5 Minutes of Enchantment

I’m not particularly in love with Hanoi as a place. Now let me qualify. There are some very dear people here that I would be quite sad to never see again. I feel like I’ve learned, and continue to learn, incredible amounts through experiencing life here. And there really are things about it I enjoy – Vietnamese food being a huge part of that.

But the city itself, with its traffic jams, polluted air, congested sidewalks, and smelly, well, smells, doesn’t hold a particularly fond place in my heart. I can’t say I missed it while home this summer.

Tonight I went jogging. It was dark. About 7:30pm. I was running around a small, man-made lake in a park about ten minutes from my house. There were a few other people (50? 75?) out enjoying the park as well: couples cuddling on benches under trees, families with young children riding scooters, friends exercising. Skirting the edges inside the park fence stood various beverage and ice cream stands lit up by colored lights. There was even a ball pit for children (think McDonald’s “playplace” plastic ball area), new since I last ran two days ago. Outside the park fence was a lively, night street-food scene. Hundreds of people eating and drinking at the mini plastic tables and chairs. Even with an earbud in my left ear I could hear the din of conversation and clink of dishes. A breeze was coming off the “lake.” I could see the partial moon hanging in the edge of the sky and reflecting off the ripples.

Tonight, for 5 minutes, I was enchanted with Hanoi. There was a bit of a swelling in my chest – a sweetness mixed with longing and love. Like a moment from a Disney movie or fairytale, with a dusting of magical sparkle. The constant flow of people out and about everywhere all the time give it a buzz of excitement I just haven’t experienced anywhere else. I caught a glimpse of Hanoi’s character – part of what distinguishes it from the U.S. and even its southern counterpart, Saigon.

No, this wasn’t some life changing event. I occasionally experience these nostalgic pangs (for lack of a better way of describing them) at home in the U.S. when I catch a glimpse of the painful beauty of life or when I visit a childhood haunt and replay idyllic memories in my mind’s eye. Soon something jars me back to reality and the idealism’s gone. But the fact that I even now have enough history in and knowledge of Hanoi for this to begin to happen here, in this city, is exciting to me. A first.

 Hopefully not a last.

Resettling

I've basically gotten unpacked and settled in to the new room and house I'll be living in this year. I've also learned to navigate the maze of alleys that lead to it (and am able to show taxi/xe om drivers where to go!). Working on memorizing all the street names around here. Figured out how to get a bus to work and how to walk there if I have 45 minutes to kill.

There're a few bonuses to living here.

1) There's a market literally right outside the door. When I open the door and step out, I have to be careful not to step on the longans being sold on my doorstep. Should make getting fresh produce convenient and convince me to practice my market Vietnamese more frequently.

2) There's a small park about a 10-minutes walk away where I can go running. In the morning it's filled with literally hundreds of Vietnamese doing morning exercises and you have to constantly dodge or squeeze between walkers/joggers on the path in order to actually run. But it's a place! Song Hong half marathon here I come!

3) I have awesome housemates. One's an American teacher who worked at the same university as me last year. The other is sweet Chilean woman. Both have lived in Vietnam for years, so in addition to being awesome, they're also great culture and language resources. However, I do feel like the baby of the house, being significantly younger and having been here for less time than either of them. :)

Here's a couple pictures of my room. Hopefully some neighborhood pics to come soon.

Smattering of Thoughts on Gratitude

I woke up this morning* (*Monday 8/19, posting postponed due to rather uncooperative internet) at 4:30 – thanks jetlag - to a cockroach on the kitchen floor and ants swarming the kitchen counter. Now I’m sitting here writing this while waiting for the slow internet to work to send an email. I’ve been trying for the last half hour.

Kind of ready to turn around and go back home. The ease. The convenience.

Then I remembered a story the Speaker at the Fellowship I attend told yesterday. He had a group of Nigerians visiting, staying in his home. He asked them what, overall, they best liked about Vietnam. Their answer? The more stable internet connection and electricity! Ha. Oh, perspective!

Gratitude’s been on my mind a lot lately (for the whole past year, too). Funny how that was also the topic discussed at Fellowship yesterday. The Speaker shared another story that illustrates my mindset most days pretty well. Imagine a beggar on the street. A person walks by, has compassion, and gives him some money. The next day, he does the same. This continues for an entire week. The next week, the same person walks by but is preoccupied and doesn’t notice the beggar. The beggar yells out, “Hey, where’s my money!?”

Yup, this is my daily sense of self-entitlement. I’m used to enjoying lots of good things. Things I don’t deserve. At first I might be grateful, but pretty soon I forget that I’m not actually owed them. And when they’re no longer there, I get defensive and crabby.

I also read an interesting article this morning about Vietnam which shares some of the same topical themes: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Talk-Around-Town/226333/are-we-content-or-oblivious.htmlutm_source=Family+Newsletter+August%2C+2012&utm_campaign=Google+Analytics&utm_medium=email

The article discusses Vietnam’s 2^nd place status in the 2012 Happy Planet Index, and the author questions whether this actually stems from oblivion or contentment. My follow up question is, “Is oblivion always a bad thing?” Obviously it can be, but sometimes I wonder if a little more oblivion as to what we don’t have wouldn’t help us “well to do” countries out sometimes. Seems like the 80 year old woman from Hanoi, Nguyen Thi Vinh, has the right idea when she said, "You could not imagine how miserable life was decades ago. I could not enjoy a single peaceful night or even a meal without rushing off to a bomb shelter. We now have nice food to eat, good clothes to put on and don't have to see our family members or friends killed. What else could we ask for?"

Actually, that sounds a lot more like gratitude to me than oblivion. Contentment stemming from gratitude. How closely those two things are connected!

I do have to wonder about the demographics of the thousand Vietnamese people interviewed, though. At least in my limited experience here, I feel the younger generation is overall less content than the older with their given status. 

And now I'm off to navigate the bus system for the first time since being back. We'll see if I can keep these thoughts on gratitude an its connection with contentment in mind as I do so!