need.

We were very lucky it wasn't cold either. It was still pretty which makes it a lot easier to survive.

On a happier note, three stray kittens have decided to call my home, their home. They just turned up one day, and came back every now and then, so, I'm feeding them. Whiskas and tuna. They are stick and bones with huge googly eyes on these tiny little faces. They are getting used to me, so I just sit there while they eat and just look at them. It's amazing the effect something so cute can have on a person. They bring a huge smile to my face.

With the onset of the rainy season (typhoon season??), I am moving to Hanoi. At the end of October, I will say goodbye to Da Nang, my home of 8 months, beautiful beaches, quiet roads, and stunning natural landscapes, and say hello to the bustling Capital that is Hanoi. Although I am sad to leave the Central Coast, I am just as excited to work again in a kindergarten, see old friends, and partake in dance classes, Vietnamese classes and other extra curricular activities that come my way.

While dreaming of my new life in Hanoi (again!), I am also dreaming of the far away exotic land that is India.

Home of the Taj Mahal, the biggest population of English speakers, the largest democracy in the entire world and the creator of snakes and ladders and the digit 'zero'. A picture of vivid colour, a celebration of Hinduism, and an appreciation for the mind, body and soul and delicious food come to mind, as do crowded streets, humidity and severe poverty.

Because of this, I keep thinking about it! I can't stop. I don't know what spurred this interest, but I want to go. Not for a few weeks, but maybe 2 months. Volunteer for 5 weeks, travel for a few more, I'm not sure, but because of it's size, I think I'll just visit a couple of cities, slow down, and take my time. At the same time, be extremely cautious of the things I do, the foods I eat so as not to get SICK! (I've heard a few stories). It just seems like the country that I'm going to instantly fall in love with, you know those places in the movies that "change people", that have such an effect on them, I think that place for me will be India. But, maybe I'm wrong. Next year I hope to go to India, and provided I have enough funds left, Brazil too, in September. Two exotic lands in one year! Wow, I hope so.

I will post photos of the typhoon and the kittens soon.

Love.
Cat.

The only real adventure I had in Saigon was surviving the constant downpours that occured every hour. I went to Saigon for a few days just for the heck of it, and the first day turned out to be a collection of "Oh my god!'s" at the rain, the traffic and the 10 million people that inhabit the city. It's a nice city, well developed in infrastructure, lots of English business, many international visitors/expats, and generally just a city that is far different from other Vietnamese cities. But it also had a lot of street beggars/sellers (selling small things like chewing gum), severe lack of road rules (not unlike Vietnam), and a terrible overcrowding of buildings and people. Viewing the city coming down on the plane was incredible, just a huge collection of buildings in a built up area that expanded futher than I could see.

Day one, I hung out with Raphael wandering around the city, doing some shopping, in between the rain that prevented us from doing anything outside . In the night, we went to the only Brazilian restaurant in Saigon (they also have one in Hanoi) and ate a buffet of deliciously fresh cuts of meat, pork, beef and even lamb (which is so rare in Vietnam!!!). Not cheap, but lots of fun, and something a little different.

I also got my hair cut and coloured, plus a manicure and pedicure, and some funky nail art. All in all, costing me around $50, so I'm very happy.

While at Go2 bar in the tourist centre, I met a friend of Raphael's, a 5 year old Vietnamese boy named Quy. He works as a seller with his mother, selling predominantly chewing gum and other small cheap things, in a box he carries around. Quy has excellent English as he speaks every day to tourists, plus, he is very Brazilian! He knows the Brazilian "man-to-man" handshake, and can speak some Brazilian words. There are lots of players that visit this bar, and they all chat to him. He loves Raphael, and he is just gorgeous, but I feel sad that he is working the streets with tourists every night. The good thing is, is that his English will be fluent by the time he reaches his adult years.

Saigon is a great city for visiting, and has an abundance of services and imported products I can't find in Da Nang and Hanoi, but I could never live there, and I honestly think the traffic is deadly!!!

My other adventures have been at the three English centres that I work at. I have just started working at a fairly new centre, which is very modern and hi-tech. Each classroom has a widescreen flat tv on the wall, connected to Microsoft Windows and the internet. I can use the internet, play English games, and show pictures/documents while I'm teaching. I teach young ages (5-10 years), so I can be very interactive with the children while gaining their interest. Now the trick is to figure out how I can incorporate this new technology into my teaching. I haven't used any thing like this before, so I will have to be creative, and I guess the classroom is my oyster as I have many opportunities to be a better and up to date teacher.

Unfortunately, I don't have these resources at the other centres, which have plain classrooms with chairs and a whiteboard, so that's a lot more basic (but that's ok too).

I found an interesting You Tube video yesterday, about a Argentinian woman who teaches English in (I'm assuming) Argentina, using American sign language in her teaching. She talks about how the children's memory has improved just by learning basic hand movements to go with the word. It's a lot easier to teach "run", where the child can physically get up and run, than to teach "potato", which as no matching action. She has incorporated the sign language into teaching vegetables and I thought it was very interesting and effective.

That is all for now.
Love.
Cat.

In Da Nang especially, I've noticed a huge increase in the amount of electric scooters around the city. Young Vietnamese girls sport them on the streets, with a maximum speed of 60 and really small size and weight. But the thing that is frustrating me, is that the people that drive them (predominantly women), don't wear helmets. I'm assuming that this is the law, because i have not seen an electric scooter driven by a helmet wearer.

But shouldn't it be the law? Girls weighing 45 kilos zip around on these scooters, who, if hit by another motorbike, would be severely injured. A Vietnamese friend has a "Robo" brand electric scooter, who says she doesn't need a helmet because her bike is electric. She is actually under the belief that because the scooter is electric, that there is no way that she is at risk of accident or injury. I don't really understand this mentality, that the Vietnamese law implies.

Anybody living in Vietnam care to comment on this? Have you noticed an increasing trend of electric bikes in Hanoi?

I'm not talking about tiny electric scooters like these......

I'm talking about full electric scooter bikes, that look just like a petrol fuelled scooter only lighter and slightly smaller.....

Anyway, as the electric scooters wave in and out of traffic, police let them roam the streets with no protection. It's frustrating every time I see an electric scooter.

But it shouldn't be frustrating. They are helping the environment, plus helping themselves by saving money, but I don't think they are helping their individual safety.

Another problem with the scooters is that they are silent. LITERALLY SILENT. No sound whatsoever. They creep up to the side of you and dart out in front of you when you don't even know it. They contribute nothing to neither air pollutino or noise pollution, however, they need to have some sort of sound device to make others aware of their incoming.

Read this article on Japanese hybrid cars:

Source: BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8132548.stm

Japan rethinks silent hybrid cars

Toyota Motor Corp."s assembled new Prius rolls out at the Toyota Tsutsumi Plant in Toyota
Toyota has no plans yet to add noise-making devices to their hybrid cars

Japan is considering the introduction of noise-making devices for near-silent hybrid cars following safety fears from vision-impaired pedestrians.

"Vision-impaired people feel that hybrid vehicles are dangerous", a transport ministry official told AFP.

The top-selling hybrid vehicles run almost without any sound when they change from fuel to battery mode.

The ministry of transport has brought together a panel that will draw up a report by the end of the year.

The panel is considering forcing manufacturers of hybrid cars to introduce a sound-making function that alerts passersby to the presence of a vehicle.

"Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are no engine sounds from hybrid vehicles when running at low speed," the transport ministry official said.

The world's most popular hybrid, the Prius, was launched by Toyota in 1997.

Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for Toyota Motor in Tokyo, told the BBC it had no immediate plans to add noise-making devices to the hybrid vehicles.

"But if it becomes a social concern, it is something we will have to address", Mr Nolasco added.

Read about the North American company that are selling scooters for far more:

Source: CNN News, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/20/eco.electricscooter/index.html[/u]

Vectrix Electrics is another company that has been developing electric scooters, so far selling only in North America and Europe. While the performance of its scooters is comparable to KLD's, their models sell at a much higher price tag around $11,000. Earlier this month Vectrix reported financial difficulties and has been forced to make staff cuts.

I do actually like electric scooters, I like anything that's good for the environment. But it's increasingly annoying when authorities here don't actually realise what is important when riding one.

Anyway, that's my rant.

I'm off to the football.

Love.
Cat.

When an Australian lives in Vietnam with a Brazilian, there's always some sort of issue with language. I find myself at many times in situations where there will be three or more languages being thrown around the dinner table. One couple that I know (Brazilian man, Vietnamese woman) speak alternately between Vietnamese and English (he speaks good Vietnamese and low level/ok English), with a bit of Portuguese in there too.

At a barbecue the other night (with only Brazilians + me + baby Ryan whom I can sneakily teach to speak English with me!), I found myself speaking three languages in one sentence. Without even trying.

Someone asked me if I spoke Vietnamese, and I ended up saying without noticing "I fala.....(thinking of Portuguese word for little).......chut chut".
Direct translation - I speak little.
I - English
fala - "speak" in Portuguese
chut chut - "little" in Vietnamese (after not remembering little in P.)

So, in conclusion, can I just make up my own language??

It's easy for me, because I'm an English speaker, but I've never had any exposure before to other languages. I quit Indonesian in Year 9, and never learnt anything new after. But I'm learning now. And it's great great fun.

Vietnamese is an extremely difficult language for those interested. Three letters e.g. "anh" can mean 6 different things depending on how you say it PLUS, it is also a name for a girl. The name "Thuy" for a girl, has three ways of saying it, and it's owners like to correct you when you don't say their name with the correct tone.

I have sort of been on and off learning Portuguese a little bit here and there over the last few months, but only just this week I'm really getting serious about it. I've downloaded audio/video lessons, and made cool fun flashcard things (being the highly organised person I tend to be). I've even thought of some games that I can play, which I am excited about, so I don't care how nerdy it is.

Raphael has learnt his English purely himself (not even a year ago did he start learning), with one small pocket book, and lots and lots of music (read: hip hop). While were on the topic of hip hop, if you thought American hip hop/rap music is full of violence, drugs, and bad role models (which it is), listen to Brazilian rap and you'll have new insight into an even more extreme version of the above.

He is an excellent English speaker, but of course, like any new language, there are questions and misunderstandings.

Here's an example of a scenario we were in at Big C the other day:

R: Baby, what does "????" mean?
C: What's the word? (with confusion)
R: "????"
C: How do you write it?
R: B-U-S-T-W
C: Baby, that's not a word.
R: Yes it is! It's in the song.
C: "the" song?! What song?

On further research, the word is simply "bust", sung in "Bust it" by Plies feat. Neyo. Considering I don't know anybody with an interest in this music, I don't really expect anyone to watch it!

I had no idea what the word means, but I've just looked it up now in the useful "Urban Dictionary", however I'm not going to repeat the definitions here. I don't think it's even worth figuring out how to translate these American gangster slang words, considering I'm not going to use them in everyday language. Funnily enough, Raphael did ask me one day what "hood" means (from a song). I said it is the hat part of a jumper, but another new definition would be someone's house or territory. Well that's I think. As long as he doesn't go telling people to "come to our hood". I politely explained not to use that word in normal conversation.

While Portuguese is considerably easier than Vietnamese, there are still a few rules that are really difficult to master.
- You need to change the ending vowel sound in a word depending on if you are male or female.
- Some nouns are considered feminine, while some are considered male. When I was learning about this today, I learnt that a plate is considered feminine, and a table is considered male. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I just don't undesrtand. On the other hand, a car is masculine and a house is feminine. Ok, that's more believable, but come on! Since when are pure, concrete, tangible objects gender classified?

Before I bore you with the gritty linguistics of Portuguese, listen to this beautiful song, sung in Brazilian Portuguese and English.

"Boa Sorte/Good luck" by Ben Harper and Vanessa de Mata.

I have been learning the Portuguese lyrics, and I don't even need to translate it myself, as Ben Harper sings the direct translation after the Portuguese. It's a beautiful song, and I love Vanessa de Mata. She is from Rio de Janeiro.

I will go back to Vietnamese for a minute, and the silly situations I find myself in with the language. For those of you who don't know, when Vietnamese people see a white face, they mostly won't listen to what you say, even if it's Vietnamese. Thus, your attempts to speak their language fail miserably.

Here is a common scenario I find myself in at the markets:

Marketeer: Helloooooo
C: Xin Chao
after collection of all fruit/vegetables, they proceed to add up the amounts and write it down on a piece of paper to show me.
C: Khong khong khong! Bao nhieu tien?!!! (no.... how much money?)
M: xx,xxx Dong
C: Cam on Chi (thankyou ma'am).................soooooooo.......... Ten la gi? (what's your name?)
M: Ten la Xuong/Phuoc/Thuy/Giang/Trang etc and so forth
C: Ten la Cat. Same same "mew" Tieng Viet (My name is Cat. The same to "mew" in Vietnamese).
The point here is to explain that my name in Vietnamese is a cat ("mew" in Vietnamese).
M: ......... looks dumbfoundedly.
C: gives up, brushing it off. Pays, says goodbye knowing that the next time we meet they will have forgotten my name or just call me "Casss".

I've learnt my lesson now not to give this pointless instruction in how my name is Cat, as in the cat the animal.

Oh well, maybe Brazil will understand.

Love.
Cat.

Due to my severe lack of musical ability, I could not think of more appropriate lyrics that were actually related to Da Nang, so I just left the original lyrics. I have made a list of things that I love in this city, businesses, people and past-times.

Christie's Cool Spot

We refer to Christie's as the "Australian restaurant", as apparently it was once owned by an Australian. If that is true, I have no idea. The Australian restaurant offers a huge menu of food, from Vietnamese to Western, Japanese to European. The food is quick, English is excellent, and the prices are not expensive. They make a deliciously huge fresh orange juice.

My Khe Beach

The beach within 2 minutes walking of our house, is quiet and uncrowded during the day, then extremely packed from 4pm onwards. Stretching miles and miles down to China Beach and then to Hoi An, who could wish for better natural scenery at their doorstep.

Son Tra Peninsula

LIterally a big mountain overlooking My Khe Beach which also prevents strong winds causing rips in the water. If you drive up and up and up the road, you will just get better and better views, until you hit what looks like a secret headquarters of a massive international company. From there, back away before the cameras get you (experience only tells).

Furama Swimming Pool

The main pool is a big square shape, with a waterfall into the baby pool, looking directly at the beach. You've got swiming pool, beach, mountains all in one, and it's not normally very busy either (literally nobody else except on the weekends). For $10, you can laze by the pool all day, but I don't like the extremely expensive food or drinks which are generally below par for such a fine establishment. The jet ski is $40 for 30 minutes, which is heaps of time to have a lot of fun out in the open sea with nobody around, and no instruction beforehand in safety or rules either. Just wear the lifejacket, this is go, this is stop. Woooo!!

Do'Ro Spa

I have only been to Do'ro once, but it was just magnificent. I had a 75 minute facial for 200,000 Dong ($14 AUD), complete with ultra clean rooms, professional and well spoken (English) staff, well compared to a salon in Australia. They even operated this high tec machines on my face, I don't actually know what they were doing, but I'm sure that would cost alot back home. I am looking forward to there full body massage at 100,000 D and there body scrubs. For that price in Hanoi, the service and quality is nothing like here.

Chi Lang stadium and "bong da"

Da Nang draws in the biggest crowds for football games in all of Vietnam's stadiums. Da Nang is currently the number 1 team, and recent home games are pulling in crowds of 35000 people. The atmosphere is just so exciting, especially now that Da Nang is the top team. The constant overplaying of Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life" just makes you laugh, and the constant stares when a foreigner screams in excitement, are just ignored. The 20 year old security boys guard the barriers between the field and crowd, while really itching to be able to watch the game.

My house rooftop

On the roof of our house, we have a magnificent views of Son Tra Peninsula and the beach, plus on the west side, the city.

The cool evenings

Evening though it's stinking hot in the day right now, at around 4pm it begins to cool down, and the nights are comfortbaly mild, perfect for any night time activity.

Skype

With this magniicent piece of technology, I can speak to anybody in the world with visual image for free. That's all I need to say about that.

The market

If you go to Hanoi's busy markets, prices are inflated for tourists, if you even go to Danang's central market, prices are inflated, but if you go to the market in my street, the prices are cheaper than anywhere. I can buy fresh fruit and vegetables at a cheap price, plus have a (restricted) pleasant conversation with the sellers. They are very friendly and they now know me as a local, but probably more as Raphael's girlfriend.

Those are a few of my favourite things......