Week which has National day。

Hmm, my life last week was quite boring, and there are not many things to tell. Hmm. I’m wondering whether I could carry out my “strategic plan” for next 4 months if I continue my life like that. Hmm. (Lots of Hmm, Haizz... Am I getting older and older? :-B)

We had our National day last week (on Wednesday, Sep 2nd, exactly) during which we were off from class. (It MUST be the National day, not Independence day at all. Prof. Sasges made serious mistake using the two words. Ain’t that bad?) However, to me, this year’s National day was not my day-off at all. Hmm. Unlike every other year when I hung out with my friends, went to historic places or went picnic (OMG, I miss those things crazily), this year, I had to get back home and help my parents with repairing our house (again, hix). No one could ever have any idea ‘bout this. Though, of course, we hired a group of professional builder (or Bricklayer?), my father insists that we gotta help them a great deal. That’s why I set my status on Facebook “Getting tired of traveling between home and school, back and forth, again and again”. My daddy even got angry with me ‘coz I played truant to have some spare time playing Warcraft with my buddies. One more thing I hated ‘bout this “construction” stuff: our work often finished quite late, and mummy didn’t go to the market at all → certainly we had “nearly nothing” delicious for dinner but some instant food, eggs.... (I’m quite mad at those things!) Ah, another thing was that when I had to work really hard and got no chance going out, my “dear” brother (who just came back from Australia lately, who insisted on whether repairing the house or moving out by himself!) went out with his girlfriends (that is Girlfriends with S) all the time. Dad and mum even supported him to do so. Hmm. What on heaven could that be? That’s definitely an unfair matter to me! Finally, at the end of the day, I found myself exhausted, unsatisfied (in term of my starving stomach, hixxx), jealous of those who could go out... However, it was my job to help my parents and aid the bricklayers. Who son is gonna let his parents bring 15kg of bricks, cements for a long distance? That’s so bad. But of course I hope we can finish our house soon: It does consumes quite much of my time and energy. ^^

That was my life-story of last week, which is quite family-ly, right. By the way, I love my family. (Sometimes I even dream of having my own family, but is it too faraway? Maybe I’ll tell ‘bout my “dreamy family” later! ^^)

Trip to The Manor

Last Friday, our UCHANU class had a chance to visit The Manor Hanoi – a complex of luxurious living apartments in the west of the city. The area, described as a high-end living community, certainly includes classy apartments and villas, a wide range of deluxe facilities and services. I myself was so excited to visit one of the most expensive areas in Hanoi, and that maybe (just maybe), I could enjoy being a part of it. Hmm, but reality is always not kinda dreamy things, and that really hurts. ^^

Hurt no.1: Well, after saying goodbye to us at the main entrance to The Manor, prof. Gerard heartlessly left all of us facing with tough and unfriendly guards. No matter what we explained that we would just go around, have some look, make some conversations, they seemed to have no intention letting us get inside. From gate to gate, from this guard to another, noone accepted our heart-touching imploration. Hmm, if I had been in their position, I would never have let a huge group of “crazily curious” guys with notes and cameras: What if these people could harm the residents? After that, we decided to go in small groups, to different places, not to raise the attention of other people. That seemed working! Hehehe, the guards could “prevent” a whole horde of us, but how could they even control when we use “divide and conquer” method?

Hurt no.2: At first, I joined the group with Trang Qua, Diep, Vivian and Wayne, but soon I realized I lost them when I was going around with Lan Chan, Chanh. Hmm, doesn’t that hurt? Or because this complicatedly-designed architecture made me dazzled? Hmm.

Hurt no.3: My dream about this place was definitely a “dreamy” thing: I could never be a part of The Manor. Firstly, it’s unexpectedly hella expensive, a four-storey villa of ‘bout 30m2 costs more than 10 billion VND (according to a girl I talked with). Where on heaven could be as expensive as that? Secondly, I don’t wanna live there anymore, and there are some reasons for this. In apartment block high-rise buildings, each apartment is only ‘bout 2.5m high. Who could ever live in this tiny “Paris-like” space? Moreover, it doesn’t look like a community, which it should be. How can tenants communicate with each other in a close-door living lifestyle? There are not so many people hanging around in public places like corridors, garden, swimming pools, side roads. How could that be even called a “community”?

Hurt no. 4: After wandering around, having some drinks in a family café, Craig, Chanh, Lan Chan and I decided to break into inside The Manor. However, the adventure had to stop when we had barely anything to see. Finally some guards tried to stop us when we were getting out. They kept asking us, quite aggressively: “Có ai biêt nói tiêng Viêt không? Lang thang thê' này thì chê't tôi không. Có hiêu gì không?” We pretended not understanding anything, and that might go well and helped us leave safely. Who could ever be sure that If we said a word, there wouldn’t be a serious quarrel or fight?

That’s quite enough to tell ‘bout The Manor. I thought to myself that I would never live there, but that’s due to financial problem only. Hehe, does anyone get my point? ^^

Four-month strategic scope. (Is it Micro-scope? ^^)

Telling about the future is always difficult, but setting plan for it is much simpler. By the way, four months, to me, is not long enough for a big leap or a “strategic plan” of my life. As a result, my “life plan” for the next four months is not something significant or of any huge change: I do not put so much ambition on it.

I would continue my academic term and try to have good results. I hope that I could also get to work at VOV5 more frequently (‘coz now I’m so lazy that I hardly go to the office. Instead, I work from a distance.) I also expect myself to be get involved more in the UCHANU class: I’m quite not “devoted” as I did expect. (In fact, I always blame on my busy-ness for not participating all the class’ activities. Is that guilty or not?) However, it was only very first lessons of UCHAN, “ngày rộng tháng dài”, surely I’m gonna make it out.

Wow, I thought that the “plan” was certainly simple, but when reconsidering it, I find it quite difficult to handle now. So, what are specific steps I’m gonna take to make it real? Hmm.
I have to reschedule my timetable, ‘coz UCHANU lecture is on Thursday, when I also have other major and political subjects. Hmm, I don’t want to drop anything, right? (In fact, I did drop Biz Communication, but not ‘coz of UCHANU class, but that it’s too boring. Hehe.)

Well, I guess that I can’t get back home every weekend any more. (When I’m at home, I do nothing but play games, hang out with friends, chit chat... These days I also have to help my parents repair our house.) So, I can have more time to stay at the dormitory, study, go to the library, and get on better with others...

Ah, I must take my motorbike with me to go to work harder. (I’m transporting by bus these days, and that makes me lazier to go to office.) However, due to my studying timetable, I can only get there on Wed afternoon, Thu morning and Saturday.

So, that’s it. My plan is small, and so are my specific doings. Hope that I can carry out the plan correctly and tightly.

Starting week of the academic year

It was my first week comin’ back to school after nearly two months of summer break. Just like many others, lots of feelings invaded me, and apparently, those are categorized into two types: excited to meet and hang out with friends, come back to normal student life, and the second one is regretful for not enjoying more during the holiday.

This summer, I got an interesting job as a journalist at the English section of VOV5. To be honest, it was great, but one thing I hated ‘bout it was that I couldn’t go traveling to anywhere with my friends or my family: they always chose weekdays to make out. Hmm. However, back to school means that I couldn’t go to work everyday any more. I had to trade-off between studying and working. Ah, another trade-off was that I dropped Business Communication to participate a course with UC students, simply ‘coz it’s so cool.

This semester I live in the dormitory D4, right in the campus. It took me lots of time to settle down, get on well with people, catch up with the life of a board student. I hope that I can do it well. And… why not?

Apart from ordinary major lectures, which were quite boring and non-informative at all, I also attended the first class of Vietnam society in transition course, which I think was the best-one-in-week. However, I got some difficulties understanding my American mates’ speaking: They were speaking “real” English, fast and with different accent and ways of expression, which was quite… unfamiliar to me. ^^ Hmm, hope that it’s gonna be ok, sooner or later.

About Rigg’s textbook, there are several points about Vietnam’s development stages that I do not agree with. The author criticized lots ‘bout our measures and strategies on the path to development. Though those are all extracted or quoted from previous factual reports/documents, they’re still different from what I’ve learnt before at school or from my parents. Is it the time I had to find the truth ‘bout what I’ve known? Not sure. Hmm. Hope the subject could answer that itself.

UCHANU students had a chance to visit Friendship Village in a suburban area of Hanoi on Friday. It was my first time visiting a kind of place like that though I used to carry out a report ‘bout that village before for VOV5. Just like others, I found the visit great and meaningful. Friendship Village is the result of the co-operation among Vietnam and some other countries, which takes care and gives medical treatments to war veterans and children suffering from agent orange/dioxin. We came to the village when children were studying in different classes, which are not grouped by age but their abilities. There were a number of children who couldn’t understand a word, some had problems with hearing and speaking, others had very limited mental understanding. Many kids even couldn’t participate any kind of class due to their serious health condition. Playing, speaking with them, attending their classes made me quite tired (in fact, I was not feeling fine that day.) However, those made me think a lot about life on the way home. It was a pity that I couldn’t join “Snail party” in the evening and the next day’s “Cha nhai + Bia hoi” ‘coz my house was under construction and I had to get back home to help my parents.

Well, that’s all. And the week was quite a good starting one, right?

Why Benson? ^^

(Link as followed)
http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14209766

To be honest, I've never read kind of "100% foreign" magazine like this, and understanding the English of a "100% foreign" magazine is quite difficult to me. ^^

So, what was the reason why I chose to read 'about Benson?

1st, it's just because Benson's obituary is the most up-to-date one, which means it appeared first in Economist’s obituary section. So, I read what I see first, that’s quite understandable, especially when it’s my first time, right?

2nd, I think the obituary must be “special and different” among others: it’s about a carb, not a person. To talk about either a good or a bad man, there are lots of stuffs. I bet that obituaries of human, despite their character, origin must be somehow the same. But telling stories about a fish isn’t that unique? How can the fish be “good” or “bad”? Moreover, the sub-title and the picture really did interest me.

In fact, I read the story quite carefully: I even looked up every new word. (That’s another way to learn English, right? ^^) The way the writer tells Benson’s tale is attracting, which brings me surprise to surprise: he must be a professional writer! I also did think about it. Yep, I drew some ideas after reading it. Firstly, for human beings, shouldn’t we care and be more friendly to the environment, the nature and our neighbor creatures? Secondly, for other… fish in the world, they are friends to us, every fish has his/her own contribution to the Development and Evolution, though he is dead by being caught, hooked, by net… his death is useful; just that people don’t make those deaths useless. (Everything must come to an end, so why don’t we make that “end” a worthy one? ^^)

Benson is the most amazing fish, ever. :D

My autobiography (Up to August 16 2k8)

My father always says to us, “We’re not rich people, but I’m pleased and happy with what we are having, and isn’t it great?” I’m so proud of being my father’s son and trying to be happy in any circumstance ‘coz I know that somewhere out there, others are less happy than I could be.
Being the last member in a three-child family, I was born in a typical Vietnamese village of Hung Yen province on December 22, 1988 – a Dragon. After 4 years living there, my father was provided with a piece of land in Gia Lam district – Hanoi (he was a lecturer in Hanoi University of Agriculture). I officially became a Hanoian then. My parents worked very hard to buy another larger land-piece, and even harder to build a better house to live in. I have one brother and my eldest sister, we were brought up as good kids. Father used to say that our clan had reputation for education and bringing-up, and we inherited that quite well.

My mother had to quit her job due to a staff reduction in 1998, she decided to open a small department store to earn a living and more important, to take care of us. The schools I attended were neither famous nor of high-quality – Agricultural Primary school, Agricultural Lower-Secondary school, Cao Ba Quat High school (now when I mention those names to my friends, they even laugh a lot, “What the hell is Agricultural Skuls?”. I don’t usually get hot-tempered with that ‘coz those names are quite weird, indeed) However, we had our two great home-teachers – my father and mother, and it was no doubt we could achieve good study results (In fact, I got some city awards for excellent performance in English and Literature).

When I entered grade 11, my sister got married and had a baby. Her small family lived together with us, and it was great to have so many people living under a roof. (I myself will surely have 4 -5 kids in the future. ^^) One year later, my brother went to study overseas, in Australia for 4 years. It was the time for me to be more mature – there were only two men in our family, dad and me. Proudly, I got more involved in and concerned about “home affairs”. It was also the time I had to study so much to participate the UEE – the greatest “event” to any highschooler.

Getting quite good result in the entrance exam, I enrolled to Finance and Banking major – my favorite one – in Hanoi University. However, I was not pleased with that, and I did participate some scholarships for freshmen from Singapore, Australia, trying to study abroad – like my brother, but obviously, I was not successful. Since then, I decided to spend the rest of my student life in HANU, I also moved to the dormitory for ease of studying and communicating. I found living and studying right in the campus was quite pleasant: I have more time to meet friends, go to the library and join extra-curricular activities.

Like many other students, I also had some part-time jobs: tutor of English, teacher of English, volunteer works, journalist... Apparently, those are not seemingly related to my major ‘coz I find it difficult to find a job in finance sector, indeed. (I’m starting to worry for my future right now.)

To conclude, I think that I’m spending my life quite well, and I’m ok with that. I’m not quite sure, but my father’s saying has become my “tip for life”: We’re not rich people, but I’m pleased and happy with what we are having, and isn’t it great? Isn’t it great?