Having a lot of trouble with computers at the moment.
My computer can’t connect to the internet for some reason, and Campbell’s laptop had an accident and is now missing the letters “h”, “g”, “@” and “backspace”, which doesn’t really make for joyfull writing.
Just posting this to say that I am alive and well.
We arrived in Nha Trang from Ho-Chi Minh by nightbus (not recommended, unless you are a midget).
Nha Trang was great, but the whole town was out of electricity when we arrived, so we booked into a hotel that had a generator but that was a tad over our budget…it was worth it!
We went snorkling the next day (wish we had gone scubadiving), it was so nice! Great visibility and lots and lots to see!
The hotel also had a swimming pool on the roof top 
Sorry for being away so long.
Ive spent one week in Vietnam so havent had a lot of opportunities to write on my blog. Coming back home to Shanghai tonight, so from tomorrow on I will start blogging again 
promise!
Apart from inventing football, they also invented the pancake, Japanese hairstyles, and Magnum Ice cream.
Yeah that’s right. My local sources tell me so.
I like Ho-Chi Minh even if our stay here is short. But the main thing to do here seems to be eating.
I have had so much good food and the inviting restaurants are just lined up. I wonder how long it would take to get through all of them.
So far in an attempt to try as many places as possible we have had more than the normal amount of meals per day.
Eat, rest, eat.
Everything tastes so fresh here.
We also went to a market yesterday where Campbell beat me. I bought a nailpolish (that campbell thinks my nails look like they are rotting, what ever) and a dress.
Campbell on the other hand increased his pants wardrobe with almost 100 percent, that is with 3 pairs. And some t-shirts. And a nice shirt to go stalking important people with. More about that in my next post. hehe
Tonight we will take the night bus to Nha Trang, Beach Time!
There are reports that schoolchildren as young as 5 years old in Norway are using hijab.
I am against a ban on burkas and hijab, I think people should be allowed to choose how they want to dress. I know how angry and pissed off I would be if anyone told me what and what not I could wear. If someone feels uncomfortable, objectified, and exposed not wearing burka/hijab then who are we to tell them that they can’t?
BUT
Why would a child need to cover up? In the West we might not consider hair a sexual part of the body, but boobs and butts would fall into such a category for most people.
Yet, when we see a naked child, or a child with exposed upper body or bum, we don’t view it as sexual, because it’s a child! Children can be all naked and there is nothing sexual about it. There is no reason to cover female childrens hair either. It is a child, and if you think it’s normal to look at children sexually if hair/bum/crotch is exposed then there is something wrong with you.
Covering our children up with the purpose of de-sexualising them paradoxically actually makes them sexual objects because we agree that their body parts are sexual and therefore need to be hidden.
So when it comes to young children, I do think we need to have restrictions on clothing. No thongs and no hijab for young children.
I even think it’s kind of sick to put on a bikini top on an 8 year old.
So we have finally arrived in Vietnam.
We barely got here.
When we got to the airport we were told that our tickets had been cancelled.
riiight.
When I called the travel agent it turns out that my card payment had not been successful when they tried to withdraw money from my account. Fair enough, but how about letting me know?
Luckily they had free seats and we could buy new tickets at the airport, phew!
On the flight I saw a lot of lightning. I was scared, but it was kind of awesome to see. Like watching Natural Geographic or something. Looks a whole lot different from up in the air.
We landed safely, and lo and behold, it turns out that the World Economic Forum is being hosted in Ho-Chi Minh tomorrow (well technically today). Unfortunately the registration fee is rather steep…thousands of euros.
I suppose forums regarding economic wellbeing is nothing poor people should be concerned about? Leave it to the rich and wealthy, they’ve done such a good job of it until now (for themselves at least).
Off to Vietnam!
You can get hold of me by email, will be back in Shanghai on the 14th
The world’s uggliest dog has died.
Well, the dog that won the world’s uggliest dog competition in 2009 has died.
I have seen worse, way worse.
When I worked as a dance teacher last year in a small old building on Fuzhou lu, there was a small little monster living in the stairwell.
Or rather, I thought it was a monster the first time I saw it. Locking up the studio one of the first evenings afterwork, the stairwell was very dark. And at the bottom of the stairs I saw something.
Yellow eyes glaring at me, displaying its fangs with its huge underbite. I got quite scared and stood still, not daring to movie…but then I realised that the creature with sporadic hairgrowth across its body, was just a little dog. I think it must have been equally as curious of me as I was of it.
I have never seen anything so uggly. But it turns out she/he is quite nice. And I think she/he is loved too. I often saw the dog being cuddled and fed by a Chinese man outside the studio after that evening.
Unfortunately I never took a picture of monster dog. Maybe I will go and see if I can find it tomorrow and post a picture of proof on this website.
I think she/he deserves the honour of winning this uggly dog competition!
We had our thesis defence today.
At first I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, but then I got worried when I heard that a bunch of people didn’t get through.
But it all went well for me I was in the top three, and one of the professors said she hopes I will continue to research on this topic.
Some people rocked up about an hour late to the presentation, herrrro. Talk about not taking it seriously. And one guy had even written a comparison between the three countries China, Korea and Taiwan. Errrh….
he got into so much shit for that, because as we all know (or should know here in China), Taiwan is not a country, but an outer province of China!
Ah…so now only one question remains:
For how many weeks can I say that I am on holiday before it is classified as unemployment?
