So I've now
been here exactly a week, and in some ways feel like i've been here forever.
Still remember the first impressions, so I can compare those with my thoughts
now, and it feels like a lot has changed. Information overload. Also in terms
of how long it feels like since I've seen everyone. On the plus side, I'm
absolutely loving it. The only downside is the humidity. The heat I can handle,
and I'm at least getting used to the feeling of being saturated with sweat, if
not liking the feeling.
Ha Noi is fantastic, and while it's a bit of a struggle not speaking
Vietnamese, I'd say about ¾ Vietnamese speak enough English that you can at
least buy stuff (though I refused to go
shopping until I knew my numbers and could ask "how much" and say
"too expensive!". Definite motivation). It's really quite strange.
You can pretty much get anything you want here, but then in other ways you can
really tell it's still a developing country.
I haven't
seen that much yet - we were going to go and see Ho Chi Minh's preserved body
the other day, but it was 11am, and one of the first lessons you learn is that
nothing gets done here between 11 and 1 - it's lunch time. Everyone pretty much
sleeps where they were at the time they started to feel a little drowsy, footpaths,
alleys, shop floors, under their work desk..
We had a
rather ex-patty Saturday actually - went to watch the rugby at a pub filled
with kiwis and aussies noone here plays rugby, though it is James's job to fix
that. He's an AYAD like me, but his job is to teach rugby to Vietnamese kids.
It's a hard life over here..). We then went to the soccer to watch Aus play Japan
in the Asian World Cup. To get in the spirit of things, Tam and Jane (more
AYADs) spent the morning painting 16 Vietnamese cone hats green and gold. Then headed
to a pub and had my first lock-in. All good Vietnamese people are home by 10pm.
This is standard, e.g. went to a party on Friday night (more AYADs!!) and 10pm
brought a mass exit of every Vietnamese person there. Consequently, pubs
legally shut at about 11pm. The police wander around to make sure this happens,
so to around it, pubs still with people (by this time, they are only filled
with Westerners) shut the doors, turn off the lights and tell everyone to be quiet
until the cops have passed by.
The AYAD community over here is pretty tight. (That's Australian Youth
Ambassadors for Development by the way. Yep, they've made ME an 'ambassador'.
Silly silly people.) There's 11 people come over in my round, and three rounds
a year, plus a whole heap of volunteers through other programs, plus everyone's
visitors etc etc, so there's quite a few people to keep my English up to
scratch. It's the type of group that where one AYAD goes, everyone is invited
(I hadn't met the people who's party it was, we just got emails sent round with
an address and promises of pizza and beer).
At the
moment I'm crashing with 3 of the girls from my Round who are great. I'll
either stay there or move about 50m up the alley to another house, we've still gotta
sort it out. Either way, the houses here are palaces (with lots of room so my
friends can come and visit hint hint!), with maids who clean and cook and wash
and shop... I can see myself getting very lazy!
I start
work on Thursday, and met my work people on Friday already. They all seem
really nice, and asked me if it would be ok if I had to travel around.
"Out to provinces, maybe Ho Chi Minh, maybe to Cambodia. Would you mind?
Where would you like to go?" I told them I could probably handle it!!
Sounds like a great job - still gotta nut out details, but my supervisors specialty is biodiversity policy and legislation. Perfect!
Am off to my Vietnamese lesson now. This is all I am doing for the next three
days until I start work, which is great as it's letting me explore and shop and
figure everything out.
