Interactief Nederlands

Well, I bought this CD to learn Dutch at home apart from the 1,30 hours every Monday morning at work. Although it is very little but because there are only me and the professor, so we managed to speak a lot, and most of the time she asked me to read texts, so she could correct my pronunciation. The CD is recommended by her, and I think it is very good with grammar, dictionary, and dialogues...Besides, I tried to watch, listen and read news in Dutch. It is a good investment I think if I am planning to have a business here, this is a must to do.

Other than Dutch, I am completely drown in my thesis, books to read for exams, I don't have much time for anything. Moreover, there are so much things to do at work that I always finish late, and of course when I get home, am too tired to work on the writing. I hope this time get over soon. I can feel my whole body is a wreck, so a good massage will do me some good, I think ;-).

I found the CD of Guem, so it is nice to listen to the tambours, and we are getting serious into the practice for the show ;-). I hope we will have a make up on face like African, wearing some feathers on the head, and bikini hehehehe. It will be so cool!

Dirty 30 BD girls

"Getting old ain't for sissies"-Bette Davis

Sexy Spartians ;-)

Well, here I am. I am very busy at the moment, either with work or with personal projects. Everyday, new ideas just bubble in my brain, and it seems like they are coming at the tipping point. So, this year I really hope that I can do something about them.

One of my uncle's friends complains that her daughter is reaching the teenage age, she is so difficult to handle ;-). That reminds me of when I was 15 years old, I was actually a secret trouble daughter hehehhe. Yeah, you would not believe if I said that I used to hang out with friends who swore hundred times a day, making fun of friends who studied hard, or only a small provocation could already put me into a fight ;-) or giving the other girls a hard time with their hair. In fact, I had the scar on my forehead because there was a bigger boy threw a stone to me (mind you, he did receive some of mine, too). Now, when I go home, all of them got married, have children, and soon they will again worry for their children being teenager. My mom actually rarely punished me, most of the punishments came from grandfather. But when mom kept quiet, I always felt bad, and guilt just started eating me (or maybe because I was afraid of what I had to pay in the next life or having my tongue cut of ;-)). So, I used to write a apology letter, and left it on her pillow, then pretended that I was slept ;-). I rarely said sorry because I was too proud, so sometimes both mom and me just not talked. But when I reached to 18 years old, I began to say sorry if I did something very wrong (saying sorry has never been easy for me, unless I truly believe that I did something real bad, or hurting other people). So, I guess teenagers are not that difficult to handle if parents know what they understand what they are going to, and talk to them a lot really help. My mom and grandparents talked a lot to me, okey they did not know that how I was in school, and VN at that time was still safe for a teenager, right now, I am not very sure.

Anyway, I went to see "300" yesterday, and I liked it. The movie was nicely made in my opinions, but I loved the costumes a lot, and of course the super sexy men. I mean sexy physically with beautiful body, wearing nothing but leather underwears (yes, ladies!!), and their legs are so slender but with muscle, and of course, sexy because of their determined character, next to their tough women. It likes they are taking the fashion models for the movie hehehe.

Frederic

A very funny guy ;-)

Ben's sister, Alice and his nephew, Frederic

Uncle, sister, and Minh

Minh is six months old ;-)

Father and son ;-)

Tet Thuong nguyen

With sister at Conrad' staff party.

Yesterday, I went to the pagoda because it was a big festival. Normally, in a year, there are a couple of Buddhism festivals for Vietnamese: a first full moon after Tet (or 15 january on lunar calendar), the hungry Ghost festival in July, the full moon in December, and the festival to celebrate the birth of Buddha, in May (if I remember correctly. Of them all, the one in January in the biggest for us. In VN, old people say no matter how often we go to the pagoda, it means nothing if we miss out the one in January after Tet. Normally, on this day, we have to pray for the livings, like our family members to be in good health, get lukcy...and for the death, their souls can be freed, they can move on with their next life, and not being a hungry ghost flying around, having no place to go or exist.

So, of course, I wrote a list of names of my family, gave it to the monks, and after a general prayer, they will pray and read out all the names that we gave (Strange to hear a Vnese monks reading out some Belgians names, too). I really like to attend the prayer section because I find it very emotional, and afterwards, I always feel I have to be a better person. Yesterday, there was also a ceremony where each of us (if we want to) go to each monks, nuns and give them foods. We have to pray for the victims of all the natural disasters because even though we don't know them, we don't hold the same nationality, we should pray that their souls are freed because they could have been our great ancestors (according to the reincarnation).

After praying, we have always been invited to have a meal at the pagoda (FOR FREE), and the foods are the only good vegetarian foods that I find here in Brussels, a lot of super delicious dishes.

I only have a small problem ;-), that is during the pray, I realise one of the prayer says for women who had been bad treated, unhappy....and who want to become Buddhist, and work hard in their monastery, the next life, they will become men ;-). So, basically, no matter which world you are, being a woman is no good. I have always been conscious that there is sexism in Buddhist (after all, the root is Hindu) but I was still shock that the prayer says so, and I prayed ;-). That is to say, there is no perfect world, so are people.

Anyway, last week was a crazy week at work (FYI, I got to shake hands with Lionel Richie, my first celebrity encounter heheheh), but it was interesting. So that was cool.