There is a stereotype in the South about Hanoi people that they are incredibly cheap. It's such an enduring and pervasive sentiment that I have just collapsed it with our stereotype about Jews. Hanoians are Vietnam's jews.
I have had my own run-ins with Hanoi folks, and I must say, perhaps there's something in this stereotype. The ones i know are INCREDIBLY, irritatingly cheap. My absolutely HATES Hanoi people for this among other reasons. I mean, they steal, kill and eat dogs so they don't have to pay for food- really. What kind of likeable person does THAT?
There is a saying about cheap people in Vietnam. "So-and-So is so cheap, he hoards his feces to use as a pillow". I choked on my soup when i heard that. That's pretty damn cheap.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Runaway Monk
When My was thirteen, she ran away from home. She did it to get away from her brother who disciplined her too harshly. To be truly fair, he beat the hell out of her. Her parents seemed to condone it through their inaction, so My felt she had to remove herself.
Runaway kids in America go live with friends, or hitchhike to Hollywood or something punk like that. My, however, made her way to a buddhist monastery outside of Saigon, where she asked the monks to take her in. She decided she wanted to be a monk, and she started the path to monkhood.
In the tradition of inducting new monks in the monasteries, one must prove oneself over a long period of time. When you pass a certain benchmark, the monks shave a part of your head. Then you are easily identified as being whatever level you are.
For nine months My worked and prayed and did all that monk stuff, until the day when she was to become a full-fledged monk. But before she could have her proper monk haircut, she needed to have her parent's permission. So, for the first time in nine months , she contacted her parents to ask them if she could remain at the monastery.
They said hell no, get your ass home.
Since she couldn't stay at the monastery and since she had nowhere else to go, she went on back home in her robes and half-shaved head, and never got so close to that kind of life again.
Runaway kids in America go live with friends, or hitchhike to Hollywood or something punk like that. My, however, made her way to a buddhist monastery outside of Saigon, where she asked the monks to take her in. She decided she wanted to be a monk, and she started the path to monkhood.
In the tradition of inducting new monks in the monasteries, one must prove oneself over a long period of time. When you pass a certain benchmark, the monks shave a part of your head. Then you are easily identified as being whatever level you are.
For nine months My worked and prayed and did all that monk stuff, until the day when she was to become a full-fledged monk. But before she could have her proper monk haircut, she needed to have her parent's permission. So, for the first time in nine months , she contacted her parents to ask them if she could remain at the monastery.
They said hell no, get your ass home.
Since she couldn't stay at the monastery and since she had nowhere else to go, she went on back home in her robes and half-shaved head, and never got so close to that kind of life again.
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