A day at Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

I applied to be a volunteer at Vietnam Museum of Ethnology for the event of Mid-Fall Festival, which is expected to take place on August, 15th (according to lunar calendar). There are various activities for volunteers but I chose to be on a team whose work is making hand-made toys from leaves for children. We are to learn how to make the lovely handicrafts, perform before the crowd in the fest and present to people how to make them step-by-step. The organizers arranged a training session today for volunteers before picking out the most excellent ones for the days of performance.

When I decided to take part in this activity, I just follow my heart's call. I've taken a keen interest in hand-made toys since I was little. That doesn't mean I am dexterous or things like that, but in this case, it is actually the opposite - I was totally clumsy - more than you can imagine. For instance, when I was in primary school, there was a subject in which pupils were taught how to make some paper-and-glue crafts. As a matter of fact, I was always stuck in some step and far from completing the works, so I, very often, asked for my mom's help. Understandably, a mother would do her best to help her child in school thing like this. Thus, I always get good grades in this subject, which I really didn't deserve at all. To add more illustrations to my gawkiness, I have a staggering record of breaking things. I've broken virtually anything vulnerable in my house: from glasses, bowls, plates, to vases.

Getting back to my volunteer work, I ventured to apply to the handicraft team not because I am confident with my ability, but because:
(i) I love hand-made toys. That's me, I will go for anything I like, regardless of  how inept I am in that field.
(ii) I thought this craft work wouldn't be so hard to learn. Maybe most of other volunteers have the same start as mine: they don't know how to make toys from leaves and expect to learn about it. Plus I have some faint ideas how these toys look like and I reckon it doesn't take so much effort to create such a thing. The most popular leaf toys are grasshopper, fish and flower.

Morning, 8a.m, I set off upon my journey to the museum. As usual, I went by bus. No sooner had I found a seat near the bus window than I discovered a little grasshopper on the window's edge. I got so delightful and interested in seeing this green creature while no one else on the bus ever seemed to realize its presence nor did they mind watching it if they saw it. So basically, I was the only one to enjoy watching the grasshopper from the first moment I spotted it till the time I got off the bus. One reason why I felt so excited about this insect is because my volunteer training session would be about making the grasshopper from leaves! I even gotta feeling that this was a sign sent from God that I would be "the chosen one" for the performance. I tried taking photos of it from many angles and even recorded a video ;)

My companion on the bus

I arrived at the museum and had trouble finding the "House of H'Mong people", where we were supposed to gather. I then returned to the main yard and consulted the museum's plan.

I have never been good at reading map or plan (even though we can learn it easily), but this time I was very satisfied to find the right place by reading the plan. This is indeed a useful and easy-to-navigate plan! When I entered the house, I was told by a girl in charge of the place that my group had moved to another gathering site nearby. I hurriedly left the house, heading for that other place, murmuring to myself that it was a pity I wasn't be able to have a stroll around the museum in this nice morning.

Everyone had seated themselves already and the instructor was about to demonstrate the making of a grasshopper from leaves. We all listened to her attentively and observed carefully every single manipulation. Attentive as I was, I could hardly remember the very first step and even when I'd got the help from a dexterous affable girl beside me, I still couldn't make it! :'( I felt like a complete idiot. The girl who instructed me was incredibly kind and patient to be able to stand my dullness! She just kept on demonstrating every step, explaining in the most tender voice I've ever heard and never showed a smack of irritation. Oh, god bless her. May she come to the next round.

I felt a profound sadness and despondence as everyone else had completed their own products. The memories of my failures in the past kept haunting me. And this time, mom isn't beside to help me through. I sometimes felt like giving up and I was even on the point of telling the instructor to eliminate me right off :( But I wanted to make a grasshopper from leaves so badly that I continued trying. At last, I got the hang of it, although I was left far behind by other people and my grasshopper doesn't look so nice. Anyway, I'm glad I did it!

Palm leaves - the material

My group

My work

 After a long training day without a nap, I was kinda fatigue. I handed in my product, 100% sure that I would be ruled out. There ain't miracle here in this story so yeah, I was K.O :P But I feel there's no need to be disappointed. From this, I learn about my true ability and learn how to stand on my own feet.

Before leaving the museum, I had the chance to fulfill my little wish - taking a tour around the museum. Here are some photos I've taken. Enjoy! ^^

After all, I have come down to the fact that I've got no talents in drawing, music or handicraft... My parents often say the only way for me is studying academically. But taking part in these activities now and then is a lot of fun, isn't it? ;)

A two-task list

During the continuous rainy days, I made a to-do-list for the day the sun generously scatters its luminous light all over my region again. That sounds-great list is actually composed of two entries:

1. Clean the house

2. Wash the stuffed animals

The time had come. It was Thursday and the sun shone brightly in the sky, signaling it was time for me to become more diligent and active, be it for a day!

Task 1: Clean the house

It went smoothly as I have done this job quite often. The only difference is this time, I could beg for no help from my mom and my sister. It turned out that doing this job without mom by my side instructing me to clean this or that, or reminding me to watch out for breaking her vases was more comfortable. The only observer was perhaps the dog which ran about in the yard when I was rinsing the mop and sometimes looked into my house with his tongue sticking out.

Mission 1 completed!

 Task 2: Wash the stuffed animals

The work of washing stuffed animals is nothing different from washing normal clothes, at least that’s what I learn from my experience observing mom doing it back to 4 or 5 years ago. Yeah, I last had my stuffed animals washed that long time ago, and virtually left them untouched for as long as 2 years or so. I remember making a pledge to the little innocent, unable-to-talk animals that I would never leave them, but now it is painfully true that I spend too little time for them. Fearing that people would laugh at me on discovering I am still playing with stuff animals is one reason, but having so many distractions is another, which is also the major, I admit.

I didn’t ask Mom for instruction on how to wash those toys, and I just went for it, doing everything I reckoned was right. And I pumped the water into the washing machine, added some detergent, eagerly dipped the little things into the drum, and started the automatic washing process. When mom came home and checked what I’d done, she went furious for I had used 1½ cup of detergent while I should have done with only one-third of that amount. She shook her head disapprovingly and explained to me how many clothes could be washed with that lavish amount. To her, waste is a sin. I felt somehow relieved when she stopped nagging, and all I could do next was pray that no more trouble would occur until the washing process was finished. But…

I was washing the dishes when I heard some noise upstairs. My sister accidentally became the victim of this mess, just because my mom thought anyone who ever played with these animals must be responsible. And the problem was, the biggest stuffed animal (a big panda) is so heavy that it sank to the bottom and absorbed all the dirt from other animals. As a result, his fur transformed to a dirty dark color and my sister had to wash him by hand. I must be grateful to her a lot for she had done the job I was supposed to do. My mom was much angry about this unexpected second wash for a single toy! So she decided to let the machine perform the task “spin” only. You know, the washing process must go through several stages and if you want to jump to a certain stage, you must operate the machine in some way. My mom, she sure knows how, but not me. However, she was too out of patience to help me solve the problem I had triggered off. This means I have to do this all alone despite the fact that I risk making another mistake. Hell, yeah, I did cause trouble again and did drive my mom crazy, too :( I hit a button repeatedly as if I weren’t aware of what I was doing, and this made the machine malfunction, I guess, by looking at the timer. Discovering my guilt, my mom hit “stop” button and pulled the big fat panda out of the machine, threatening me: “That’s enough. You’ve ruined the washing machine. Let’s see what your father will do about this.”

 I held the animals and went straight to the terrace to dry them under the sun. I kept thinking why mom reacted like that. It seems like the properties should be valued above all, even her daughter’s childhood souvenirs. These stuffed animals meant the world to me when I was small. In other words, they are a part of my beautiful younger years. Isn’t it wonderful when you have an animal kingdom of your own, and you can put the lovely animals in a setting and pretend that they are starring in a movie? Adults are usually apathetic to the little things especially if they don’t bring about any physical benefits. I am afraid I will grow to think that way, but I will try not to. Nevertheless, after thinking for longer, I concluded that both sides have faults. And the tense atmosphere broke out when one was too assured that the other was wrong. Anyway, we will come to peace. Thinking so, I clipped the animals by the ears on the clothes-line, kissed them goodbye and let them sunbathe for a while. 

Sunbathing animals :)

An unforgettable concert with Simple Plan

Epigraph: Craziest night ever! Everybody’s gone wild!!!

As I said in a status just some minutes before the show time, the way to this MTV Exit Concert was actually not paved with roses. At the reportedly gate-opening time (4p.m), I was still at home, grieving at my bad destiny: why I “fought tooth and nail” (no injury, even the slightest one, has been caused in fact :P) to get the ticket but ended up staying at home, watching the concert in my imagination? My dad was skeptical about my safety if I attended the concert. I guess he was thinking of something like a stampede? Or fainting because of the lack of Oxygen or of hysteria? My hard chance of going to the concert was also attributed to the torrential rain, which had been lasting for nearly a week. Does any father ever want his daughter to get soaked in the rain and catch a cold? A lot of reasons AGAINST my wish Y___Y While I was “sobbing”, my phone didn’t stop ringing as there were messages coming from my buddies who got the luck to attend the concert. They reported to me they were standing outside the stadium, waiting to get in. Oh I can’t stand this pain! Gotta show my daddy I am dying to go there to have the moment of my life that I will never get the second chance to enjoy.

- Daddy, it stops raining!

- No, it doesn’t and never will

- *Silent, coming back to my room, shaking head to my sis*

A few more messages … I must “reload” my courage to talk to my dad again

5 minutes later…

“Yayyy! I made it! Let’s set off. My Dinh Stadium, here we come!”

If you are curious about how I had turned the tide then, well…it’s all about the art of negotiation (me bragger! :P)

Some things seeming bad had happened, like: I was in such a haste that I couldn’t prepare a raincoat/umbrella in case the weather was back to the soppy mode; I bought bread thus missed the bus; my sis left the ticket at home… But I don’t want to go into details of those “trifles” because after all, the problems had been solved and we only had one more mission left: storming into the stadium to reserve the slots for our own. After getting ourselves through the crowd, we finally settled down in an area large enough to put both feet on the ground. Some drops of rain started to fall and although we proudly said to each other that “Rain? That only adds to the crazy rocking ambiance. Yo!”, I must confess that it did bother me. The security forced us to sit down while waiting for the show time. Meanwhile, I ingested a bread to get the calories for rocking the night away. The camera went around recording the overview of the stadium before the concert. They said this video would be shown on TV later and I rejoiced at the fact that the camera didn’t reach where I was sitting because: (1) I might look kinda slovenly then as the result of the hurry, (2) it would be humiliating to be caught on the camera while chewing the bread briefly.  

Well, skipping all the trivia to the main content. Despite a couple of rumors, the concert began sooner than I had expected, 7.15p.m or so. Here is the show in my summary:

1. A hiphop dance by a Vietnamese crew.

2. A performance of several young Vietnamese singers. They sing a song specially written for the cause of this concert, which is Ending Exploitation and Human Trafficking.

3. Some rap songs by a musician called Karik. I think this guy is somewhat influenced by Eminem.

4. Kate Miller – Heidke, a singer from Australia impressed the audiences with her soprano voice and her special cover of “Toxic”.

5. The Vietnamese rock band “The Wall” appeared, turning up the heat with their uptempo sounds. I love the way they have carried and passed the flame of rock through some generations of we students.

Let me stop here and take a deep breath….

From this moment on, the atmosphere had got hot, stuffy, and the air started to be filled with an unpleasant smell of sweat.

6. A lot of screaming and shouting. Guess what? Brown Eyed Girls – the Korean girl band showed up. This was of no interest to me as I never follow the trend of K-Pop fever. So I stood still. But this seemed to be a bad decision as waves of young K-Pop fanatics kept hustling forwards. This time, I was really annoyed by the screams of the fans. You may wonder why I didn’t feel the same when it came to Simple Plan’s performance with the noise manyfold, then my answer, which I have discovered by myself, is the difference lies in whether you scream along with the crowd or not :D During that crazy K-wave, a fellow standing next to me “kindly” gave me one hit or two in the head without an apology. But I was fully aware that I couldn’t expect a polite demeanor in this chaotic scene, plus the thought that I might do the same “innocent” thing to someone later when Simple Plan performed, so I didn’t react furiously; instead, I kept being silent, waiting for the time come for me to “explode” :P

7.  The next performance was of Mỹ Tâm – a well-known Vietnamese female voice. She sang well and got the big support from the crowd.

8. The most-wanted performance of the night..The reason I am present here…Yeah, that is SIMPLE PLAN!!! The whole stadium looked as if it were going to explode! The band opened their show with “SHUT UP”, a boisterous song. Everyone had gone crazy already! They jumped, screamed and sang along. I wasn’t the exception, of course. I felt breaking free! The show went on with more than 10 songs! They sang their hearts out and really burnt up the atmosphere. Everything, from singing to playing guitar and drums, is PERFECT! I thought I must get ADDICTED to their songs. During the intervals between two songs, Pierre said a few sentences. He reminded us to join the fight against human trafficking, he told how much he was in love with our country and the people here. I guess the band was much surprised and amazed at the exploding ambiance, the zealous supporters…That’s why he spoke out something like this was the biggest show they’d ever made in Asia! Pierre was very humorous when he tried some Vietnamese phrases :P As for me, I jumped up and down like a coil, both to immerse in the musical mania and to see the band on stage. I CAN’T KEEP MY…eyes OFF YOU, Pierre, David, Chuck, Sébatien and Jeff ! I wished I were much taller so that I wouldn’t have been weary trying to jump and crane so hard. That effort made me sweat a lot and my body felt sticky. You should also know that when everyone was shouting and jumping, someone splashed the water from a bottle to the crowd where I was standing. This is a little dirty, but in a crazy night like this, that shouldn’t be a big deal. When it came to Simple Plan’s songs in the new album, I felt so proud because around me, there were not many people knowing and singing the song. I know I would only be a greenhorn supposing I stood among the Simple Plan’s FC members, who had already gathered near the stage, but in the current position, I had my chance to show off a little bit :P  

Oh, I forgot to tell about my sister. If I go crazy about the show, then she must ...lose her mind :P She is a much more dynamic person than I am. Besides enjoying the music, she had a super important task to do: recording the performance of Simple Plan ;D

Even when I was in the midst of my most ecstatic moment, I could remember clearly I gotta go home before it was too late and I might got stuck in the crowd trying to make my way out until after midnight. So I, together with my sis, reluctantly left the show when there were still a few songs left. My father had waited outside to ride us home. On my way home, I continued to ramble with my sister about the show, about our wonderful experience. Going back from the concert, my arms (raising up and beating nonstop in the air), legs (jumping), neck (craning) and back (keeping straight during the whole show) were all aching because of weariness.

We didn’t make it to the end of the show, however, we felt satisfied. After all that I’ve experienced: standing in line waiting to get the ticket, begging my father for permission to go, standing the heat as well as the suffocation among thousands of people …. it has been indeed a long way to the night of true music, to the SUMMER PARADISE.

This is the second time I’ve attended a concert and I feel that I have been a keener concert-goer. Hoping so much that the next concert I attend is MLTR’s :)

Thank Simple Plan and other performers for a superb music fest.
Thank daddy for believing in my promise that I will be back safe and sound.
Thank sis for accompanying me the whole journey and leading me through a sea of people.
Thank all the audiences for the frenetic atmosphere.
Thank the organizers for letting us enjoy great music while raising our awareness of human trafficking.

The poet in me ;)

It was about 40 degrees Celsius outside when I got off the bus, “rolling in the”… heat. Long before, I found myself in a lovely small garden in front of a university right near the bus stop. Tall trees (shades), some kinds of unknown wildflowers, neatly trimmed grass… My mind got a breath of fresh air thanks to just a-few-step walk in this garden (the reason why I couldn’t linger is that I was “conscious” enough to catch sight of the bus which will take me home approaching). On the way home, that short yet pleasant moment “haunted” me and I, as a result, came up with an impromptu poem. Truth be told, this is the first time I have had such kind of literary inspiration! I like writing prose, but I have failed many times trying to come up with a poem.

I think it will be not fair to tell you all about how my first English poem came into existence then refuse to show you the poem :P OK, to avoid being labeled “mean”, I will show you my “masterpiece” ;)

"In this damn hot weather
The tree gives me a shelter
To escape from the temperature
I feel happier than ever
Oh thank you, Mother Nature!"

Hanoi, May, 3th, 2012
Signed,
Chi (maybe another Chi with dreamy eyes, the one that you didn’t use to know)

One thing I must confess after all is: In fact, on my way home, I could only think of two or three lines of poem and some words to fit in the rhyme. Not until a few minutes ago when I composed the draft of this note did I finish the rest of the poem :P
--> Conclusion: I have no gift in writing poem, so don’t ask me for more until another poetic thing catches my eyes :)

Dilemma

It has always been said that people have to make a lot of choices throughout their life. Some can quickly make up their minds but some may take hours, days, or even weeks before they come to the final decision. Me, I fall into the latter group :P Standing before choices, I can’t help scratching my head: a part of me tells me to do this while another induces me to do that, and so on. Coincidentally, yesterday morning, I encountered a series of dilemmas (I mean the difficult choice between two things), so I can take this as a good example for my above statement.

Everything had started since I walked into the bookstore with the intention of buying “A walk to remember”. There are literally many foreign books imported overseas so I was allured to linger at every bookshelf and viewed as many books as possible. I must confess that I am attracted by a book’s cover and layout virtually as much as I am by its content. And there were some catchy teenage books with beautiful covers that I couldn’t stand fixing my eyes on. Suddenly, I asked myself: “Should I purchase this teenage book instead of “A walk to remember” because I have read the translated version of it already?” That question puzzled me for almost 1 hour (meanwhile I kept picking the book up and putting it down over and over again) before I eventually decided to buy “A walk to remember”.

That’s not all. I was also interested in two dictionaries I came across. They are useful for my English study but a part of me said: “Are you sure you’re gonna make the best use of them or are they just destined to lie untouched or rarely-used like many other books in your bookshelf?” Yes, I have the habit of going to the bookshops and buying any book I love at first sight. Sometimes I wish I could buy the whole bookstore, but long before, I realized I’d never been a real bookworm. Back to my decision on buying the dictionaries or not, I had chosen an option which is something between yes and no, which is procrastination :P I need more time to consider and may come back another day when I am ready to buy them.

Going out of the bookstore with only one book, I headed for the bus stop. A thought flashed in my head: “Grant myself an ice-cream”. How come? I don’t know but I felt like eating one, esp in this cold weather ;) I was nearly on the point of storming to buy one but I resisted myself and memorized: Last week I ate an ice-cream; the week before, the same … I have eaten a lot since Tet holiday. Not so good for a physically-lazy person like me. OK, stop my ice-cream desire here.

… I stopped at the intersection and carefully watched the vehicles before crossing the road. On looking down at the ground, I spotted a 10,000 VND note. For many people, they don’t need a single second to think what to do when seeing it, but as for me, a “thoughtful” person (:P) I must ponder over whether to pick it up or not. I reckon that it is a shame to take the money which doesn’t belong to you before people’s eyes. And I will feel guilty using that amount of money for my personal purposes. Coming between those thoughts of mine was my sister’s story just a few days ago, that she came across a dropped note on the street and she took it with delight. She said it wasn’t a sin. We can never find the right owner and return the money. If we don’t take it, someone else will do without fail. So why waste such a “chance”? …But guess what? I didn’t take it after all.

Thereafter, I got into no more dilemmas and I feel lucky about that because irresolution has made me sick enough.

No less than one time did I try to explain this awkwardness of my mind. After the first semester at the university, I’ve learned some things useful which can somehow help me answer this question.
In terms of philosophy, there always exists contradictions or conflicts within us human but it is very natural because it is the impetus of development. I don’t understand how this can be applied to my case, so I must turn to another subject to seek for a more appropriate explanation for my problem. And I found what I need in Economics. According to it, we always face scarcity, thus we have to make choices. Once an option is chosen, we know for sure that we have paid an opportunity cost for that choice.

I know I have to make my choices for as long as I live, so I had better learn how to make wise choices instead of complaining how hard it is to make one :))