Hanoi Gray

Hello and xin chào ! After a nasty bout with I'm calling not-strep-throat-but-basically-strep-throat, I'm slowly returning to the world of the living. As promised, I'll be catching you up to speed with the sightseeing I did during my one-person orientation three(?!) weeks ago. As much as I like Hanoi (and perhaps part of why I like it), there aren't many tourist attractions per se. That said, what I've seen has been integral to understanding the city and its people. Up first was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which is likely the strangest tourist attraction I've ever visited. Against his wishes, Uncle Ho's body was embalmed upon his death in 1969, and it has been on view to the public ever since. The back of the mausoleum. The visit involves all sorts of pomp and circumstance. The walk from the entrance to the mausoleum itself is long and hot—it was here that my eyelashes first failed to protect my eyes from the profuse sweat of 90°F and 80% humidity. M...

Hello and xin chào ! At long last, I’ve gotten around to posting here. While you won't see any pictures of me on an anti-aircraft gun, you will see and read plenty about my experiences in Hanoi and beyond. The last few weeks have been beyond hectic with orientation, training, starting all my classes, and all the logistics of setting up my life in Vietnam, so consider this a brief introduction for what's to come. Somewhere near work. I’ve often heard Hanoi described as an assault on the senses. In the three or so weeks that I’ve been here, that description has been continuously bouncing around my head, and it could not be any more apt. It’s exhausting more often than not, but it’s so, so fun. You notice it more than anywhere else on the back of one of the countless motorbikes that flood the city’s streets. There’s nothing quite like being whisked through the city in the dark after a long day teaching. As you can see, traffic in Hanoi is… an experience, t...