Anna Blogging

[Tim]

Our teenager has set up her own blog with its own email subscription here: http://stellaluna33.weebly.com/vietnam-pages

I'm subscribed.

Nice pics, Anna!  I may steal some of your posts to put them on this family blog...

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Tomorrow I plan to go shopping with a Viet friend.  I don't know the "with whom" part yet, but I'm to the point where I need a translator for two special projects.

First, I need to go to the district of woodworkers. If you've been in Asia you know that the the phenomenon of car-sales lots (the one where the most successful lots congregate in a section of town, so every city has its "auto-row") extends to lots of other industries:  TV-Repair Street, Curtain-Making Avenue, Dentist Circle, etc.  But tomorrow I need to run over to the woodworking shops and negotiate the construction of a bed-table.  We bought foam from the guys who are making our sofa, and it is cut to fit in between the bunk beds and the wall of the kids' room, but now we want to elevate that third bed so that it's at 1.5 height on the bunkbed scale.  Bottom queen-bunk is Anna (the part toward the wall is hers, but the edge is more of a common sitting area, then the 1.5 bunk is a narrow 82cm with a custom foam-mat, and the top bunk is a standard twin.  So I need a Viet speaker to help me explain my need for .82 by 2m platform, made from no specific quality of wood, raised to 1.05m, etc.

I'd like to get off on the right foot with a good carpenter, too, because I'll be going back to this person for other simple projects like a custom table for the garage, etc.  I'm tool-less in Vietnam!

The other task I need a Viet speaker for is going to a tailor.  There is a Tailor Street down in Central, but I'm hoping I can use someone who is just outside of our neighborhood instead.  My immediate needs are to have some slacks made for teaching and we need to add a fabric backing to our bedroom curtains. They're not shear, but there is a streetlight outside of our bedroom window and it's a little amazing how much light is in our room all night long.  The streetlamp goes off at 5am, and this morning I was awake for that event and was shocked at how much darker the room got--I've actually never seen our room that dark before!  Dawn came 20 minutes later, but it was a desirable darkness for those 20 minutes.  So curtain backing, slacks-making, and some mending.  Gotta find someone local to do these things, and it's going to help to have a Viet along for that level of complexity.

Other shopping I can handle with the help of some certain "mime" skills and Google Translate on my phone.  Garage hooks, bedroom shelving, cell phone activations--no problem!  Having the sofa custom-made to western preferences would have been a problem with limited language, but the owner speaks decent English.  A little cheaper than just buying a set from a storefront, too!

Who will help me shop carpenters and tailors?  I'm going to Vision Cafe for English Club tonight, and my intention is to broadcast my need for a shopping-buddy tomorrow morning.  See who takes me up on it.  :)