Games night chez Ben

Pizzas, beers, trivial pursuit, uno...etc

Another time we laughed until we can't stand the stomach's pain ;-)

When aliens talk about VN

I am actually a bit angry when reading a blog that one of my friends sent to me about his friend who travels in VN.

Actually, I am not so sure about my feelings. Most of things she mentioned are correct, like Vn is not a real communism, and I am normally happy when a foreigner notice and tallk about these things. I guess I am upseting because she wrote about the way people live in VN (tough, hard, fast) as if we have a choice to not live that life. Yes, it is a jungle, but it is ours to say. Even what she eats everyday, she did not seem to appreciate, I don't understand if she is looking fries and steak, maybe better to stay in Europe. The rice that she talked about, I wonder if she realised how many people work hard to earn money from them to feed a family on a daily basis. I read her post several times, and every time it made me feel furious. That is why I am not so fond of seeing tourists coming to my country now. It is like a fashion for people to go to countries like mine, but have no idea what to expect, and their deception make the whole travel experiences unpleasant for them, and for the people who read their stories. Oh yeah, and she dares to call our language "dialect" while there is not even a language that is called "Belgian". Sorry to make such a comment, but really, "dialect", that is like an insult. She talks like she comes from a superior race to a meet some stone age people or something, and see how wild we live. In fact, she talks like we are some animals live in the zoo for people to get by and look (that is the feeling I got at least).

There is no organization because it is impossible to organise. How can you organise if from the top it is a mess. You are just happy that you can get by day and day. It is not about the Vnese, it is about the Vnese governement! I really want to leave a comment but figure it is not a diplomatic way, and since she is a friend of my friend.

So, in short, nothing fun in reading this woman's travel "adventures", and I have no intentions to follow although I am a big fan of travel stories (mind you, nothing to do with the fact that I am Vietnamese, there are people talk about the different in VNese people and them, and I find that interesting, but this one? Sorry.)

Apart from the above frustration :-), I am not so busy at work, so I start replying to emails that dated since last year, and updated my other blogs (yes, have several blogs), so that they do not disappear hehehe, writing is fun!

Carnaval in Aalst

I joined friends for Aalst Carnaval yesterday, and I think next year I am going again ;-). It is so strange that there are only two regions in

Belgium that celebrate Carnaval. When we were walking in Brussels, people looked at us as if we were some crazy people coming from another planet.

It was a big and very long parade, I was very much impressed with the efforts they put into costume, and a big congrats to the guys ;-), they were so good in being women hehehehe, some even have beautiful legs ( a bit hairy though but that what shavers for ;-)). We drank (and got drunk), we danced, and some people even tempted to stay until the next morning with the locals (next year we will take Monday off, it is better). I love the festival, I love the music (very old Dutch songs), I love seeing guys dressing like women ;-) ( and I love seeing them being harrassed by us ;-))) and I love the ambiance.

Thao, the Nha Que ;-)

Me, Ronny, and Pippi Long stocking ;-)

Let's talk Breasts and panties ;-)

the sexy ;-)

Fiesta meal at Aunt An et uncle Dung

Chuc Mung nam moi

Nam moi chuc cac ban suc khoe doi dao, viec lam troi chay, tien vo nhu nuoc song Da, tien ra nho giot nhu cafe fin ;-).

Last weekend was the Tet and Chinese New Year. Although I have asked a couple of people for the reason why we celebrated the Lunar New Year one day before the Chinese (usually it is on the same date), nobody gave me a clear answer. Anyway, it is not a problem because I am Vnese, I celebrated the Tet according to our calendar, and according to the people back home. So, Friday was our New Year's Eve (for Chinese, it was Saturday), for some reasons, the temple celebrated according to the Chinese New Year, I thought it did not open on Friday. As the result, I went to the temple on Saturday nite instead. This year, I went earlier than last year (experiences because later there will be a lot of people, and it is unable to pray) to pray for health for my whole family, and to buy some sweets ;-) (yeah, the nuns here make super delicious vegetarians dishes). FYI, we can eat for free on the New Year day (meaning Sunday lunch after the pray), and that is how it is in VN, you can always go to a pagoda and eat as much as you can on many important dates of Buddhism.

I made some small dishes that my grandfather liked on Friday, and after dinner with my sister and uncle, we went to the friends of uncle for dinner again ;-), and it finished at 4 in the morning . Normally, in VN, on the new year's Eve, after giving foods, to the Buddhas, and saints, my whole family will go the pagodas like many other Vnese to get a small flower or a branch of a tree or something that is offered to Buddhas in order to bring it home. This is supposed to bring luck for the whole year...And then, we will receive the red envelops that contain lucky money ;-)

Anyway, like I said before, traditions have changed a lot ;-(. Now everything is for reasons and benefits.

African dance

I had my first lesson in african dance at the Yantra dance Academy, and I love it. There were a serie of choices such as breakdance, bellydance, jazz, comtempory, hiphop, balley, Flamingo...etc, I did not see myself doing balley for example, it is so strange, like one of my friends suggested to wear a bathing suit (and not swimming) with a short skirt, but most importantly how to move yourself, so that people don't say that you dance like a salmon ;-).

The class lessons conducted in live music, a couple of guys play the tambour drum. They play so good, and if you get the rymthm, you will get carried away in a dynamic movement. The dance itself has a lot to do with moving hips, arms, butt...like the prof explains your upper part of the body is like air, and the legs is like the earth. It is also nice to meet people, talk, and maybe somehow your perspective of life is similar to them...

Anyway, I belongs to a group of students who will perform the dance with the prof in Jun ;-), so that makes it fun to take the lessons because we know people will see us dance ;-). That is so cool!

BTW, I have a dream last night that I am fighting against a ghost. I wonder why I often have so many fantasy dreams...

Well, Chuc Mung Nam Moi to all of you ;-))

Sexism

Since part of my job is to make sure that there are enough cooks for each event, most of them are males, and every day I came home with a puzzle in my head. A couple of weeks ago, there was a cook coming into my office, and said:

"Vous savez, vous etes tres belle, vous avez un corp super mais vous etes un peu mince. Alors, c'est vraiment difficile d'avoir bebe apres."

I still did not know how to deal with this, and was about to say that I have a lot to do, and of all things, I am not thinking about having baby yet! He already came up with a very "honest" advice.

"Il faut que vous marcher avec les jambes legerement ecarter pour faciliter l'acouchment dans le futur"

Oh man, that is something I completely not expected! To translate literally, he was telling me that I should walk with my legs a bit spread. To be honest, since I started working with them, I was well- prepared, but I really speechless when I heard this. He did not mean any bad, but it was just so inappropriate that it made it weird....

Or another guy came to the office to explain to me how women get fat because they use pills (apparently the pills increase one sort of sexual hormone...). So, you get the picture of how my days really go. But that is not only at work, on TV, too! Especially the Flemish channel VT4, I find it a abit sexism. Everytime, there is a break in between, there is some girl wearing either swimming suit or cowboys...etc making movement under water (okey, I know who are not sharing the same opinion with me here ;-) -apparently only we girls think so). Recently, the Axe, men's deodorant, has made a commercial super sexism by having a lot of girls running toward a guy using its product, and the tagline says "Spray more, get more", probably some macho guys produced it.

Anyway, fyi, I read an article in a science magazine that apparently women have more gray matter than men ;-), and when it comes to IQ, men do have greater number of intelligent people, but they also have a greater number of retarded people whilst women stay on average. That explains a lot of things ;-)))

Hiking in Malmedy

Since I was not really motivated to go to the VN new year, I decided to join the hiking day in Malmedy with friends. At the end, it was a good day, and some people even lost their voice at the end ;-). It is good to be surrounded with the nature, breath the clean air, enjoy the calmness and I collected a dead animal bone for souvenirs in the forest (thinking to make a necklace with it).

...Some conversations are better kept secret ;-))).

Wedding in winter ;-) and Malmedy town

The other Ben we did not know ;-)

Should we take that super steep slope? ;-)

This slope did some good for our hearts ;-), I could feel my legs trembling but my head was telling me "C'mon, you can make it", it was like a drug ;-). Looking like this, but it was really steep as if you were walking on a straight wall, and it was quite slippery as well, so you could fall any time if you did not focus.

But when you reach the top, the wind blew over you, went through slayers of your clothes, your face, you hair, and looking down to the beautiful lanscape below (I really can not imagin my feeling if one day I have a chance to hike in the Himalaya). That was a good walk!

The waffles of Libert farm

Apparently rumours go that the Belgian Royal family came here to have waffles, and we could confirm that it's true!

The waffle is not so sweet (but super heavy with the homemade cream and cranberries sauce), and they taste amazingly good.

The farm is also famous for its game (they even have a ranch full of deer, and different sort of birds). Very simple food, but well preparation, recommended!

Super Bun bo Hue

Because I have been complaining that there is no good Bun bo Hue in Brussels, and too lazy to make one, aunty An invited us for real Bun bo ;-).

It is super hot, but super delicious, even now my mouth is watering and my nose is running to just think about it.

This one is a typical soup of Central VN, Hue. We have to use to slightly bigger kind of rice noodle, and it have to have a taste of lemongrass with lots of peppers. My most favourite noodle soup!

Sexy Minh ;-)

Ik spreek Nederlands ;-)

Finally, I started a Dutch course. I have thought of taking Dutch courses for a couple of years already but after graduating I had a job, and it was so far from the city, plus with long working hours, it was impossible for me to take lessons...

Anyway, I was pretty much happy that Conrad organised language courses (French, English, and Dutch) for employees. The lesson is organised during working hours, in small groups, although it is only two hours per week, I am sure it will help me a great deal to get the basic of Dutch. So, I had mine this morning. The beginner group has started since November last year, I did not know. Well, when I was warned about that, and the training department told me to just go to class, and if the teacher was ok with me, then I could stay. This morning when I came, of course, the teacher asked if I knew some Dutch, so, I just told her what I knew (most of the words were from Dutch TV channels, btw ;-)). The teacher told me to stay anyway, and if I think I can catch up with the others, I can continue. It is ok because I get the notes from the other colleagues, but the problem I have now is that I don't know how to pronounce many of the vocabularies ;-). The most difficult one so far is words with "r" and "ch" like "achternaam", otherwise the "ng" that many French people have a problem with, I am ok, and find it easy because many Vietnamese pronounce that way ;-). The grammar is not that complicated like it is in French with the verbs.

I found some old casettes to learn Dutch courses from the basement a couple of months ago (probably uncle tried to learn without success ;-)), but I have no casette player at home, so I think it is better that I buy a CD, and transfer it to my portable walkman, that way I can learn it on the way to work...etc. Anyway, I will just give a bit more efforts to catch up with others, I will survive.

Other than that, nothing special last week apart from hanging out with friends, playing bowling, drinking (not a lot, I try not to drink this year). I bought some good Cds, "Gorillaz", "Blur", a collection of the Beetle, some boardroom dance like Tango and Cha Cha Cha and "Gone with the Wind" movie ;-), so I spent my Sunday relaxing as it should be.

I also did some thinking because my Mika is sick again, which put me in a melancholy mood. I am very scared that he will not live very long, and that he do not have a happy life like he should do because I spoiled him...Yeah, I love him too much, but if he is fat, it is because I gave him foods every time he asked for it. As the result, even with the diet he has, it does not help. I feel so sorry and regret it very much. I hope he will survive, and does not hate me because I love my Mika a lot. I don't think I will ever find a cat like him, he is a special one. Moreover, Tet is coming, and it gives a bit of nostalgic feeling. Tet is never the same like it was in the past. In VN, with the so called "booming economy", most families do not cook anymore, they prefer to eat out (the most shocking news for me is probably, family members in VN only meet each other now on Sunday at the restaurant for brunch even they live in the same house because everybody works so hard, and a lot of people get fat). One of famous effect of globalization and WTO I suppose! Growing economy, my *ss! People can talk about how great it will be but I know how my relative and family live there, how my friends have to work hard, study hard to finally have a job with sh*t salary. Sorry, everybody begins to say that, they can f*ck off. Go there to live if you think it is good, there is a big difference between living and "holiday-ing". Well, to come back to Tet, normally in the past, the preparation of Tet was the most exciting period, and it started about 2 or three weeks before Tet, we started to shop, reserve good ingredients to make the special rice cake that represents the earth, the root of the Vnese, then stocking a lot of vegetables and fruits, and cooked a lot because during Tet, nobody did anything, shops closed (now all the shops open even on the first day of the year). I remembered, my house was full during the -making -rice- cake time because my mom, grandparents, uncle, uncle's wife, relatives from the north came, we made a lot of cakes (I was only surprised because there was not much left afterwards because they were to share with the neigbours, too ;-)). One cake was about 2kg or something, and it took more than 10 hours to cook. So, everyone (mostly men, btw, I always got upset that I had to go to bed ;-)) stayed around a big pan, playing cards, guitars, or watching a lot of kungfu movies ;-). Hmm, that reminds me of the time where we did not have a Dvd or casette player, my youngest uncle used to take me to those big warehouses where somebody had one cassette player, and took a couple of dongs for a movie ;-). That probably explains why I love kungfu movie because I spent most of my childhood watching them while the other kids here were probably watching Tom and Jerry...etc ;-). Also because my uncle used to date some girls (he was very handsome), they asked him to bring me (hehehehe, woman trick ;-)). I even remembered that after movie, it was usually dark in the middle of nite, he was riding a motorcylette, and we had to pass through a graveyard, and that always scared the sh*t out of me, especially when the wind blew above the bamboo trees, and made them made scary noises ;-).

I am glad that I can remember all that now, I really have to continue with my hardcopy diary otherwise one day I will forget everything.