Little Nuggets

Nugget #1:

I realized my initial attempt at avoiding all kinds of street food has come to naught. Always thought it was great that I have breakfast prepared for me at the guest house in the mornings. You know, having covered most of not all grounds of exposing myself to potentially tummy churning foods. Till I found out the pho-like noodle soup that I have some mornings, was actually bought from the old lady vendor at squats near the pavement outside the alley that leads to the guest house :O

Good thing news - I have a fairly resilient belly then. Not about to think I'm all invincible, I still skipped all the raw oysters and other kinds of seafood. Last night one of the dishes they ordered was frog's legs - nothing wrong, given that frog leg porridge is a commom dish back home in Singapore. And that white, skinless frog legs are available at NTUC. Somehow my brain never made the translation where frogs had green skin in the Frog and the Princess story books and the white skinned-frogs in my porridge. So imagine my surprise, when I see 3 frogs in their full mossy greenish glory, engraved with the dark lines from the grill on the plate. :

Nugget#2:

Zebra crossings on the streets are mere decorations, as properly enlightened by a friend yesterday. One way you could tell a local from a foreigner assuming both are asian, is the way they cross the road.

Nugget #3:

You know the surgical face masks people took to wearing in the 2003 SARS crisis in Singapore - they make and wear cloth versions here, with floral motiffs and the like. Well, they're known as Ninja's here.

The First Weekend

Well, it was pretty good, that I'll admit. Managed to meet up with a nice girl Huong - through an internet friend who put me in touch with her. Thank God for the wonders of the internet. Also had dinner with a relatively youthful "yuppie" crowd down here in HCM - met 2 other interns with a local fund. Headed on down to several clubs after that. Wasn't too bad for the first weekend. A fine fella caught my eye - this young Viet-Australian lawyer. He had a near-shaven head, you know how I dig that. Well, he sure wasn't interested in me. Psssh. And he left early too. Bummer. But two of the very nice interns made sure I got home safe. Eh. One of them even held my hand at the end of the night - cute too. So sweet, but moi knows a practiced fellow when she sees one.

But other than that, my life remains relatively ripple-free. Work got slightly better today, hope it lasts.

Babysitting

Usually, I’m on the otherside – the babysitter. Now, I’m the baby sitted , in the office that is. When I was in India, I struggled hard to be taken seriously, and had to keep pushing before I eventually was. Its looks like its going to be this way here to. Don’t get me wrong , from a social perspective the people are kind, generous and welcoming. Even, if people are kind, generous and welcoming its not going to be help me learn if I hardly even get hands on work. Perhaps its my first week and the work isn’t rolling in just yet. However, things like the fact I’m not going to get my own email account – and that I can use another person’s account if the need be, sounds suspiciously like I’m just being baby sitted. Additionally, the fact the I didn’t need to key in the bookings that just came in, because it wasn’t the usual type and was “complex” and no invitation to watch and learn, plus the fact that I have time to write blog entries, monitor my stock portfolio continuously, know the details of the VT Shooting. Sheesh. Don’t know.

I’ll give it till the end of this week before the bull-dozing starts for me. Diplomatically, of course. But I refuse to let this turn into a Vacation for me. 3 months is a lot of time in terms of opportunity cost – had I another internship instead. There are times when you need encouragement and advice, and I did email my former team leader in India. I hope he replies me.

Things I dig about Vietnam

The people :
They're probably the most sincere and warm people I've met. I'm quite amazed, this coming from Singapore - land of the paper pushers. My colleagues, one of them - Judy took me to one of the markets during lunch to get a thick quilt I could sleep on ( not under) on her motorbike. Another Ahn, volunteered to send me home after work and she also took me for dinner today, at this fabulous duck vermicelli store. Another Thien, volunteered to show me around. The lady that runs the guest house, Tham, always warm and helpful. And many others.

The Food:
Love it, love it love it. If anyone of you think that Viet food stops at the O in pho - You'll be in for a treat.

Transport:
Its affordable to cab around , and hailing one off the street is easy peasy. Well, living in Gurgaon, India for a while, one year ago - I can say that the accessibility of the city is so important and I value that. Its relatively safe too, in India I didn't feel too safe by myself out at night.

Ah, more to add to the list I'm sure as I'm discovering. There's the bitch list too, but you know, I don't need anymore negativity now - so I'll save it for later .

Well, it good that I'm out of my comfort zone, pushing boundaries. I like to think what doesn't break me would equip me better to deal with situations that would confront me further down the road. Yeah, its true - its not easy making friends, but you know what, I be damned if I sit and whine and not do anything productive about it. Well, speaking about comfort zone - I did make myself take the motorbike, people who know about me know its no easy feat trying to coax a Singaporean out of the stereotypical "scaredy-cat" mindset. I'd have reconsider if the bikes are zooming at 50 km/more per hour, but they usually go around 30km/h here.

I'm feeling good :)

Time Does Tell

(Currently in the office, with some free time – well time seems to past a lot faster if I do something rather than just surfing, so I decided to write)

Not necessarily with laser- like precision, but a fairly good indication I say. Just before a left for Vietnam, “Coffee” was arranged with a certain individual. Some history, this individual was what I would term a Mild Flirtation - I met at a friend’s party more than 2 years back. We met again at one or two other occasions at mutual friends’ gatherings with brief hellos and finally met again about two months ago at another friend’s birthday. Then he randomly asked me out to catch up over coffee about a week ago.

I was curious, because I wondered what we had to catch up on since we really had absolutely nothing to catch up on; I had not even talked to him for an extended period of time. Also thought there was some kind of flirty undertone his part, so my curiosity was piqued. By the way, I find the TOA (Term of Affection) “Sweetie” terribly revolting. Stomach wants to lurch out of its designated biological address.

So after 10 minutes after the arranged time he returns my 2 missed calls and says
“You’re there already? Oh, I’m running a lil’ late, be there in 5 minutes.”

So I wait.
And wait.
And wait for 20 minutes.

There were 5 things unacceptable to me.

1. No reason was given for being late.
(I’m not unreasonable, if it was a dire emergency – explain and I will try to understand.)

2.No apology was given for being late.
(I’m not unreasonable, if 1. was a half-baked reason, apologize or put up a show to indicate how contrite you are groveling not necessary though it might help)

3.Call was made after the arranged time.
(I’m not unreasonable, let me know before hand so I won’t be hanging around looking stupid and wasting my time, let me know before hand)

4.Call was made in return only after I called twice after the arranged time.
(I’m not unreasonable, but don’t you think if someone is going to be late, the onus is on the late-comer to let you know?)

5.He sucked at math. 20 is not equal to 5.
(Look, I’m really not that unreasonable, its okay if you do the above 4, I’m not going to get mad if you can’t count =) So okay, maybe 4 things that were unacceptable.) The common decent courtesy line was already violated.

So at the 30 minute mark, let him know I was tired of waiting and was out. Then I left. Well, he got there as soon as I decided to leave. But I’m glad I left anyway.Later he texted that he was sorry, that he just wanted to let me know that he didn’t ditch me, but he was “caught up with getting a cab” and thus was 30 minutes late. (Please translate, funny because I got the strange feeling he got on the cab only after I called him). Oh yeah, and please forgive me hun, we’ll do it better next time.

Okay, first things first issue was not the fact that there was a possibility that he would blow me off – that should not have been a possibility save a good reason. Then I would be pissed. Well, if he did, he should probably burn in hell and get raped by a horse. ;)

So the issue that bothered me was the lack of consideration as demonstrated by the above 4/5 things. But no, I’m not pissed. I was mildly annoyed because it was a waste of time. Though it was not exacerbated because I was already in town and just finished a late meeting with project mates in school ten minutes away. Annoyance does go away fast. After that it was simply really an automatic analysis that one of my best friends say I’m fond of doing.

Is this guy interested in me? No, if he were he would considerate and early. If he was, he would have been a lot more considerate and called with good reason. Drill down : Extreme case scenario, even if he were really interested and did not demonstrate some semblance of decent courtesy much less gentlemanly behavior, would it be good to waste time on a person, considering this characteristics will probably show up time and again. Two Cases: (1) Someone I would go out with : Big fat no. Okay, eliminated. (2) As a friend: Well, not if I have to meet up with him (2a) individually, because my time will be wasted. (2b) in a group: Yeah maybe, because my time won’t be wasted since there would be other people on time.

Do I dislike/abhor him? Nope, nothing personal but yeah would still talk to him if its within my comfort zone. But no, will not go out of my way to associate with him because it would cost time and effort which could be invested in other meaningful relationships with old friends, new friends and the ones that are worth the time with a reasonable rate of return; just a judgment call following a simple cross benefit analysis there everyone should habitually do =)

Hello from Saigon

I'm surviving, but I'm less than cheery. Well, lets just say things got off the wrong foot, when I overpacked and was forced to unload much of my luggage at the airport. In the midst, my Dad took out my 3 pairs of shoes, and I'm left only with one heeled pair that could probably break apart any second.

The Guesthouse is terribly basic but clean with a rock hard bed. Its not that easy to make friends and that sucks. Well, the lady that runs the guesthouse is really nice, that counts for something, but the fucking cabbie ripped me off today charging me more than double what it would take to get to work. Hoebag.

India was a lot tougher to survive in, but somehow this seems to get on my nerves. The colleagues are warm and friendly ( on first impression today) much nicer than my colleagues in India who basically ignored me at first, unless they wanted something like help with translation. They're really helpful and nice, and patient too. Though admittedly, it got slightly better afterward. Work is tough, well like any learning curve is. Well, I'm not too concerned about the content, but am more keen to conditioning myself to learn quickly and fast. You know all the tourists on guest websites that say the Vietnamese touts are pushy, I believe they'll seriously die in India. But I had friends and a social circle there, the lack of one here I feel is getting to me.

The language barrier is a bummer. I haven't taken pictures and somehow I hardly feel like whipping out the camera. I'm getting used to eating meals by myself, the people on the streets greeting me with a "Konichiwa", like just now during dinner by myself I was eating alone, and the bunch of guys nearby was staring at me, I totally didn't want to make eye contact.

Man... I don't know, maybe it will get better this weekend. I finally found a mall - probably the only mall in Ho Chi Minh. There's a Mango around so says their website, no top shop. But this mall Diamond Mall, has the usual labels that are found at Paragon.

Trying to keep positive,

Me signing out.