Typhoon, Anyone?

Since my family managed to go two years in Taiwan without a typhoon, which is supposed to be an annual occurrence there (if not multiple times throughout the season), I suppose it’s only fair that I should encounter one at some point. That point would be today. These aren’t your typical rainy season-type rains, these are hard-core, you-never-thought-you’d-see-this-much-rain-at-one-time-in-your-life kind of rains. I don’t remember the name they’ve assigned to this particular storm, and I think it’s slowed down enough so that it may not officially be considered a typhoon anymore (the winds have to be above 120 kph), but it caused people to have to be evacuated from Da Nang and all kinds of other things like that – the coast took kind of a pounding. Nothing like what’s been going on with the Atlantic hurricanes, thank goodness, but it was still pretty intense. Here in Hanoi, it appears to be just rain, rain, and tons more rain. It’s a good thing that my hotel is slightly elevated…

There’s a building across the street from my hotel, and I’ve always been curious as to what it was, because there are a few Vietnamese Army guys stationed out front, with their fingers resting casually on the triggers of their automatic weapons. I can’t tell you what kind of guns they are, since I’ve never really been a “Guns and Ammo” kind of girl, but they’re big. It turns out that it’s the UNDP office (United Nations Development Program). Who would think that they’d need armed guards outside in Vietnam? Huh…interesting. Well, whatever the reason, someone apparently thinks that they need armed guards outside. It’s been a while since I’ve seen men with machine guns right outside my walls – not since Pakistan. It’s a weird feeling, but I don’t usually think much of it unless I’m looking right at them.

I’m sure that I am condemning myself to a relapse, but my plan to beat my cold into submission appears to have worked for the time being. I’m still a little congested and light-headed, but overall, I’m feeling better. Here’s hoping the trend continues! (I’ve been eating lots of fruit and trying to get some exercise in, maybe that helped a little?) Since I’m feeling more lively, I may take myself out to dinner again tonight, assuming that the storm subsides by the time I need to be getting out of here. It appears to have passed, mostly, but sometimes these things come in waves…? I have to go pick up some clothes from the second tailor tonight, so here’s hoping that they turned out well! I still haven’t brought anyone anything I had from home, so again, it’s nothing that can’t be replaced, but I hope they did a good job – although, like I said, I have more confidence in this place than the last. (I’ll find out in a few hours whether or not that confidence was misplaced…)

While I have enough perspective to realize that I’m lucky to have any telephone at all, and that I’m even luckier to have e-mail capacity and all those good things, I am so frustrated with my mobile phone here. First of all, apparently some people are having difficulty calling me – they get a message that says the number doesn’t exist. Yay. Second of all, international long distance is so incredibly expensive that whenever I “recharge” my phone with money, it’s all used up after a short phone call, because I can only use this annoying pre-paid cell phone. A call to my bank last night that got more complicated than I’d expected cost 500,000 dong (about $30), and got cut off, leaving me with almost nothing left on my phone – and the bank didn’t call me back like they said they would. And I can’t make any more calls until I put even *more* money on my phone. Given the fact that I don’t permanently live and work here, I need some better phone access, because I’ve also been trying to make business calls, and that’s been an exercise in frustration as well.

Of course, I’ve also heard stories from my parents about having to schedule a time for a long distance call in Pakistan, and then hope that the line worked when it was their turn. So really, this isn’t too bad, I suppose.

I just talked to the guy about the Yemen project, and by “urgent”, they mean…in two weeks. So, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll end up being drafted for the project, unless they’re really that desperate. (Which they might be, who knows?) But I said I absolutely couldn’t leave for Yemen before November 28^th, and I had to be back here for Christmas, although I referred to that as “personal family obligations”. There is, however, no way that I’m spending Christmas alone in Yemen, I don’t care how interesting the project is. The timing is unfortunate, because I think it’s interesting work, and I know it’s stuff I could do, but if they need someone in the next two weeks, I’m not right for the project. It’s funny, though, how I feel very strange saying “no” to any kind of project – I almost feel obligated to say yes. I’m not, technically, but still. I also have this stupid competitive streak, where, if someone else gets offered a project that I don’t even want, after I’ve said I probably can’t do it, I think “hey! I haven’t definitely said ‘no’ yet!”. Things I don’t understand about myself. At least I’ve got the presence of mind to realize that the last part is just my stupid competitive streak, so I keep it to myself. I think part of it is that I know I’m not at a place yet in my career where my experience will speak for itself. My experience doesn’t speak for a whole lot yet, so I’m torn between trying to carefully preserve my actual life, and trying to build my career, when there are a lot of people with competitive streaks in this business. (Not that I think such traits are unique to this business, by any means.) But, of course, much as I like a lot of things about my job, I never want to confuse my job with my life – I just need to remind myself of that from time to time.

So, maybe I’m not going to Yemen after all.