Bank opened and I got my cash and hurried home as I'm carrying enough cash to keep a Vietnamese person happily unemployed for 5 months haha. I was meeting up with some Vietnamese kids at the park. Yesterday they were wanting to practice English and learn about Canada and they wanted to meet up with me again. I suck at name haha but the one guy, lets call him Hotrod as that's what Stan Smith does. He was there first and he was showing me his school work. He has to read a heavy English book of all things, 1800's British English haha. He underlined words to show me and see if I knew what they meant. It's funny, I can use them in sentences and sound smart, but when ask to define them from memory it's hard as I don't use them. I can define H&I fire, but not exactly define swimmingly. I can use it in a sentence, but and have an idea from the other words in a sentence to define the context of the word, but it doesn't come up in my vocabulary at all haha. I tried to explain that there's everyday English, words people would use normally compared to more proper, educated English. It's still English but in the average North American day it's not used. Professor to professor or at a Royal Gala you'd speak like that, but taking it easy at home with the hockey game on and your friends over, the English is more relaxed. He wants to master English though so I told him he's on the right track using proper English, but everyday people don't use it with each other. I also explained that when I write, I use a more advanced form of vocab compared to my verbal English. On here I keep it real though, I just mean if I'm writing a paper on the Business ethics and the Colt M16 in Vietnam or DOW chemicals and Agent Orange and it's going to be marked or it's more important than blogging on what I did today haha.
We talked about politics. The one girl, lets call her Sue, read up on Canadian politics and knew of the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Bloc haha. I told her there's a saying, there's three things you don't talk about at a party- Religion, Politics and Money haha. I tried to explain it though and it let me ask about how it works here. In Vietnam you vote once every 4 years. You vote for the communist party as any other party is illegal which they didn't seemed bothered by. You go to the local communist HQ and your given 4 names. You don't know anything about any of them but you have to pick one to lead the party. You go home and get back to your life. I let them know that if I wanted to, I could run for Prime Minister in Canada (Forbes for 2012!) Whoever runs, they travel all across the country to talk to people and let them know what they'll do for the country. They tell them about themselves, like Canada's Prime Minister has two kids, he's from Calgary and is a Calgary Flames hockey team fan haha. I can find out what he did before running for Prime Minister and that things are more open. I mentioned that I have my local government representative on facebook, so I can talk to him about something on my mind, he takes note of it, if a lot of people are concerned about it he passes it up to his party, his party listens and will say "Canadians are worried about this..." or at least that's how it should work :)
We talked about the American War and they told me that the US didn't want Vietnam to be at peace and one whole country. I get they've been taught this so I didn't call bullshit. I told them the Western prospective is that the country was divided in two in 1954 and the Geneva Accords let each half become their own country, North was communist and the South was democratic and those living up North that wanted to be democratic were allowed to move to the south and vise versa for the Commies living in the South. After that period each country was free to do as it wished, the South wanting to have what Canada and the US had but the Viet Cong and the North were trying to stop what the SVN wanted. I also explained that from the Western view that Communism was seen as bad, that it was viewed somewhat like slavery, having the public work and get the same pay, while the government took most of the pay they made and if that was true the US wanted to save Vietnamese people from that. I kept it short as I was in public haha. I did end it by saying that now Vietnam is united and at peace, it's communist but the people are free to live their lives. I myself didn't say it was bad and I said we should talk about something else and made a joke "as I don't want to get deported or re-educated" which nobody understood hahahahaha. Luckily they didn't have tomatoes or the giant wooden hook to take me off stage at the Apollo haha.
I had to head out and was given bananas. I let them clean my room after I was sick, and they saw my medication. Now the mamasan wants to help me. She offered me medication last week which I had no clue what it was so I politely said no thanks. She made me try some funky fruit last night, I tried to avoid it but I tasted it and it was gross haha. I held it in, entered my room, locked the door and spat it out. She now has bananas for me. I think it's very kind what she's trying to do, but I don't want any of it haha. I got my fruit salad, I'm good! Not eating a $50,000VND breakfast for fun haha although it does taste good. The bananas she gave me look liked they bounced off a truck and got hit by motobikes and I snuck them outside for disposal haha. I ate dinner and it was really good, mozzarella cheese sticks and a bacon cheese burger which was amazing and cheaper than Carl Jr's which was too expensive. I had time to kill before I picked up the flag and hadn't had dessert so I walked to the new and nearby donuts and donuts! The sell coffee but I guess the concept of dunkin donuts was too foreign so it's donuts and donuts but with the same dunkin' colours and font. Customer service is kinda funny in Vietnam. I ordered a doughnut and at home I'd take it and sit. They bring it to me on a plate with a steak knife and a fork. I look around and everyone is eating them that way. Well with pride I picked it up, and showed anyone who watched how Westerners eat them haha. It was soon gone and I went on my way.
I took the long way and made it to the shop. It wasn't done yet but the guy hopped on the sewing machine and finished it in a few minutes. My flag looked good. They showed me the other side and then I noticed the mistake. The good side is here...
That's how it's suppose to be. But on the other side the "2" was moved to the other side, to the blank position on the good side. I let them know and luckily each side was done separately and then sewn together, so they just have to redo one side and not start all over again. If you stare at it, it's not perfect, but I can say with pride that it was made in Vietnam and then it's accepted at not being 100% haha. Honestly I'm just happy to see those numbers on fabric I can display with pride and in two days I'll be able to pick it up again for $25 as it was their mistake, not mine. Other then that I'm going to bed early. I'd like to get up at a decent time and I haven't heard from him, but I was suppose to go to Cu Chi tomorrow, so I'll pack for it and see what happens. If it doesn't happen I can still pick of Chris's e-tool, check out some maps and hopefully not spiders, pick up a case of water in bulk instead of spending $5,000 everyday on one bottle of water and pick up a pack of 60's c-ration Marlboro smokes. Until then, keep fit and have fun!
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