Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
All I can say is Thank You to the beautiful people that made entry into the new year unforgettable.

Wishing you
HAPPINESS, PEACE AND LOVE!

~*~

Eve in the Treetops

Treetop havens, follow the flowers up twisted staircases to cosy home spaces. I like my head in these places, warm faces, cheery conversations of shamanic hallucinogens, perception changing fruit, Bolivian drum making, balloon blowing. Where can a soul receive more light than a place that when you enter... you leave.

Welcoming bowers, a sure cure for wintry chills. An event staged with an eyeline to the clouds. Get a heartfelt hug, bowl of mulled wine, homemade honey, happy bees and fill the air with the scent of a Peruvian vine. Glowing smiles, rugged up skin, here they come, one by one, kick off your boots, drop your gift ‘neath the didge tree, grab a djembe and settle for Christmas Eve.

Bamboo matted floors, drums and triangles, bells and melodic chimes, harps and rain makers, free-range gift exchange, international multilingual music makers, roll it all together and you’ve got a magical, musical time spender..high in the sky on a December eve.

** Merry Christmas **

Organic Farm=LOVE

Ooooooh.. I love a good organic garden! It makes me all warm and goozy inside. Planting seeds and watching new life creep out from life giving soil...what could be better! Munching sweet tomatoes warm from the earth or hunting through lawn for nasturtium flowers for salads..but that was in Brisbane..

..here in Hanoi, my rooftop container garden (attempt) in the heat of summer was a disaster! My basil went to seed, lettuce wilted, herbs died...my pumpkin sent out a shoot, saw the fate of his friends and gave up hope...

I'll try again soon. Yesterday I visited one of the first organic farm projects on the outskirts of town..my eyes got their fill of how gardens are supposed to look!

Bright green rows of spinach and beans mixed with purple herbs and yellow marigolds, a protective windbreak of corn surrounding the lots. Helpful bees and birds and small red tomatoes and thick green zucchini growing on bamboo lattice. Organic gardening at its yummiest!!

An NGO here, Action for the City, has put together a community development project teaching farmers how to grow food organically for market. The farmers have all moved from their age old tradition of growing only one crop and are a brave lot to go 'against the grain' so to speak.

I'd like to spend my time here learning skills that I enjoy, we'll see if I can make the money I need to pay of my debts at the same time as digging in gardens of goodness.. and live a dream life at the same time...

RAU HUU CO THANH XUAN organic farm project
Action for the City
For more information visit Action For The City

Kids like ninjas

So, I've been spending a lot of time with children lately...ah, yeah, new job. When I told David, his first reaction was to burst out laughing.

It's not that I don't like kids, it's just..well, I've never been around many. When do I get to hang out with children? In Brisbane it was rarely..on public transport..and that's an experience I'd rather not have every day.

Anyway, if I wasn't totally broke I might not have put my hand up, so I'm happy about that at least. Working with pre-teens, well, so we'll see how things go.

On a positive, I'd totally forgotten monsters and ninjas existed, how fun it is to play annoying and repetitive games, that princesses and super heros are cool, and what's it's like to have energy to spare.

And...that 12 year old boys are repelled by 12 year old girls! I can almost see the force fields put up by each group.

It takes a lot of energy teaching kids and you'd better have extra activities in reserve. At this stage I think I prefer teaching adults, but teaching kids is a good way to expand the bank balance and the mind...

...and with Viet kids gain a new perspective
on the thousand ways a child can amuse
themselves with string and a rubberband!

From working with this 10 - 12 age group
I've learned:

1. If it's easy, don't complicate it
2. Vietnamese boys love video games, Ben 10, and ANY super hero
3. Vietnamese girls love Barbie, princesses and ANYTHING pink!
4. Kids are smart and smart asses
5. Set rules from the start and be consistent
6. Never get into an energy battle with a teenager, you'll lose
7. Learn (and double check) names
8. Action games are great - Simon says, red light/green light etc
9. If there is lots of noise during activities, you're doing it right!

Did you say..oh never mind!

I just got home from a session with my intermediate class and I'm STILL laughing. We were doing a pair activity and everyone was working quietly. There was a slight commotion from one of the pairs, I saw a female student looking completely uncomfortable, and heard her partner repeating..

"I want to embrace you, embrace you!" and gesticulating, obviously frustrated.

The whole class fell silent.. poor guy! He had to spell out that all he wanted was to "impress her".

~ Hanoi's been getting funnier lately ~

I walked past a hospital yesterday and looked up to see a sign in block lettering saying... IMPATIENT...


I nearly fell over laughing.

Bohemian Soft Openings.. ah bah da ta...

Last night saw us playing at the soft opening of a very hip poetry cafe/art gallery..another gallery has sprung up in Hanoi!

Eager poetry lovers and artists crushed close into a hazy retro brick walled room for a multi-lingual bonanza of poetry, art and music... (there was at least one beret.)

American poets spoke passionately about the death of honey bees, tortuously beautiful Vietnamese poems, a Rastafarian rap, a humorous ballad to 'the Bitch That Broke My Heart' and a tribute to Joni Mitchell (including an all in love fest sing-a-long) ..

...and ending with an avant-garde Vietnamese contemporary something... involving throat singing, space and well, whatever it was, it was a pleasure to watch.

We contributed our small part to the overall bohemian vibe playing rhythmic spiraling beats that had people on their feet, salsa-ing and generally shaking it in the centre of the narrow bar.

In a communist country emerging, cutting edge creators and free speech wielding poets are a unique breed. It was exciting to be around so many passionate artists!

And reminiscent of the rare, raw, artsy underground bars I've visited in Spain.. so, all in all a very nice find in Vietnam...

...plus they served excellent pastries :)

Tadioto Bar
113 Trieu Viet Vuong
Hanoi

Watch out Hanoi...

Look out Hanoi! An expat Christmas includes serious Bike Bling!!

My friend Christine decided her bright red minsk motorbike simply wasn't loud enough for the festive season. The creative lass used tinsel in a way I have never seen it used before. Isn't it beautiful, Hanoi simply wasn't ready for it!




Photos: Christine Andrews, her red Minsk (and a family of reindeer)

6 months in Nam

Yep, it's been 6 months already.

October held many ups and downs, such a shocker it took deep breaths and the majority of November to get back to some semblance of normality... but change is what life's about right..!?

Work wise, my contract with the Yamaha corporation ended and October saw me working with Teach International.. again, assisting in the set up, organization and delivery of their Hanoi TESOL course.

12 Australians teacher trainees flew to Hanoi to complete the course here :) It was a very busy two weeks ensuring the teacher/students were oriented and settled. Definitely hectic at times and I was in a constant state of busyness!! But there were amazing friendships formed and a lot of support during prac week as the teachers headed into the schoolroom for the first time.

Two teachers have decided to stay on in Hanoi for the long term and have both been offered jobs already, I'm sure more than a few others will be back in the near future!

Most of my time off recently sees me drumming with a group of djembe drummers. We're learning traditional West African rhythms. The group performs in Hanoi (recently at the multicultural festival). I've purchased a Vietnamese made drum, it sounds good. And I've been having loads of fun, but, even after 5 years of hitting skin, my left hand still does exactly the opposite of what I tell it.

Musical instrument and mat street :)
Hang Manh
Old Quarter, Hanoi

Get a hobby

If you've ever wanted to be a multilingual, jazz guitar playing, belly dancing martial artist who cooks a mean Pho noodle soup... you've come to the right city!

With so many extracurricular activities offered in Hanoi it's hard to simply choose ONE to do. (Although it seems the favored past time of the average expat drinking more than anything else.)

I'm a huge fan of accumulating pointless knowledge. Over the years I've learned more than my fair share. Let's see.. skateboarding (a lost art), stilt walking, pan pipes, guitar, crochet, fire twirling, basket weaving, oh and my recent favorite a hell-bent desire to perfect contact juggling (yes, I loved The Labyrinth), none of which I can perform with any skill.

Anyway, for the eternal procrastinator you may find yourself learning a language (Spanish anyone?), tango, Shaolin kung fu, Viet cooking, performance art, photography etc etc the list is endless.

... there are even drinking clubs... if your average weeknight/weekend bar crowd just isn't dedicated enough for you, join the Bia Hoi Appreciation Society.
http://newhanoian.xemzi.com/en/group/show/21/Bia-Hoi-Appreciation-Society

For art lovers Hanoi is scattered with arts museums, galleries and alternative art and photography (it's big here, everywhere you see dudes wearing khaki vests with serious lenses rivaling small artillery).

There's the Geothe Institute, the Cinematheque, bowling, roller disco, Tay Ho amusement park, karaoke, opera house and jazz clubs...

My favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon is to hoof it down to tree covered Lenin Park and spend an afternoon in the sun with fire twirlers and drumming circle or hang around a little later in the twilight to perfect that Thai Chi stance with a personal teacher.

www.newhanoian.com
Hanoi Grapevine

Hanoi Cinemateque

Apsara Dance Studio
Nghi Tam

Lenin Park - Cong Vien Thong Nhat