A few Hanoi happenings

Hi everyone!

I’ve decided to start a blog because I realized that on a daily basis, there are so many things I encounter in Hanoi that I want to write down. So what better place to do it than here! Au Co is the name of the street I live on. My house is down the end of a long lane, Lane 142 ("ngo mot cham bon hai" in Vietnamese), and around a corner. We live right next to the water, which makes for gorgeous views, and very close to Xuan Dieu, a street with lots of expats and very good Vietnamese and Western restaurants. Further down Au Co, on 431, is a massive buffet called The Sen (which is renowned here; taxi drivers even recognize it by name). All in all, I definitely can't complain about my living situation! 

I hope you are all doing well and having a good holiday season. There are a surprising number of Christmas decorations around here – many shops and malls really get into it, but most people that I’ve talked to told me they have to work on Christmas. The big vacation time is around the Tet holiday, which falls on February 11 this year. People usually get about a week off of work during this time, and often leave Hanoi to travel to the provinces where their families are from.

I just came back from the house of a family I do some tutoring for (I tutor the two daughters, Chi and Lan, for two hours every Saturday morning), and am feeling overwhelmed by their kindness after I’ve only been teaching their children for three weeks. Not only did they get me a Christmas present – these adorable storage boxes for my room that are red and green in honor of Christmas – but they also asked me to stay for lunch today, and we had a FEAST. Spring rolls (called “nem”), noodles, lettuce, and this yummy sauce with onions and carrots, and that was just the first course. Next, we had a different type of noodle with chicken and mushrooms, followed by rice and soy beans, followed by fruit and tea. They also invited me to travel to China with their family this summer!

In other news, I’ve begun taking Vietnamese lessons with a tutor, this awesome 30-year-old named Ms. Giang. She claims to barely know English, but if my Vietnamese ever gets as good as her English is I will be more than satisfied. It is really exciting to be able to pick up so much so quickly (the Rosetta Stone I was using on my own just wasn’t really cutting it) and now I talk to pretty much anyone I can – taxi drivers, motorbike drivers, waiters, random people on the street, people at my office, etc. etc. I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I understand their responses to my questions, but baby steps!  Vietnamese music has also taken over my Itunes, so that’s helped (anyone coming to visit will be getting lots of mp3’s emailed to them so they can sing along with me). I also motorbike everywhere now, and that has made my experiences here even more worthwhile. I am able to explore so much more of the city, and whenever I get lost there are tons of people who stop whatever they are doing and try their best to help direct me despite my broken Vietnamese (the lessons have definitely helped on this front).

Happy holidays, and I’ll write more after New Years!

-Victoria