Vietnam week 5 - Perfect party guests, tailoring & hair cuts!

Hey folks, (it's a long one today, so sit comfortably!) 5 weeks in already and time is flying by so quicky! This week I must share with you a tale of Vietnamese culture and a Hoi An (town where I live) speciality...So Tuesday night this past week we had our House 'wetting' (warming), as dictated by my lovely Vietnamese staff from work... after spending days worrying about what the bloody hell the procedure was here for organising a party, and what food should I make, I was assured by my Australian colleagues that the staff wouuld 'sort everything out', - "wait" I said, it's my party, I should make the arrangemnts, but I was again told just to have some beer and soft drinks and the rest would be 'arranged'...a funny custom I thought, letting the guests arrange a party... I decided that I should take some active part in this though and came up with the idea of cleaning the house, (well sweeping the parts that people would be in at least! - mum, you taught me well!) so to the day of the party, the staff ordered food for 20+ people picked it up after work, and borught spare seats on their motorbikes, they invaded my house like an army, and marched past me into the kitchen where they proceded to grab plates, cups and dishes to lay out the food and then set the dining table out with a vast array of sea food and meat dishes with shrimp, rice and noodles.... it was fabulous and just when I thought these wonderful colleagues of mine couldn't surpass this treat, they did what for me was the unthinkable... after everyone had finished eating, the girls began clearing up the plates and washed everything up... by this point I felt embarrassed so I made one final assualt to take the sink, but was beaten away with dish clothes and told I could not participate in the cleaning up.... and remember when a party is finishing it finishes within 5-10 minutes here, no lingering around... to conclude I think you would have to agree that I had 'the perfect party guests'!!!!! I also wanted to share with you my first experience of the Hoi An tailors, after I decided yesterday to go and have some smart/casual shirts made, as its as cheap to have clothes made here as it is to buy them!!! so after a flick through a catelogue yesterday and selecting some material of my choice, I was asked to return today to have a fitting....it was hot hot hot today and by the time I headed down to the tailors my t-shirt was stuck to my back with sweat, and having lost some weight in this heat my shorts weren't far from falling down to my ankles. I arrived in the shop to be met by Xuan (the tailor) and her young assistant, they showed me the finished shirts and insisted I try them on, but with no where to change that I could see, and being on a fairly busy road in an open-fronted shop, I wondered if I should just strip there... well no time to wonder as the young assistnat just began yanking at my t shirt, and no sooner as I had it off she was holding up the first of my 3 new shirts and buttoning it up on my bare chest.. I wondered if this was included in the price? after giving me lots of compliments of how it looked (as you'd expect) she was once again moving toward me at lightening speed to begin undressing me... I was pretty conflicted at this point wondering if I should be horrified that I was being undressed in full public view, or try to conceal the fact that this was quite the enjoyable experience!!!! all three shirts were good, and i'm heading back there tomorrow for a full suit fitting!!!! (just kidding!), My third strange experience of this week, is the one thing that frightens me most about staying in another country for a while... getting your hair cut that first time... will they understand that 'take a little off' does not mean leave nothing on! It was too hot to put off this task so I asked the local cafe to recommend a place, and they pointed just two doors down, to a barber on my street.. a local place how perfect! as I entered the very small room, with two leather chairs, that appeared to tilt further back that a massage chair you see at airports, I wondered if I should try and leave quietly... not a chance, as a young guy appeared from the back room, full of enthusiasm for cutting my hair, and using my most polished sign language I shouted loudly, please don't shave the top bit!!! he began shaving off the sides of my hair, and then once the scissors were in his hand, he appeared to cut my hair in quick rapid movements, whilst standing, in what appeared to be the most complex of all yoga positions.... still, he was clearly out to impress, and after giving me that well practised G.I Joe look, I began to get up... noticing I had left pools of sweat all over his leather chair!! thats going to hike up the price, I thought. Placing a hand on my shoulder he thrust me back down into the chair and said "I not finish", I said I'm not Finnish either, I'm from England" but he didn't get the joke... and opened a draw, where he took out a rather scarey looking sharpe blade... ok I thought, people in the street can see whats going on, you'll be ok, deep breathes... and then without warning the barber began scrathing at places on my face where I didn't even know there was any hair to remove... my forehead, and then my ears, on my ear lobes!!!! what a bloody cheek I thought!!! thats not subtle!!! at 60,000 dong (£2) I thought I got the tourist price too!!! I think I'll go back though! Work has been good with a friday afternoon party for international children's day (today), lots of kids attended and we all sat in a cirlce singing and talking, with my party piece of 'ba ba black sheep' going down a treat! I've also been making some great contacts with the Australian OT's who are here, and teaching me a whole new language.. including phrases such as: 'cracking sads' (eyes watering), 'how did you pull up' (how were you feeling the day after), and 'shooting through' (are you leaving early?) And I thought Vietnamese was the only language I was going to have to learn!!!!I could go on, but I'll leave it there for this week!
Regards from Vietnam
Dan