Sunday, September 28, 2008
Coming very soon... really!
Hello friends! So I have seriously been working on this latest blog post for a week now... but due to technical, logistical and free time difficulties, it is yet to be published... and is still not being published. And I realize that no one is expecting me to keep the updates coming at a particular pace, but lots of interesting things have been happening, and I've been getting lots of interested emails, and I just wanted to get it out there that I am doing very well, enjoying family and work and other things for the most part, and I want to tell you all about it... not that that's really possible. BUT there really is more coming soon!!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Vietnamese+biking+glimmerings=???
Today I write from the Mucus Café. That's right, like snot in your nose. Contrary to its name, it is in fact a lovely spot that's just down the ally from Kim Ma House, the MCC house. Today is Hannah and my last day staying there with Derek, Ana, Lucas and Chase before moving in with our host families, and I've been meaning to stop in since we first walked past it almost three weeks ago, and I have not been working all week because of lack of tasks for me to do there plus two days of holiday... that all goes to say that I am here and happily updating all of you on my life in Hanoi over the past two weeks!
So on Monday, August 25, Hannah, Ana and I started Vietnamese classes at Hanoi University. So far we have learned lots of useful things like hello, what is your name, where are you from, what is your job, and just this morning, "I need to go to the bathroom"...and then upon my return, "There is no toilet paper in the bathroom." Deep learning. And plenty of laughing too. It's so interesting to notice how culture is built into a language and a language built into a culture. For example, when saying "hello," the speaker must name herself with an age-relative pronoun, say hi, then name the listener with the corresponding age-relative pronoun. So when I say hello to Ana, I say "Em (naming me as a person who is talking to someone older than me but not as old as my parents) chàu (hi) chi (naming Ana as a woman of that age). You use these different pronouns to indicate age whenever you are talking to or about anyone. Age and the hierarchy is establishes is very important in Vietnamese culture and you're reminded of it every time you open you mouth. Language is such a powerful tool... and it makes me think about ways Anglo culture is built into my mother tongue... hmm. Below is a photo of the three students with our teacher, Giang (pronounced "Zaung" English style) this morning after class.
September 2 is Vietnam's Independence Day, as in when it declared independence in 1945 from colonial France, as well as from the Japanese occupation in effect at the time. This fight for independence and the following American War ("Vietnam War" is you speak American) are just the last two efforts in a long series of fights for independence since Vietnamese civilization first emerged around 2000 BCE. According to Lowell (the outgoing MCC country rep), if you condense Vietnam's history down into 100 years, it has only been an independent nation for 6 of those (I'm pretty sure I'm remembering those numbers correctly... if not, don't blame Lowell.) To me, this kind of puts the US's whole dramatic Vietnam War complex down to size... and really places a lot of historical drama in a much broader context than I'm used to thinking in. When your country is merely 2.25 centuries old, every decade counts. When you've got 40 centuries behind you... not so much. And it also makes all the buzz about "development" and the influx of Western culture around here right now seem maybe not so significant. Vietnam has absorbed foreign influences before and as of today, has still managed to maintain its own distinct culture.
Hannah and I celebrated the big day with a maiden (pardon the sexist, gendered language) bicycle adventure. See the photo in the previous post to remind yourself what Hanoi traffic looks like... then imagine two little white girls entering the fray, sporting shiny bulbous helmets and ill-fitting bikes. And check out the photos below to see me rearin' to go... and then us upon arriving back home, safe but frazzled. Actually the straight forward biking (turning is still a little iffy) was quite comfortable and a fascinating experience. As a biker in North America, even though I have bike lanes and paths and am protected by traffic laws, I am always "in the way," cars are always angry at me for being on "their" road. Here, if bike lanes are present, they are fair game for anyone and everyone, there is no such thing as a smooth path or sidewalk and traffic laws are generally optional; however, because everyone is always in everyone's way, no one bothers getting angry about anything on the road! EVERYONE has a right to be a part of traffic. Quite empowering really.
I've spent most of the past two weeks feeling pretty optimistic about life here... right on track with the culture shock curve, I suppose. Great. I continue to be thankful for reminders to live fully in each moment... but am increasingly finding it helpful to embrace even those moments when I'm not intensely experiencing my environment and personal state (which is most of the time)... and living in those moments as well... because they're still happening in the present. Or something. I was particularly inspired along this vein of thinking while recently reading The River Why by David James Duncan, which was given to me by a dear and wise friend upon my departure. In this point in the story, the main character, Gus, is hiking along a river with neither a reason nor destination he can articulate. But as he listens deep down, he feels drawn to trek onward. He says:
"...the glimmering began again; but when I'd take a stab at the thing that caused it, try to name it or even guess at its nature, then the glimmering abruptly stopped. So I called in Nameless ... still [I] caught nothing I could keep hold of. Just walked, watching as the sun made and melted prisms over the stairs of white water" (234-236).
As I stubble along here in Vietnam (or really anywhere) I feel like each step follows the last one and I continue forward and in that way am led... and when I try to articulate WHY things in my life were or are or will be, I end up confounded, frustrated and scared because in my noisy scramble, I can't hear those glimmerings. So it's nice to think about letting go of the power that articulation gives me and just relaxing a little and enjoying the scenery along the way.
Now that we're all feeling very deep and contemplative, I have one more thing to share... I have finally realized my lifelong dream of maternity and it's a boy!!
Ok that's not true. This is little angel is Chase. Sometimes we like to hang out. Especially when Ana is feeling tired of carrying him around and when I need the ego boost that walking along the sidewalk with a cute baby gives you. So many smiles from everyone you see!
So on Monday, August 25, Hannah, Ana and I started Vietnamese classes at Hanoi University. So far we have learned lots of useful things like hello, what is your name, where are you from, what is your job, and just this morning, "I need to go to the bathroom"...and then upon my return, "There is no toilet paper in the bathroom." Deep learning. And plenty of laughing too. It's so interesting to notice how culture is built into a language and a language built into a culture. For example, when saying "hello," the speaker must name herself with an age-relative pronoun, say hi, then name the listener with the corresponding age-relative pronoun. So when I say hello to Ana, I say "Em (naming me as a person who is talking to someone older than me but not as old as my parents) chàu (hi) chi (naming Ana as a woman of that age). You use these different pronouns to indicate age whenever you are talking to or about anyone. Age and the hierarchy is establishes is very important in Vietnamese culture and you're reminded of it every time you open you mouth. Language is such a powerful tool... and it makes me think about ways Anglo culture is built into my mother tongue... hmm. Below is a photo of the three students with our teacher, Giang (pronounced "Zaung" English style) this morning after class.
September 2 is Vietnam's Independence Day, as in when it declared independence in 1945 from colonial France, as well as from the Japanese occupation in effect at the time. This fight for independence and the following American War ("Vietnam War" is you speak American) are just the last two efforts in a long series of fights for independence since Vietnamese civilization first emerged around 2000 BCE. According to Lowell (the outgoing MCC country rep), if you condense Vietnam's history down into 100 years, it has only been an independent nation for 6 of those (I'm pretty sure I'm remembering those numbers correctly... if not, don't blame Lowell.) To me, this kind of puts the US's whole dramatic Vietnam War complex down to size... and really places a lot of historical drama in a much broader context than I'm used to thinking in. When your country is merely 2.25 centuries old, every decade counts. When you've got 40 centuries behind you... not so much. And it also makes all the buzz about "development" and the influx of Western culture around here right now seem maybe not so significant. Vietnam has absorbed foreign influences before and as of today, has still managed to maintain its own distinct culture.
Hannah and I celebrated the big day with a maiden (pardon the sexist, gendered language) bicycle adventure. See the photo in the previous post to remind yourself what Hanoi traffic looks like... then imagine two little white girls entering the fray, sporting shiny bulbous helmets and ill-fitting bikes. And check out the photos below to see me rearin' to go... and then us upon arriving back home, safe but frazzled. Actually the straight forward biking (turning is still a little iffy) was quite comfortable and a fascinating experience. As a biker in North America, even though I have bike lanes and paths and am protected by traffic laws, I am always "in the way," cars are always angry at me for being on "their" road. Here, if bike lanes are present, they are fair game for anyone and everyone, there is no such thing as a smooth path or sidewalk and traffic laws are generally optional; however, because everyone is always in everyone's way, no one bothers getting angry about anything on the road! EVERYONE has a right to be a part of traffic. Quite empowering really.
I've spent most of the past two weeks feeling pretty optimistic about life here... right on track with the culture shock curve, I suppose. Great. I continue to be thankful for reminders to live fully in each moment... but am increasingly finding it helpful to embrace even those moments when I'm not intensely experiencing my environment and personal state (which is most of the time)... and living in those moments as well... because they're still happening in the present. Or something. I was particularly inspired along this vein of thinking while recently reading The River Why by David James Duncan, which was given to me by a dear and wise friend upon my departure. In this point in the story, the main character, Gus, is hiking along a river with neither a reason nor destination he can articulate. But as he listens deep down, he feels drawn to trek onward. He says:
"...the glimmering began again; but when I'd take a stab at the thing that caused it, try to name it or even guess at its nature, then the glimmering abruptly stopped. So I called in Nameless ... still [I] caught nothing I could keep hold of. Just walked, watching as the sun made and melted prisms over the stairs of white water" (234-236).
As I stubble along here in Vietnam (or really anywhere) I feel like each step follows the last one and I continue forward and in that way am led... and when I try to articulate WHY things in my life were or are or will be, I end up confounded, frustrated and scared because in my noisy scramble, I can't hear those glimmerings. So it's nice to think about letting go of the power that articulation gives me and just relaxing a little and enjoying the scenery along the way.
Now that we're all feeling very deep and contemplative, I have one more thing to share... I have finally realized my lifelong dream of maternity and it's a boy!!
Ok that's not true. This is little angel is Chase. Sometimes we like to hang out. Especially when Ana is feeling tired of carrying him around and when I need the ego boost that walking along the sidewalk with a cute baby gives you. So many smiles from everyone you see!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
