Wednesday, November 9, 2011

What Are You Looking At?

THE SUN IS OUT, THE SUN IS OUT! PRAISE YOUR RELIGIOUS FIGURE, THE SUN IS OUT!

I know I may have said that earlier, and out up a photo, but the sun isn't just visible, it's actually CASTING SHADOWS! SHADOWS, PEOPLE!

Anyway, now that that excitements over I shall continue with my post. Since Sunday night when I wrote my last post, I can't say that an awful lot has really happened, but I'll fill you in anyway. Monday was Hue's birthday. She turned 17. I had a present and card prepared so it was fun giving her my presents. I was looking forward to seeing how the Vietnamese celebrate birthdays. Hue said she didn't have a party, so her friends don't give her presents. I didn't see her parents give her presents either, but her dad took her to buy a new phone.

In the night, we had a bit of a party upstairs, with the people who live downstairs and work in the shop, the housekeeper, the family and all the others who work in the shop who Hues family is quite close with. They all came upstairs and we sat on the tiles in a circle, lit the candles on the cake and sang 'happy birthday'.... in english.... I thought it was weird that these people ant speak a word of english, but they'll say 'happy birthday' over and over. Quite strange indeed. It was good cake though, and it was followed up by an array of different fruits the mum had prepared.

Hue and I have been getting on so well. She did my nails again last night and we were having a deep and meaningful about her life and friends and the big questions. Then I did her hair, and she did mine (I'll attach a picture, it was hilarious). I think that whoever matched up hue and I, did a damn good job. I will genuinely miss her when I'm have to go.

But other than that, we haven't done anything too exciting. However, us girls noticed something really weird yesterday. Like usual, we went across the road for lunch. To fill a bit of a void, we went to s cafe that we know sells western food. It's a nice cafe with good food, and a good atmosphere, and we'd been there once before. On that occasion, we sat more in the corner, so the problem was minimized. Yesterday, we sat right in front of the kitchen. Now, in Australia, without being a waitress, I know the basic drill. You sit down, they bring you your menu, you decide, they come back in a bit, you tell them what you want, they collect your menus, they bring your food. Easy. They only come to your table a few times. The waitresses here, or maybe just the waitresses at this cafe, do not understand this 'only coming when necessary' concept. We walk in, sit down, they bring us a menu..... and don't leave. The stand there, pen in hand, right next to you, waiting for your order. Which makes you feel uncomfortable at the least. Not only that, because it's not that busy of a cafe, there were spare waitresses, who stand against the wall, about a metre away from us, watching us.

C'mon guys, I know we're white, but this is just annoying.

I tried explaining to them, "give us 5 minutes" or "come back later", but not speaking English, they just give us a blank look and continue waiting. It's a good tactic I guess, if you want your customers to hurry their selection process. I don't hi I've ever picked a meal so quickly. Then we had to order drinks. I've learnt that if it's too hard to explain, just don't get it. That applies t a lot of things over here, actually. Anyway, last time I was at this cafe, I ordered a coke. So when it came to drinks, I said "a coke." she said, "no". Thinking this was just one of the common things that kept happening I said "oh, okay, we'll a pepsi then".
"no. We no have. You have 7up."
"..... Okay I'll have 7up then."
The other girls saw my battle, sand so when she turned her glare of decisiveness upon the others, they quickly said "7up please"
I don't even really like 7up.

Anyway, With ordering done, we got out our iPads/laptops to get the wifi password, because this was in fact, a wifi cafe. They happily typed it in for us, then went and stood against the wall. You know, the wall one metre away from us? Where they could (if they understood english) hear every word, and see everything that we were looking at in the Internet? Yeah. That wall. And they stood there, watching us, the. entire. time. It just to the point where we wanted to leave, because it was so awkward. I mean, we've gotten used to being stared at, but never so intently for such a long period of time. It was a good meal, and we even got an ice cream, but I don't think we'll be going back there... ever. I told my friend about this, and they were like "oh it's not too bad, you're overreacting". Perhaps I am, but how about I come to your house at dinner, stand a metre away from you and watch every mouthful you take. Then you tell me if I'm overreacting. That's right, bam.

Hmmm, now that that rant is over, I don't have much more to say. One thing I've noticed here is my deteriorating english. By the time I get back, I may need to change from advanced English next year, down to standard. I've stopped speaking in completely grammatically correct sentences. It's easier not to. In the sense that it usually means I don't have to repeat myself. I've also stopped using contractions as they confuse people. Yesterday before school, I found myself asking hue " we will go now?". Yeah, and that's after one and half weeks, so I will probably revert to illiteracy by the end of the month.

Well on that note of anticipation for that, I must go off to class now. Ta ta! I'm off to the beauty salon! ( that was a special joke for my brother's benefit, so mum, make sure he sees it)

I'm attaching some photos of interesting things I've seen over here, including a guy on a bike (who nearly killed us), and a poster I made in year 5, and the back of a shirt of a year 5 boy.

2 comments:

Chris Betcher said...

Hilarious. Just hilarious. You had me in stitches as I was reading it. Thanks for writing it, Katie.

♥Beryllium Lithium Class of 2011 said...

Great post :D How interesting... 'Happy Birthday' must be one of those international songs. Haha my favourite part was when you wrote "I don't even really like 7up." You crack me up :)