The Aquarium

Elliott Crofton

I would be lying if I said coming to Viet Nam was a well thought out decision for me. I made the choice impulsively, which is a bad habit of mine. After going about things this way one must always consider their decision at some point, and to be honest I’m not completely sure that I have yet.

There are two things that stand out about this place. Both are somewhat insignificant, petty even, but they dominant my life every day. The first of these is food. Everybody eats. I would not say I’m so much of a picky eater as I am a bizarre eater. My tastes are eclectic, and I sometimes welcome anything put in front of me. I had had really authentic Asian food before, and enjoyed it. Nonetheless I had no idea what the everyday Vietnamese diet consisted of, and though I’m sometimes open to new things I did not want to be eating dog every day. My worries were unfounded. The food here has simply been delicious.  Eating mi xau bo (egg noodles with beef) every single day for lunch may seem like it would get old, but only if you have not tried mi xau bo. The food is wonderful I also feel like my diet has improved in general. My host mother’s cooking is sublime. I have become particularly fond of her catfish. There is the occasional dinner where my childlike distaste for anything that is slightly different shows itself, so I end up simply eating rice. Overall I eat well in Ha Noi.

Now the traffic. I often form love-hate relationships with people and things. The roads and I are on very odd terms. Walking makes things fairly simple. Crossing the street with intense traffic is daunting, but you learn the skill quickly. I feel like at this point I’m quite the master of cross-walking. But biking is different. You don’t bike on the sidewalk here, you really can’t.  You bike in the street like everyone else. My first bike ride in Ha Noi was terrifying. I rarely rode my bike in the street of my little Aramco suburb. Riding in a sea of inconsiderate motorcycles and a few rude cars did not seem like a good idea to me. After I bought my bike I had to get it home, and the only way of going about that was riding it. Being part of that traffic soon lost its accompanying horror, and now I find it exhilarating. There isn’t a thing about it that’s terrifying. Being part of all those bodies moving through the city is almost a spiritual experience, and merging left is an adrenaline rush.

So, have I made a good decision by coming to Vietnam? It is difficult to say what a good decision is, and it may seem weird that I would weigh traffic and food as heavily as I have. These two things make life more interesting here, so they make me happier most of the time. As do my friends, my host family, and a lot of other small things. We will see if I’ve made a good decision, but as my buddy Aristotle says, “Change in all things is sweet.”