Tuesday was orientation! I woke up super early and several times during the night because I was still very jet-lag, but I officially got out of bed at 6am. For breakfast, they had an array of pastries and the typical tea, juice or coffee. They also had traditional Vietnamese pho and fried rice, noodles, and vegetables. It all was very good. Orientation was right after breakfast, and it included general information about Vietnam, safety, the school, and dos and don'ts. Talk of all of these things was getting us super excited to go out an explore, so instead of keeping us all day, Ngyuen, our coordinator let us out early! As part of my exploration, I headed to the nearest ATM to take out some Vietnamese Dong. It was only day two and I already had in my pocket, 2.5 million dong!!! That was the moment when I knew I would enjoy Vietnam. Well not really, but it was very exciting to see sooo many zeros in my hand. We had to return to the hotel before 4pm to check out and wait to meet out host families. It was so nerve-wrecking, just waiting there for our families to arrive and greet us. But in Vietnam they did it a bit differently, we were actually all brought up to this conference room, and assigned a numbered table to sit at. So meeting our families felt more of like a blind date. Our family was great, both the mother and daughter who came to pick us up spoke English and they were really nice to us. We got on a taxi from the hotel to their apartment complex, because everyone here owns motorbikes and it would be a bit difficult to carry our luggage on that. I have to say that taxi ride was the most stressful car ride I've been on. Taxi drivers are bad to begin with, but this one had to weave in and out of cars, buses, and motorbikes at rush hour. What an adventure!
Wednesday was our first day of class and the most difficult part of our day was getting to and from school. The streets here don't have street signs or traffic lights, and if they do people don't respect them, so needless to say crossing the street is always a challenge and making it across is a big accomplishment. The bus ride was also an adventure. Even if you are waiting at the bus stop to catch it, you always have to run/jump to get on it because it barely stops. Similarly when getting off, you must always be waiting by the door because as soon as that doors open you have to make a leap for it and hope there are no motorbikes or puddles on the road. Our classes are at the Hanoi School of Public Health (Đại học Y tế Công cộng), which is about a 20 min ride from our apartment. I really love the location of our home. It is still in the city limits, but far enough away to feel like a new place. It is very peaceful and quite, well at least at night it is hehe. The picture below is a view of Hanoi from our apartment window.
Just when I thought I had gotten used to a new bus system, our instructors tell us to meet them at a new location on Thursday. We were to all meet up at the Hanoi Cinemateque near the Old Quarter. This required talking a new bus, two buses actually. Taking buses is the next most stressful thing to do in this city, not only do they not stop for you, but they drive like crazy, and they are super packed so you must always hold on for dear life, all while trying to manage your location so that you don't miss your stop. But besides all of this, being at the Cinemateque was a nice escape from class. We had a hard time finding it at first, because like all good things, it was hidden at the end of a tiny alley-way in the city. The movies we watched here were very interesting, they were both on Viet nam, one was about the war and the second was about cultural differences between Americans and Vietnamese. Its very interesting to learn about the Viet nam war here, because even though I vaguely remember talking about it in my high school history classes, we only talked about it for a brief period. It is such a recent war, that I feel like I should know more about it but I don't. In Viet nam the war is actually referred to as the American war because of our involvement in it. It always intrigues me to hear and see the other side of things, I am very lucky to have that new perspective.
Friday we returned to the school for classes. I can't believe that we already finished the first week, everything has felt like a blur since I got here. It is very weird. At the end of class we all stayed a bit later to talk about our vacation plans. Our last week in Viet nam is our spring break and we are thinking of getting away from the city. Even though I enjoy being in cities, it is very overwhelming at times, especially here. I have really felt and seen the effects of pollution in this city, every morning the sky is grey and a large fog cloud covers the city, during the day the sun never comes out, and at night its back to its dark gloomy state, its very depressing. I never realized how much I would miss the sun, or what impact the sun would have on my state of being. So, for our spring break we decided to head south, to a warmer part of the country, preferably with a beach =). After class we met at a wifi cafe across the street from our school, Valentines Day Cafe/ Lego Cafe. It was a very nice, zen, place to be after a long week of classes and adjustments. I had this amazing strawberry tea with milk. It was delicious!
Saturday was by far my favorite day this week. I woke up early, went to an internet cafe, checked email and just sipped on some green tea. It was very nice to take a bit of time to relax and have some alone time. After noon or so I headed to the Old Quarter with some friends to go shopping. This neighborhood is very very touristy. I no longer was the only "white" girl walking through the streets, trying to cross without dying, or butchering Vietnamese. It felt great! We began by walking around the lake, which was gorgeous and serene. It was so relaxing to just be in this area for some time. For the first time all week I was enjoying walking through the city. We walked around for some time, bartering with street vendors for scarves and other nick-knacks, until we finally retreated in this small cafe in the city. I had a delicious grapefruit smoothie, I really needed that freshness and vitamin C. The smoke all around the city was really getting to me, to the point where I had to walk around with my map over my nose and mouth. People here smoke everywhere, there is no place in the city where smoking is banned and it doesn't help that over 50% of the population smokes. To relieve my tension a little bit, we all decided to go for a manicure =). This city is great for pampering, with massages, spas, and nail salons available in almost every corner. And not to mention how cheap it all is. I think the most expensive massage I've seen is $15 USD, and this is a full body massage for one full hour.
Sunday was a relaxing day for me. It was the first day since we arrived that I was able to sleep in... and when I say sleep in I mean 9am hehe. We had breakfast, I sat around watching TV, organizing some school stuff, and just being lazy. Our family took us out for lunch to this very fancy restaurant near our apartment building. I kid you not, we had a minimum of like 25 or so courses brought out to us to eat. Granted they were all very small but they just kept on bringing out more and more dishes! It was very overwhelming but delicious. I know I keep on mentioning money, but it is just amazing all one can get here with so little money, we paid a total of $40 USD for a full meal for 5 people, and I mean very full. Not even at Olive Garden can you pay that much for 5 people, and this place was no match for Olive Garden. So if you guys are hungry, come to Viet nam!
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