Continuing on my feminist failures, I will have to deduct 50 feminist points from myself. A group of friends, who accidentally, EAG, was comprised of 7 girls, and I went to Kichi-Kichi, which is an all-you-can-eat rotary hotpot place where everyone gets their own mini hotpot, you pick raw stuff to put in the hot liquid, and cook it yourself. (see the link). So we were sitting at the bar getting our hotpot on and I had a person on both sides of me and got two conversations going. So when I talked to
I actually remember my response that night when I discovered what she was doing: "Damn, that is some wife material!" I know, kind of sexist. But as a person who generally serves himself, turning to your hotpot and seeing delicious and cooked things magically appear in your hotpot was very convenient and for some reason, tastes much better. I think it was the mystery of the unknown and the surprise that came at the end of my search--what dead item was being cooked in the incomprehensible depths (or about a 7 inches) of my hotpot? Frog Legs? Clams? Tofu? Shrimp? Yes to all!!
I told this story to EAG and told her cuz she was my wifey, I want surprises in my food. Then I thought it over and decided she would REALLY surprise me (i.e. "Is that wasabi in my ice cream?" Surprise!) so I took it back. The concept of women serving men food is bit complex here from my unofficial and unscientific study, which includes eating out and staring at people. The main difficulty is trying to figure out if women are just being nice (I think a lot of women who serve me are doing it because they are unsure I know how/what to eat) or if it is a result of some patriarchal ideology, or a combination of both. This is particularly difficult with younger people as there seems to be a more mixed showing. I do find, however, that many Asian female/Foreign Male couples do have the woman serving (and even feeding) men, which I don't think is bad but there is a patriarchal and post-colonial feel to it. Sigh, white men can never win =P and stop stealing OUR women!! says the guy with a non-azn wifey.
For the older generation, I think much of it is rooted with patriarchy. My landlord told me her husband is just incompetent so that is why she usually does the chores around the house, but I think that incompetence stems from him never having to do anything. A funny scene occurred a couple of weeks ago; It was just me and the husband in the house, as the landlord was out of town, and I came home around 11 pm to find this poor little man scourge around the kitchen looking for something to eat (he's normally asleep by 10). I think he made ramen noodles.
Food-wise, I'm okay but laundry I hate with a passion, especially here. The last two days were beautiful days--sunny and about 80ish degrees, something that hasn't appeared in Hanoi for weeks. So I decided I would do laundry tomorrow to take advantage of this sun and finally have some really dry clothes instead of the dampness that comes with cloudy cold days. Today was cloudy and dark. It's almost like living in Seattle...
My last story also involves laundry. Lunar New Years Day, I went to shower. Being American, I am weak towards cold water, which is what my family in Saigon has concluded. So when I shower, they heat up water for me in a pot and pour it in a bucket for my use. Okay, no problem, a nice hot "shower" (I use a water scoop) would be nice. Not wanting to be wasteful, I used all of the hot water, down to the last drop. I then grabbed my towel and wiped my face and hair and started to dry my arms. I then look down and see these tiny brown dots all over me--I'm not wearing my glasses and I am that blind. Turns out those dots are ants that decided my towel was play area. So then, naturally, comes the biting and the stings that result from that. My only option--rinse myself off. But, being a non-wasteful person, I used all of my hot water and now had to rinse myself off with cold water, which as anyone who has started in the hot tub and moved to the pool knows, felt much colder than it really was because I was warm from the hot water.
Ant bits on my neck, head, face, shoulders, arms and chest while I was shivering like a wet puppy. It seems I only get insect bites in large quantities over a large portion of my body (see HaLong Bay entry). Luckily, like AZN mosquitoes, these were tiny bites that didn't itch as much--I shudder to think if I was covered by Texas fire ants. Yeah, TEXAS AND AMERICAN ANTS ARE SUPERIOR!
USA
USA
USA
suck it communist ants.
tony
Oh and to ruin your day, the kitty in the pic on my sex post is dead. Got sick and died. This post is dedicated to you. RIP
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