cracks

last night A, a fellow CSer and an american midwesterner said:

until i was about 11, i tell my dad i should be a filipino. i wanted to be a filipino. all my filipino friends can sing and dance, and i want to be just like them.

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whilst having lunch with a viet kiew friend H in an unassuming resto somewhere in dist 3 of hcmc, he said:

this patis to us viets is like oil to US & China and Middle East

hahahah! what an analogy!

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inside vasco’s (bar in SGN), caucasian went straight to my table

guy: hi you’re alone? what about if i buy you a drink and keep you company. (then sits on the chair across me).

me: HEY! what about if i buy you a drink but you sit on that farthest table from me?

dooh! talk about bi@#hiness, i know. but come on! you can’t just assume someone who goes out alone needs a company and worse of a stranger.

i sometimes drink alone to drift, to forget and to pass time without noticing it. it’s a little solitude i have with the liquor.

and besides if i wish to be with my friends i’d invite them along, i wont go solo. so please for the life of you…give me my space on those moments.

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i’m beginning to use on a daily basis viet’s “same same but different” phrase. whether it’s serving me well or not in my workplace, that i’m not really sure.

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i started seriously studying vietnamese language for the past week. my colleague says she has a growing animosity with vietnamese, but i demur. i know this roots to miscommunication, cuz they are generally poor english speakers whilst she & i speak nothing more than 4 phrases in viet. i resolved that the only way i can really appreciate the way of the locals is to be able to communicate with them effectively. that said, can i say, i am actually enjoying life in saigon oi (sans the homesick attack!).