Hello friends! Just thought I would write a quick update
considering I am falling fast into a routine of work life in Vietnam. First of
all, my co workers are so great and so welcoming and I feel as if I’ve been
working at the organization for longer than only a few days. Basically, my day
goes something like this: I wake up and get ready for work, walk a couple
blocks from our apartment to the bus stop, take the bus in the morning rush
hour (which takes about 15 minutes longer than it should to maneuver through
the crowded roads), and walk a few blocks to my work building. Along the way I
run into numerous people, some who are getting ready to begin their work day at
the street – side shops, and some who are travelling to get to work or drop
their kids off to school (this list also includes strange men who beckon me to
where they’ve parked their motorbikes – in those situations it’s better to just
shake your head and keep walking haha). I start work at 8:30 am and leave at
4:30 pm to beat evening rush hour. Our
lunch hour lasts about an hour and half and at work everyone cooks together and
eats together; it’s really quite niceJ.
The first day at the office they made snail, so I can officially check “trying
adventurous dish in Vietnam” off of my list, though I still plan on trying some
more authentic foods (yes, snake is still on my list!).
I work for an organization that promotes the sustainable use
of water resources but also does so much more. It educates the public on proper
measures to take in the face of natural disasters, preparing them for great
risks and even conducts research that directly involves the participation of
the local villagers for whom the research is conducted in the first place (this
local knowledge extraction is known as Thai Baan research, a participatory
approach that helps local villagers collect information and build a database
about how they interact with their own environment). For now, I’ve been doing
some work related to hydro – power decision making in the Mekong River Basin and
In October I will be doing some field work pertaining to Thai Baan research in
the Cao Bang province (situated in Northeastern Vietnam, bordering China) in the
Bao Lam district. Exciting huh?
After work I bus back home (though next week I am going to
try biking) and hang out with Alyssa for the rest of the night, meet up with
some friends for dinner, or just read J.
Recently, Alyssa and I attempted to utilize our nice kitchen and cook our own
food. We went to the grocery store, bought some veggies and noodles and cooked
everything in a big pot – surprisingly it was quite delicious and we even had
left – overs (score!).
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| The soup? Alyssa and I made...baby steps :P |
Well that’s a little synopsis of my regular day at work (I
promise the weekends will be way more exciting =]). Take care my friends!
Apart from the strange men, it seems like you're really starting to get into for comfortable and familiar with the areas around you.
ReplyDeleteIt must be a great shock to see how peoples' lives are in regards to just setting up their side shops and such rather than setting up a store that we would commonly see here.
I feel after this month your placement will truly start because then you would be placed on the field and actually get first hand experience.
The soup looks delicious! I think you should keep that recipe alongside any others you pick up on the way and bring it back here, and give all of us a Taste of Vietnam.
Have fun!