Sunday Morning Tea

photo: Kids playing soccer after school, Ninh Binh City

I love having a huge brunch and relaxing with a cup of tea on weekend mornings. Now that I have a ktichen and a roommate I can actually do that! Alex has been living in Vietnam for a couple of years and is returning to the US next month. She spoiled me this morning and made scrambled eggs, bacon (real bacon), and toast, then I got to make some tea and just veg for the rest of this morning.

I been here over 6 weeks now and I keep saying how fast the time is going by, but I realize I have been saying that about everything since probably university. I remember someone telling me when I was kid how the time seems to go by faster when you get older and it is so true. I remember having summer break in school and thought 2 months was forever ...

I think about my first week here and not having a clue what was going on and thinking am I crazy for coming?! But I have settled in and have met some great people and am really getting to experience life in Hanoi. My footsteps aren't as ackward anymore and I move naturally through the streets and I don't need to carry a map with me every single time I go out. People actually understand me when I speak Vietnamese.

Last night a friend hosted a bbq and he went all out. He cooked for over 20 people and had crab, marinated chicken, several different types of Malaysian curries, and salads - it was a very impressive feast. I am thinking about having a dinner party but I think I will make it a potluck or invite him to be head chef :) I admit, I have not cooked while I have been here. To my defense I was in a hotel for a while but now that I have a full kitchen I should try, but it is just so much more convenient to go out and get a bowl of pho and even cheaper than to try to go and get the ingredients yourself. I don't imagine I'll be cooking very much or basically not at all for the next 4 months. My roommates and I said we might try to cook dinner once a week to learn to cook some Vietnamese food.

The system to pay your utility bills and take out the garbage is quite interesting. Our electricity and water are extra and when your bill is due someone comes to your door with the invoice and you are expected to pay at that moment. I am still not use to paying cash for everything, so you have to make sure you have a bundle of dongs ready - it is almost like a tax man coming for collection. And the garbage pick-up is quite different - there is no "garbage day", everyday is garbage day. For our alleyway, at about 5:10pm a garbage collector comes around with their cart and rings a bell (really loudly) and you come out with your bag of garbage and dump it in their cart or you can leave it outside your gate and they will pick it up.

Going to Nam Dinh tonight for a few days for work to participate on our Saguenay / Nam Dinh municipal partnership project which is to implement a land use management GIS database. It'll be a bit tiring since I will be only communicating in French and Vietnamese the whole time since we only have a Vietnamese-French translator.