Welcome to Club 62 Nghĩa Tân! or, Third Time's the Charm

Here it is, my home. For real this time.

After being kicked out of my home by the complication police, moving back in with my boss, and then passing a rather dramatic two weeks at a house which I eventually chose to leave, I have found a host family.

I have just posted a virtual tour of the house on facebook. And just in time to celebrate my move, Thế Giới Publishers held a children's Mid-Autumn Festival party in which I played the role of chị Hằng, the woman in the moon.

Here is a picture of my host family. From left to right, we have Tám (pronounced sort of like "Tom," means "eight"), Hiếu (pronounced "hew," means "filial piety") and Hạnh (pronounced kind of like "Hank," means "happiness").

Hạnh is my co-worker, so I call her "chị" (older sister) instead of "cô" (aunt). That makes her husband my older brother and her son my nephew.

This family is atypical in a few other respects, too. First, unlike most families, which have two children, this family has only one because, in Hạnh's words, it's "exhausting." Second, most nuclear families live with the husband's parents, but this family lives with Hạnh's father and mother, Uncle Huỳnh ("H-wing") and Aunt Hồng ("home," means "pink"). And third, my host "older sister" is a bad cook and has no shame in admitting it. We frequently eat out when Aunt Hồng is gone.

I can tell things are settling down now because I have established some solid routines. For instance, every morning chị Hạnh wakes me up at seven and I go down to the kitchen for my morning ritual.

This little domestic picture you see here is very dear to my heart because it is the 100% certified authentic Vietnamese way to get caffeinated: Trung Nguyên brand coffee beans (grown in Dà Lạt and roasted to a strength of 5 on a scale of 1-8), steeped in a stainless steel filter, sweetened with Ông Thọ* condensed milk, and stirred with a dinky tin spoon.

*Ông Thọ is the name of the god of longevity, who for some unspecified reason is always depicted with a protruding forehead.




Another routine dear to my heart is the morning commute. Check out this album to see the sights, some ancient, some modern, and all rather off-kilter and out of focus, that chị Hạnh and I pass every day on our way to work. Believe it or not, this is one of the highlights of my day because...(drumroll)...I have learned to drive motorbike!






Finally, a third routine we have developed is going out for evening drinks. We always order the same thing: fruit juice for me, iced coffee for anh Tám, and yoghurt coffee for chị Hạnh and Hiếu. The cup in the foreground is tea, provided free by the cafe.

I used to think it was lame when people always ordered the same thing, but I'm coming around to this routine thing. We are indeed creatures of habit. In the right amount, routines support us and let us know what to expect, like school and work schedules. They also refresh us, like the weekly rest on Saturday and Sunday. Or they keep us in shape, like regular exercise and going to church. So what I mean to say in this rather scattered blog post is, I am doing well. Thanks as always for your prayers and support.