Asian way of drinking beer

I don't really care since I don't drink beer.
But most of asian people do put ice in the beers.

 

I already can hear some of friends screaming "Sacrilege".

But that just the way things are going on here.

Few things on Vietnamese lifestyle and culture

As you know I participate to the vietnamese New Year celebration.


It was a good opportunity to talk with Viet people about their culture. I'll try to list them here:

1. They are very welcoming. This is just an impression, and it can be biased because it was New Year celebration and that at that time people are happy and more opened. But that was my first impression. According to one guy I chatted with, it's in their culture to be cool people. I guess that once you get rid of this "tourist" banner on your forehead, they are probably charming people.
   


2. Vietnamese elections seem to be kind of funny. Apparently there are no official candidates. When people go to vote, they wrote the name of the person they want to see as the president. I still cannot believe it. There must be a trick somewhere. Apparently, in order to prevent people to run a campaign, election date are not fixed. So at anytime, elections can be called. I guess there is probably a short delay before the call and the elction day. I'm gonna ask again because this sounds so wierd that I'm afraid I didn't get it right


3. There are many religious in Vietnam (buddhism, catolicism, etc.) But no matter what is one's religion everyone pray the god of the house. One different for each house. In every kitchen, there is a small statue placed just below the roof. And everyone pray that god. Moreover, one time per year, there is a big ceremony which takes place in each house. People gathered in the kitchen to pray and after celebrate.


4. Vietnamese people drink. And when I say they drink, I mean they DRINK. They drink beer like I drink water. and I can tell you, because of the heat I drink a LOT of water.

 

These are just a small fraction of the empty bottles. In 2 hours, I've seen myself being granted with 4 bottles of beer. And it would have been even more if I had actually drink them.


These are just the first glance I had at vietnamese lifestyle. I can't wait to go to vietnam. I hope I'll have the opportunity to do so. If I do, of course I'll blog about that.
So stay tuned, more to come soon.

Happy Vietnamese New Year

So today is the vietnamese New year. I didn't know that. but thanks to my friend Sherif I had the chance to attend to the celebration which was taking place on the campus. There are about 200 vietnamese students on the campus, but almost 2/3 have left to celebrate at home.




Nevertheless the celebration was great. They were so welcoming! It's amazing. I mean even for a New Year party. We came after the dinner so I didn't had the chance to eat with them. But I sure did experience their warmful welcome which started with a glass of beer. 2 min later another guy came with one bottle of beer for everyone. 3mins later, same thing. It's amazing the number of toast we had.



I don't drink beer but I didn't want to say NO, it could have been misinterprated. So I faked drinking a little bit and then discretly put the glass under my seat.




I took some pictures. You can see the whole album here. Or just click on the picture.

Vietnamese New Year 2007