Karate

This weekend, Karate practice started at Sedona. Japanese teacher, Japanese parents, Japanese kids, Japanese organization, Japanese style, Japanese everything. Even a professional group photo after the session!

Kai loved it and it is great for the kids to be able to get at least a little bit of Japanese life and culture here. Mummy is still struggling with the language, and hope to make some substantiall progress in time for Christmas and New Years when we are planning to go to Japan. It is really, really about time, Hana has not even been there yet.

Tomorrow's news

This morning I bought tomorrow's newspaper, regularly possible at the local news stand across the street. Didn't find anyting very revealing and it seems like nothing groundbreaking is about to happen this time either.

The daily English newspaper gives a pretty good view of important events and occurences, all told through the eyes and words of the country's one and only news agency - Vietnam News Agency. Normally, it seems like a perfect country, in the middle of some kind of never ending, nothing but positive economic boom and general development. If there is ever a problem, it is normally caused either by natural causes, external forces or, possibly, some weak individual's failure. In all other senses, it is a fantastic country. Its people, potiticians and, above all, Party, working side by side to make everything even better. Totally ok to read and pretty nicely and professionally packaged for being propaganda.

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Although I try to at least sometimes add other points of view to the information flow, as far as it is possible, like this: Hellman/Hammett Award

Rain rain rain

This must have been one of the rainiest weeks of the year. Also meaning very little out of ordinary life in suburbia happens. Leaving and picking kids up in school, trying to work in the mornings, every once in a while a tour to the local cafe... Nothing much, really.

Very, very grey.

Indoor afternoon activity. DVD.

Apparently, it's supposed to continue all week-end as well...

Trash culture

Some time ago, sitting in our garden Keisuke and I saw a couple of men rowing around our little pond. The strange thing about it was that this time they were working hard to clean it. From all garbage floating around - due to several of the neighbours' habit of using it as a giant trash bin. Rather surprised we watched the boat getting fuller and fuller. We thought, how strange but, how great. Only to minutes later get all our prejudices confirmed. Suddenly, the men started rowing vigourosly towards the other side of the pond, to the Golden Lodge's side. Where they dumped absolutely everything they had worked so hard to collect, back into the pond, just closer to the other shore.

A couple of months ago, trash bins were put up here and there on the streets in our neigbourhood. And after a while it seemed like some people were actually using them. Yesterday, I saw some of the bins had fallen down from their stands. Today, someone had dumped them, in our pond.

Someone told me there is a campaign running in Hanoi, called "no plastic bags Sundays". Just don't think anyone has heard of it. I also heard that in some African countries plastic bags are just prohibited. They even deprive you from your taxfree bags when you arrive. Wish that would come to Hanoi!

Chop stick master

If your child is born in Sweden, at the very first visit at the local health center - the Barnavårdscentralen - you will get a small booklet, with growth charts and space to keep track of vaccinations and general health checks and dentist and "all at one place" kind of thing. There is also a list where you can add dates for when they learn to sit and crawl and jump, or draw or ride a bike or eat with a spoon or so. But it doesn't come with a line for using chop sticks. Its not that easy - there are many Swedish adults who can't. Guess I just have to add another line in Kai's book now.

Back to school

Finally, school started again, after a long summer holiday and with very little drama. Kai has moved up to Sunshines Class and Hana has become a Caterpillar, but the friends are all the same. In the strange world we live, it is also really strange that there were no newcomers in either of the classes. Must be good for them with some kind of continuity, I think.
Mum is now supposed to go back to work in the mornings, but am inventing all kinds of very important things to do first. Like drinking coffee and posting pictures here. Tomorrow I will. For sure!

Summer holiday lunch time. Pasta bolognesa with Lilia and Yuuki as our guests.

Black board wall remains popular. Hana and Sille. Wont stand still and wont tell me what they are drawing. A horse?

More art work. Lilia, Hana and Kai. Skies and stars, I think it is.

A small pagoda stop

During one of our walks around Tam Dao we took a break at what looked like a half abandoned pagoda. Empty at least. Hana, being our little show lady, happily did some posing for the camera, in front of the altar and all...

According to the traditional moon calendar (the "Chinese" calendar) this year is also the year of the Tiger. Must be a very powerful year.

Tam Dao Hill Station

We then continued to Tam Dao, another twenty minutes uphill through the forest from the Moon Bear Center. At about 1.000 meters above sea level, the air is completely different from the hot and humid Red River delta air of Hanoi. We breathed profoundly, walked the countryside, tried the pool, went to a waterfall, relaxed. And the next morning we celebrated Keisuke's birthday with balloons and presents and singing and all!

The view (from the hotel).
The village (and the hotel).

The forest walk.

Moon bears

This weekend we went for an excursion out of town. Our first stop was the Moon Bear Rescue Center about an hour from Hanoi.

The Moon Bears living here have been rescued from farms around the area, where they are kept in very small cages and bile from their gall bladder is being extorted in the most horrible ways, either by opening a permanent hole in their abdomen or by repeatedly jabbing them with long needles until the bladder is found. The bile is then used in Chinese Traditional Mecidine to cure all kinds of diseases. Totally detestable.

After the tour around the bear gardens the kids found a small streem with fairly clear water. We felt we were almost in "the nature"!

Still life

Today I went to the Cinemateque again. All by myself. They have some kind of Vietnamese film festival and I watch old movies about life in the countryside and in the shadow of the war. It probably looks more beautiful than it was.
Moreover, the little alley you have to walk to get into the place is art itself. Every little pot seems to be carefully arranged to ensure the aesthetic, although I guess many times it has just been left there.

Today my granny Junis passed away. She was 98 years old and died in her sleep of old age. I though about her in the darkness while watching the movie. Nostagia for the countryside it was called.

Spider-superman

Yesterday Kai went to the dentist. He was very brave and kept his mouth wide open without crying even once. The fact that the dentist had a flat screen dvd player with Doraemon in the roof did help. And afterwards he got a cool "spider-superman" exellent Chinese fake lego space ship: the "Blackly terminator".

Kindergarden substitute

While summer holidays are coming to an end (one week to go!), there is still quite some need for kids to get together to play and parents to get some time off. We rotate the venues and send kids back and forth around the neighbourhood, sometimes with mummys, most often with nannies. Today Robbie, Sille, Mikkel, Yuuki and little Chi-chan came to our house to play.

Reading boys.

Busy mum.

Giggling girls.

Yoga in the garden

While Kai is having a sleepover at his friend Hosea, Hana and I are enjoying an afternoon and morning at home all by ourselves; painting, dancing, playing memo, having snack, doing yoga, feeding the dogs... Amazing how much there is time for when you can give 100% of your attention to just one kid.

Yoga in the garden.

Dogs fed and now we have to go pick up Kai.

Phở

Phở is standard Vietnamese breakfast, to be had at your favourite street stall on the way to work. It also serves well as a light lunch or in the afternoon and definitely on your way home after a late night out for those who have that. Anytime, basically.
It is rice noodle soup with either sliced beef - making it phở bò, or with chicken - phở gà. And loads of special herbs.
Yesterday I escaped the house and kids and had a bowl at our next door phở place from where you actually used to be able to look down at our garden but where everything now has grown so green you can hardly see anything but the trees.
Kai always makes fun of my crappy way of pronouncing this impossible word.

The beef slightly uncooked until it is pushed down into the hot broth. Add some lime and chili if you like. Very yummy. And very cheap.

And enjoy in the birds' company. Birds in cages are everywhere and although they do make a very picturesque contribution to the cityscape I always think it would be nice to open all their doors when nobody sees. Which is a problem, as there are people everywhere as well.