June 01, 2005
First Thoughts
Upon arriving in Saigon the first thing i noticed was the unbearable heat. Saigon is a crowded, lively city. The roads are filled with bicycles, thousands of mopeds, and a few cars. The streets are lined with vendors selling food almost 24 hours a day. The city starts running at 3 am, people are up eating breakfast at 4 and on their way to work by 5. At 5 am it is approximately 85 degrees fahrenheit and by noon it's well over a hundred. The culture shock i experience was beyond what i ever expected. Being Vietnamese I thought I had a good grasp of the Vietnamese lifestyle- I was wrong. The people, the language, the culture is completely different. Like many cities in third world countries there is a huge class disparity. Alongside large wealthy houses you find slums where people live without running water and little electricity. There are hundreds of beggars on the streets and everywhere you go little kids swarm, selling lottery tickets to make a few bucks. They look at me and they know i am american, the way i look, the way i dress, not to mention my accent when i speak. The first few days were really hard because I couldn't understand what people were saying, the Southern accent is very thick. During the first few days i spent visiting family, or rather meeting family for the first time. When i met my great grandmother she was not particularly surprised or excited to see me, apparently she has so many grandchildren and great grandchildren to keep track of all of them. All of her kids have left and now live in countries all around the world, she doesn't keep in touch with most of them. Almost everyone I meet here has family that has gone overseas. In the past week or so i've collected multiple letters that people want me bring to america. Often they have tried to write to family or close friends that have moved but have not heard replies from for years. One woman told me that her childhood best friend moved to the States and they lost contact because she didn't want to write letters that made her friend worry about her. In the States you start a new lifestyle and shouldn't be burdened with the past. That's how it is.
Posted by Thuy_Nguyen at June 1, 2005 05:16 AM
