The literature on VN we've read over the past year consistently highlighted "water puppets" as a unique entertainment in VN. Yet the readings never clearly explained how they worked. I can't do any better. The human puppets look like they are molded out of bowling pin material (and are approx the size of bowling pins), but have movable arms and legs, depending on their roles. And there are lots of animals. The puppets are not controlled by strings or by the puppeteer's hand, but by underwater sticks. The pool of water in which this performance occurred was hip-deep, so there was likely alot going on underwater that the audience couldn't see. There was music throughout. The singing and speaking parts were all in VN, but we could get the idea of the story anyway. Indeed most of the audience appeared to be foreign tourists. And we attended on Sunday morning when there were least likely to be foreign bus tour groups in attendance. Also on Sundays, photos/videos recordings are free, so we taped most of it. Thus, if you really care, we can show it to you and I don't need to try to continue to explain it. Ha. Money and time well spent.
We had front row seats. C therefore did not have the challenge of trying to see over anyone (come to think of it, I didn't have that usual problem either!). He ooed and squealed throughout and would grab either of our arms to make sure we saw what was happening. (I recall doing this to my parents too. I don't think it occurred to me that if my mother shelled out $ for tickets, she darned well would be watching intently!)
Dinner was a real treat as the hotel staff took us and another adoptive family, as long-term guests, out to dinner. It's a new hotel and they like the idea of building relationships with our adoption agency who can supply them with the steady stream of long-term guests. The food was delicious, C ate 2 bowls of chicken corn soup and a fried mini-banana, and the hotel staff were genuinely interested in what they were doing well and how they could improve.
T went shopping, again. She had so many bags, she had to take a cyclo ride home. Therefore, a fantastic day!
On that note, it is time to report on re-reeducation. When the liberation forces overthrew the US imperialists and their puppet government, they sent capitalists and those sympathetic to the puppet gov to be reeducated. (Part of reeducation is learning the correct terminology. E notes, however, that much of the stuff the imperialist US government is blamed for here actually occurred before the US was deeply involved here or before the S VN gov could reasonably be called a puppet gov. But let's not let historical evidence interrupt a good story...) Now that the VN are avid capitalists, perhaps a re-reeducation is in order. Thus, the following are the results of E's on-going re-reeducation:
1) Goods bought from poor, developing countries in the US take advantage of exploitative labor and hurt US jobs. Goods bought in poor, developing countries are good deals.
2) Purchases that might cause one's significant other to raise his eyebrows or groan are in reality "great bargains."
3) The purchases of many great bargains do not aggregate into costly sums.
4) Many great bargains do not fill up additional space in luggage or weigh any more to carry.
5) Many great bargains do not necessitate the purchase of additional furniture (or rooms) at home to display.
6) Confucious say, "Children need formal attire for yearly bar mitzvahs." "Children should have many knick-knacks to display and enjoy meditating on the joy the knick-knacks bring to the universe. Children will not want to play with them or crush them to separate the ying from the yang."
7) Confucious say, "Beware of yanking your wife's chain in blog, esp. when she is looking over your shoulder and tends to edit the blog when you are done to include such non-Confucian sayings like 'happy, happy, joy, joy' or 'happy Snoopy dance.'"
8) -------------------- [The Committee on Re-Reeducation now brings you songs by happy, patriotic children...]
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