Sunset over rice fields on the drive from Ha Long Bay to Hanoi.
Hanoi things I am used to/ getting used to/ still flummoxed by every time I think I'm used to:
- Teaching - I don't think I'm any good at this yet, but we have the best practice students in the world, so it'd be impossible not to love working with them. And I can (sort of) public speak now, or at least, I can stand up and talk without going into the fight-or-flight panic response that so characterized about 80% of grad school, so, hey, progress?
- Crossing the street. I think the trick lies in walking purposefully and slowly enough that oncoming traffic - and there is always oncoming traffic in its many and sundry forms - can predict where you're headed and swerve/honk/slow accordingly. This goes against every fiber in my being, which is screaming at me to run as fast as I can if not faster so I can stop staring death in the eyes, but I think I'm getting better at it. And if that fails, just glom yourself on to the nearest clump of equally-nervous looking tourists and then you can all walk together, like a big, happy, cowardly family.
- Showering. In the bathroom, not in a shower; there's just a nozzle above the sink and the water goes everywhere. I always feel like I'm doing something wrong, getting water all over everything, but it's really kind of fun as long as I remember to move the towels first.
These bullets probably don't make it clear how much I love being here (and I really, really do love being here, even if I do whine about trying to cross the street more than may seem reasonable), but a week of intense school after many, many weeks of indolent Top-Model watching and/or aimless wandering around various foreign cities means that last week kicked my butt, so I am going to go forage for food and then enjoy a shamelessly lazy night of watching Scrubs on my laptop before the next week of bootcamp (er, school) begins.
