Vietnam

Christmas is celebrated in Vietnam. It is called "No en" (Noel) in
Vietnamese. It's a mostly a commercial, "for fun" time. Shops and
restaurants have the coziness we have in the west; however, there are
not many images of Jesus birth, nor any signs of Hannukah traditions.
Santa and his deer reign. Businesses set up huge fake trees, lights,
and gold 6-foot tall signs that say "Merry Christmas," Reindeer and
Santas are all over the place. The Hanoi Cathedral has the only
nativity scene that I have seen in town. It is massive, covering the
whole front of the church.

We hear about the birthday in music. Christmas music plays freely in
stores, cafe, and restaurant. This is where you hear about Jesus'
birth in English. The music played in stores is a mix of traditional
songs like Silent Night and Noel, plus "Jingle Bells" and "Feliz
Navidad" to a techno-beat.

Vietnamese Santas are quite skinny and have brown skin. Santa costumes
are popular, and are seen zipping around town on motor scooters. Some
people have decorated trees in thier home, but I heard from friends
that most do not; they experience the decorations when out shopping
and eating.

Some of my friends asked me what Christmas means to an American. My
friend Lam who is a newspaper reporter asked me a bunch of questions,
including how Jesus' birthday related to Santa, various religions,
etc. The next day, I was in a news column. I have no idea what he
wrote; it's all in Vietnamese. He published photos of me hanging an
ornaments on a tree. I thought he was just asking for fun and taking
pictures for fun. Nobody is safe around a reporter!

Christmas Eve is a big party night. Many people go to dinners and
parties. The main road off my alley was solid traffic until about
10:00 PM. Packs of friends on scooters kept coming up my alley looking
for parties. My street has a similar name to another street, so people
came down and turned around. I had a Christmas party for about 25
people. Over the past week we prepared by getting food and supplies,
decorating, getting the plastic tree up, hanging ribbon, lights and
ornaments everywhere. My friends were happy to have a cozy place to be
on Christmas Eve. They took over the kitchen and made Vietnamese food,
and home made-hot apple cider with spices. We listened to music, ate,
drank cider and had a white elephant gift exchange.

On Christmas day, I joined about 20 other expats at Nancy's two-turkey
traditional American dinner at her house. At six I rolled home.

Happy Holidays!

Posted by Aaron at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night I decided to "go out," and so I went to Frison, a new resaurant in San Francisco on Washington Street. Upon the first course break, my friend Aslan and I went to the outdoor patio to look at the plants and finish our vodka martinis. In walks two ladies, lighting cigarettes even before the thick glass door swings closed. Affinity, or whatever you want to call it, is apparent. I knew one thing, we would not be just going back to our table to take up the rest of our dinner.

I was right. The ladies began loudly discussing their drinks, comparing tastes. One, a Perestroyka, a salt-rimmed vodka drink served up with a splash of squid ink. The other I can't remember, the ink dominates my memory. Now here's an ice breaker: "Did you know that if you get this stuff in your eye you'll go blind?" She tells the room, obviously hoping to expand her party to include my friend and I. Frison is like the Bridge in Star Trek, rounded, orange, loungy. Lots of little blue lights. We ordered a chocolate souffle to be sent to their table as a finale to their meal, they reciprocated with glasses of Vuive Clicot. We deceded to have our cheese course at their table, and before long, we were all stumbling down Washington toward Broadway and Sansome Streets on our way to Fuse, where twenty-somethings on amphetamines bounce off the walls to re-mixes of the Price is Right game show theme song, getting back in touch with those days they spend at home watching Bob at 10 A.M. while circling help-wanted ads in the newspaper. Sadly, I'm still a 30-something clicking "save this job" in Monster dot com listings; thus the cinicism.

This is going way too slow. Forget about last night. Forget about being unemployed. I am presently seated in Seat 4F in United First. I've just enjoyed an ice cream sundae with hot fudge and whipped cream. How do the regulars resist these temptations? I mean champagne when you sit, cocktails as soon as the flight attendants can get up, and then wines, cordials, liquors, and coffee. Not to mention bacon wrapped this and heavy sauces drizzled over everything. It's enough to make you want to run back to Economy and eat a dry chicken cutlet with rice. The seat is worth it: wide, with all kinds of adujstments, levers, flip out trays, lights, lumbar rollers, leg rests, audio and video and storage pockets. Its like sitting on a Swiss Army knife, minus the uncomfortable prospect of that idea. I'm sick of reading books and watching videos, so now I'm writing my first entry in this web log. It is still a chair. OK that's it for now.

Left SFO with mixed feelings. 14 hours later touched down in Hong Kong like a feather. Basic airport routine: transit door, re-screen, departure gates. I checked the map for the location of the Red Carpet Club. After a bit of a hike and an escalator ride, I entered the club and signed up for a shower and a wi-fi acesss code. You just read the upload.

Posted by Aaron at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)