A Nice Welcome Home

I went for a run this morning through the surrounding neighborhoods, and on turning a corner I got chased half-way down the street by a tiny lady trying to sell me cigarettes. It's my own fault though, as I was jogging through the Cheap Cigarette District.

Oh how I love Hanoi.

Last week I was sitting at the Bia Hoi with my buddy Tony talking about life, and trying to put in words why we loved this crazy city so much. We look back to the street where a moped had just clipped a little old lady carrying about twenty kilos of oranges in baskets connected to a bamboo pole balanced over her shoulder. As her and her pointy grass hat goes flying, Tony looks over: "It's the chaos of it all. The beautiful chaos." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Getting settled is a lot harder than I imagined it might be. For example, I've been in my apartment almost a week and still don't know if I have an address and am not sure where to put my trash once the bin is full. Even though the apartment came "furnished" there are still a few crucial items I want, like a table. So the logical thing for me to do was go down to the Table District.

Here in Hanoi, if you're looking for anything, it's best just to figure out where the "District" is, because once you find it, there will be seventeen different shops on one street selling the exact same thing. I live, hilariously, in between the Welcome Mat District and the Maternity Dress District and yes, it IS the greatest street in the world. There are exactly twelve stores that sell the same ten welcome mats. I'm not sure if anyone has thought to mention that it might be a bit more profitable if they were to spread out around the city, because they certainly haven't figured this out for themselves. Perhaps the government allocates this space specifically for welcoming purposes. Perhaps this is newest form of the Communist Regime, to make all pregnant women get to this specific location so they can be dressed suitably. Whatever the reason, if there is one, I absolutely love it, and my favorite area is the Colorful Buttons and Ribbons District. Go figure.

My friend Peter swears there's a Prosthetic Leg District, but I think he's lying...

I love that this city makes absolutely no sense, and still functions.
I love that I am daily surprised by cultural differences, which keeps me on my toes.
I love Welcome Mats.
What else could a girl want?