Inspired by a bog post from my fellow INDEVOUR Darrelle (and also due to the realization that after living here so long I have yet to really describe on my blog what life in Vietnam is like), I thought I’d write about an average week for me in Hanoi. I hope if gives some insight into how I’ve been living the past 6 months!
My average day starts with a 20-minute (well, usually more) bike ride to my office down Le Duan and Giai Phong streets, the main roads leading in/out of Hanoi. Needless to say when I first started riding my bike to work I wasn’t quite comfortable navigating through the traffic and noise, but now I ride my bike faster than the motorbikes on the road! Knowing the intricacies of Vietnamese traffic, like when to slow down or speed up, or how to not get mad every time someone honks at you or cuts you off, are definitely skills that can only be learned by living in Hanoi.
When I get to the office, I’m always greeted with smiles and a “how are you?” from whoever is at our front desk! Then I go up the lovely, old, winding staircase to the second floor of the building, where the room where my desk is. I fire up my computer as I say hi to everyone, and I get to work with a cup of green tea brewed by our amazing office cook. As a communications officer, my general tasks are updating our website and facebook page, writing articles, taking pictures at events, editing documents/publications, and making videos. I do get to attend the occasional workshop, training, or project launch too. There are certainly days when I have more to do than others, and I consider myself very lucky to have a pretty steady stream of work.
Then at noon, we get a phone call from downstairs to tell us it’s lunch time… all the staff’s favorite part of the day! Our office cook is pretty much my Vietnamese mother… she’s always looking after me. Not to mention she makes amazing food! Our standard meal is rice, some sort of meat and fish, steamed or stir-fried veggies, and soup – always family style. Lunch is followed sometimes by cards at a nearby coffeeshop, or a nap if you feel like it. We go back to work until around 6, and it’s time for me to make the ride down Le Duan again to get myself home.
I’ll usually pick up street food for myself for dinner on the way home. There are a few places that I am quite the regular. I admit I do almost no cooking here, but I justify it with how cheap and delicious all the street food is! My evenings are almost always busy, whether it’s a Vietnamese-English language exchange lesson with a friend, doing homework at a café, going to Toastmasters meetings on Tuesdays, or an Open Mic night on Wednesdays with my roommate.
Weekends are also very busy for me! Seeing friends and coworkers (Canadian and Vietnamese), more language exchange lessons, more homework, concerts, going to the market… there’s always something for me to do in Hanoi! My Vietnamese friends love inviting me out to interesting places around Hanoi, and sometimes to their homes as well. When I do have downtime at my house though, it’s always filled with quality time with my roommate and her son… making music, watching movies, or just talking about life.
I feel like I live a pretty amazing life here in Vietnam. It’s busy and chaotic sometimes… but that’s because I’m trying to get the most out of the short time I have left. It’s also a life of small routine things that I can already tell I am going to miss so much. I really wouldn’t trade my placement experience here for any other one. This may sound sooooo cliché, but I am incredibly thankful that I have the chance to be a part of Vietnamese culture just through my day to day activities, as well as for the great people I have met who have come to define my time in Vietnam.
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