Ballroom Dancing
Lastnight at 8:00 PM my co-worker Ha picked me up on motorcycle to take me out ballroom dancing with her dancing club friends! It was really great to zip through the Hanoi streets on a Friday night and see all the twinkling lights and beautiful people.
The ballroom was huge and wonderful, a truly authentic Vietnamese kind of place, with Christmas garlands strung from wall to wall, monstrous crystal chandeliers, flashing lights, gold decor, and the craziest music you’ve ever heard! Also, people were dressed up as though it was their last day on Earth! Ha and I were with two young married couples from her dancing club. Everyone was really nice and always applauded me after each dance, even though I must have looked like a large, klutzy imbecile next to them! The men from the couples danced with me often because they didn’t want me to feel left out. One of the waiters even taught me how to dance the rumba, and he smiled the whole time despite the fact that I think I broke four of his toes.
The funniest part was when I was dancing the “Boston”, which is a very turbulent type of dance, like a waltz, but at breakneck speed. It also makes you want to vomit because it involves so much spinning. It’s loads of fun, though! At one point when I stuck my huge American foot out, I tripped two little Vietnamese ladies and they flew across the room and landed on top of each other. Luckily, they got up and laughed about it. After that, the Boston was deemed to be “too dangerous for Crystal”. I also did the slow waltz, the Laos, the samba, the cha-cha, the Be-bop and the tango. I had so much fun that I didn’t even want to go home. I hope they let me back in that place next time…
Vietnamese lessons
My Vietnamese is rapidly improving, thanks to lunchtime mini-lessons from my co-workers and my wonderful young teacher, Hien. My second lesson with her the other day was excellent. She finally got the idea that I actually would like to speak like a Vietnamese caveman. NO fancy long-winded sentences with extraneous words, just the basics. Everytime she would teach me a sentence, we would look for new ways to simplify it and cut out more words. We laughed so hard when we found out that the whole time I thought that I was telling the hotel’s bellhop that the TV was not working properly, I was actually saying, “Hey big brother, the television is bright pink, okay?”
Silk village
On Thursday all the ladies from work cut out early to go on a shopping trip to Van Phuc (pronounced Vahn FOOK), the famous silk village 8 kilometers from Hanoi. Ha took us to her favorite store and for an excellent price, I took care of all my gift shopping for the next four months! My favorite purchase was a pair of pink silk pajamas for my own self! Wooooo! I’ve never slept so comfortably!
The Golden Coq
Forgot to mention that two weekends ago, Carly and I went to a gay bar in the Old Quarter called either The Golden Cock, or the Golden Coq, I can’t remember. It looks just like an Irish pub but it’s run by very young, streetsmart Vietnamese kids who speak perfect English and play really good hip-hop music. The sign outside just says G/C. Awesome!
The Temple of Literature
This morning I am taking a walk to Hanoi’s famous Temple of Literature which was built many, many centuries ago as a place of learning for the great Confuscian scholars. It’s one of Vietnam’s oldest temples.
Stay tuned for more adventures of the Amazing Crystal! I’ll post again when I’m back from the boonies. Have a great weekend!
