Saving Aeneas

When I first arrived in Vietnam the heat was the most overwhelming feature. It was hard to focus on absorbing the city, the culture etc. because so much of my time was taken up with keeping cool and hydrated. I spent the first month or two dashing from one air-conditioned haven to another, meanwhile gulping down gallons of water from the coolers all schools offer in the teacher's lounges.

That, however, was the rainy season, which supposedly lasts from June to November. Over time I got used to the heat and it gradually got cooler as we moved into winter. Now, however, comes the harsh two-month stretch of April and May, when the weather is hot and there is no rain to temper it.

Actually this was proven wrong (at least for a day) by the rainstorm this afternoon, which made the atmosphere quite pleasant and opened up what possibilities this city could have if it was 20 degrees cooler and not so humid.

While reviewing exams for my English 5 class I noticed that one student's writing sample seemed oddly familiar. it was written at a level far above the rest of the class, for one thing. The topic was 'A Nightmare Journey' and it described a trip from Dresden to Mallorca(!) Something was clearly fishy. So, i looked through the textbook and found the exact same writing sample in a chapter we had read some weeks back. Not to mention, the offending student had left behind a handwritten copy of the very same 'nightmare Journey' on his desk.

Brimming with teacherly indignation I marched over to the Academic Administration office and informed Ms. Uyen what had happened. She scowled at me and I immediately realized I had done something I shouldn't have.

"Where," she said "is your PROOF?" I produced the note, the exam, and the textbook. She glanced over them before turning back to me. "This doesn't mean anything. Maybe he just memorized it. It happens alot, what can you do? We can't punish him for something everyone does". She shrugged "But if you really want...take away a few points for lack of creativity". She waved a hand and the meeting was over.

Capitalism is here for good.

It's always a little difficult to tell exactly what is and isn't done on Vietnamese TV. Obviously extreme sex and violence are out, but it's not clear where the line is.

My first encounter with this came when 'Fargo' was on TV and they cut out the scene with the two kidnappers and the two prostitutes in the hotel. It's not very graphic but it is noisy, so I could see why a prudish government would cut it out.

I was stuck in a hotel room last weekend and 'Irma la Douce' came on TV. There's one scene (or possibly several) with Shirley McLaine standing around in her bra, but you can't see it because they've blurred everything below her neck. Of course, when they show the beach they don't hide the women in their bikinis, so I guess there's a distinction between underwear and beach wear.

I wonder how you get a job as a censor...

This HCMC's District 5 aka Cholon, originally a suburb of Saigon proper (though still connected by Nguyen Trai street) and the center of Chinese merchant life. As such, the name 'Cho lon' literally means 'big market'.

For much of the 20th century the district had something of a checkered past, gaining a reputation for shady casinos, brothels, and opium dens frequented by sailors and foreign pleasure-seekers and other unsavory characters.

After Reunification the Vietnamese government moved to nationalize most of the businesses, including those controlled by the Chinese community. This eventually led to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1989, partly in response to the alleged persecution of the Hoa Chinese and also in retaliation to the Vietnamese for toppling the Khmer Rouge.

Nowadays Cho lon isn't terribly distinct from the rest of the city. Sure, they have alot of pagodas and narrow, winding streets - but so does practically every other place in town.

When traveling through Asia one cannot help but come across the ENGLISH TEACHER. They come in many forms, so here's a quick guide:

The Young Adventure-Seeker: 'A young cowboy named Billy Joe/Grew restless on the farm/a young man filled with wanderlust/who really meant no harm'. These are early-to-mid 20something people (in which I include myself) who, often fresh out of college, desire to travel and see the world before obligations set in.

The Orientophile: Someone who loves Asia, is fascinated by Asian culture, adores Asian people and feels more at home here than anywhere else. Often the Orientophile is the only person who can speak the local language with any skill.

The Educator: A person who's while life is teaching and who happens to be in Asia, not a person who wanted to come to Asia and took up teaching as the means. These are often (though not always) motherly middle-aged women with lilting accents.

The Spouse: The wife or husband of a big-league tycoon or diplomat who needs something to pass the time. Due to their higher social and economic status Spouses rarely socialize with other teachers.

The Woman-Hater: These are men who, disgusted by the independence and equality sought by women in the West, have come to a place where their relative wealth and status makes them desirable.

The Misfit: As the name implies, the Misfit turned to English teaching because all professions which require normal people were unavailable.

The Fugitive: A man (and it is almost always a man) seeking to flee his erstwhile home. Possibly something actually criminal' more likely a messy divorce.

The Dissolute: The Adventure-seeker plus 10 years. These English teachers never quite made it back home and now have no wish to. Their fondness for cheap beer is only exceeded by their fondness for cheap marijuana and the occasional prostitute.

Some categories may intersect.