A moon lover (and pastry lover) like myself truly appreciated the revelry of the full moon festival this weekend. It's a festival 1000's of years old and celebrated in lots of places in South East Asia, oh what fun!
I love festivals, this one is on the full moon in mid-autumn and called the Children's Festival.. lucky kiddies.
You couldn't miss the fact that something was happening in Hanoi... as always the first thing to go was the traffic, it disintegrates into chaos at the sniff of any major event!
Little star shaped lanterns covered in tinsel and glitter were being sold on the streets, delicious sweet basted mooncakes made from ground coloured beans bought as gifts, Chinese dancing dragons and a general feeling something was happening filled the air.
Most of the festivities centre around the 12 major lakes in Hanoi. They are scattered throughout the city, tree lined and green. Many of them are bomb crater lakes, pieces of tranquil beauty created and enjoyed enmasse by city dwellers long after the negative events that created them. Hundreds of families gathered where the usual aerobics ladies and old men in short shorts doing calisthenics usually congregate.
The weather has been perfect for it... still... a cool autumn... pfffft, I think not. Under a hot, muggy sky, sitting on my open rooftop I watched as hundreds of lanterns drifted up into the night sky lit by the light of a beautifully clear moon... and tried, oh how I tried, not to think of the litter and eventual post-festival journey to the sea... every lantern a visual prayer or heartfelt wish let off from a family's rooftop or at the lakes...
I figure it's got to be an auspicious way to start a new phase of my life in Vietnam, for better or worse we'll see... I'm looking after myself, healing after a slight chest infection... sick and feverish yes, though not as bad as that time I caught pneumonia in Nepal near the base of Mount Annapurna... a sign from the gods maybe... slow down... take it easier... look after myself for a while...
I'm also heading off to house-sit again next week... and look after Gus, the slightly damaged, small eared, traumatised but lovely little black dog (animal lovers beware, Vietnam is difficult in this regard, you may come back to Australia with a few strays)... it all makes me miss having my own little rag-tag ball o' fluff daughter around.
Hanoi, Ha Noi...potent and latent, deep as lakes, veils rise from my eyes. Silken constructed, built up, rushing, pushing forward, flowing with time. An ancient, modern insatiable emblem of rough, rotten stomping capitalisation, a relic, a token of ritual awoken and breathing 2000 years in time.
Cracked streets, hugging heat, a sweaty drumbeat, the pulsating rhythm of this city of mine. A rugged hand up, a friend to cross the road, a small kindness, smiling disdain of this ignorance. A fast paced mad hattedness, desperate focus, demons for dollars, wealth on a backdrop of women with baskets, babies, work, hunger and history, crunchy French bread, intricate streets, thin buildings and a worship of the dead.
The evening falls quickly on rooftop beauties, coloured edges jutting towards the skyline, filtered yellow lights, green, growing hopes all dancing quiet and silent above busy concrete streets, cracked and hard, riding motorbikes rough and broken. A life of ups and downs, a series of near misses, close calls and above it all a hazy, thick sky enveloping a city propelled forward quickly flying through time.
When I first arrived in Hanoi it was peak season for English teaching jobs - summer school! I was offered four jobs in the first four days (and all I was doing was frequenting local bars). But it's true, anytime of year is good for finding work in Hanoi. Every day new positions are advertised and new arrivals can find a good job within days... if they want to.
Many of the jobs I was offered were teaching English to kids, great for a new teacher. But I didn't want to teach kids. Really, I didn't. So I waited, travelled, ate and hung out with the cat until I was offered some hours in a business college. It sounded interesting and a bit of a challenge. So here I am. English teacher... in a motorbike shop...
My office space is truly glitzy, located in the downtown Yamaha showroom. The building pops out of the gloomy streets at night in a truly impressive show of how to reeeaaaally, properly use electricity! Each evening, waiting out front for my driver, I see Vietnamese ride past, really slowly, their eyes glued to the shiny new bike models glittering under the spotlights... so warning, be extra careful crossing Pho Thai Phien for this exact reason! Vietnamese drivers, totally blinded by bright lights, shiny motorbikes and deep in dreams of the day they can afford one... don't care too much for the average pedestrian Western or otherwise. I am the only teacher for the company and have two main classes with a mixture of employees. I have division managers in my beginner classes and advanced receptionists in my intermediate classes.. and occasionally a very beginner manager in my higher level class (simply because he is a manager). Also because of the nature of the business environment I get a scattering of attendance, it ranges from a maximum of 25 students to occasionally just two.
In the first few weeks I spent hours and hours developing lesson plans, creating fun worksheets and generally getting swamped in the details. But now, things are a little more chilled. I am generally planning lessons (with no teacher's book to speak of) in under 2 hours, which for me, is a real achievement.
Actually, teaching business English is tougher than I thought. Firstly, in this type of environment you're totally on your own without anyone else to bounce off. There's no training or additional support offered, just the belief that as a native speaker you'll be fine (which is partly true).
A school environment offers more by way of training, resources, teachers staffrooms (a great way to find out new activities and get tips) and other support. It means that you are probably able to learn more and learn it faster.
But I like the autonomy that comes with working independently, I like the shiny lights and for $25 an hour, I can't really go wrong!
A moon lover (and pastry lover) like myself truly appreciated the revelry of the full moon festival this weekend. It's a festival 1000's of years old and celebrated in lots of places in South East Asia, oh what fun!
Most of the festivities centre around the 12 major lakes in Hanoi. They are scattered throughout the city, tree lined and green. Many of them are bomb crater lakes, pieces of tranquil beauty created and enjoyed enmasse by city dwellers long after the negative events that created them. Hundreds of families gathered where the usual aerobics ladies and old men in short shorts doing calisthenics usually congregate.
