chicoong

[chicoong]

Truyện mỗi ngày một câu

Thị đã bảo gã đừng có giở giói ra làm gì, thị sẽ tung cho bằng hết. Thị đã đi qua những cánh đồng, qua những dòng sông, thị hiểu tâm hồn thị là ở đó, giăng giăng từ núi này sang núi khác, không chật hẹp như thế này.

[chicoong]

Bestfriends

It was a starry night. We were 4 people: my boyfriend, my bestfriend and his girlfriend. We were breasting the only hill of the botanic park. 

- In summer, nothing could compare to a walk in starry light in a park with our loved ones, said my boyfriend with a grim finality in his tone. Right on cue everytime, I agreed with him and decided to call my friend living next door. We were childhood friends who raised pet together. He loved writing, i loved reading. I read everything he wrote, even his diary which to me he loved to see my breasts. But he never got up the nerve to ask me to touch them even thought i didnt mind it. We just showered togherther when we were kids, nothing more.

Anyway, he never turned me down on anything. He had girlfriend who was 2 years older than us so I wouldnt want to agitated her even though I despised he for the way she mothered him. Well, she was with him everytime he was with me. That tipped the scale of my hatred toward her. 

- Just a night walk, do you need to call her out? She must be at dinner with her family right now, said I in saucy voice, trying to distract him from her.

- She loves walking in that park to a tee, said he.

Well, I didnt want to be confined to the role of boyfriend’s bestfriend. My boyfriend straightened me out once. Sometimes i just wants to beat the shit out of him for understanding me so thoroughtly.

[chicoong]

“Alligator” fruit

In front of my house, there was a sour fruit tree which I didnt know the name in English but in Vietnamese, it was literally “alligator”.

You could get benefit from this fruit in many ways. One of these was to soak them in coarse brown sugar for about 1 month, then you would have a drinkable juice for hot summer days.

Another way was in cooking. “Alligator” came into its own on duck. Oh, man, rightnow i understand how the name “alligator” came. To catch real “alligator” in U Minh (Half dark half bright), fishers used duck as bait.

In my childhood’s narrow measure, “alligator” was as big as an orange, but in a poem written by a famous poet who was praised as the prince of Viet love poems, it was just as big as a button. Anyways, he didnt found its thorns which looked so unreal to me. Well, I felt constrained to harvest when they still had thorns on their body. But I didnt have the lightest idea of what would going on having sour fruit in my garden. 

Sour fruit could be a treasure for pregnant women or scruffy, snotty-nosed children. The apparitions struck me dumb for their impudence. They picked “alligators” right in front of my nose without any dread.

When I was sweeping my dirt yard of leaves, the gaggle of rustabout passed by and without any signal, one of them jumped up and reached his hands to a big branch. They were strong enough to lift his whole body up, just swung it a bit in the air before his body landed back to the ground with some fruits in one grimy hand. 

Then he left hurrily not because of his realization of my presence but his need of catching up his peers. His carriage didnt show any sort of embarrassment.

This time, I was dreaded.

[chicoong]

Online registration of stay in Vietnam

Today, we went to police office to extend Ximong’s registration of stay. I entered the office. There were 2 men sleeping or just lying in bed. One got up and told me to go upstair to see Nguyen who was in charge in that term. 

I climbed up a spiral staircase to get to his air-conditioned room, but noone was there. I went down and wandered to look for him. He was sitting in a room of the new building with some other men. Oh shit! I didnt want to draw a crowd like the last time. But he saw me and called me to get in. There were exactly 5 men in ordinary clothing, Nguyen himself didnt wear uniform either. 

He said Ximong could no longer stay in my house. He had to accommodate in some hotel or hostel. According to him, ordinary house couldnt host no foreigner. That news stirred my feeling.

The he adviced me to ask the owner of some hotel nearby for help. That guy could do that kind of administration process under his name without Ximong renting a room. Nguyen suggested on of his subordianates to give me instruction OUTSIDE. That guy sat there from the beginning and interrupted our conversation, tried to ring his voice in my ear many times with some threats which i considered bullshit. I just sat there and addressed Nguyen. He told me go home and solve my issue by cheating the paper system in the way he just threw out.

I left the room with the voice in my head: “Something’s wrong! I definitely never do that.” That voice beaten the police’s voice. 

I went home and did some research. Result: No limit toward ordinary house to host foreigner without familial relationship. I even found the way to register online which i didnt know existed before. Well done, police! The issue was made huge from tiny by you. 

To make long story short, I now know police can stir a storm in a tea cup and scare the shit out of you. We submitted Simon’s stay in my house directly to provincial immigrant office just by moving our fingers for less then 10 minutes.