It seems as though I'm doing alot better with this blog thing that I originally anticipated. With this post I will have posted just as many entries in one week as I did in the entire time I was in Peru. Once I start work tomorrow the updates will no doubt become less frequent, but I will of course still try my best to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing.
On Saturday morning, myself and the six other international volunteers that started on September 15th were brought into the city centre for a tour by two local Vietnamese students. It was an extremely hot day on Saturday (33 degrees with 100% humidity I do believe), so I'm sure you can imagine how uncomfortable walking for six hours was. Despite the heat, we still managed to have a good time. Our guides took us to the Temple of Literature which was the first university in Vietnam. It was jam packed full of tourists, but it was still a very beautiful place to visit. Of course I forgot to charge my camera the night before so I couldn't take any pictures, but luckily everyone else has a million so I can steal some. Inside one of the temples there were local musicians playing traditional Vietnamese music and I absolutely fell in love. So, no one should be surprised when I come back with an armload of Vietnamese instruments for myself and as presents. My friend took a video of their performance so once I get a copy I'll put it up on facebook or something.
After that we headed into the Old Quarter of Hanoi for some lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. Everyone in the group wanted to try Pho which is a very common Vietnamese soup. They don't make a vegetarian version so I ate noodles and tofu with a spicy sauce which was actually pretty good. I put some thai chilis in it, and as much as I love hot food I was near tears trying to cool my mouth down. As funny as it was, I don't think I'm going to be doing that again anytime soon. Once we finished eating we went down to look at the Old Quarter lakes which were absolutely beautiful, and then onto an extremely large and crowded indoor market. We finished our tour at a traditional dessert restaurant where we had this fresh fruit drink thing which was pretty good, but also a little strange. They had alot of melons and pineapple and stuff and then, randomly, an avoccado. I'll be honest and tell you that I just about vomited when I tasted that; suffice it to say I was finished then.
When we got back to the dorm we all got ready and headed right back into the city centre for dinner. We ate at this reaaaaaaaally nice traditional Vietnamese restaurant and got a crap load of food and beer for less than six dollars. It is not very common to have vegetarian Vietnamese food without a special request, so I ordered their one meatless stir fry and roasted potatoes. Well, at least that's what the menu said... but when they came out they were just crinkly french fries with a spicy dipping sauce. I was confused to say the least, but we all had a good laugh and went with it. After we finished dinner we went to check out a few of the bars which was pretty cool because you don't have to pay cover anywhere. But it also kind of sucked because every bar was completely jam packed, and you can smoke in bars here. So being in the clubs felt a little bit like suffocating in a pool of short people.
Today has been a pretty chill day so far. The heat really drains you and most of us are still recovering from the jet lag associated with flying across the world, so sleep was in order for a Sunday. I went to go get my phone sorted out with a local friend, because doing things like that is difficult here when you do not speak Vietnamese. That is one thing that I have really enjoyed about this program in comparison to the one I did in Peru. When I was in Peru, I don't think I became friends with a single Peruvian, but here I have already met so many local Vietnamese who are very friendly and very excited to meet foreigners. They are most students (because the University of Humanities and Social Science is right next door to our apartment) and are willing to help translate for us poor folks who speak little to no Vietnamese. Vietnamese is a really hard language to learn for Westerners because it is tonal so I am not picking it up as easily as I did with Spanish.
This evening I had to head out to the market to pick up a few things and it was my first time heading out by myself. Man, the stares and attention you get are even worse when you're by yourself. Most people are completely harmless and either just stare or smile and wave. Some even say hello and ask how you are! But when they whistle at you and get all in your personal space, it is very uncomfortable. It's also really funny to watch people on motorbikes almost crash because they're staring at you as they go by. As I may have said before, our neighborhood in Hanoi is not that touristy, so seeing foreigners is still pretty uncommon. There was a kid in the market who followed me around and whenever I would turn around and see him he would run away and giggle. It was pretty cute, but when you're by yourself it's pretty unnerving to get so much attention.
Well I suppose that's it for me for now. It's almost 10:30 here and I have to be up fairly early for work in the morning.
Until next time, be glad that people don't stare at you like you're an alien everywhere you go.
Sarah
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