How Did I Miss This Yesterday??

I was awoken early this morning, because apparently they do that public broadcast thing in Hanoi, too. I am not kidding, and I was ready to kill someone when it started at around 6:30 this morning. The construction noise and incessant honking of horns, I can deal with. But this is something I can’t sleep through. It’s not like I even sleep all that late, but I’d like to be able to make it past 6:30 am on a Saturday. Grr… I got to bed early enough so that I think I got a decent amount of sleep, but this is SO not cool, and I can’t see any earthly reason for it. Of course, that’s at least partially because I can’t understand what they’re saying. But unless it’s a public address about how the city is under nuclear attack, I can’t really see what could be so important.

I went to pick up my stuff at the tailor last night, and they had messed up every single piece. There was nothing that was wearable, so I left it all there. I could have asked them to reimburse me for the fabric they wasted, I suppose, but communication was difficult enough as it was. I was not happy, to say the least – they couldn’t even fix what they’d messed up because it was so far off the mark, and it didn’t even look as though they’d used the measurements they took of me. I got back to the hotel and decided that room service wasn’t going to cut it, so I went out for dinner to a nice place down the street, then came back to watch a movie and chill out. After “recharging” my cell phone so that I could use it again, I managed to use up all of the money on it with one fairly short phone call to my dad, so I suppose that Teeny Weeny’s estimate of what would be a good amount of money on my phone for the remainder of my time here was just a smidge off. Oh well – I’ll just get more.

I decided that I’d had a little too much togetherness with the rest of the project team these past weeks, so when Itsy Bitsy said that she and TW would be glad to show me around Hanoi this weekend, I politely declined and said that I’d like to do it next weekend. I just need a little time not be so scheduled, and making plans with people usually involves agreeing on times and places and all those kinds of things. I got up this morning and eventually decided to go for a walk. It’s been looking like rain was coming all morning, but so far there’s been nothing more than a sprinkle or two. I had my umbrella with me just in case, but figured that I could wait around all day and it was possible that rain would never come, so I should just go. I went to a couple other tailors this morning to get a few things made and see what kind of work they do. I have a great deal more confidence in the places I went to today, so I think they’ll be good. Fortunately, I didn’t bring any of the fabric that I brought with me from home to the first tailor – so they didn’t mess up anything I can’t replace.

I walked all around the lake (well, there are several large ones in the city – I’m nearest to Hoan Kiem Lake), and ducked into some back streets to see what was there. Mostly I just wanted to be out and about and getting some fresh air. I figured that if the rain started, I could hop in a cab and come back to the hotel, but until then, I’d walk until I didn’t feel like it any more. I looked into some art galleries, some more shops, and things like that. They call Hanoi the Green City, which is an appropriate nickname, as there are tons of old trees lining almost every street and sidewalk. It’s a really beautiful place in a lot of ways, and as I’ve mentioned before, you definitely get the feeling that it’s an old city, with all the narrow street and big trees.

After a few hours, I decided that I should head back, but since I’d gotten completely ripped off by the cab driver this morning, and it still wasn’t raining, I decided to walk. It’s really not that far a walk from my old hotel, but I really miss my old hotel in some ways. As I was walking down Hai Ba Trung Street, some guy clipped me with his motorbike. I’m fine, he didn’t run over anything, nothing’s broken or really even bruised, but it did cause me to curse someone out in public for the first time ever (swearing at other drivers in my car doesn’t count, FYI). I don’t think he heard it because he kept driving, and even if he had, I doubt he’d have understood it. Or cared, really. It wasn’t like I was screaming in the middle of the street or anything, but when someone smacks into me with their motorbike as I’m walking on the sidewalk and then doesn’t have the courtesy to even look over at me, much less apologize, it does cause a few expletives to slip out.

I’ve retreated to my hotel room, and I may go out again later this afternoon, but for now I’m all about crashing for a bit. Besides, it’s that kind of gray day that makes you want to curl up in bed with a movie or a good book – and I’ve got plenty of both to choose from, fortunately. The food and room service at this hotel are okay, but not great, so I may go out again for dinner. There’s supposed to be a great Italian place not too far from here, which sounds yummy to me, so I’ll try that. I’m also going to bring a book this time, which I didn’t last night. The place I went to, which was quite nice and is across the street from my hotel, wasn’t too full and my table didn’t have a good view of the street, so I couldn’t even people-watch to pass the time. A book is essential!

As a brief tangent, my dad tells me that the Chicago White Sox won the World Series. As a die-hard, life-long White Sox fan, he’s very, very happy, so hurrah for Dad! If it couldn’t be the Red Sox again, then I’m glad my dad’s team won. (But come on, Red Sox. What happened??)

There was some talk last week of switching our schedule around and spending next week in the field, instead of the following week. Now that I’m actually back in Hanoi, I’m really glad to have the week in between, even though that means I have to pack and unpack a few more times. At first I was thinking that, since I was in “on the road” mode (ooh! I rhymed!), it would be good to just keep going. In a sense, maybe it would have been, but I feel pretty much mentally exhausted so the break is good. There’s something about being in the field that’s just different. The days are a lot longer and less predictable, but at the same time, just about every second is scheduled. I’m usually quite the planner and scheduler myself, but it’s a different thing if it’s someone else’s schedule, I suppose.

As a post-script, the Italian place was delicious, and for $22 and change, I got a lovely 3-course meal which started with fresh-baked foccacia and ended with a delicious, delicate, and not-too-sweet apple tart, plus two glasses of wine. And that includes a nice tip. It was probably quite expensive by Vietnamese standards, but I’ve easily spent twice that, if not more, during a night out in DC. Now I’m back in my hotel room, deciding whether to watch an unspeakably bad movie on HBO or go for something from my own collection. Or continue reading the very good book I started at dinner. Decisions, decisions.