Things I've done this weekend other than working on my assignment:

• Bought a bag from J. Crew (it was on sale!).
• Watered the plants.
• Bought a duffle coat (it was also on sale, this assignment is getting expensive). 
• Stared at the plants on the balcony.
• Cleaned the stove. 
• Made lemon infused water. 
• Made iced tea. 
• Started writing a blog post. 
• Cleaned the bathroom. 
• Bought two pairs of shoes (they were on sale too).
• Reorganised my highlighters. 
• Checked my credit card balance. 
• Had a freak out. 
• Reorganised the pantry. 
• Made macerated strawberries.
• Froze some strawberries. 
• Checked the word count on my assignment 32 times, expecting it to somehow complete itself. 
• Wondered if the only reason I started a blog in high school was to procrastinate. 
• Washed all the rocket in the fridge.
• Worried about the plants. Wondered if they get enough sun. Are they happy? 
• Washed the dishes.
• Went on an hour long procrastination walk. 
• Ate a doughnut.
• Thought about making apple crumble. Realised I couldn't because the oven is broken.
• Made strawberry and basil syrup to go with the ice tea.
• Cleaned the kitchen.
• Washed my hair.
• Thought about planting rainbow chard. 
• Painted my nails. 
• Published a blog post. 

back again, maybe.

Last time I was in Vietnam, I tried to blog about it every day. That didn’t work out very well.  Last time I was here, my grandfathers were still alive. Last time I was in Vietnam I spent new years eve watching a Veronica Mars marathon

A lot has changed. But when I’m back here, I feel like I did, like I always do.

I feel lost here. Literally. 

I’ve been here so many times, but I still have no idea.

I feel overwhelmed.

I feel hot, and sticky, and uncomfortable.

And disconnected.

My Vietnamese is much better now, mostly because of work. But I still don’t know what to say to anyone. And anyway, they can tell I’m not from here by looking at me. People literally stare. It’s a bit unnerving. 

Anyway, so I'm not allowed to do a lot of things here. For example, I can't eat raw vegetables/lettuce because some guy someone knew did and then he got a worm in his brain and then he died. I also can't take my phone or camera anywhere. So maybe there'll be no photos/posts again, ever. 

Anyway, so today I went to 2 different markets in search of some t-shirts that don't have any writing/words/logos/pictures/patterns/lace/frills/ruffles on them. This type of t-shirt apparently doesn't exist. Anywhere. Ever. I did find a lot of t-shirts with pretty hilarious pho puns. I would've taken photos, but you know. 

mosquito bite count: none, yet. i'm scared/dousing myself in insect repellent. but that never seems to stop them. 

day negative one.

oh hello there blog,

so. i'm on placement again.

today i did nothing! which i mean, i'm not getting paid, so YAY. but if i was going to do nothing... i could've gone to work, which i LIKE and also, they will pay me so boo. or i could've done nothing elsewhere. like, say at the park. or at the library. or at home? and when i say i did nothing, i lie. this is what actually happened.

i went on an orientation tour of the hospital, where someone pointed at things and told the 1-2 people near the front what they were, while leading us in circles. so actually, i don't know where anything is. where's the pharmacy again? where's the bathroom?

my pharmacist was sick and the one who was covering for him ditched me. for um. 9 hours. during this time, i tried to update my twitter, ALOT. tried to send SMS's re: ZOMGSOBOREDHELP. and failed. I also flicked through my work book alot (can't actually answer anything without seeing some, you know. actual patients. or whatever), reapplyed my lipgloss 10-35 times.

i scammed free food in the morning but missed out on nice looking yoghurt & muffins. also, missed out on free food at lunch. am majorly disappointed.

i counted 3 pictures of the pope. keep in mind, i spent most of my day in the 1 room.

um, so i learnt nothing. lets hope it gets better.

OH WAIT, i know where alot of fire extinguishers are. for some reason they liked to point them out in the orientation tour.

...right.

the future or otherwise.

Scrap that, I have no idea what I want.

I've pretty much decided what I want to do, and it scares me. Because wanting and getting aren't the same thing, obvs.

The whole process seems to be centered around choosing what you want to do. And who with, but its a total lie. We're not the ones that get to do the picking.

There are three places I'd be happy to be at next year. But taking the risk for #1 & #2 means saying goodbye to option #3. And, so while I've pretty much had it sorted 2 weeks ago, I still don't know if its the right thing to do.

I don't know if this is the same as the end of school. Where there's so much focus on the 4 digits & the decimal point. Like, it won't really matter in the end anyway. Because no one cares after the fact. But next year is going to be tough, no doubt about it. The perks of full time work are hopefully being able to switch off when you leave the 9-to-5. And the perks of studying? Having an excuse not to deal with everything else/have a real job. And next year? Its the worst of both worlds. And I realise, these 4 years of 'preparing' for the real world and probs for the most part irrelevant ("i can draw the chemical structure of cholesterol! will that help?").


Everyone I asked at the careers thing basically told me the same thing. You've got to think about where you wanna be in 10 years time, and go with that. My instinct says, um... I have issues picking an outfit in the morning (admittedly, its kinda difficult when you've got 60+ dresses, but lets talk about that some other time/you can yell at me later). But the truth is, I have a vague idea, jobwise anyway. Which makes me not want to go there even more. The only thing I remember from the careers counselling crap we did in high school was that the average person makes about 6 career changes in their lifetime, so whatever everyone. I just want to see something different, even if its within pharmacy. Because I'm the kid who's only ever worked in pharmacy (working for my parents doesn't count, except: oh my god please don't ever make me play secretary, even if I do type fast)

I don't know if its true, but I'm under the impression that switching from A to B is alot easier than the other way round. So, if I'm gonna end up doing B anyway, why not try A out for a little while first. So what if I am maybe wasting my time, yeah?

This is the part where even though you have no idea what I'm talking about, you reassure me. Or, persuade me otherwise, b/c I only have a few days left to chicken out.

dot points.

You know what? I've got stuff to say. But by the time I get to the computer, I'm not feeling it anymore. Or I get distracted by nearby shiny things. Or I've forgotten. Lets do this in dot points shall we?

1. Firstly, these are not dot points. These are numbers. Good going marlene. Moving on.

2. When did we last speak? Its been so long. I don't even remember. Oh, I see. Well, there was uni. Then there was placement. It was not exciting. I did not get any $$, but I did get some perfume. The perfume was described as a masculine scent feminised. I do not know what that means and I'm still not sure if they were trying to say something or not.

3. I left that perfume at my old house. Yeah, we moved. It was a disaster. I complain to anyone that listens. Especially, but not limited to, the entirety of Jungle when its early/empty.
3a) I have no bed.
3b) THERE IS NO INTERNET.
3c) Its pretty, but I feel as if I am not allowed to use anything. We have 2 kitchens. The microwave has recently moved from the normal kitchen to the garage. I do not know where anything is, but I made a kick arse pasta sauce on Sunday night regardless.
3d) I do not know where anything is.

4. I have 3 weeks off starting next week. I hope this means we can play! Except I may have accidently told my boss about this. She was VERY excited, clapped her hands and proclaimed that it was the best news she'd heard all day. She may or may not have squealed a bit. My perceptiveness leads me to suspect that this means I may be working alot.

5. Yesterday, my horoscope told me that I need to build a ladder of hopes to get me out of my hole of self doubt. For some reason, Jonathan (fucking) Cainer has been spot on lately(with the exception of that horoscope right there). I still do not like him.

6. Right now, I'm supposed to be forming words into sentences. Actually, I was supposed to do that last night, but I knit a bit and then went to sleep instead. Either way, its not going particularly well. I do not really know/understand what I'm writing about. I hope that won't be a problem?

7. Since the last post, I have also managed to lose consciousness & fall over (in that order). I should probably get that checked out or something.

8. I am not sure why I like city library so much, considering it appears to be full of creeps/theives who like to talk to me.

Examples:
Creepy Guy #42: "You type really fast. Did you want to go get a coffee?"

Creepy Guy #42, again: "Oh, so you're studying pharmacy. Maybe you could check me out some time."

Creepy Guy #165: "Hello, How are you?", M: "Good" *backs away*, CG: "Are you from Japan?", M: "No.", CG: "Where are you from then?", M: "Melbourne." CG: "Oh, so near Japan." I would like to point out, just in case, that this exchange is occuring IN Melbourne.

I don't understand the way people ask what country I'm from, like no really, where are you actually from/where were you born etc. It makes me more determined to say Australia. Also, how people ask what my "real" name is. Because, y'know the name written on my birth certificate isn't real enough for them.

9. The word creeps made me think of crepes.

I um, hate pharmacology/pharmaceutics. Oh, and I have short hair. Over and out.

centre place

i've been hiding out at the library alot. again. i do this often. these days i'm doing more people-watching than studying. and more tweeting than lectopia-ing. but whatever. here's the view from my seat.i took that with my laptop and now everyone thinks i'm a weirdo. but whatever, now that we're all caught up on where i am right this second; wanna hear what happened yesterday?

First of all, I forced the sun to shine with my summery attire. The people rejoiced and gave me chocolate for my efforts. I know, amazing right?

this is me not studying among the study-ers. look my hair matches my scarf! i don't know why.

The other thing that happened left me confused for at least 2 and a half lectures. A random stopped me on the way to the tramstop & I, quasi-typically tried to do the avoid eye contact/brush off. It didn't work. She was trying to find the 'chemist' (which was right in front of her). When showed her, she seemed not to believe me and proceeded to tell me about her feelings and how she thought she might be pregnant and therefore needed a test to check. i was like, yeah you can get one in there. but she still seemed confused. so i had to take her in and show her/explain how to use it.

Seriously, why me? I spent the next 5 minutes checking that i wasn't still wearing my pharrmacy name badge (the one that save's the uni's arse if i accidentally kill someone while slave labouring). Then I realised how weird she probs thought i was afterwards. Helpful, but weird all the same. I just don't get how out of all the people on the street you'd pick me to ask about that sorta thing. I mean, I look about 12. No one believes that I've finished high school. Patients at the hospital were lovely, but also probably wondering why they let the small children talk to them. I still don't understand. But I'm also starving, which is more important right now.

flame trees

I have this other unfinished blog post, which has now been rendered irrelevant. Since, well, I'm no longer in geelong.

I'm back at uni for 2 weeks and then off to do some more slave labor. I don't think this kinda thing is good for my health. Anyway, so I just tried to open the website for the pharmacy i'm going to. And it won't load, so basically I'm largely unimpressed, already. Check back for irregular updates of my unimpressed-ness, coming to you maybe some time in the future.

I hate not being able to work at my own work while I'm on placement. Seriously, I dreamt about working when I was in geelong, did I mention that? Yeah, loser much?

So. So far today, instead of doing what I set out to do, which was say... write this non-assignment reflective essay (which I can't do, because the question is basically besides BLAH what else do pharmacists do. and i don't know what they mean by BLAH. so there's a problem), I've emailed sylvie, facebooked, opened and closed twitter several times, sms-ed gemma and started watching dollhouse. oh and i had a coffee. good work!

So did anyone else get that sms from Vic Police about the extreeeemes of conditions? Yeah me too. I hear some people actually replied. "O, thx 4 dat. I wuz thinkin of having a BBQ 2nite. But guess nt. Wht u up 2?" really guys? Its meant to be 32 degrees today, but last i checked it was raining. And I may/may not have just heard thunder.

Okay, time to go.
....and post!

felt like the start of something bigger

12/02/09
So did I mention I'm in geelong? Maybe, who knows. Expect this post to be written over the course of forever, because I don't even have the internet. Mostly I'm too cheap to pay for wireless broadband since i'm never ever gonna use the thingymibob you plug in ever again after this. Luckily I kick Tho off his laptop alot. This keeps me from going insane/having withdrawals. I have no idea where tho is, but thanks tho!

I've been 'working' at the hospital for 3 days now. I use the term working very loosely. Obvs this is placement, so I'm learning stuff too yeah? Anyway, this is much less slave labour and slightly more being-in-the-way. Skills I've learnt so far include: trying to stand as far out of the way as possible. Also, my blood sugar is kinda amazing, so I'm gonna keep eating candy. This false sense of security will probably give me diabetes and um, yeah... that's all I've got. Things I've found amusing include: the chute system thing where you can send little canisters around the hospital. They get sucked up (it even makes a sucking/whooshing noise) and it makes me giggle. Also, I found a tablet counter! You throw tablets in and the machine tells you how many. Apparently its super old school, but its totes AMAZING. I am super imprest. That's a stupid pun. I'm gonna go hide in the corner now.

---

14/02/09
Its saturday now. I ran away home because everyone who brought a car was going home. And I didn't particularly like the idea of being stranded. So I caught a lift back home. I don't really know what the deal is, but I'm already sick of placement. And I get this feeling its only gonna get worse.

Here's the thing though. The actual placement hasn't been that bad. Its kinda like the opposite of warrnambool. I'm not being used and abused, mostly because I don't actually know anything. So the actual being at the hospital is okay. But I'm over living in like a college, with shared living/cooking/laundry areas. I mean, we don't even have an oven. like what's up with that?!

---

15/02/09
I think the real deal is I've always been able to say: I don't know where I wanna go/what I wanna do, I mean, I've never even worked in hospital. I don't know what its like. What do pharmacists even do in hospitals? What if I love/like it? And well, now... I can't. My cop out/don't think about the future/whatevs gonna happen next option doesn't exist anymore. I've been, I've seen and I still don't know. I expected for some reason that I would have at least some idea. That way I could get my shit together and figure it out. But obvs that's asking for alot.

I'm scared of having to choose one way or another.

I guess I hoped this would change everything.

You know what has changed my life though? This:

yeah that lion is totally eating like, a whole goat. okay i exaggerate, only half a goat. i have pictures of goats with heads, but i won't show you.

I'm possibly scarred forever.

Here are some less disturbing photos from our excursion to the zoo:

lost+found

Clearly I'm an awful blogger. I was gonna say that it's because I haven't been doing anything, but really, I didn't do anything in Vietnam either, and i managed to blog about it then. So really, I have no excuse.

Since returning to Melbourne, I have:
- Worked alot. Over the last 2 days though, 'working' meant cutting out alot of love hearts.Which shamefully, I love/hate. I'm guessing I've cut out about 400. For reals. I was also (jokingly, I think) offered a job in Darwin. My marketable skills include typing fast, dressing nice and extreme heart cutting skillz. These clearly mean I am going to be a super dooper fantastic pharmacist, you know, one day.

- Eaten ice cream for breakfast. It was peach/yoghurt with strawberry stuff. Obvs because it was yoghurty/fruity I was able to pretend it was also nutritous. I mean, like... people eat yoghurt and fruit for breakfast right? Mine was just frozen. In my defence it was the day after I got back and the only things we had in the fridge was a 6-pack & a bottle of coke. I had to go OUT to get the ice cream. Later that day I had dodge tattersall's lane dumplings & beer. Amazing. See?

- I also did alot of boring errandy things. These include: the things I should've done when my wallet was actually stolen, searching for the right highlighters (bic briteliners are shit btw, don't do it) & making trips into the city to buy my sister text books/visit uni for 2.5 seconds because they need to physically see the ORIGINALS to believe I'm not a criminal.

- Not yet unpacked. Its really freaking difficult to unpack when your things are spread across 8 suitcases. I thought I had most of it. But I'm missing about 4 tshirts and a skirt. That um, I can think of. There's probably more. But these things are new, so ... also i apparently left some clothing behind in Vietnam. Not by accident, but because we couldn't fit it in. Not even with the rolling. Come to think of it, those things are probably squished under a speaker. Yeah, still.

- Celebrated Chinese Lunar New Year. Well not really. I worked that day. I totally jumped when I was offered that shift, not because it was Lunar New Year but because it was Australia Day, and hello double pay! I actually had no idea the 2 were on the same day this year. My mum was none too pleased. I mention this yearly, but whatever you do that day reflects on the rest of your year apparently. I don't know what the problem was though... I'm okay with double pay for the rest of the year.

- Melted. 44 degrees for several consecutive days. Enough said.

- Knitted a beret/thing. Clearly something about 44 degree weather shouts "knit something warm and wintery!" Seriously, what is wrong with me? Although, today I saw a similarly handknit thing selling for $50, so um, does anyone wanna buy it?

- Played guitar hero.

Today I:
- sms'ed step-by-step instructions on how to draw an atom. This could mean that my sister's chem teacher is fooled into thinking she actually understands chemistry.

- discovered that there's another waffle on. HOW did I not know this? I wish waffle on still lived up to the expectations I have in my mind. As in, exactly as amazing as they were in high school and as cheap as they were then too.

- went to the lost & found market and bought an adorable vintage apron. Now all I wanna do is bake rainbows, cookies, sunshine, cupcakes with sprinkles, apple tarts, and hand make puff pastry. Any volunteers for dish duty?

- right now i'm trying to figure out how to get to the zoo by public transport, this involves the same tram stop that takes me to uni. Twice in 2 days? I was probably there less when I had actual classes. Incase you were wondering:

1		Continue along		Royal Pde		10 m	about 1 min
2		Turn left at		Walker St		220 m	about 4 min
3		Turn slight left at		Unnamed Road		300 m	about 5 min
4		Turn right at		Elliott Ave		60 m	about 1 min
5				Unnamed Road		10 m	about 1 min

Thanks metlink! unnamed roads? Sure, no problem.

Tomorrow:
- I need to go get to the bank and reset my pin. Because, uh. I don't know it. Problem much?

- Buy picnic-y things & take my sister to the zoo to see some giraffes with super long eyelashes, baby elephants & try to leave her with the monkeys. Then we're gonna feast & watch kmh/the verses. Its gonna be amazing. We won't get lost. Maybe I can get a pet puma? Yeah?

I'm. Really. Hungry.

in hiding

I'm trying really unsuccessfully to hide out while my parents dad pack. He's alternating between accusing me of not being able to get my shit together and mumbling about how much there is to do and how its all on him. Unfortunately, he's chosen to pack on the floor right behind me, anddddd there isn't internet anywhere else, so I'm not moving. I think my mum's trying to hide too. This is because, without fail, my dad unpacks everything anyone else has packed & repacks it, all the while telling us how fail we are. He likes to roll everything up. And while I appreciate that's the best way to pack more in, sometimes there's not all that much stuff and you end up with too much space and your things roll around.


This time however, we seem to have ended up with ALOT of stuff. Here are 3 things I can see:
- Speakers. Four of them. I'm trying to figure out how much they weigh without getting too close, I can't see, but they're direct/reflecting speakers. I don't know what that means. But they're big.
- Oh hey! Look! Its the 6 tops i bought for $15. Unfortunately, they're all the same shade of purple.
- Light fittings? Seriously, what is this?

Cya in Australia/somewhere in between/whatevs

pee ess, Happy Birthday to Crystal!

i lost count.

I'm writing from my hotel room in Nha Trang. We arrived here bright and early this morning, having left home at the totally decent hour of 4:30 am. But don't worry, we took the easy road, and flew instead of going with the 10+ hour drive. Probably on a dirt road. So its all good. I have no idea what's so special about this place, since the last time I was here was 12 years ago... so i did the logical thing and wiki-ed it.

Wiki says: It is well known for its pristine beaches and excellent scuba diving and is fast becoming a popular destination for international tourists, attracting large numbers of backpackers as well as more affluent travelers on the Southeast Asia circuit. It is already very popular with Vietnamese tourists. Nha Trang Bay is amongst the world's most beautiful bays.

I was also told by the hotel staff who picked us up that we'd just missed Miss World. Who apparently has been staying here and just left this morning. Apparently she smiled alot and didn't talk much. And then I read: Nha Trang was the site of the Miss Universe 2008 Pageant that was held on July 14, 2008.

So um, obviously I've been living under a rock, yeah?


So far...
- I got 3 mosquito bites in the 1st 10 minutes. I was eating breakfast. They were eating me. Some list some doctor printed out for me which I pretty much ignored said that you can get malaria in Nha Trang. Don't have to worry so much in the city. Obvs I ignored all the advice right? I mean, preventing malaria? What a drag. I'm just gonna drink vodka tonics. One of the 4-5 things I learnt at uni last year was that people used to drink gin and tonics cos it prevented malaria tranmission. Its all in the blue-quinine-y sheen of the tonicness.

This is not Nha Trang.

- I met some Australians! I was trying to squish my way back to some stall my mum was back at, mumbled something like "Excuse me. Sorry. You're right." And the guy was slightly in shock and blurted out to his sister "She speaks normally!". Yeahhh... Hi guys... That's cos I'm from Australia. We became BFFLs for approximately 5 minutes. I don't know their names, but fuck, I miss home.

also not nha trang. somewhere in between phan thiet

- I went on a chanel 2.55 hunt. Yes, my sister is still looking for that bloody bag. We came close the day before yesterday in Saigon, except they didn't have black. And my sister has her heart set on black. Fussy fussy fussy. Found some similarish ones today, but they were were the 'reissue' version. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. But I had to go after some random lady who HAD the bag to ask where she got it. I'm pretty sure I scared her/made her think I was trying to steal from her or something, because unforts she didn't understand english very much. Or Vietnamese. Or German. I ran out of languages after that. But I think we deduced that her sister bought it for her from France. Or she was from France. Something about France anyway.

random sand dunes, mui ne

- I bought some sweeet glasses for $6. They pretty much look exactly like my glasses but navy. Only my glasses cost about $294 more. Being half blind is expensive y'know? Salesperson originally said they were $16. Absolute ridic. I probably would've tried to buy it for $10. My mum is the bargain master. Except she called after us the first time we walked away. I reckon we could've gotten it for $ 5. Seriously. On the topic of things I bought today : 2 skirts and a ring.

actual photo of nha trang.

- Blackout! Last time this happened it was the night before some exam. I don't remember which. But I spent alot of time smsing the people I'd been emailing/chatting/whining/ranting to about exams to complain more,omg fail! and to let them know I was still alive, and hadn't done the sensible thing and turned off my computer to study. I then spent alot of time playing with candle wax and trying to position the light on my phone so i could see. Only to have it automatically switch off every 2 minutes. Damn energy conservation! This time, we waited around in the lobby, being assured it would be fixed soon. Really soon. We waited. And waited. Got fed up and went to the beach. I nearly stepped on a syringe. We sat around some more. Two hours later, we gave up hope and walked the 9 flights of stairs to our room. The power came back on like, 10 minutes later.

Tomorrow I plan to lounge around, watch gilmore girls/greys anatomy, find a book to read that's actually in english and take advantage of the free wireless. My sister plans to wake up just in time for the buffet breakfast, eat a lot of bacon and going straight back to bed, she will also take advantage of the internet. My mum plans to wake up super early, go for a walk along the beach, suss out if its gonna rain or not and then drag the family on a tour to monkey island. I'm guessing she's gonna win.

t w e n t y t h r e e

We're on the bus to Phan Thiet at the moment. We've been driving since 7:30, apparently it's 11:30 now. I don't know how much longer there is to go. My sister's playing her DS, and losing. And there are alot of dragon fruit trees going on outside my window. Also, I've noticed that every cow i see has this white bird near it. Like, they're just hanging out together. the white bird just sorta stands obediently by its side. I have no idea why this is.

Some road rules:

- People wear helmets now! its amazing. these helmets don't look particularly safe or anything. and they're hardly ever buckled up, but they exist now. Apparently they have for a year now. the birthday of the helmet passed recently. Though, I'm told that you only have to wear a helmet if you're riding a motorcycle, not if you're riding a bike. wtf?

random. what happened to the 'sun'?

- Sometimes, the green man means you're semi safe to go. I still nearly get run over alot, because apparently, or so I'm told, bikes/motorcycles don't have to listen to the traffic lights. Apparently you get less traffic jams this way. I am thinking this is entirely untrue. But highly annoying, because it means I have a less valid reason to fume and yell 'rude!'.

- I've mentioned this, but everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. My sister observed that we've been driving in the left hand lane for approximately 2 hours. They drive on the right here btw. The other night, we were stuck in traffic, and I was already late - the taxi driver cut across the left hand lane of oncoming traffic and drove on the sidewalk. I kid you not. I was terrified. We tipped him well.

this christmas tree was made of beer bottles. that's my kinda christmas spirit.

- Right now there's a kid half hanging out the door/window of the bus in front of us. We're driving on a freeway or whatevs.

I'm hungry. Are we there yet?

sixteen, seventeen

My sister's really sick. Spent most of last night/yesterday sitting up with her and mum trying to cool her down. She says things like 'its so hot turn off the heater please'. I'm pretty sure there isn't a single heater in this entire country. She's sleeping now.

Went to visit my dad's parents yesterday. We were meant to stay the night but my sister got sick, and they're kinda far from the hospital etc. so we went back home. Just in case.

I've noticed there's a disproportionately large number of stores specialising in maternity wear here. Is everyone preggers? I never noticed. Its just that, well my eye sight isn't all that great, and I often look across the street to see something that looks kinda cute, only to realise upon closer inspection that it's actually a maternity dress. I'm hoping this reflects the weird number of stores, and not my taste in clothing.

---

I think everyone is sick of being here already. I really wish I could be like," omg guys, having so much fun. Best time of my life! Don't have time to blog. Bye!" But we're all kinda bored. My dad's only been here for 2 days and even he doesn't know what to do with himself. Mum is like: "This time it isn't fun. I want to go back. I don't think we'll be going to Vietnam again for awhile." And then she formulated an escape plan which involved running away to a hotel in the city, where we are now but check-out time is in half an hour. My sister's gone back to sleep. Its like a vacation from our vacation.

Its not that this is a bad place to be on vacation, but we don't get to leave home all that much. Have I mentioned there's a lot of eating/sleeping/eating/eating/sleeping in this country? Probably. That's probs why I've blogged more than ever, despite having not that much to blog about. I'm also only doing the annoyed day whatevs blog titles because I need some way to keep track of how many days have passed. Seriously, I've lost all track of space and time here. I don't know what day of the week it is. But lets be honest, even with this, I have no idea.

I feel like we have alot of things to do at home, and nothing to do here. I feel as if we could be doing alot of more productive things, such as: find a cure for cancer, clean my room, write some lists and repaint my nails. Also, I still wouldn't mind actually working. Is it wrong that I want to work, and in retail no less at christmas time? I think my parents' workaholic tendancies are rubbing off on me. I think this is also why they are bored, they need stuff to do. When my mum brought up the boredom with her sister, my aunt said "This is a holiday, you're supposed to do nothing. That's why they call it a holiday." Erm, is this what you all do on holiday? I don't get it. Can I do nothing on the beach please?

For Christmas we're going to run away to Phan Thiet with my mum's friend's family. We've done this before, like awhile ago. From what I remember I liked it. But I don't actually remember it at all. Then we're going to Nha Trang. I haven't been there since like, 1996 but apparently its super touristy now.

Okay, its time to go. The phone's ringing and I'm pretty sure its the hotel staff telling us to get the hell out.

day whatevs til now. o7 - 14?

Its raining here now. The weather's weird, and so, everyone is sick. I was miserable and whine-y for a day or so, but I'm starting to feel okay now. I hope. I tell myself I'm not sick at all. Because of this we haven't really been anywhere/done anything. Today I went to the supermarket, seriously, that was probably the highlight.

My dad gets here tonight, so I suppose that means we've gotta go visit his family. Which, just between me and you, I'm dreading a little bit.

Everyone is siesta-ing. Its highly annoying since things close, but I subscribe to it erratically, since I have nothing else to do. Its weird though - I feel as if this constant eat/sleep/eat thing they've got going on would make you fat. But everyone here is teeny tiny. I often get told when asking for a larger size that whatever it is - is a one-size-fits-all. But apparently not me. The only thing I've supposedly got going for me is that i'm white/pale, which the pushy shop assistants claim looks good with whatever colour I'm trying on. They're very anti-tan here, they have whitening creams! Oh and I'm 'tall'. Whatevs.

Speaking of the buying, I went that market I fainted at last time, and bought some $8 work shoes that will probably fall apart in 1-3 months, 6 dresses for well under $100 and a $2.50 bra. I have to go pick up one of the dresses today because as previously mentioned I don't fit into anything here, and had to get a zip put in, but they alter shit for free, so hurrah! Oh, and I caved and bought mascara (i forgot to bring one, even though i have about 75) at the supermarket today. How annoyingly girly.

Also, I'm still being molestered by mosquitos, still. I've gotten 3 mosquito bites writing this post. Insect repellant doesn't seem to work. Or maybe it does work - I'm too scared not to use it, just in case. Can I get malaria here? I probably should've looked into that. Should I still be afraid of bird flu? I don't know. I just won't hug any chickens, yeah?

Dip. Dip. There's a party on the hill, would you like to come?

So I was just complaining to myself about how I've run out of stuff to write about, and Crystal has come along and solved my problem/made my life more difficult by tagging me to write about my unspectacular quirks.

The Rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

I feel like there should be another rule since everything about this is done in sixes. I'm almost compelled to make one up.

o1. I eat fruit with salt.
You probably won't find me adding salt to my dinner at the table, however I do eat it with fruit. Weird, no? I get a lot of looks when I ask for salt just as the random free fruit platter comes out at the restaurant. I used to think it was an asian thing, since they're quite into their sweet/savoury pairings, but even they give me strange looks, so really I think I just picked it up from my mum. Its not all fruit. Salt with any berry is weird, bananas are out of the question, but apples, oranges, jackfruit etc its all fair game. And its a must with watermelon, seriously. Don't diss it, you have to let it settle/soak in for a second, but then it makes everything taste sweeter. I swear! I don't feel like I've ever converted anyone on this.

o2. I leave home unnecessarily early for uni.
I'm talking like, an hour and a half unnecessarily early. Just so I have alot of time to sit down for coffee, read my horoscope, whine and pretend to study. Ironically, despite getting to the CBD at least an hour before class starts, I'm usually late for said class(es) because I get distracted trying to con someone into giving me chocolate or marshmallows, instead of decorating cupcakes with them. Or am too busy complaining about how much I hate Johnathan Cainer. Either way, it takes me about 30 minutes of saying "I really should leave now/should probably have left 10 minutes ago/my class starts in 5 minutes I should go/I think I'm already late for class" before I'm actually on a tram.

o3. I'm fairly anti-aircon.
Its just really artificially cold and makes me feel abit sick. My relatives here are really confused by this. They're all like, "But you come from a cold country! How do you stand the cold there?" Winter cold is a completely different type of cold. My uni likes to make my life more difficult by being overly enthusiastic with the heating/cooling systems. Its like they like to waste money. If its anywhere in the vicinity of 'warm' they'll blast the aircon, howevs if its 'cool' they'll turn the heater up so high you can barely breathe. As a result I wear alot of layers, carry a jacket all the time, and wear scarves that double as shawls/blankets. Also, the thing to change the temperature settings resides on the roof. Makes sense, no? As a result, I don't think just anyone is qualified to change it. They probably need to hire some guy to do it. But don't, which is why its constantly ridiculous.

o4. I'm really picky about stationary.
Last year I rediscovered my love for Bic Classic finepoint pens. I sort of maybe refuse to use anything else. I buy these by the box. Before that I liked these pharmaceutical company pens - you know the ones that drug reps give to doctors etc? So, I might be drowning in them at work, but um..., I like these ones made by this Vietnamese drug company. Way to like things that aren't difficult to obtain, at all. Also, I can't study without highlighters. To be even more annoying I have this colour coordination thing going on. Purple is a really bad highlighter colour since its too dark - so I use it like a texta for big umbrella headings. Pink for headings, Orange for subheadings, Yellow for in text highlighting, Green for examples, Blue for definitions, Purple again for equations. So that was to much information, but now you know. I feel like no one understands me on this - but at least my notes look pretty.

o5. 80% of the time I have block of Lindt chocolate stashed in my bag.
Its always some variety of dark chocolate, and we all know that has antioxidants so it CAN'T be bad for me right? At some point i probably went through 3 blocks a week. That's weekdays. Despite this chocolate obsession, I weirdly never eat chocolate at home, I think it has something to do with the fact that I didn't like chocolate as a kid. Boy am I making up for it now. So on the holidays the chocolate goes untouched. My waist seems to feel indifferently about this. Mint is my favourite. I like the chilli chocolate as well. The new pear flavour confused me completely. And I usually don't like orange chocolate but Green and Black's Maya Gold chocolate is pretty amazing. That's what's in my bag the other 20% of the time. I still hate Lindt cherry chocolate, no matter what you say.

o6. I don't wear pants.
Actually, a pushy sales assistant forced me to try on some pants that matched the jacket i tried on the other day. But besides that, it's been awhile. I don't really know why. It was an unconscious decision. I think I discovered stockings and learnt that my legs weren't colder. Sort of like when you realise getting your ears pierced doesn't hurt that much, so then you want more. Obviously I couldn't think of anything else to write about.

Um, so pretty sure I don't actually know 6 bloggers that haven't already been tagged for this. So I'm only going to tag 3. Plus, Crystal did it too, so there! I'm tagging: my beautiful year 12 buddy Vi, my lover - that girl, & last but not least, haivee.

o5 and o6

Yesterday we went to Vung Tau, to visit my aunt who lives there. She's the one that surprise visited us the other day. She's a nun and lives there with y'know, the other nuns. They run like a hotel, and use the money to teach the poor/orphaned kids and help the elderly there who have no one to look after them. They're also completely adorable.

We had lunch there, and then we hung out at the beach (i think most people slept), and everyone was too lazy to go exploring. Losers.


The nuns also make candied fruit etc to sell. They have alot of fruit trees, which they used to use, but um, there was a massive storm/hurricaine in 2007, and the trees have never fully recovered. Anyway, they were so cute! I think its rude to call them 'cute' but they so were! They kept feeding me the candied fruit, like "They don't have this over there, does she know how to eat it? Try it!" and then when i could they kept GIVING me all this stuff to take home. I felt like i was robbing them. They also showed me all the stuff they were doing, one brought out all these little bags she was making for the kids for chirstmas/new years. Like these bags were made out of material scraps, like no bigger than a few ribbons that she joins together to make the bags. She was like its such a waste to throw away the materials, so i make things for the kids. Do you like them? You can have one, go on choose.

this is the place next door, that hasn't yet been fixed up, obvs.

Also, I saw approx 2 turned-over trucks on the way there. It was only a 3 hour drive, and I was asleep for probs an hour or so.

---

Today I bought alot of stuff. I'm trying to buy myself a hot corporate wardrobe for when i become hot and corporate - as in never, because pharmacists don't dress cool. I really should've thought that career choice through a bit more. The pharmacist jacket doesn't sit very well. I wonder if I could get one tailored? yeah? No seriously, I bought about 8 shirts (they were cheap! like $8.50) and a jacket for like $15, and a dress for the same amount. That's like, a lot of stuff. In my defence, I'm sharing all of the shirts except 1 with my mum. I still haven't bought shoes. Am working on it.
Then we went to Saigon again to shop, etc. My sister got some clothes. I got confused by Christmas, again; and by how anyone here can afford anything.


Other places we were touristy:
- Gloria Jeans
- Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci (again); anyone notice a theme here? But more importantly, look at cinderella and prince whatever! charming? I'm trying to curtsy, like a disney princess, but i have no skirt. Also, the doorman was dressed like prince charming!
- Saigon Centre
- Diamond Plaza

Mosquito Bites: 11, i think.


Also, of importance. We crossed the road by ourselves today (my mum and I)! For some reason I think she was more scared than I was. I don't know why. And so I present to you,

Marlene's Guide to Crossing the Road in Vietnam:
Since road rules and lanes appear to be of no significance here, you should probably be scared. But fear is healthy. If its your first time, do it with someone from Vietnam. Hold their hand, close your eyes and shuffle slowly across. I'm not joking.

If you're going this alone, its probably best that you open your eyes, howevs, it will be scary looking. No one here believes in giving way. Pedestrian crossings mean nothing here, ps. Don't mistakenly step onto one expecting cars to stop for you, they won't. You'll die. Same goes for the green man, He exists now! I was so shocked when i saw one i had to take a photo.

So crossing the road is easy! You just have to kinda like feeling slightly suicidal. What you do is, even if there are cars/motorcycles/bikes (and trust me on this, or you'll be waiting forever) step out onto the road. Its perfectly normal to wince/be a bit jumpy. And basically you walk slowly across, waiting for the traffic to swerve to avoid you. This isn't too dangerous, since they drive a speedy 15-25km/h around here. Some people are bastards though, and don't avoid you. I suggest you glare at them alot. As I said though, road rules mean nothing, so look both ways, even if you're on a one way street.

day o3 & o4

last night my grandfather showed me a totally ancient radio and alarm clock. they used to be my mum's like, 30 years ago. then he whipped out some certificates (awards and the like) of hers when she was in high school. they're so old! people have nice writing.

the radio still works apparently, my uncle just bought some batteries for it, and its making staticy sounds! i'm amazed, even by that. they were telling me that after my mum and my aunt left Vietnam, news was hard to come by, so they'd secretly listen to the BBC at night on that radio, to hear, i suppose if they survived or not. i can't believe they weren't allowed to listen to the radio! well international radio. sometimes i forget about the communists. who're now probably gonna delete my blog or something right? good, cos like i don't know how this whole striving to blog more thing is going. omg! words! real words on the radio. i have to go stare at how old it is, and be amazed some more. bye!

---

this is a "mai" flower, it usually flowers around chinese new year time (late jan/early feb) but for some reason at least one plant at my grandfather's house flower suspiciously early/late whenever i visit. they joke its just for me (my vietnamese name is mai linh).

so that was yesterday, that was probably the highlight of my day. we had people over, so we didn't go anywhere and ate alot. i had/have no idea who they were. i just smiled alot and people seemed pleased that i could respond when they asked me if i understood vietnamese.

we also haven't really done much today either... apparently we're going out to dinner tonight or something. i spent most of the day playing yoshi touch and go on my sister's DS.

i also cracked the shits when my mum insisted on buying me a dress. we went to some shop like down the street, and i tried on a few things. they were nice enough, but i'm a bit scared. everything here is very flash. i couldn't buy work shoes because plain black shoes without a heel don't seem to exist. its gotta either have bows or flowers or sparkly bits. the clothing is kidna the same. its all frills and lace and BOWS and awkward bits that are comnpletely unnecessary. but you know, after awhile, you think maybe this isn't so bad. but only because the certain thing you're looking at happens to have slightly less bows/dots/sticky outty bits/glitter/sequins IN COMPARISON to everything else around. So uh, i'm probably gonna end up buying lots of things i won't actually ever wear when i look at it in comparison to my normal clothing.

So we were in an actual shop, as oppossed to a market, and i don't think they let you bargain in shops. well not this one. we tried the - "So, if i buy three dresses...how's that gonna work out?" It didn't. If it was any consolation though, the girl said that if anything ever broke, we could bring it back and they'd fix it for free. I wonder if they'd pay for the plane ticket as well? Cos in that case, totes bargain. Anyway, the point is, the dresses were nice but they weren't Ahh-mazing, and they were in the $45-$55 dollar range, each. And if you know me, you'll know that 98% of my clothing cost me less than $20, at most. i'm telling you i have a top that cost 50 cents. Its nice too. I wear it out. The other 2% was probably marked down from like $300, but i probably bought it for < $100. No joke. So, i didn't really want three $50 dresses. i didn't even want one. but for some reason, my mum really wanted to buy me a dress. i feel like she's trying to make up for something. but i don't think she is. This is Vietnam, the stuff is meant to be cheap! So my argument was, that i wouldn't even buy a dress for that much in Australia, and so why would i do that here? I think she said something about no one else having the same dress. But whatever. The other thing is...my wardrobe is insanely massive. Its probably double the size of a normal person's wardrobe... and i have alot trouble fitting my clothing in there (side note: we're moving, and i saw what was marked out to be wardrobe space, and holy crap, nothing is going to fit in there). So because of the excessive amounts of material goods i own, i probably shouldn't spend too much money on even more clothing. I think the fact that i really didn't want her to buy the dress made her want to buy it more. Reverse pyschology much?

---

After dinner we drove in circles (literally), looking for some place that didn't exist. Or we'd been given the wrong address, either way. We'd given up, gotten out, and walked, heading for ice cream instead. Stopped outside Louis Vuitton, looked for my sister's bag, acted like tourists. Across the street, as we were leaving, there was a huge crash, and i watched as part of the Carvalle Hotel exploded and fell to the floor. We walked away and sat watching from a cafe across the street, while hundreds ran towards it to see what the commotion was all about. I watched as the police & ambulance arrived, as hundreds ran down the stairs, fleeing the hotel. I still don't know what it was (it was only an hour or so ago), but in this post 9/11 world, you know what my first thought was.

i'd like to add that i had the "grivil" ice cream, which was passionfruit ice cream in guava juice? it was weird.

day o2

google's weird. facebook tells me everyone else is in the future. the vietnamese sim card changed my phone's language settings to vietnamese by itself, and i can't understand enough to change it back, so now i don't know how to save my phone number. plus they use big words. my mum couldn't do it either.

familly photo guys! that's everyone! well all of my mum's sisters, and they're on the phone to her brother. so that's everyone!

---

Marlene's Guide To Not Getting Ripped Off at the Market

I swear everything's more expensive than it used to be here. its supposed to be cheapcheapcheap! Like, more than double of what i remember things to cost, heaps worse than any of this inflation, CPI business. Also, the dollar is sucky, which doesn't help. So here's how not to lose at the markets, y'know, probably based on how i actually slipped up.

1. If you happen to be Vietnamese, try not to speak english. Try not to speak Vietnamese as well. they can tell! Just try not to speak at all. Which leads me to my next point.

2. If you know someone who lives in Vietnam and is actually Vietnamese, drag them along. Force them to do all the talking and bargaining. This saves you from the vendors hiking up the price at least twice. Its even worse if you're not asian. If they ask you where you're from, feign ignorance. My mum likes to pretend we're from Dalat, which is in the middleish of Vietnam, and slightly cooler - explaining our paleness. I fail at this, everyone thinks i'm Japanese/Chinese/Korean. Not saying excuse me, thank you, smiling too much or being too polite probably helps also.


3. Try not to whack your sister in the head too obviously when she starts speaking in english.

4. Try not to clutch onto your bags too obviously. But still, watch out for pick-pockets, esp if the market is squishy.

5. Never look too interested in what you actually want to buy. Defs do not squeal, OMG! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. It helps if you pick some sort of flaw with it. Or pretend to hate some aspect of it. For example, oh but look its scratched! even if you get me a new one it'll probs get scratched easily. its nice, except for that bit, if it didn't have that bit i'd like it.

6. Bargaining: Probs best if you start at roughly half of whatever it is they want for it. Things you could include:
- in response to the price: "No, tell me the truth now. Be serious, what's the price really?"
- if your friends like something from the same store, or you like more than one thing from that store: "How about if i buy lots/more than one thing?"
- if that fails "that other store offered me the same thing, for *insert price that is less than whatever they're offering, whether or not its true* and i even walked away from that."
- could also try: "it was cheaper over there" (usually they say that even though it LOOKS the same, theirs is superior quality etc. lies!) /"i bought from here last time, see i remember you, i'm such a good customer. discount please!"/"look i just stood here, and look at the luck i've brought you. look at all these other people who're at your store now! i'm good luck, you HAVE to give me a discount". seriously.

7. Don't believe anyone that tells you they have "fixed prices". Its never true. Everyone loves some bargaining. They account for it, they totally win big if you buy it for the marked price. Howevs, most things don't even have a marked price on purpose - that they can say whatever
they like.


8. Try not to get too attached to things you want. You need to walk away. Like actually, if they don't give you the price you want. 50% of the time they'll call you back and already have your stuff in a bag. If you really do like it, you can always come back and up the price a bit.

9. Try not to take obvious tourist photos like this in clear view of the vendors.

omg! its a really big pretend diamond! and a christmas tree! i don't know what its for! lets take a photo!

10. If you have specific wants, you're probably gonna fail. Like, my sister has photos of the fake-but-not-fake-looking bags she wants. Whereas i wanted nothing (except work shoes, which i didn't get), and got heaps.

---

Things consumed:
- pho, twice (that's my actual bowl, when i remembered halfway through)
- vietnamese iced coffee
- spring roll (yeah just one)
- rice, some green leafy vegetable
- papaya, custard apple and green star apple?
- croissant with cheeese
- chrysanthmum tea

we ate lunch at this chain called pho 24 which is kinda expensive - for vietnam, because my sister wanted air conditioning. the waiters are super attentive and it freaks me out. i want to eat on the street.

Places we acted like tourists:
- pho 24

- an dong market (or plaza like they like to call themselves) - old and new sections.

outside "an dong plaza". everyone seems to be REALLY into christmas atm, the last christmas i spent here, i don't remember it being so big. someone was playing christmas carols in our street, i'm scared.

Things i bought:

- 2 pairs of heels
- 2 shirts
- underwear - bras are kinda "expensive" now. i'm waiting to go to "ong ta" market to get some, where hopefully, i won't repeat the marlene-fainting-at-the-market- onto-a- pile-of-bras incident of '07.
- a fake LV wallet to replace the maybe fake, maybe not chanel one that was stolen


Mosquito bite count:
- three. i'm actually doing pretty well.


omg guys, i found peanut butter and chocolate oreos at the supermarket. i was VERY excited. i jumped around alot. i think my family were embarrassed. i thought they stopped making those! i can't find them in Australia anymore! they were a year 12 staple/constantly in my locker along with tea and migoreng! okay i think i have to go eat one now.

plane, day o1

So we're on the plane there now. It really gets to me, my sister's reasons for not wanting to go are SO different from mine. She thinks she's above this. Better than this, better than everyone and the way they live. It's too hot, I don't want to sleep there. Do we have to stay? That hotel's only 3 stars? I can't comprehend why it doesn't make her grateful for what she's got. That this is her family, and they (have to) live like this every day? It makes me appreciate how lucky i am, to have what i have. She however, thinks she deserves everything she has and only wants more. She keeps talking about how excited she is to go back home, because of all the presents she's gonna get (Guitar hero world tour, 4 new perfumes, some other stuff i cant' remember) and i just want to slap her.

this is darwin airport. Pauline says: can we go duty free shopping? i'm so excited, buy me stuff!

I don't think she feels connected to Vietnam at all, but it means alot to me. Even before I'd ever been there, it was where my parents grew up; the setting for their childhood stories. I don't know much about the country's actual history, but i know where my mum went to school, which beach they used to holiday at , how my grandfather once owned the entire laneway they live in in now. How the three story house on the corner of that laneway was the one they lived in. How my mum had the entire third floor to herself at some point. These are her memories, but they're almost mine too.

My mum was my age when she left all of that. Left everything, with literally the clothes on her back etc. There's a ring she still wears that survived attack by Thai pirates, deserted islands with no food, etc. So i was talking to my mum about this the other day, and i was all like "I can't believe you were my age, I don't know anything about anything! I haven't lived! You had to grow up and stuff" and she was like "Well until then, I hadn't known anything either. My parents took care of everything." and then i wanted to cry. Because what i was trying to get at was, please stop being so overprotective and let me do stuff.

---

Day 1.

Things consumed:
- more petrol than necessary - Pauline didn't wanna walk. She prefers air conditioned taxis.
- hu tieu nam vang
- chao tom
- some other noodle-y soupy thing that we don't seem to have in australia
- coconut juice
- nem nuong

mind you, its only what? 4pm here? i need to start taking more photos, but my camera was running out of batteries.

say hello to the powerlines. everything here seems really unsafe, but everyone seems to get by just fine.

Places we acted like tourists:
- Saigon market where i bought pretty scarves and my sister searched for good fake bags, which i don't think actually exist here.
- Actual tourist places, where we attempted to book flights/tours to Hong Kong, still don't know how that's going. Probably not at all. Alot of these seem to be take a number wait your turn type things, that don't actually work. One place, accused us of not listening carefully enough when they skipped our number. In reality someone apparently pressed the wrong button or something. Rude. It was kinda hilarious though, because it took 20 minutes of sitting there to realise that after the vietnamese number, they actually read the numbers out in english. I'd totally win at their job.
- Chloe, Marc Jacobs and Gucci. Why? ask my sister.

the gucci store is insane. these places make my heart hurt.

Mosquito bite count: zero. surprising. spoke too soon, lets make that 1

Also, had a surprise visit from my aunt, who's a nun and lives an hour or 2 away. First time in ages all the girls in my mum's family had been together. My mum keeps saying, all the birds are flying back to the nest. We're just missing my uncle, who's in Vietnam atm, but visiting his in-laws.

So i'm gonna try to post about it, but probably actually wont. no expectations yeah?