I'm Alive!!!

So I was totally going to post last night about my first day in Hanoi, but the internet was giving me serious trouble...which provided a great excuse for me to pass out at 10 pm. :)  Therefore, I'm going to make two posts tonight, one for each of the days I have spent here so far.


I got in around lunchtime yesterday with Roman (my uncle's partner) waiting for me outside baggage claim.  It was so wonderful to hold a conversation with someone I actually knew and who wasn't asking to see my passport or whether I wanted chicken or beef.  I was wide-eyed and open-mouthed for most of our drive from the airport into the city.  It was terribly foggy, which I immediately found out is just how it is this season and I should expect it most days, and the architecture, a combination of French art deco and modern Asian design, was absolutely captivating.  You'll see a lot of examples of that in my next post.


We stopped by the Canadian Embassy on the way to the apartment.  It's near Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and many government buildings, the latter of which I'm not really supposed to photograph, but I'll probably try to surreptitiously sneak a pic or two if there aren't any military men about.

Across the street from the Canadian Embassy of which I couldn't get a pic while being observed by a g-man.

I'm alive!!!

There's also an excavation going on in this area of the Chinese part of the old citadel of Hanoi.  It's not open to the public, but Roman and my uncle Kyle are going to try to get me in to at least do some observation and check out what they've found so far.  Cross your fingers for me!


We then finally made it back to the apartment where I was promptly put to work cooking Roman and me a lunch of rice noodles in broth and stir-fry squid and veggies...it ended up not too terribly considering I was jet-lagged and had neeeever cooked Vietnamese food before.  The apartment is lovely with lots of light provided by windows and sliding doors out to balconies that overlook West and Truc Bach Lakes.  Our building is filled with ex-pats and those who work for foreign governments.

Skyline! My home for the next six weeks.

View from my bedroom window

My temporary bedroom! It's lighter than it appears here.

My closet for the next six weeks...

The living room balcony and view of West Lake beyond

Living room

Roman in the kitchen

Expanded view from the living room balcony

Roman then walked me the five or so blocks to 54 Traditions, the antiquities shop where I'll be having my internship for the next six weeks.  Dr. Mark Rapoport, MD, is an ex-pat and former New Yorker who developed an interest in Vietnamese cultural objects back in the 1970's.  He moved here in the 1990's with his wife and began accumulating the gargantuan collection he now stores, restores and presents to tourists for purchase.  He's incredibly enthusiastic about all these finds, which range from ritual, shamanistic objects to common, everyday ones.  My favorite of the pieces so far are an elephant molar that was grated in order to use the resulting powder in shamanic prescriptions and a mammoth tooth that naturally resembles a dragon and was therefore placed on an altar in religious reverence.  I'm not entirely sure that Dr. Rapoport likes me yet, but I'm fairly certain he doesn't dislike me--and I can definitely work with that.


Afterward, Roman and I dropped in on a show opening at the nearby Art Vietnam Gallery.  I wasn't particularly impressed with the new show, but some of the older work was amazing.  There was a large black lacquer panel, a good six feet by three feet, that was incredibly reflective in the middle while the outer edge was filled with sporadic mother-of-pearl inlay in the shapes of dainty, delicate flowers.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of it...I think I'll try to stop back by there after work one day.  I did manage to snag a photo of my favorite piece, another lacquer work.  Of course, the picture doesn't do it justice. 

Rain, by Truong Tan

Finally, we met up with Kyle to head off to dinner.  Earlier, Roman and I had passed a little shop that had tiny fried rice crabs which you eat whole and cooked larvae of some kind.  I will definitely try the crab, and I'm really hoping to work my way up to the bugs... apparently there will be a ton of variety of edible insects in Cambodia, so maybe that will be my crash course.  Dinner was slightly less taboo, consisting of fried noodles with egg and beef and Bia Hanoi, the local beer with a very light taste.  The beer wasn't the only thing light that night, and by the time we came back to the apartment I was dead on my feet between the alcohol and the jet lag.  This resulted in the highlight of my day, however prosaic it might seem: sleeping in a legitimate bed with pillows and, most importantly, mattress.  It was like sinking into a cloud bath.