money is so important and beloved that you might wanted to buy (for yourself or as a gift) a framed picture of u.s. bank notes.
in gold we trust
la maldita naranja belgamita en tierras bárbaras* |
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vietnamese people burn fake bank notes so that the smoke goes to the sky and provides the dead with the money they need to live in the other world. on the note shown above, 'tiền âm phủ' means 'money of the other world' while 'ngân hàng địa phủ' means 'bank of the other world'. it doesn't really help me understand the 'in god we trust', though...
money is so important and beloved that you might wanted to buy (for yourself or as a gift) a framed picture of u.s. bank notes. in gold we trust
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on vietnamese id's, you have the ethnicity and religion written! when it comes to the ethnicity, about more than 75% people are 'kinh'. as to the religion, the three main possibilities are 'buddhist', 'catholic' and 'không' which means 'none'. vietnamese people get their id when they're 18 (nb: they can vote when they turn 21 and legally, they cannot marry before they're 21 too. but pratically, they sometimes marry before, in their family, and wait until they're 21 to make it official)*. before that, they have some kind of identification document which is issued by their school, not directly by the government. when 18, they have to fill in a form to request an id and amongst other information, they have to write their religion. so basically, or so i've been told, they could write anything because some people say that no one cares about that, others say it's important. anyway, there is at least one rule, it's that if you're in the communist party**, you have to have no religion; so next to 'tôn giáo', they have 'không' written. so when you enter party you have to officially give up your religion, especially if you're a catholic (but i guess that if you're a catholic, you don't enter the party at all). the party is more tolerant about buddhism, since most vietnamese people are buddhist, so if you're a buddhist and you become a member, officially, you stop being a buddhist ('buddhist' becomes 'không' on your id) but most people go on practising the rituals. sometimes though, they get rid of the buddha statues they have on their altar but they rarely stop worshipping their ancestors, which is part of the buddhist traditions. so there will always be an altar where they burn incense and put offerings for their ancestors. * i got the information provided in this post via various people. i don't know how accurate it is. i guess that getting info here is the same as in bolivia when people are protesting and you ask them why, you get as many answers as there are people, or when you go to the forem in belgium... ** there are different ways to enter the party: when you have excellent grades at school, they give you the opportunity to enter, when you work for the government or other state company, you also have this possibility but here, i guess it's not really up to you, it's probably compulsory. when you work for a state company, you might be given the opportunity to travel abroad and follow a master degree because it's good for the company. however, i've been told by a party member that if you're high-up in the party, you might know some secrets so they won't let you travel abroad too much for fear you might talk too much and disclose some sensitive info. when you're in the party, you have to attend some meetings once a month where they talk about what could be done to make the country better. if you don't attend those three months in a row or if you stop paying your subscription, you're expelled. i realized yesterday that my father had married an ex-party member. and she's the kind of woman who practises everything that can be practised in buddhism. i'm not sure she ever gave up those traditions, even when she was in vietnam. Lorange Pressée february 5th: a few days ago, when i was still in the highlands, i was called by a friend. 'i call you because i've just read your blog and what you say is wrong', she said. 'in vietnam, we get our first id when we're 15 and can vote when we turn 18'. so i just wanted to add this note to correct what i'd written previously. as i mentioned before, i never know how accurate the information i put on this blog is. but thank you diệp. moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxfMRhyzu3g
although i'd got over my little obsession, last week, thanks to trung's help, i found the book i wanted to find a few weeks ago. chị diệp, em đã tìm thấy sách em tìm!!!! cám ơn anh trung moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqnLYsvRwtM&feature=related about six weeks ago, i went to a football match: vietnam/malaysia and it was really disappointing! first, we (mi amigo belgamita) ended up in the wrong place (i wonder if it was much different in other places, though): since we didn't really know where to go and the match had already begun, we decided to go where many people had gathered, which was the youth centre, and which was a bad idea (we understood only later): there was nothing else than water to drink. then, everybody was sitting on the ground, which is really strange for a football match audience. i don't really remember if it was before or after the first half but the malaysian managed to score. then around the 75th minute they scored again and... everybody left. yes! most everyone in the audience left while there were more than 15 minutes left but they didn't care: for them, the match was over, the vietnamese players would never manage to score, end the match in a tie, let alone win! and that's what happened: the malaysian won 2-0. 'after one goal, we still thought they could tie one all, but after 2, it was not possible anymore. and the players are not confident enough so they stopped fighting after that second goal', or so i was lold later. come on brothers! you won the war, for god's sake! erhm... moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0
27 after the new year began and about 5 days before the new vietnamese cat year begins, i realize that over the last year, i've acquired really interesting abilities. in order of importance: 1. social ability: DRINK BEER. as a belgian, one would assume that it's an ability i was born with but i'm sorry to admit that it's not so. until 2010, the only beers i drank were fruity girlie ones. i had to go to bolivia to acquire this great new superpower which, since then, has been more than useful (i also have to admit that i learnt how to eat fries with mayonnaise in 2009, in holland. it's a long story) 2. human ability: lie when needed, though i'm not really proud of it and it's made me feel really bad. i still have to improve in order not to feel guilty everytime i tell a lie 3. professional ability: celta - teach english to adults. although i still have to learn how to find better exemples when i want to illustrate the theory (better than: an orphan is a kid WHOSE parents are dead; a widow is a woman WHOSE husband is dead; sabe a mierda...); that's so baaad! 4. extraordinary ability: stay alive in vietnam in spite of my crappy eyesight and of the crazy traffic i would like to add that if i could choose any superpower here in vietnam (as i was asked the other day), it would be to make people's motorbike explode everytime they're near to killing me because they drive on the wrong side of the street, because they jump a light and drive on the wrong side of the street (both combined, they like it), when they think that from 4.30 to 7pm, the pavement is for motorbikes and not for people anymore... moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEaNBf7pBwk
if, like me, you got too carried away when about to buy your bus ticket to the machu picchu and you forgot you debit card in the atm machine, and if, you also don't know the password of your credit card because you never use it to withdraw cash and last 'if', you currently find yourself in ho chi minh-ville, then the best place to go to withdraw money is the 'anz' bank located on le duan street, next to the hard rock café and the diamond plaza. i guess it's the same in other vietnamese cities. i tried about 4 or 5 banks before going there, both big international and national ones, and anz were the only ones who were able to help me. it was also suprisingly quick, compared to bolivia or argentina. for those two countries, i also had to find a bank to withdraw cash at the counter. i'll try to find which banks it was to also put the info here, just in case you might need it. i assume that if they are the only ones who are able to provide that kinda service, they might be able to help you while others cannot. moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoiz3xb5Bjg
moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ZGysErWkU
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