Assimilation and other new things

Lately I've found myself participating in a number of typical, if at times risky, Vietnamese behaviors: drinking tap water (the night after the snake alcohol, when I was out of bottled water); drinking sketchy home-made rice alochol, in the first place; swimming in fresh water (apparently you can catch a variety of parasites in fresh water); biking the wrong way down one-way streets or down the wrong side of the road; texting while biking; forgetting my bike helmet; waking up at 6am every day and napping at noon; developing a morning dependency on sticky rice and fresh soy milk; using the communal water cups at restaurants. I'm feeling a bit more assimilated these days. Well, as assimilated as an American girl can feel after two months in Viet Nam--it's a nice feeling nonetheless. The rhythm of life here has yet to take up residence in me, but I'm starting to catch a beat here and there.

At the same time, I've discarded the taboo against shorts. After two months of sweating in pants and skirts, I broke down and finally wore a pair of shorts out of my room. The Vietnamese girls might be able to tolerate scarves, hats, socks, and gloves up to their armpits, but that's just not how I choose to deal with the heat. I imagine some people chatting as I walked by, white legs switching back and forth, and I imagine someone saying "There goes that foreign teacher in her trashy shorts!", and another responds "Yes, those Americans...." The pretend dialogue that I give to onlookers amuses me--it's become a common source of internal entertainment.

I've also acquired a few new things that I'm quite excited about. Lately I've been going out of my way to avoid buy things--I just want simplicity. I've been vacillating for weeks about buying a hot water maker, for example, usually coming to the conclusion that even this simple appliance will just complicate my life and take up space. The main qualifying question for a purchase is this: Will this greatly improve the quality of my life? I also consider whether or not the purchase will enhance my experience here in some way. And, of course, art and travel expenses have their own criteria.... Anyway, my biggest purchase was a jade bracelet, very typical here--remember the "vietnamese bracelet torture" story from an earlier blog? I decided to give it another go, this time with a bigger bracelet. My friend Ha, who I teach with, called me randomly on Saturday evening and offered to take me to get one. I was especially appreciative, as I was kind of dragging that night and needed the company and the outting. She took me on her motorbike--it helped to ride a motorbike, wind in my hair, blah blah :) --to a vendor she knows in a big market in the city. I chose my jade bracelet, and paid 200,000 dong for it. It was quite an expensive purchase for me, as I'm trying to live on about $6 USD, or about 100,000 dong, a day. I think of everything lately in terms of that budget, so the bracelet cost me about 2 days worth of living expenses. I'm justifying the purchase by reminding myself that a) it's a very typical Vietnamese thing and thus enhances my "authentic" experience here, and b) it's a good jade bracelet that should last forever (literally), and, furthermore, should remain quite some time on my wrist as getting off will be painful! Anyway I'm quite pleased with the purchase--I was swimming in the sea today and color of the jade in the clear, green water was so lovely and satisfying...

the woman (who was wearing one of the bracelets herself!) trying to force the thing over my hand

finally, success!

I also bought a new drinking glass today. I only had one, a small plastic one, and I really missed pouring myself a tall glass of water in a sturdy, solid glass. The purchase met my "must improve quality of life" criteria, and it was only 13,000 dong--a reasonable investment, I thought, as I'm going to be here for at least a year. The glass has clean lines and it feels very civilized to me to have this one nice drinking glass. It's funny to me to think that three months ago I had a whole cabinet full of drinking glasses, even when I lived alone, and now I contemplate for days before I buy a single glass for less than a dollar. I'm quite enjoying the drastic decrease in my consumption habits.

A new, heavy-duty poncho was my final purchase. Even beyond the "improving my life" classification, this poncho falls into the "absolutely necessary" category. I think monsoon season is nearly upon us; every afternoon the skies have been darkening and grumbling, as if forewarning me...

My other two new items were inherited from Inaki upon his return to Norway: a novel, Girl Meets Boy, by Ali Smith (which he gave me to because he didn't like). I'm always excited to get a new book here, as reading materials are a bit limited for me and I don't love reading books online. (As a side note, I also bought The Pilgrimage, by Paulo Coelho, from a street vendor recently. It's about Coelho's experience walking the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage in Spain which will probably be my next adventure. I also learned that Inaki's father is affiliated with overseeing part of the pilgrimage!)

A small Norwegian coin, worth one krone, was the second half of my inheritance from my new friend. I loved the coin--it has a beautiful bird on one side--so he let me have it. I've since turned it into a necklace, as the coin has a hole in the center. It was perfect timing, really. The chain of my locket just broke and I was hoping to come across a new, simple necklace.

Even with my new possessions, my life seems to be drifting back to normal, slowing down like a swing after a child leaves it in mid-motion, losing its fervent momentum. English club, waterfalls, alcohol, university ceremonies and meetings, lessons, Katherine's birthday, Inaki's farewell dinner--the past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and very little sleep. But, yes, it seems that I'm back on the way to normal. And recuperation, to some degree: last night I fell asleep at 10pm (while watching Volver) and slept until 8:20 this morning. And then almost fell asleep while I was reading on the beach this afternoon. I'm missing some of the things that filled up my time recently, but I have a list of other things to occupy myself with: lots of Vietnamese studying, starting a Movie Night at the university, finding some volunteer work, spending time with some new female Vietnamese friends including Miss Ha (I only had male friends until recently!), attempting to improve my French and maintain my Spanish (the other day I realized I couldn't remember the word for "cesspool), and trying to do some research on reproductive rights. If I can do nothing else well in this world, I can keep myself busy--and I'm setting myself to it.


Currently listening: Joanna Newsom, "The Milk-Eyed Mender"