Top ten things I like about Vietnam.

As mentioned previously, I have been considering staying in Vietnam for another year. Now it looks quite certain that I will. I have had my fair share of culture shock and loneliness while here, but it can't shake the certainty that I love this country! Thank you to all of you who have prayed for me and responded to my e-mails, letters and posts; you have been a great support.

When you really like a place, it's a good idea to write down the reasons why. Then later on, when culture shock comes back in full force and you question how you got yourself into this place where nothing makes sense...well it can be a helpful reminder that even if you don't understand anything, there are still some things you like.

So here is my top-ten list of things I like about Vietnam.

10. Naptime is a must.
9. In the Old Quarter, there is a coffee shop about every ten meters.
8. Disney channel is NOT just for kids, and vegetables are NOT just for grownups.
7. Escargo can be had for pennies.
6. On the side of the road on a typical day you can buy the following: bunnies, goldfish, jackfruit, lottery tickets, cell phone stickers, roses, and haircuts.
5. It's totally okay to burp. And pick your nose. Seriously, everyone does it!
4. Purple jeans are normal.
3. It's okay for people of the same sex to hold hands in public.
2. Bún bò, phở cuốn, avocado shakes, pork rolls, yogurt coffee (or is it coffee yogurt?), and bún chả, i.e., the reasons I gained five pounds my first week here.
1. In the city of Hanoi, you can go just about anywhere that's worth going to by bike.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Tết, the Vietnamese lunar new year, and the country's most important holiday by far, was celebrated this year on January 26. Click here to see how I rang in 2009, year of the buffalo.

Being born a buffalo (or ox) myself I was very much looking forward to this particular year. I was, perhaps, even a little inordinately proud of my achievement of having been born in the year 1985--until, of course, a friend informed me that the buffalo, being a slow, hardworking animal, is generally seen as an augury of hard economic times--and my bubble was duly burst.

Like Christmas in the good ol' US of A, Tết is accompanied by its fair share of consumer-driven frenzy. Nevertheless, the pitch never rises to quite the level of, say, 5:30am at Best Buy the day after Thanksgiving. Fear not, Americans, you are still the unquestioned champions of world capitalism.

For example, rather than giving individual gifts, Vietnamese families often buy something for the whole family, such as a better (i.e., bigger) refrigerator (see exhibit 1) in the case of my host family.

For friends of the family, common gifts include cookies, giò (Vietnamese sausage) and the traditional bánh trưng (ingredients: pounded sticky rice, mung bean paste, pork fat, banana leaf wrapping; exhibits 2 and 3 show the cake wrapped and unwrapped, respectively). Right solid peasant fare that, designed to put extra flesh on the body with the highest degree of efficiency possible.



One exception to the general non-individual-gift-giving rule is the practice of giving lucky money to children and, occasionally, to elders. These gifts are usually handed over in the presence of the whole family with or without a pretty envelope to conceal the total amount given.

Upon learning of this, my delicate North American sensibilities were a bit jarred at first. What, you mean you just fork out cold cash? You mean no wish lists? No secrecy? No midnight wrapping whirlwinds or breathless trips to the third mall of the day to find that perfect gift that will let her know this year you really truly do understand her deepest wants-needs?

But then common sense made her blessed entrance and I came to the following four realizations:

1. Giving straight-up cash saves a lot of wasted presents, not to mention relational stress and forced thanks-for-the-socks-grandma smiles.
2. A related point: since gifts range from vnđ10,000 ($0.57) to vnđ200,000 ($11), in the end, less money is spent.
3. Even if you can count exactly how much lucky money you're worth to uncle Tien as he hands it to you, by the end of the day the envelopes and loose cash are so mixed up it's hard to remember who gave you how much.
4. With an exchange rate of 17,000 VN đồng = $1 U.S., I realized that by the end of the first day of Tết I had become a millionaire.
   

Perhaps my new found wealth has gotten to my head; nevertheless, despite the direful predictions of economic experts world over, I have a good feeling about this year. If Valentine's day and the February blues have got you down, why not consider hopping on a plane to sunny Vietnam, snagging a job as an English teacher, and becoming a millionaire in a matter of weeks? It would certainly change your perspective--by about 195 degrees Longitude to be exact.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới - Happy New Year

Photo albums galore

Like a good tourist, I have been diligently taking pictures. And posting them, too. Just not here, until now. Take a look! They have genuinely interesting captions, I promise!


Christmas, Part I, was spent in Hue, Central Vietnam.




Christmas, Part II. The highlight for me was the giant Christmas tree made of Heineken bottles.





Hanoi, Capital of Cool, will be celebrating it's 1,000th birthday in 2010. Talk about history! New York's got nothing on Hanoi.




The Ceramic Village: Bat Trang This village, just outside of Hanoi, has been in the business of making ceramics for nearly 1,000 years.


Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival) is a celebration mostly for kids in mid fall. Besides eating moon cake until it comes out one's ears, the festival is celebrated by going to the night market in the Old Quarter. Very carnaval-esque, just without the rides.

Happy Christmas (war is over) in Vietnam!

This is my Christmas message. Also please see my Christmas photos: Part I, and Part II

After a month or more of silence I am writing to wish you a belated Merry Christmas and to tell you a little about mine in hopes that it will encourage you this season.

A few days before Christmas, Rosie and I went to Hue in Central Vietnam, where we met up with her dad Dennis and Max Eddiger, an MCC worker who also happens to be an old friend of Dennis. Among other sightseeing, we visited the DMZ (demilitarized zone) which marked the separation between North and South Vietnam during what the Vietnamese call "the American War." DMZ is actually kind of a misnomer. During the war this zone was flattened by bombing and laid waste by chemical defoliants. It was anything but demilitarized.

We also visited an underground network of tunnels dug by a Vietnamese village trying to hide from the bombing. The tunnels included family rooms (one meter square), a schoolroom/meeting hall, and a maternity ward where seventeen babies were born. (The maternity ward was 2 meters deep, 1 meter wide, and 1.5 meters high.) In the museums we saw pictures of terrified American soldiers and wounded Vietnamese. We saw twisted metal that was once airplanes and bomb casings. I was born in 1985, so it is hard for me to understand that era, but during that trip the fact of war in this beautiful country became clearer and more real in my mind.

Back in Hanoi, it was at the back of my mind as we sat down to Christmas dinner. There were some friends of ours eager to meet Dennis and compare stories with him. As they chatted over the same table and shared the same meal, something else became clear to me: the war is over. Not just the fighting, the war. How else could it be possible for people from former enemy states to come together like this? How else could it seem so natural? The greatest wound of war--that is, the hate of one people towards another, the dehumanization of the enemy--this has finally healed.

As I sat there I suddenly
became aware that the carols we had been listening to had given way to a song by John Lennon whose words I was now feeling more deeply than ever, "Happy Christmas, war is over."

Christmas was yesterday and new wars are now being fought in other parts of the world. But be of good cheer, the Prince of Peace is born and he will wipe away every tear. May the thought of Vietnam, that little green country now at peace, encourage you in this hope.

Your friend and sister in Christ,
Hannah

"A funny thing happened in asia the other day..." Vol. 1 Ed. 3

This edition was sent in a mass e-mail on 1 Nov. 2008

Dear friends and family,
I hope you all have been well. Some of you may have heard on the news that Vietnam is experiencing record-breaking rains. It's true. Two days ago I never expected to find myself riding on the back of a motorbike going the wrong way down a street with water washing up to my ankles, but that is exactly where I found myself Friday evening at 5:05pm.

At 4:50pm, when I looked out my office window and saw that water had washed over the sidewalk and was lapping the edges of our building, I turned to my coworkers Thuan and Long and asked point-blank "what am I supposed to do?" Miss Thuan kindly offered to take me home, and we promptly donned our ponchos and shed our socks and shoes. As we passed waterlogged motorbikes and taxis abandoned in the street I was simultaneously scared I might not make it home and disappointed that I hadn't brought my camera along for the ride.


For lack of a camera, I resort to two pictures downloaded from the internet.

Here is a link where you can see more like them.

Up top is a picture of me in full rain attire (note the shoes in a plastic bag).

But before you are shocked and horrified at the terrible hardships I am suffering, consider this: rain, to Vietnamese, is like snow to Michiganders. Any tropical-born foreigner who experiences a Michigan blizzard for the first time is shocked and horrified at the sheer amount of it, and no less so by the behavior of Michigan natives as they go on with their lives, apparently oblivious to the peril to life and limb all around them. The foreigner might even write letters home about it (complete with photos downloded from the internet and pictures of themselves in full snow attire). These Americans! he/she exclaims in disbelief, How can they put up with this? The answer, of course, is that they (and their parents before them) have been putting up with it before they even knew what "it" was. And there are so many other things that keep them there: family, friends, the leaves in fall, etc. The same is true for Vietnam. The city of Hanoi alone is nearly 1,000 years old. A little rain--even a lot--is not going to make it wash away overnight.

"A funny thing happened in Asia the other day..." Vol. 1 Ed. 2

This edition was sent out in a mass e-mail 19 Sept. 2008

The Vietnamese like to use Western characters for decoration, kind of like how we Westerners decorate our dorm rooms or tattoo our bodies with Chinese characters: because they look pretty--not because we know what they mean. As you can imagine, this leads to many semantic accidents. English phrases often pop up in the most surprising places. Here are some of the most whimsical examples I have come across:

-My thermos has a picture of a circus elephant and the words "Happy Time Ability"
-My bathroom trash can depicts a Roman Centurion, complete with chariot and war gear, who decrees: "Happiness to everyone!!!" (or else)
-On the chopsticks bin: "Work is glory!"
-On my host-sister's shirt: "Smoking glue doesn't keep families together."
-On many, many "sporty" t-shirts: ATHLENTIC GREAR
-And my personal favorite, the following t-shirt


Poor guy. And of course, since there are two sides to everything, let me give you a sampling of what I sound like to the Vietnamese: "Hello...Mr...can help me...um...Bach Mai street where?...um...repeat?...mmm (vigorously nodding)...

mmm (confused look)...thank you very much." Repeat again five minutes later. Eventually I find my way.

That's all for now! I hope you have enjoyed edition 2 of "A funny thing happened in Asia the other day..."
much love,
Hannah

Second things second

It occurred to me that some of you may want to know details like, what do I actually do all day, who do I live with, how do I get around, and other practical things like that. It also occurred to me that practical things like that should probably have gone in the first entry. But the title "first things first" has already been used. So...second things second:

- Work: English editor at Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới (The World Publishing House). Mostly, I edit a magazine called "Vietnam Cultural Window," which is given to guests of the ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Here is the link on the publishers' website: http://thegioipublishers.com.vn/en/magazines/index.php?cat=1

- Home: I live with the Nguyen family. If you know anything about Vietnam you should be laughing right now because upwards of 50% of Vietnam has the surname Nguyen. My host family consists of Grandma, Dad (Tâm), Mom (Loan), brother (Tiến, age 21, currently studying in Japan), and sister (Thanh, age 19).

- School: Rosie and I used to go to language school 3 half-days a week, when MCC was paying. Nowadays we go once a week. Our teacher is Miss Giang ("Zang") and our fellow classmates fluctuate from week to week. But the majority are Korean and don't talk terribly much, in case you wanted to know.

- Transportation: Bike. Despite the heat in summer I loooooooove biking because in a tiny, traffic-clogged city like Hanoi it gets you there fast and in style (see above and decide for yourself).

Want a better picture? Just can't get enough of me? Well, here is a link to a facebook album entitled "My daily life in Vietnam."

Or if that doesn't work, try http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062427&id=15302590&l=e27cfc4470.