As I sit on the balcony of my room in my apartment writing this,
I’m feeling pretty excited about my life here in Hanoi. This city has such an
atmosphere of excitement and adventure about it! From the horns of motorbikes,
to the karaoke bar across the street, to the fruit vendor trying to get your
attention, Hanoi has truly captured me! There always seems to be something new
for me to try (like the snails I ate yesterday with my co-worker) and discover.
Even though I have gotten into somewhat of a routine having been here for about
2 weeks now, every day has been an experience for me. Just walking by myself in
my neighborhood today, I couldn’t help but feel fascinated despite my
surroundings being somewhat familiar to me!
I can’t wait to explore the city even more, and I think that even in my
8 months here I still won’t get to see it all. I guess for the first time, I’m
feeling like my “placement experience” is really coming together and that I am
on track to experience some pretty amazing things both professionally and
personally. And I definitely already have, especially now that I’ve started
work. My time so far at Sustainable Rural Development has been really
incredible! I feel right at home in the office, and have made some great
friends already. The communications department is such a close family… I’m so lucky
to be part of such a great work environment! I also feel really good about the
work I’m doing. In my first week at the office, I’ve helped fixed our website,
developed a facebook strategy to grow our fan base, and even written a few
articles myself. I’m also going to have the opportunity to go into our project sites
to collect some of the information for these articles myself, which is the part
of my mandate I’m most excited about. Although
the kind of work I’m doing right now is not what I plan on doing as a carrier,
I’m already learning so much from it. I feel like I’m diving into the world of
NGO work very quickly, but I’m enjoying every second of the ride!
