lunatic bumblebee

There’re only three days left in Vietnam and this morning, I was shopping with my aunt when Moritz called me. But unusually, it wasn’t Moritz on the phone, but someone from the office. He told me nervously to come to the office as soon as possible as Moritz had an accident and cut his wrist. Unfortunately, he didn’t say anything else, so that I didn’t know what was going on.

My aunt and I drove immediately to the office and I ran up the stairs, when I met my colleague carrying a huge triangle shaped piece of glass, which was part of a table before. Then I got an idea what happened: Moritz leaned on one of the tables during his math lessons, when the table cracked and fell down with him. While bracing the fall, he got cut by the broken glass and quite a lot of blood was dripping from his arm.

I wasn’t there when it happened, so I can only write what the others told me. I was so worried, because when I arrived at the office, Moritz was brought to a hospital and I couldn’t get in contact with any of his accompanies (all three persons left their mobile phones at the office…haha mobile phones — if you need them the most, you don’t have any). Luckily, Moritz had his phone with him and he called me, so that I could find him in the hospital.

Now I have to tell you something about Vietnamese hospitals: Because there aren’t any private medical offices, everyone who has a cough or a sore throat or maybe something more serious goes to the hospital. So that hospitals in Vietnam are always crowded like a Tokio Hotel concert. For everything you have to pay first, then maybe there’ll be a doctor who examines you and then there’ll be eventually another doctor who treats you. And in between these steps you have to wait and wait…and still wait.
So that it took as over three hours to get first aid, then go to the X-ray and then get the stitches.

All in all, Moritz was lucky. I wouldn’t say nothing happened, but it could have been a lot worse. The wound had to be stitched (I don’t know exactly how many, but they needed two sutures) and a tendon was hurt. But he can still move all of his fingers and he can make a fist (it hurts a little though).
It’ll be only a little bit difficult for us on Friday, when we’re going to fly back to Germany, because Moritz can’t carry heavy things. And then we have to move to a new apartment in Munich. I hope our strong friends can help us a little, if they have time. I’m really done for today.

Anh Thu

Finally, it was the last day. Of course, I liked the trip to Hai Phong, but after three days I really missed my family and especially Moritz. But still, there were some dates on the last day. We had a meeting with the director of the National Park Cat Ba. He wanted to show us around the park. It was the first time when I went into the rain forest. It was really impressive, quiet and beautiful. We saw many curious plants, orchides growing high up on trees and learnt a lot. I learnt, that there was a tree. The tree’s seed is brought high up on another tree by birds or other animals which eat the tree’s fruit. The the seed sprouts, the roots grow to the ground and slowly the original tree is wrapped by the roots and is squished to death. The original tree then becomes nutrition for the “killer tree”…Cool, isn’t it? On the way back we took the road along the coast line. Cat Ba’s view and landscape is really amazing. I would recommend Cat Ba for every tourist, who wants to visit Ha Long Bay. Cat Ba is much better, cleaner and less tourists.

The third day we had wonderful weather, it was perfect for our boat trip. We visited many caves and enjoyed the sun. At that day we met Peter, a Dutch zoologist. He works on the project to save the small population of the lagures, a small monkey species, which only lives in Cat Ba. At this moment there are only 64 animals left and Peter is working on how to improve their rate of breed. As he said they’re very lazy concerning this topic ^^.. female animals live in their own group with only few male animals.
I think it’s a rather interesting job and his place of work is fantastic, although he said that it was the first time, going to the islands by boat. But he has been in Cat Ba (Vietnam) only since February, so I think he’ll have much more chances to go around.

And what’s more interesting is, is that I saw him tonight on TV, while they were reporting about the National Park Cat Ba ^^.. I get to know more and more celebrities during my work….so great! =)

Anh Thu

It was a really relaxing day.

In the morning we had again meetings with several departments. This time my boss was with us and she did most of the translation work, so that I only had to entertain the German business group during the breaks. Very funny was the meeting with the Joint Stock Company for water construction Hai Phong. Due to a flat tire we arrived at the company at 11.30 am. When we arrived there was a big welcome team, with cameras and reporters and after the director of the company introduced the company’s business field (around 10 minutes) he said: “It’s already late, so that I suggest that we continue our work while having lunch.” So much trouble for only 10 minutes ^^…

According to the plan, we had to go to the island Cat Ba in the afternoon. Unfortunately, a storm approached, so that we spend several hours driving to the ferry pier and waiting for the ferry boat to bring us to Cat Ba without any progress. The wind was hard and the ferry was small, so that everybody was waiting. I myself hoped that it wouldn’t go, because two month ago another ferry in Vietnam sank with more than 40 people on board (and a cow), although the capacity of the ferry was only 20 people (without any animals). We decided to wait until 5 pm and called a taxi to bring us back. Also, the ferry didn’t go that day and all the other passengers had to go back to the hotel in Hai Phong. A very unlucky day as you can see, as you would’ve expected from a Friday, 13th.

Anh Thu

I started my first business trip early in the morning. It was still dark outside and a little rainy. The driver came on time, but I was faced with some sudden changes in the plan. Furthermore, we lost a lot of time when there was this traffic jam, so that we came late to the meeting. When we arrived in Hai Phong the meeting has already started and Mrs. Reyer was explaining her presentation. Without any break I started to translate and with my Vietnamese, which is far from perfect, I had some problems to find geological terms. Nevertheless, I still could complete my task with the help of my other two collegues. The meeting was continued in the afternoon. The main topics were waste water and water management. And the Vietnamese partners were very interested, so that an active discussion started. For lunch as well as for dinner we were invited by the Vietnamese partners. In the evening we were conceived in the guest house of the city Hai Phong — very noble with good service, but the food was quite bad (mostly European). So that was my first experience in business trips.

My internship at Hanoi IEC offers me unexpectedly many different tasks, through which I did learn a lot in the past weeks in Vietnam. The most interesting fact is, that I get to know many companies — working in many different fields — and so I got to know many nice persons.

Last week, I got the chance to go on a business trip to Hai Phong (those who don’t know where this city is, please google for it ^^). There, I assisted the business group working in the field of environment (water supply and waste water handling and so on), my job was to translate German-Vietnamese. But through the translator job I got to know many important politicians from Hai Phong, they were really nice: always inviting us to lunch or dinner (you could say the German delegation got more scared of food as the days in Hai Phong increased ^^).

So you can see that an intern don’t always need to make coffee or copying. Internships can also be very interesting. Of course I also had to do lot’s of office jobs, like translating documents, but besides I also could go on meetings, working with Vietnamese students through my German and Math lessons and I also can do jobs with a big responsibility.

I think in the next days I can write more about my jobs outside the office as I’ll go on another business trip to Ho Chi Minh City ^^. See you again.

Anh Thu

I was absent from blogging such a long time. I admit I was a little lazy, but there also wasn’t much to report about.

I started my internship in Vietnam the week before Chinese New Year and now I’ve been working for a month here. I got used to my work, which is a mix of translation work and works on current projects (meetings with public authorities and partners — after one meeting at the Ministry of Science and Technology I met my cousin at the entrance, until that day I didn’t know that he was working there ^^). There will be a trade fair in March and then we’ll be very busy here consulting and accompanying all the seven companies from Germany.

My colleagues are very nice and also my boss, but that’s no big deal, because we know each other for forever. There’re mostly girls here, so the topics we’re discussing are mostly love related ^^…that’s not really my favorite, but it’s definitely a nice change from the talks in TUM with all the guys around.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I give extra lessons in German, also at the company, which also works as a medium for students who want to go to Germany for their studies.
So you can see that I don’t have much free time (working from 8 am to 5 pm everyday, classes are from 6 pm to 8.30 pm). That’s why I’m using my lunch break to write this entry. I’m absolutely not used to sleep during lunch break.

Moritz works in another company, which writes software for scanning systems which recognizes what is scanned and digitalizes the documents (I don’t know if you got what they’re doing, it also took me a while to understand, but explaining it to others is another thing.) After work he usually picks me up, it’s good that he’s so good with driving in Hanoi now. We want to go out more in the next days. Then maybe I have more to report to you. See ya.

Anh Thu

After several days of non-paid internship and driving around by taxi we were desperate to get around ourselves. So we asked some members of my family to teach Moritz how to ride a motorbike. Unfortunately, everybody said: “Yes, of course! In the next days, when I have time.” So it wasn’t helpful at all to get such an answer. But then on Monday, my aunt said: “Let Moritz practise how to dry run first and then my uncle told him how to shift gears and then he practised while the bike was parked. The next step was to drive along the narrow way to the gate. After he got used to it my uncle decided that the whole family was going to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, so that Moritz could drive around there where he had more space. There he drove several circles until a policeman came and told us that the practise time was over and that we had to leave. That evening Moritz drove me home himself. The streets weren’t too crowded and we got home safely. The next evenings we went to the mausoleum again to practise. Here you can see a video from one of the sessions ^^…

After three days we decided to go by motorbike to work and it went out well. Moritz is quite good now and we can get around ourselves without arguing with taxi drivers or waiting for somebody to drive us around.

Last Saturday my aunt made sticky-rice cakes. Sticky-rice cakes are traditionally eaten at Chinese New Year (which is next week) — so we’re a little bit early, but I think it’s okay as you can see it as a “warm up”. Those “cakes” are made from sticky-rice (what a surprise!), mung beans and one or two pieces of pork. You have to layer it carefully: rice — beans — pork — beans — rice, and then wrap it into some big green leaves (And I learned that those are NOT banana leafs). After the wrapping is done and all your cakes are supposed to have sqared form you have to boil them in a really huge pot for around 12 hours!!!

It was some time ago when I saw someone making sticky-rice cakes — as my mom can’t do them — and it was really fun. I also helped my aunt a little bit, although I didn’t try to wrap one myself ^^. And today we could open the first one for breakfast (we made 19 cakes), the majority will be given away as presents, but I think my aunt wants to do a second round. I’m looking forward to it. XD

Anh Thu

After Ralf flew back to Germany last Monday night we mostly attended meetings concerning our internship in Vietnam. So it looks like we can start after Chinese New Year =)

The week before we went on a trip through some cities in the middle part of Vietnam: At first we flew to Da Nang. There we were picked up by our tour guide and after that we were visiting some sights of the city. The sights were okay (only the museum was a little boring), but the beach at Da Nang was great. Too bad it was rainy and windy that day and the temperatures were too cold even for a short dip in the water. However Moritz and I got wet, because Ralf was looking at the picture he shot instead of telling us that the water was coming ^^…it’s your fault Ralf! xD

The next city we went to was Hoi An. Luckily, the weather was nice at this day so that we could enjoy our shopping tour in the ancient city. Hoi An is definitely the place, where you should go if you want to buy good AND cheap tailor made clothes although you only have little time. I bought me a really nice coat, which they tailored within only three hours and delivered to my hotel. Except for shopping and old houses there isn’t anything else in Hoi An, but surprisingly it’s very popular among the tourists.

On the third day we went to Hue — city of the emperor. Here it’s the other way round: Hue has so many temples, pagodas and tombs that we couldn’t see all of them in one and a half days, but we saw the most popular and most beautiful ones ^^.
Unfortunately, my condition on that day was so bad, that I couldn’t enjoy the boat tour on the river accompanied by live music (Vietnamese folk songs).

After a good night (although the hotel was really unacceptable) I got better and so I could endure the four hours bus trip to Phong Nha Ke Bang nationalpark. The view of the park was really beautiful and with little boats we went into the famous grottoes — amazing but sometimes too dark so it was really hard to get nice pictures. On our way back to Hue we visited some other sights which were on our way — but nothing really special. And I think, I was too tired to enjoy them ><.
Our last night we spend in the 3-stars hotel with the other tour members. When we booked the tour we took the 2-stars option and in Da Nang and Hoi An the hotels were okay, but not in Hue. The rooms in Ngu Binh hotel had too many “little roommates”, so that we didn’t want to stay only one minute longer than necessary.

On the last day we went to the Tu Duc tomb in Hue. The terrain is huge and beautiful, with many trees and nature and we really wanted to stay a while longer, but our flight was at noon and we had to leave the group early.

All in all the trip was great, I saw many things of Vietnam I’ve never seen before. They also took us to special handicraft villages or companies, where you could see how they make marble statues or silk embroiderings. Although the time we could spend there (of course proportial to the money we could/should spend) was too much for me. The group members were funny, too. Only the German-Australian couple was sometimes annoying (because everything was “soo BEAUTIFUL” and the American guy who was TOO American (quote: “languages are all about memory and Vietnamese is such an easy language — but I don’t speak any Vietnamese because I’ve got a bad memory”.)…..erm….definitely!
Despite of little things we had much fun on the trip although I would recommend the 3-stars option for those who want to book that tour ^^…it’s really more comfortable for only a little more money.

Anh Thu