Striking a balance

My first month living in Vietnam was probably the most exhilarating and exhausting time of my life. I spent those thirty days in a constant state of wonderment. Everything was so new. The city was new, the culture was new, the food was new. The traffic, the noise, the street vendors, the makeshift wheelchairs. And the attention. I probably did more socializing in those thirty days than I had done in the whole previous year. Believe me, it was not due to my own efforts: everywhere I went, people wanted to talk to me. That was very strange and took a lot of getting used to.

It was an absolutely wonderful time, and by the end of the month I was getting pretty sick of it. I moved to my new apartment away from District 1, began socializing less, and got a new job working 15 hours a week on top of my 20 volunteer hours. This might sound a lot less exciting, but it was also a wonderful time in its own way. I found the lack of social obligations incredibly refreshing. I rediscovered having time to myself. And as my responsibilities as a teacher increased, I gained a new understanding of the profession. And after a month I was sick of living like this, too. I wanted to have a social life again.

So here I am, in the third month of my stay. I think the first and second months were both very important and natural stages of my development here; I had to go through both to arrive at where I am now. The next two months will be the tricky part. I’ve lived at both extremes; I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum. I’ve learned that I can’t live much longer than a month at either end. Now I have to try to live somewhere in between.

I’ve already started going out with my friends a bit more. That’s been a welcome change of pace. I’ve also started a more thorough exploration of my area, and rediscovered Vietnam as a place of wonderment. Believe it or not, after my first month of living here I actually thought I’d seen just about all that Saigon had to offer. How could I possibly have thought that? You could live in this city your whole life and not see everything. In my recent walks I’ve discovered a tiny department store with all the basic necessities, eliminating the need for a fifteen minute walk to MaxiMark, the giant and much more expensive general store down the street. I’ve located a number of new cheap restaurants, a hair salon (if you say ‘barber shop’ here no one has any idea what you’re talking about), and a bakery.

I had my hair cut at the hair salon. This is actually the first time I’ve had my hair cut since I came here, because honestly I was a little afraid, and NO JOEL I AM NOT RACIST. I am merely unable to speak Vietnamese, and was therefore worried that I would not be unable to communicate with the barber. But it worked out really well. The barber spoke a little English, understood me perfectly, and I emerged with one of the best haircuts I’ve had in a while. It cost about $2.50.

I want to hold off talking about the bakery, because the world of Vietnamese pastry is so vast that it deserves its own entry, and several pictures. Speaking of pictures, the camera situation unfortunately remains unsolved, but I have made progress. I asked around about the possibility of purchasing a new camera, and it’s—well—not a possibility. Basically, there is no such thing as a Vietnamese camera, meaning they are all imported. And while most things in Vietnam are incredibly cheap, anything imported is a huge exception. A box of cereal here costs about $6, for example. Even the cheapest camera here is around $300.

But all is not lost. I talked to some more people at AIS, and some of them have had similar problems with Vietnamese batteries not working for them. Apparently it’s not that the batteries are incompatible with American electronics or anything, just that they’re so incredibly cheap and worthless that they can’t power anything. But higher quality batteries are available in the country; it’s just a matter of tracking them down. They’ll probably be expensive, but I should be able to find them somewhere.

And when I do, trust me, there will be a lot of pictures. I will make a serious effort to atone for depriving you for a month and a half.