'Language is the Dress of Thought' - Cowley

I am heading to Saigon tomorrow to visit more new relatives except this time on my mom’s side. Uncle 7 (technically should be calling him by his first name, but have not actually learned it yet) is picking me up at the airport and I am not sure how we are to recognize each other - maybe he will be holding a sign with my name or perhaps somehow we will just know as we are scanning the crowds for each other or maybe I will call him on my mobile to make sure I am not climbing into some complete stranger’s car!

Local market in Saigon that my relatives go to daily.

Overall my experience has been quite positive here, but sometimes there are frustrating days (where the simpliest things seem to take a lot of energy) and times you are feeling a little bummed out. My internship will be ending at the end of February and I need to figure out what I am going to do afterwards and look for a job again. Being a contract worker has some perks but I feel like I am always constantly applying for jobs. It’s a full time job just looking for a job. Since I will be away for work and then away for Tet holidays, I am not going to worry about job prospects until the end of February. My visa goes until April so I think I will stay in Vietnam at least then, so if anyone is considering to visit ...

Near Hoa's village in a northwestern province

So I just found out I am heavier than a 7-month pregnant woman. That’s always a nice feeling. Linh is 53 kg and when I figured out what that is in pounds (about 117 lbs) I was shocked how light a pregnant woman could be. I feel very large boned-ed over here (even though I am at my normal weight), but at least I don’t feel short like I usually do in Canada. I am usually about the same height or a little taller than local women my age, but that is with me wearing flats and them wearing heals. That’s one thing that still makes me laugh: seeing vietnamese women wearing high heels while driving their motorbikes.

I will be heading to Vung Tau soon for a research mission. I am a little nervous – I will be leading an 8-day workplan with the senior municipal staff by myself. This is the base work of one of our municipal partnership projects where we will be creating a new census survey to capture the migrant population and using the results to develop better municipal service delivery like education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. I do a bit of independent work over here and I am not complaining (it was written in the job description), but when you don't have experience in leadership roles, especially in a different and typically traditional culture, it feels a bit daunting. It reminds me when I and the other Ottawa SURPers all just started our new jobs after graduating from Queen's and we all felt the same ... we were way over our heads! But I know it will be good experience and it will only make me stronger ... right?!

It's just cold

One of my friends' says there really is no such thing as cold, you just have to wear the appropriate clothing ... I disagree. Today in Hanoi it is about 14 degrees, and it is a cool 14 degrees. Although it would seem like it should be warm, it is the humidity that makes the cold chilling. I thought the humidity in warm weather was bad, but this is ridiculous. I am sitting in my office in my sweater, jacket, wearing my mitts when I am not typing, and winter boots (which I had to go find), plus drinking tea and I am still freezing. I am not sure how else to warm up?!

Even everyone on the street has on big puffy winter jackets and toques. I admit I was skeptical when I was warned about Hanoi's winter, boasting that I was from Canada and I could handle it no problem. I feel like a wimp. My colleague, Linh, who sits next to me is 7 months pregnant. She is cold too but has not complained - so I am not letting myself complain out loud and thought I would just vent on my blog instead.

Linh and I were born in the same year (quick aside - when you ask people their age they normally tell you what year they were born because in Vietnam you are 1 when you are born and 2 on your first birthday, so really I am turning 27 in March ...) she has been married about a year and is expecting her first child. It has been very cool watching her belly get bigger and asking her questions about healthcare for pregnant Vietnamese women. I found out when you go to the doctor's for the ultrasound, they will tell you if you are having a boy but don't tell you if you are going to have a girl. I am not really sure if that dissuades abortions, but I have heard abortions are a growing problem in Vietnam. I might still be here when Linh delivers and can't wait to see her baby boy.

Physical Inactivities

It may seem like I should be really fit by now but my exercising only seems to happen in short bursts, in particular when I am travelling. In Hanoi it is actually quite hard to just go for a walk, let alone a run, because the traffic is not only on the street but on the sidewalks as well. Plus, everyone stares at you like you are crazy ...

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of nice parks (much more than I expected) with lakes to run around however it just seems contradictory to have to hop on a xe om (motorbike taxi), breath in smog, and weave through heavy traffic (and pray that you aren't going to get into an accident) to get some healthy exercise in. I suppose I have been spoiled by Elm Street where I was able to go to the Plant Bath around the corner for a swim or go down the street to go biking and running on the NCC pathways. But I have been feeling a bit groggy and out of shape and have been eating a little too liberally that enough was enough, it was time for me to get some physical activity into my routine! Or perhaps this drive for exercise is because when I was getting some clothes made I had to step on a scale - not sure why that matters for a skirt and a pair of pants - but I was quite unpleasently surprised, moreover because all the seamstresses around me were probably all under a 100 lbs ...

Hoan Kiem Lake, near the Old Quarter

So in the last week, I tried a series of activities to see what would be fun:

Wednesday - Sarah and I decide to go for a run in the Botanical Gardens and we happen to get there at the beginning of an aerobics class. We say 'hey, why not?'. We caused quite the stir that people who were there walking would stop to watch us and the more experienced participants, who wore brightly coloured bodysuits with leggings, went in the row in front of us so we could follow their lead. It was a lot of flapping our arms in the air and pelvic thrusts or pelvic circling (and we were in a public park) to techno english music we never heard before. Result: good arm workout, but didn't really break a sweat that we still went for a run afterwards.

Friday 6am - I decided to check out Steve's gym, which is a local gym. We get there nice and early and there is a step class going on which I get really excited for. I enter the gym and get ready to join until a lady comes over to me asks if I have a membership. I tell her no and ask if I can just pay for the day to see if I like it but she insists I have to buy either a 1-month or 3-month membership. I try again to explain that it is my first time here and just want to check it out before committing. She does not let me participate in the class, even though it is 6 in the morning, I am more than willing to pay for a day pass, and there are only 3 people in the class in this huge gym (so it is not like I would be taking someone's spot away). I call it aerobics snobbery and it was really probably because I did not have my own bodysuit ...

So I head to the workout gym instead in a bit of a huff, and decide I will just run it off on the treadmill. I go onto the treadmill and see it is not on. I look for the electrical cord to plug it in to find out that there is not cord - it is a manual treadmill! I tried it for about 10 seconds and it was way too much effort. Oh yes, I should add I am the only female in the room so I am trying not to stick out. The equipment was all really old and some I did not even recognize so I ended up just doing crunches in a corner of the room for the rest of the hour.

China dragon - this dragon is a statue completely made of china plates in a park in Saigon

Sunday - I decide to try rugby and luckily it is touch rugby. I never played rugby before, so I did not know the rules. But, I had a very patient team and even scored a try. I really liked playing, so I finally found a physical activity that I am going to stick with except ... it is changing practice times next week and will fall on the same time as ultimate ...agh! Even worse the rugby and ultimate fields are next to each other, so I don't know how I am going to choose one without insulting the other. Worry about it when I have to, I suppose.

New Year, New Family

I wasn't sure what to expect when meeting my relatives. I didn't know their names, what they did, or what they knew about me. I heard their names in conversations, but when you are a kid, hearing names of people who you don't know, doesn't really make them seem very real. I just knew I had family who lived in Vietnam and that I wanted to meet them and maybe wanted them to meet me. My family that lives in Canada were boat people and they were sponsored by three churches in Sydney in 1980 (this is how my Cape Breton roots developed). I was born the following year, making me the first Canadian born - my age represents the number of years my family has been in Canada and how long (or rather quickly) it took for them to get to where they are today.

But getting back to my relatives in Vietnam, I was scheduled to meet them on New Year's Day at my uncle's farm, which is about an hour drive outside of Saigon, for 10am. They hired a car to come pick me up at my hotel and also invited Sarah to come to the family gathering. When the car rolled down the driveway, there were people waiting outside with cameras and camcorders. My first chao (hello) was caught on film and my aunt from Toronto (who is down visiting) took me by the hand and started to introduce me to all these smiling people.

My dad comes from a family of 12 children and he is the 8th oldest. You address your aunts and uncles by their number or seniority in the sibling chain if they are older than your parent, however if they are younger you would refer to them by their first name. So in this photo, is Aunt 6 (from TO), Aunt 7, Aunt 3, Aunt 5, and Aunt 2.

I was bit nervous in the coming days of meeting my relatives (poor kate and sarah had to deal with my slightly tense moments ...). But as soon as I met everyone, I was completely at ease and now that I think about it, I wasn't really sure why I was so stressed about meeting them in the first place. I did worry that they might be disappointed that I did not speak Vietnamese fluently or maybe they might have thought I was a spoiled foreigner. Even though our oral communication skills were limited, we were still able to laugh, find common ground, and be family.

Sarah and I in our matching ao dai's (traditional Vietnamese dresses)

There is an alter to my grandparents and my aunts were getting dressed in their ao dai's for the ceremony and one asked if I wanted to wear one. I think she assumed that I wouldn't want to, so when I said sure my two aunties got really excited, grabbed me by the arms, and rushed me in the house to change. Remember it has only been about 20 minutes at this point ... one pulled off my top while the other buttoned the dress on me - all I could do was laugh, so much for modesty with the relatives.

I spent the day out at the farm and ate lots of pork (my uncle runs a hog farm) and enjoyed the company of my new relatives. I think the strangest part is knowing you are related to someone because they look like other family members. When I met my aunts, they looked like my Toronto aunt, when I met my uncles they looked like my uncles from Halifax and Montreal, when I met a cousin, he looked like an uncle from Toronto and when they saw me they could tell I was my father and mother's daughter.

My aunt has been going to this dance class in the park for years and is trying to teach me the rhomba.

I returned to my hotel at end of the day, but I was going to see them again in a few days after I came back from my work trip. On my return, I stayed at Uncle Chien's house (who could be my father's twin) in Saigon and got to explore the neighbourhood where my relatives have been living for decades. So on my first morning, I was woken up at 5am and was taken to the park to go exercising. They asked me the night before, but I really thought they were joking when they said we would be going at 5 since it is pitch black at that time. No, no they were serious, and I couldn't even put in my contacts. I was a little cranky to be moving at the early in the morning, but when we got there it was a very interesting sight to see.

Picture hundreds of people congregating at the park (you have to pay $2000 dong to enter, so about 1/7th of a cdn dollar) and either participating in an aerobics class, dance lesson, playing badminton, walking laps around the lake, or just getting some good old exercise in. Couple of my aunts go everyday, except Sunday because that's rest day (so lucky for me I did not have to go again the next morning), and go to aerobics from 5 to 6 then dance class from 6 to 7. Now I understand why vietnamese people take naps at noon!

Other fun things that happened: my 70-year old aunt and I hopping on to a moving bus, my other aunt taking me to get my hair washed at the salon, having slight miscommunication with my uncle when he thought I said I was at the airport but I was really at the ferry terminal when he was coming to pick me up, and (I believe gluttony is a sin) one aunt dropping me off at another aunt's house when they were done feeding me so I could go for another round.

I saw this photo in my aunt's cabinet and it is of some of my Toronto cousins from over 30 years ago

So something I always wanted to do has been done. It still feels strange that I just met new relatives as I feel like I have known them for a long time. I get to see them again in a few weeks and am now much more motivated to learn more vietnamese so I can ask lots of questions and tell them more about my life in Canada.

My uncle took me to visit my grandparents' graves. I remember hearing when they passed away when I was younger. It is vietnamese custom for the family to gather on the anniversary of the death of a family member to celebrate their life, which was a tradition we held up in Canada when my grandfather died.

Happy 2007!

I just came back from a 12-day vacation / work trip and it has been a very jammed-packed journey. I feel like I have been gone for months because so much has happened.


Here is a quick synopsis: the trip started off with Kate, Whitfield parents, and I visiting Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island for 3 days, then driving back to Hanoi to catch an evening flight to Saigon. Sarah joinned us for this leg of this trip and Sarah and I were in the Saigon New Year's Ultimate tournament, while Kate and her parents toured the city. We spent New Year's eve with the ultimate people and danced the night away at a fancy club downtown. The following morning, New Year's Day, I went to visit my relatives at my uncle's farm, which deserves a separate posting, and met about 20 aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time. During this whole time, I was up early and used the following day to sleep and let my body recooperate (we played 6 games of ultimate in less than 48 hours in about 30 degree weather). Kate and Linda left for Da Nang (the city that divided South and North Vietnam at the 17th parallel) and I had to say my farewells to them and let them travel around Vietnam without my watchful eye. The funny part is Kate and Linda probably know Saigon better than I do (you would think it would be in my blood ...) as it was them telling me where everything was.

So what are one of the things to do when you are in Saigon? Oh course, shopping! Sarah and I did some window shopping and then went for sushi (haven't had since being here and been having many cravings) with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Ho Chi Minh office (Sarah works for the Hanoi office). Sounds like a lot of time has passed with all these activities, but really it has only been about 7 days at this point ...

Ha Long Bay is a pictureseque area that is seen in lots of travel ads for VN

My director from Hanoi met me in Saigon where we caught a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Vung Tau City for a 2-day working session for one of our municipal partnership projects. We will be helping to develop a census survey which will be used to develop municipal services for the migrant population. I will be heading there again at the end of the month, and can't complain as it is off the sea and surrounded by beaches. When France occupied Vietnam, they used this area for resorts and a holiday getaway from Saigon.

There were ultimate players from mostly around Asia, but a few who travelled from Canada and Australia. Ultimate use to be predominantly played by expats, but is now growing in popularity with locals. Group pic of all the players from Hanoi.

From Vung Tau I headed back to Saigon where I stayed with my uncle and litterally ate for 48 hours straight. I had lunches and dinners at different houses, each aunt taking a turn to feed me and was also taken to two weddings, where one had over 900 people! I returned to Hanoi last night and am back at work, feeling a little tired, but had a great trip overall. I am going away again in 3 weeks but in the meanwhile am keeping put in Hanoi as I barely have slept in my own bed.

Even the Fantastic Four came to the New Year's party. There was a space galactical theme, but I however left my costume somewhere ...

New Year's eve on the bustling streets of Saigon

I will get to celebrate New Year's twice this year as Tet (the Vietnamese New Year) is in mid-February and that is the largest vietnamese holiday where everything shuts down for a week. I feel like I am on on-going holidays, but it is now time to buckle down and get some work done. Not allowed to have anymore fun, at least until I learn some more vietnamese.

Thanks Paulina and Yvonne for the Xmas cards! Yvonne - I been snacking on the candy canes and introduced them to my office-mates.