This morning I woke up and checked the tempurature on my IPod, as I do most mornings, only to find that the tempurature was reading at 21 degrees celsius. My first thought was "yes, it's going to be so cold today!" I know what you're thinking, "how in the world is 21 degrees cold?" And realistically it isn't, but it is a lovely break from the 35 degrees with 100% humidity weather I've been sporadically enjoying (read: surviving) since my arrival in Vietnam. Yesterday, I was having lunch with my co-workers and I think the tempurature was somewhere between 23 and 24 degrees. I was standing there in my shorts and tshirt thinking to myself "man it's so nice today," and was quite surprised when my coworkers started complaining about the cold. My piece of advice to them: never visit Canada.
I'm currently experiencing my first typhoon (like a hurricane, but in the pacific) and it is really quite windy and rainy here at the moment. Yesterday I watched a tree blow down by the lake on my way home from work. It's not quite as bad here today, but the weather is still fairly nasty.
Honestly, not a whole lot out of the ordinary has happened this week. So I thought I would take this time to write about my general experiences, thus far, as a foreigner dealing with the Vietnamese. I may have mentioned this before, I'm quite certain I definitely have in fact, but the first thing that you will notice when you come to Vietnam is that people will stare at you. A lot. It's not so bad in the touristy Old Quarter, or the expat filled West Lake, but in our district it is quite uncommon to see a foreigner walking down the street. Therefore, you're automatically the center of attention, and most of the time it is an extremely uncomfortable feeling.
Since I work on the other side of the city, I spend a lot of time commuting by myself, and the attention that you receive is much more noticeable when you're alone. The Vietnamese seem to have no shame about blatantly staring at you. When I catch someone staring at me I'll often look their way and raise my eyebrows or smile and they'll just continue staring at me like I'm a forty-eyed, green alien. I've had people get on the bus, sit across from me, and full on stare at me non-stop until they reach their destination ten minutes later. Yesterday, a young man stared at me for 17 minutes straight (yes I timed him, because I was on the bus with nothing better to do, and it was really noticeable). Really their staring is quite innocent and they are usually only curious about who you are and why you are in their country. Nonetheless, getting so much attention is still an extremely uncomfortable feeling.
It makes it a lot better when one of the people starts trying to speak to you, or if they can't speak English (or French, because many older Vietnamese speak that as well) they show kindness or acceptance in some other way. The other day I was waiting (for freaking forever) for my bus home, and there were two young men and an older lady sitting on the benches at the bus stop. The two young men did their whole "ooh a foreign lady" thing and scooted apart indicating that I should sit between them. To say that the prospect of doing that made me uncomfortable would be an understatement. Before I could figure out how to say no, the older lady grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the seat next to her, sending me a nod and a reassuring smile. She then turned to the disappointed looking men and said something in Vietnamese, that I of course could not understand, but I hope it was along the lines of "leave her alone, she isn't interested."
Another extremely odd thing about the way the Vietnamese treat foreigners (especially older Vietnamese) is their fascination with our skin tone. I have heard stories from friends who have travelled in Africa of complete fascination with the light color of our skin, but I never expected it here. In case you don't know, and if you know me at all how could you not, I am a fairly fair skinned person. There have been numerous times now where a random person has grabbed my exposed skin in passing. Obviously, I was completely startled every time, but the Vietnamese person would just keep walking, or continue looking at me in bewilderment as if they didn't just completely invade my personal space. The first time it happened I froze in complete shock, and turned to my friend who had been here for a while who just shrugged and said "yeah, they do that."
It may be just because Canada is such a multi-cultural society, but I truly believe that we do not treat foreigners with such interest and bewilderment when we see them at home. I can honestly say I have never stared at a foreigner for a full 17 minutes while riding public transport back in Canada, and I've never seen anyone else do it either. Nor have I randomly grabbed a person I didn't know just to feel their skin because it was a different color. Getting used to these things has been interesting, to say the least.
Considering how often I have been made fun of for it throughout my young life, I would say back home I am considered to be a pretty short person. At 5'3", I'm only slightly below average, but I'm hardly tall by any stretch of the imagination. That is not the case here. In fact, I stand a nice bit taller than practically all of the women, and some of the men. The average Vietnamese man is about my height, perhaps slightly taller, while the average Vietnamese woman is usually around my shoulders. Even the tallest women I have seen have only been slightly taller than me. It's a very odd experience to be standing on the bus and have everyone looking up at you when you're used to being the one looking up at everyone else.
Well I suppose that's all I have to say in my blog for the day. I'm heading into the city centre in a little bit and hopefully out of the city for an adventure tomorrow. I promise (I really mean it this time) that I will post some pictures on Sunday. I know I have been quite bad at getting some up this far.
Until next time, remember that globally speaking, you're a lot taller than you realize.
Sarah
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