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? ;)

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.

Me playing soccer (?!?)

Haha, it’s real. No kidding. My old classmates who studied with me for years may know well how bad I am at physical education but this time, I have, seriously, taken part in a soccer match!
I have watched soccer for 5 years but not until 5 hours ago did I have a chance to play soccer. And I must say, it is amazing, ecstatic, exciting to play the sport you like.

Here is the summary of my first experience being a soccer player for 40 minutes:
Note: This is the soccer team of my class established a week ago to participate in the school’s tournament.
- I was unexpectedly called into the team simply because it was in short of players and the monitor confirmed that no professional skills were needed and our motto was: Play for fun! :)) And I agreed to join just a day before the match.
- I was given a 10 minute-or-so training before the match.
- I started the game as a substitute :P
- I was a defender (Lahm’s position ;) but I guess it just didn’t suit me :(
- I really admire my teammates: vigorous strikers, careful and calm goalkeeper… unlike me - a clumsy defender, who was responsible for at least 2 conceded goals of my team.
- During the game, I felt very excited and my spirit was really high. I played without fearing that I might be injured (In fact I had stumbled down twice). Sweat, accelerated heartbeat… I was really into the game. But you know what, as people often say: Enthusiasm + Ignorance = Destruction :D LOL
- The outcome: my team lost the game, which also means “This is where our journey ends”. However, on the bright side: I had a lot of fun, enjoyed the so called teamwork spirit and knew more about my friends.

After that experience, I wish to attend another match. I need more training and I will show that I can be a good player! =)

A special Sunday

Usually, Sunday is not my favorite day of the week but today is an exception. I’ve had a wonderful day although it didn’t seem to go well at the beginning. Here I list the most 3 outstandingly interesting events of the day:

1. From the crack of dawn, I heard my parents talking about something so noisily downstairs that it almost woke me up. It turned out that they were worriedly discussing the sudden disappearance of the dear cat of my family. As usual, he should have been there waiting for his breakfast or tried to wake the family up with his familiar sound “meow… meow”. But no such things happened today simply because …he’s gone! After the all-out search in the whole morning, we all concluded that the cat had been officially missing! This had been the third time he left home (in secret!).
About 8 p.m, we heard a sound from behind the house, which we were quite sure was his and we couldn’t be wrong, it was exactly the troublesome cat. He got stuck somewhere between the ceiling and the roof of my neighbor’s house. So it meant that another rescue should happen… again. I know, last time, he pushed us into a kind of dangerous state to rescue him and now I guess “this guy” is challenging us with LEVEL 2! But the rescue went more smoothly than we thought. Again, my brave sister was the hero and took the naughty cat to where he belongs!

2. 2 days ago, I received a message informing of the so-called “offline event of MLTR’s fanclub”. I was really, really excited and a bit nervous ‘cos this is the first time I’ve attended such an event. Wow, imagine, this is a good chance to meet those who share the same idol as me, so I am sure we’ll have plenty of things to chat about. And to tell the truth, I’ve never met any real fan of MLTR…in real life! This could be a promising meeting. But the first hindrance was my parents’ permission. They gave very little credence to this event. They have heard too much about the deceitful and mischievous online friends and they didn’t want to take a risk. But as for me, I believe those people so I tried so hard to convince my parents. After all, my effort led to a good result – I was allowed to go, but with my sister as the companion. It is still OK for me, yay!
As I once said, my memory was so bad and today it really caused me a trouble. I mistook the bus and was 20 minutes late for the meeting. Fortunately, when I arrived, those people from the club were still waiting for me. After a short introduction, I’ve made acquaintance with them all and I felt that they were interesting and kind people. Then we marched on to a food stall to fill our starving stomachs. While eating, we had fun chatting with each other. It was so nice to know more about these MLTR’s fans. We even discussed a plan of setting up a fansite for MLTR fans in Vietnam. One of the club members had made a draft for the website, which was so cool!
Then there came the most exciting part of the meeting – going to sing in karaoke club. No sooner had I walked into the karaoke room did I receive a call from my dad. His voice was serious. He told us it was time to go home, but I begged him to let me stay for another 1 hour for karaoke-ing. Suddenly he talked like commanding through the phone in a kind of vexing voice: “Go home, now!”. I was so scared that I decided to leave without hesitation. That was the end of the party for me… yes, an end in regret. I want to stay…you know :’( But I understand how my parents felt. I should go (rather than I must go). Anyway, the offline meeting left me with so nice impression and a lot of fun, too. I can say I am satisfied with it. Can’t wait for the next!

3. The last event of the day is also the work I should have done much earlier today: saying happy birthday to one of my best friends on Facebook – Amira. Actually, I prepared a special gift for her a week ago and I can’t wait to show it to her. I have waited the whole week to do this. The reason why I was so excited was because I made the gift by myself using some techniques I’ve learned. Though I posted the gift pretty late today, I hope Amira fully enjoys it!