Just Livin’ It!
Just two hours before everything has to be packed and delivered to the Hue train station. Wonder if we will make it?
Packing is such an intense experience, one is certainly happy when one arrives and finds out that most everything that one forgot can be purchased locally at 1/2 the price, not needed or one can do without.
Very few things are absolutely required in life.
Oh well, enough philosophizing, back to packing…..arrrrrhhhh.
I’ve forgotten how video cameras are everywhere in the Western world — it’s called “The Panoptic Age” — the age of constant surveillance which is being increasingly implemented by the NWO. Constant surveillance leads to “self-censorship“.
One rule-of-thumb is that if the videos of any event are systematically removed by government agencies it is an indicator or signal of a “false flag” or “psy-op” (psychological warfare) operation.
No video is an indicator that you, the people, are being “conned”. Agencies will spin the “truth” so that a new “single-bullet” theory will be created, i.e. another CON of the USA citizens.
Anything on the “up-n-up” always has tons of video tape available for almost every organization is constantly video taping the surrounding area, employees, etc.
Probably the greatest impact for me will be returning to the USA after one year outside the USA.
Living in Vietnam has had its frustrations — especially the very limited sense of humor, constant negativity and having to be watchful of not being cheated on prices…
at the same time, we have living a rather quiet, leisurely life — shopping in the local market, driving the motorcycle around Hue and generally living a much simpler life than one generally lives in the USA.
It seems that the amount of paperwork, taxes and general entanglement has drastically increased in the USA, preventing most people from ever considering an alternate reality.
Afraid to say, but most people in the USA are STUCK and deathly afraid to look around for any other options. It seems that the NWO have been quite successful in creating world-wide FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt).
It’s been predicted that the next exodus of “BOAT PEOPLE” will be North Americans searching the world for work.
This trip has been one of quiet exploration of myself and the Vietnamese culture. Every time I go into Hue, I see Western tourists zipping around to see everything in their allotted 2, 3 or 4 week timeframe.
Sitting off to the side, I am amazed at how much the modern, scientific mindset robs almost everyone of any time for introspection. Keep moving and always be entertained by something outside of oneself or ingest an addiction of some sort.
Any trance is Ok as long as it is not one of introspection or search for a deeper truth — like who really controls the world, money and the historical perspective. Without constant upbringing in government-controlled schools and constant bombardment by TV and other mass media which always tells us how to think, who would we be? How would we perceive ourselves, our culture, the world and the universe?
I’ve been off the USA mass-media grid for over a year. Haven’t watched, listened nor surfed USA websites for news. It’s been great.
Sometimes friends in the USA email me with comments on USA news (almost always a tragedy) and I’m thankful that my mind is not filled with such negative influences from the mass-media. I have enough here from the Vietnamese cultural influences.
Sitting here in front of the computer listening to the rain on the tin roof, Mai sewing a new outfit for herself (using the Brother sewing machine which we brought over and are leaving here) and Megan playing in the rain with her cousin Em Win on the front porch and yard (under an umbrella).
We’ve already started packing — on May 2nd, we will ship the large plastic foot lockers by train; on May 4th-5th, we will take the train from Hue to Saigon and on May 6th, we fly EVA Airways from Saigon, Taipai, Seattle and finally arriving May 6th at approx 9:30pm in Portland, Oregon.
Amazing to think that almost a year has passed since we left the USA. Being in Vietnam for a year certainly has had its ups and downs. Grandma is even now on the front porch complaining about Megan playing with the rain water. (Grandma says it’s dirty.)
Megan has certainly learned how to speak Vietnamese fluently with a 6-7 year old vocabulary. Cannot actively speak many adult words, but she says she understands most of what she hears on TV — especially during the cartoon 30 minute segments.
We just celebrated Gina’s first memory day — she died one year ago today at approx 4:00am. A bit of the Vietnamese tradition “rubbing” off. Megan also wanted to celebrate because she has been doing it since her Grandfather died last June 14th, 10 days after we arrived in Hue, Vietnam.
We celebrated Gina’s memory with an orange cake, strawberry ice cream and a bar of chocolate. On the cake, we had written: “Gina, the Artist!”
When I was pondering what to write on the cake I had a very deep insight as to how much my constant search for enlarging my mental box is due to Gina’s influence. While Gina experienced an intense German upbringing in the early 1920s, Gina always strived to move beyond her German emotional, mental and psychological upbringing.
Gina’s constant search for a deeper truth was one of her most inspiring “trade-marks”. She kept at it steadily all her life.
My openness to all sorts of ideas and concepts beyond the conventional reality is largely due to Gina’s influence. She was studying astrology when I became a teenager and subsequently tried psychedelic agents which I have never tried.
Gina pushed her limits in many ways. She lived for years a very conventional life and suddenly did a quick turn and became quite unusual for short periods of time.
Gina was a most unusual woman — a person of many contradictions (aren’t most of us) and a person who created many things in my personality which I value the most.
It was Gina’s influence that encouraged us three children to read prolifically and have a deep love and appreciation for the local library and bookstores.
May she still be pushing the limits of her awarenesses and may she savour her spirituality.
While I miss Gina very deeply sometimes, I have tried to pass on many things which I have learned from her into Megan. I am still striving to move beyond the “punishment mode” into a more encouraging, supportive patterns. God bless Gina’s Creativity!
Just as I deeply miss JW’s Irish sense of humor, I also miss Gina’s artistic creativity.
In the Americas and Europe, we use DVDs, but in Asia, they use VCD, SVCD, DVCD, but not DVDs. Being here, I’ve learned to convert DVDs and DivX files into VCD format so it can be played on the TV.
Today I had to decide whether to convert the Home Alone DVD into either a VCD or SVCD. A SVCD is a “super” VCD and it’s quality is better than a normal VCD.
I started processing and after about 2 hours, I realized that it was going to take 4+ hours for the conversion, so I cancelled it and decided to create a VCD with only takes 90 minutes.
I’ve learned quite a lot about how to convert an AVI file into a VCD being here in Asia. And I’ve also learned how to include English (or any other language) into the finished converted VCD.
And I’ve also had to learn the hard way that VCDs must be burned at 4X or less to work in some VCD players. When I first started, I was burning VCDs like I burn other CDs, but they didn’t play in our old VCD player. After some investigation on the internet, I found out the above information — not more than 4X speed burn rate for VCDs. That was a gottcha.
It was one very hard decision. I was even on the telephone yesterday midday asking Keith, who teaches English in Hanoi, questions regarding the Vietnamese work visa papers and his advise regarding when to attend the CELTA course.
The work visa papers are very complex here in Vietnam and it would be much better if I would start the process in the US because I have to get all the papers notarized, authenticated and translated (with the Vietnamese Embassy at $25/page).
Keith advised that I wait until I was really available to teach English before I took the class. It certainly was a struggle for me to make a decision with which I was comfortable.
So now we’re thinking of taking the bus to Laos for 1-2 weeks — all three of us. Mai’s never been to Laos and she wants to go. Large numbers of Vietnamese doing business in Laos.
Yesterday, Megan left with Mai’s oldest sister when she returned to her house in Dang Ha (30 mi/70 km from Hue). This is the first time that Megan has been away from Mai and I since we’ve been in Veitnam. Megan has occasionally gone with either my sister, Margaret (Viki) or with Joe and Ruth.
About two hours after Megan left Hue to ride back in a Nissan auto, we received a telephone call from Dung Ha — Megan was crying and telling Mai how much she missed her. Mai talked with her and told her not to worry and that she could come back tomorrow. I got on the telephone and told her I loved her and that she could decide to enjoy the adventure of being away from home and that I would buy her a large ice cream sunday when she returned. Being Megan, the ice cream caught her ear and made her feel better.
Mai’s sister called later and told us that Megan had fallen asleep around 5:00pm while watching cartoons on TV. She woke her up to eat dinner and then Megan went upstairs, brushed her teeth and tried to fall asleep. To no avail until around midnight.
Megan is returning in another car today with Mai’s sister’s friend around 3:00pm. I know that Megan will be “busting” to tell us both about her trip to Dung Ha. I will be very interested to find out what she has learned from her first time being away in Vietnam.
On the downhill run — 1 1/2 months left until we return to the US. Time has certainly sped by, don’t know where the time went.
Megan has certainly learned Vietnamese well enough to talk with all her playmates. I know that she needs to learn more vocabulary and more advanced sentence structures, but first we need to have her start reading.
I’ve struggled with the decision of whether to enroll in the CELTA training course this coming Monday, March 12th, but have decided to wait until I:
On returning to the US, I’ll have to deal with all the details and undealt with realities that I left behind. Life has a way of return again and again to what one needs to move through.
I’m still extremely uncomfortable with what is happening politically in the US. Politically, it’s not the country which I grew up in — it’s becoming more and more the country similar to where my German uncles grew up in before, during and after WWII. Haunting similarities.
No wonder, the Bush family is blood related to 100% of the “Winsor” monarchy in England which is 100% German from Hannover, Germany.
Behind the scenes, I’ve been struggling to learn Linux. I want to move away from Microsoft WinXP toward open source Linux software.
First I tried openSUSE v10.2 but the transfer speeds were too slow because they didn’t have a server in Vietnam, only China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia. However, Ubuntu has a local Vietnamese server so I can download updates at a reasonably fast speed.
I now have Ubuntu configured to play movies so Megan can watch her movies in the evenings after dinner.
It’s been a slow process, but I feel happy that I’ve had the time to learn so much so fast. Still a struggle following all the twists and turns of Linux. Windows is much simpler to install programs and get various things working. However, I now have a system with 95% open source software with very little proprietary software. It’s a GREAT feeling to know that virtually everything is totally legal and no one can ask me to pay them any money for what I’m using.
Struggling with the decision of whether to spend approx $1,500 to take the 4 week CELTA1 course.
CELTA is overseen by the University of Cambridge to teach native English speakers the ins-and-outs of teaching English to non-native English speakers.
In the US, one must obtain a MA2 in English (and probably a teaching certificate) along with a TESOL3 certificate.
Unfortunately, the MA in English is not given much credibility in obtaining a teaching job outside the US and the CELTA certificate is not very useful to obtain a position inside the US.
Yesterday, Hilary, having taught six years in Chiang Mai, Thailand, sent me an email which told me:
So now I have to decide whether to take the CELTA course from International House [IH] in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai, Thailand or from Language Link [LL] in Hanoi, Vietnam.
I’m more familiar with IH (who has a school in Portland, OR), but it’s more expensive to travel to and live for one month in Bangkok, Thailand than to do the same in Hanoi.
Given that the CELTA course is the same wherever it is taken, do I select the IH CELTA course in Bangkok, Thailand or the LL CELTA course in Hanoi, Vietnam?
Since our one year airline tickets will expire in May — which means that we will have to return to the US at the beginning of May, should I wait until I return to Asia to take the CELTA course? I will be APPROVED for entry in both of the schools, so I shouldn’t have any problems.
___________________________________
1) Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults — CELTA is one of the most
internationally recognised and accepted entry-level qualifications.
2) Masters of Art
3) Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
4) Teaching English as a Foreign Language
The Vietnamese telephone company [VNPT] has a “customer service” department which Mai and I visited yesterday and I delivered a written complaint.
Their employee, who supposedly spoke English, had attended an English class fifteen years ago with Mai when she worked for the post office. Mai had to translate because his understanding of SPOKEN English was almost nil. He could read a few words on the paper, but very little.
Essentially, he had absolutely NO POWER to do anything except listen and make stupid excuses of why VNPT couldn’t do anything. He knew extremely little concerning anything about the internet and became extremely frustrated as Mai translated my letter into Vietnamese. Mai spoke louder than the normal Vietnamese — she’s learned something about “having rights” having spent 9+ years in the US.
Finally, he said he would give my complaint letter to another department which may be able to do something — like waive the 50,000VND fee [$3.12USD] fee for changing the internet service level.
I’ve been paying $37.50USD/mo for awful service. It is only because I have obtained some programs which measure the download speed that I’ve been able to document the poor quality of the the actual throughput — obtaining 256-512Kb and paying for 768Kb.
In Asia, one is continuously confronted with the fact that POWER FLOWS ONLY DOWNWARD. There is no such thing as “returns” and generally not “credit”. Once you buy it, it’s yours with no recourse.
WOW! For the first time in six weeks, I’ve been able to access the website!
I emailed GoDaddy.com who hosts the website last month and got “farted” off by some (probably off-shore) tech support personnel. They told me they couldn’t do anything for me. Of course, it was useless talking to the telephone company [VNPT] (gov’t monopoly) here.
So, yesterday, Mai & I visited the VNPT and I complained about the poor throughput I was experiencing. I pay for 768Kb but am only receiving less than 256Kb and the VNPT routinely cuts off downloads. Drives me crazy — I’ve had to use programs with resume downloads to obtain any reasonable results.
Electricity and the internet has been up and down and I cannot bring up this website in my browser (could it be blocked by the gov’t)?
And there was another earthquake near Taiwan (signal from the elite?) on Jan 19th which again broke the undersea telephone/internet cable. So I’m again back to MODEM internet speeds with anything outside of Vietnam. Lately I’ve been downloading from Europe and Russia because it probably doesn’t use the same cable.
Megan is on the ‘puter next to me playing on a new game (Mr. Potato Saves Veggie Valley). She played it in the US, but I just made her a copy here. She’s really has been talking Vietnamese a lot and playing with her nephew, Win.
Because Win is so interested in learning the computer and playing computer games, I have some leverage and am using it to have him eat his own supper without and a lot of dinner table problems. Amazing what both he and Megan can do when they have a strong incentive.
Mai just cut a bowl of fresh mangos – yummmmmmy. Megan and I are really enjoying ourselves. Each bite puts me in ecstasy. How I love that tropical fruit!
Met a guy Saturday named Richard from Maine. He lives appox 25 miles north of my bro, Richard. I took him around on the 70cc motorcycle and then Sunday, Megan, he and I all managed to fit on to moto – Megan sitting in the front, then me in the middle and Richard on the back (and he wasn’t a small guy).
We drove to the other side of Hue to a great restaurant which served a specialty of Hue, then onwards in a drizzly rain into the countryside, then back thru Hue to a bakery and then finally to a coffee shop where Megan had her hot chocolate which she had been forward to all day.
I had driven the route several times (sometime by myself and sometimes with other people) in the sunshine and it certainly had a different atmosphere in the colder, drizzly rain weather.
Just had a GOOD BURP after finishing that wonderful bowl of fresh, juicy mangos. Megan (on a mat on the tile floor) and I are pleasantly satisfied sitting next to each other ‘puttering.
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