profoundfluxpudding

I just received an email:

Hey man,

Nearly a month without an entry. Wassup?

Well its not often that I get referred to as “hey man.” It is also not often that I write here anymore. Don’t get me wrong -I’ve been writing and musing a lot. It is just that now I do it as a job.  So it is harder to find the creative energy to write on this blog.

And ask any blogger  and they will agree. Blogging gets boring. It is like you create a beast. It is fun, but is also just one more thing to check off the list, along with teethbrushing and laundry. Oh, and buying bananas. I really need to buy some bananas.

Fear not – profoundfluxpudding is not going to disappear. It is just changing it’s persona for a while (until I get bored and make another change. I’m fickle, what can I say).

I’ve been wanting to start a fashion/style trend spotter blog for a long time. Now I think I have a good enough grasp on Hanoi to have some expertise in this arena.  And then I was tipped off to an awesome site called posterous. I’m all about micro-blogging these days (like microfinance, micro is the new black). I can post entries by email and syndicate to this blog, facebook, and twitter.

You can see it in this space or you can go directly to: http://whiteelephantfinds.posterous.com/

I think this is a move in the right direction for me and for my blog. Embrace the flux.

Profoundfluxpudding lives on.

1. Fresh cut flowers are for sale everywhere. And they cost less than a coffee at Joma (anyone who knows me knows that I measure money in chai tea lattes)

2. The fitness instructors for yoga and pilates at NShape fitness are super cute. Like reason enough to go to the gym… Nshape has some good marketing techniques afterall!

3. There is an international circus in town. I am going soon. In the words of a friend of mine, I hope it is “tawdry and tragic” (That sounds like another good name for a blog, no?)

4.  Everything in Hanoi is material for collages. Bring on the artsy-crafty phase!

5. Acupuncture is amazing. And costs $180,000 VND for a session. I think I’ve found a new hobby.

6. I can get my hair straightened anywhere…except that normally I’m too lazy and hate betraying my curly girl roots

7. I found a peach! Its funny – with all the exotic tropical fruit around, I’m so craving stone fruits – cherries, plums, peaches….

8. There are more hidden cafes than anyone could haunt. So good for when you want to read a book/hide from the world

9. There are also cafes where you can always know you will see a familiar, friendly face. Puku, Tadioto….

10.  Vegan or not, some of the world’s best tofu is on every street corner. I <3 bun dau

(The really corny British scuba master would say that when it was time to leave the island and go diving)

I remember a tour guide from Pomona College in California selling the school to me when I was a mere high school junior by explaining the ski and surf day – how in one day you can spend the morning skiing and the afternoon at the beach. I found that pretty amazing, but still decided to go to a college where you can spend the morning skiing and the afternoon freezing your butt off.

Anyways, I was reminded of that ski and surf day in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. We had a mountain summit one day and a ocean plunge the next day. It was like a physics lesson in atmospheric pressure changes. Just last Friday we were huddled together like a group of penguins waiting to catch the sunrise atop Mt. Kinabalu. I was wearing fleece pants, two sweatshirts, a hard shell, a wool hat, and gloves. And I was shivering straight through my core. We had woken up at 2 am from the base camp to hike in the dark. A long line of people did this hajj to the summit, but we got there first, naturally. We thought we were so smart to hike faster until we got to the top and realized we had an hour until the sun would rise. It was cold, but amazing. I did not warm up until we finished Asia’s only and the world’s highest Via Ferrata. The hike down was brutal because my legs were so sore. Needless to say we indulged in massages that night.

Saturday morning, without too much sleep for the weary, we headed out to scuba dive. I eagerly exchanged my hiking boots for my bikini. This is my dream vacation – so much adventure packed in. I just got certified last month and I still don’t have my scuba card, but luckily I was able to assemble the equipment with such confidence that it took the dive master no time to believe that I was a “real diver.” I had less confidence in my own capabilities because I was trained in such a bootleg manner, but it turns out I knew more than I thought. I dove backwards off the boat with the best of them and in no time I was underwater. When I first got certified I didn’t really see the magic of diving. It was strange and exciting, but I was looking at bizarre things and mostly focusing on breathing and balancing. This time was different – I was with friends who had a lot of diving experience. I realized that it doesn’t matter if I can’t identify every fish. “It is like exploring a new planet,” one of my friends said. We swam along together – pointing at things and playing with sea cucumbers. It was like the best underwater tea party you could ever imagine. I was laughing and doing backwards flips and felt pure childlike playfulness. Now I am really starting to fall in love with diving.

We went out clubbing in Kota Kinabalu that night and then spent the next day recovering from it. After all that excitement, a rainy day of movie theaters and massages was quite welcome. What a nice summer vacation treat! Now one month countdown until Laos with sister!…

I met a journalist from National Geographic Traveler a few months ago. He wanted to interview me and I wanted to talk to him because, thats what journalists do – constantly look for connections and networks.  He recently sent me some follow-up questions to an article he is writing about Hanoi. I am publishing my answers here because I think they show how I have changed. Months ago, I might have been more sure of these answers. But, like anything, the more you start to know, the less you realize you do know. I am no expert – and I don’t want to pretend to be one. But here are my latest thoughts on everything Vietnam, as prompted by the journalist:

What do you like most about living in Hanoi?

I like that every day is an adventure in Hanoi. I love that some of the invisible pressures in the US – to wear the right clothes and to have the perfect everything  – just don’t exist here. I love the small things – the lady that sells tofu on my street, the fact that I can buy lotus flowers from a guy on a bicycle, and the clear sky after a big summer rain.

I have made some amazing friends – both Vietnamese and expat. I think there is something about being so far away from your own family and things that you grew up with that make people band together and really look out for each other.

What are young Vietnamese focused on these days? How do they view the past (the American War) and How are Americans naive about contemporary Hanoi/Vietnam?

As far as I can tell, young Vietnamese are focused on a bright future. They want good educations and good jobs so that they can make money. Most of them were born after the American War and have no direct connection to it. As there is an “official forgetting” of the war because Vietnam wants to have good relations with the US for economic and trade reasons, people are not supposed to talk much about the war. In my own experience, I have never had a Vietnamese person mention anything negative to me about being an American, save for the tofu lady who said “BOOM BOOM BOOM” to me after finding out that I was American.

Americans hear “communism” and immediately think of failed planned farming in the USSR or the dilapidation in Cuba. It is hard for Americans to understand how a growing economy works with communism. Americans also have that Hollywood Vietnam War image of Vietnam  that I don’t really see much of.  Most Americans I know just think of Vietnam as a very very faraway place and cannot understand why I am living there.

Was it strange to be partying on top of an air-raid bunker (or missile site) or kind of cool?

It was definitely both strange AND cool. It is a funky cafe – I love the characterful cafes around Hanoi. I also loved when we sang a song about peace a top of the bunker – I felt like I was living in that Beatles movie Across the Universe.

Did you find Hanoians “cheerful, upbeat?” as I did?

Compared to the Saigonese, Hanoians are stereotyped to be stingy and mean. I have not found this to be true – you just have to smile, be considerate to them, and speak a little Vietnamese if you can, and Hanoians can be some of the most generous and helpful people I’ve met. Of course stereotypes are never good. The old woman that grabbed my hand to help me cross the street went out of her way to be nice. More people in Hanoi have performed random acts of kindness for me than I could ever imagine. The mean person who broke into my house and stole a bunch of things was NOT kind. People will be people.