A Weekend in the City

The weekend started out with a bus ride to the city. Usually on the weekends, I have a language lesson or two and the driver takes me to and from the city each day. However, the driver had this weekend off so I went with Anna and Dung's parents on the bus to stay with them in the downtown apartment, so that I could more easily get to my language classes.

After I had noodles for breakfast on Saturday morning I got my stuff ready and walked down to the bus stop with Dung's parents and Anna. Dung had to leave on Sunday for Malaysia so she and Anh stayed in the Ecopark apartment instead of coming to the city with us. When the bus arrived, I got on with the many other Ecopark residents who were headed to the city including a boy from my class, Quan Minh. The bus ride was about 40 minutes long and we got off at a busy intersection in the heart of the city. From there we got in a taxi for a short ride to the downtown apartment. I think this kind of behavior in taking short taxi rides as opposed to walking or taking the bus, is the reason for the horrible air pollution I've noticed in (and around) Hanoi. The city itself is only 5.8 square miles, almost

15 times smaller (geographically) than Seattle but the population in Hanoi is around 7 million whereas the population of the greater Seattle area is only around 700,000. Adding to the resident to land ratio difference, people in Seattle more often ride bikes, buses, and walk instead of driving whereas Hanoians are quick to hop in a taxi or onto a motorbike, even if only for a 10 minute ride. Though I suspect the number of people with vehicles is much lower than the population, there are still an obscene amount of people driving at all hours of the day in the city. Having such a small area with such a high concentration of car use is certainly the cause of high air pollution in the city. I suspect part of the reason people drive more is because the air is bad for their lungs, but it's just a vicious cycle because the more people drive, the worse the air (and traffic) gets, which further causes even more people to hop in cars for short trips.

Sorry for that long tangent, but after my environmental science class this past year and the differences I've noticed between Hanoi and Seattle in some of these aspects, I felt this was worth noting. Anyway, I can't be too high and mighty about it because while I've been in Hanoi, I've mostly done the same thing. This brings me to my afternoon language class on Saturday. Because we didn't have the driver and no one could walk with me to the lesson, one of the neighbors gave me a ride to my language lesson on his motorbike! It was my first time riding one in the city which proved to be scary in some

moments. There were a few times when I thought we might hit another motorbike or pedestrian but we avoided collision and I made it to my language class just fine.

In the class we covered conversational structures for phrases like, "I like __ because __" or "I don't like __ because __." We also did some review and covered more vocabulary words. I was excited for the class on Sunday because the coordinator, Hoa, had told me that I would be joined by two other Americans in the class. However, Viet informed me that because it was their first class, it would be a waste of my class time to sit through a lesson that I had already taken. So, I unfortunately had to cancel my language class for Sunday; I'll hopefully be able to have classes on Saturday and Sunday of next week instead. Our neighbor brought me back to the house after the language lesson on Saturday and I played mini golf with Anna until it was time for dinner. After dinner, I took an interesting shower in the bathroom on the third floor. I think to make up for the lack of floor space in the column house, the shower was just a hand-held shower head and a drain in the floor of the bathroom. I felt a little weird spraying water all around the toilet and near the sink but Anna assured me that it was okay, so I went with it and showered, letting the water flow into the floor drain. When I got out, we watched Frozen, which Anna had on DVD, on the TV in the third floor bedroom (where I would sleep). I had never seen it before but it was a great

movie and though Anna didn't understand all of the dialogue, I explained about what was happening in the movie for her and she enjoyed it too. I think she might have seen it before because she sang along during "Let It Go." (For those of you who don't know, "Let It Go" was the most popular tune of the movie sung by Elsa - Idina Menzel). When the movie finished, Anna had to go to bed so I read my book for a little while, then fell asleep too, after putting up the mosquito net that hung around my mattress on the floor.

On Sunday morning I had pho for breakfast, then Anna and I drew pictures for a little while before she turned on the TV to watch Cartoon Network (her favorite channel). We played more mini golf before our lunch of rice, shrimp, chicken, greens, and broth. When we finished, we cleaned up and headed back to the Ecopark. We missed the Ecopark bus because of some issues with locking up the front door so instead took a taxi back home. When we got back, I

worked on the Physics homework that I wasn't able to do in the internet-less house in the city. Around 4 we went swimming at the same pool we usually go to; we went on Anh's motorbike since the driver still had the day off and the because the pool is too far to walk to for Anna. Like last week, the pool was very warm from the hot weather during the day but we still had a nice swim. After the trip to the pool, everyone showered before dinner and I finished up my physics work. For dessert I had dragon fruit, which has a flavor and texture similar to a kiwi but is not as sour.

As is usual after dinner, Anna and I went on a walk in the Ecopark. We stopped at the Citimart to pick up some tea for my sore throat, then headed back to the slides where Anna played for a little while until she was ready to go home.

Thanks for reading and have a great Sunday!

*Pictures are of our street view in the city, noodles for lunch, the mosquito net and bed setup in the downtown house, the small kitchen, and a neighboring column house.