The best, and worst, of times

These past few days have really shown me the highs and lows that being on placement will be putting me through for the next 7 months. Of course I knew that good days and bad days were going to be an undeniable reality, the last week has really brought me on an emotional roller coaster that I wanted to share a bit of!

Let’s start with the good (because I want to keep this post optimistic, don’t get me wrong). Over the weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go on something called a Hash run. Basically it’s a group of runners (and beer-drinkers!) who get together every Saturday and go running in the rural areas around Hanoi. Let me tell you that the scenery and people I meet on the run were truly remarkable, and I cannot wait to do it again! I also went to go see some live bands with my room mate and her son to celebrate her birthday, which was a lot of fun too. Finally, on Sunday I took a bike tour around Hanoi with two of my fellow INDEVOURS, where we got to learn a lot about the city and take in some Vietnamese culture. My work week had it highs too! I got to attend a workshop on organizational accountability and transparency within SRD and got to give some input into our accountability policy, which really made me feel a part of the SRD team.

Then came the lows. On Sunday night, I started to feel a fever coming on and by Monday morning I was pretty sick. Now if you know me, you know I hate being sick with a passion and I will say that I’m “fine” no matter how bad I feel. I ended up making it through my work day (partially because of my stubbornness), and managed to sleep the sickness off over a few days. I was hoping that would be the end of my “low” streak, but I was wrong. I decided after work one day to try and figure out (on my own, might I add) where to renew my bus pass. Long story short, my attempts landed me at a closed booth in a dark bus terminal with no new bus pass and frustrated as ever with my lack of Vietnamese. I do admit I was in tears on my ride home, but luckily when I finally made it back to my apartment I was greeted with tea and a funny movie.

What I’ve taken away from all these ups and downs is that Vietnam is truly going to make me a stronger person. I’m going to have to learn to take the good with the bad, and to work hard to make my time in Vietnam what I want it to be. If I let experiences like the one I had at the bus terminal get to me too much, then I’m only setting myself up to have more of them. And most of all, I’ve learned that I need to pick up more Vietnamese!

I apologize if this post was a bit of over-sharing, but it feels good to get all of it off my chest. Until next time, Internet! Xin Chào