Not "weird," but "different"

The theme of week one in Vietnam was not “weird,” but “different.” There are many things I’m trying to wrap my head around in Vietnam (more on those later), and I find myself and others who I’m with have an impulse to call the inexplicable parts of Vietnam “weird.” Maybe there’s no harm in some minor phraseology, but I feel like the word carries a judgment that whatever is inexplicable by American standards must be wrong, or at least undesirable. So, my goal has been to accept the reality that I’m in a new country, a new continent, and to start accepting that things here will just be different. Since about two weeks have passed since I came to the country, some of my initial shock has worn off. Still, here’s some of what made me think of not “weird,” but “different”:

• Buildings. Apparently property taxes in Vietnam are, or once were, levied based on street frontage (I am still researching this more). As a result, on any block you'll see over a dozen extremely narrow buildings squeezed up against each other. On the edges of HCMC, I even saw a few 15-foot wide, 50-foot long, and 5 story tall buildings with two very blank side walls glaring back at me. Despite lacking a certain aesthetic (by any standard!), at least the growth of Vietnam’s cities isn’t leading to precipitous drops in density. I was just reading earlier this week about how Vietnam’s arable land is being chewed up by cities, while around 70% of the population still relies on agriculture for a living. That’ll be a transition to watch!

• Meat. This was one 'different' thing I saw coming, especially considering the diet I left behind in the US. Still, the idea of eating duck fetuses and blood cackle takes some getting used to. The latter is a dish of congealed pig’s blood cooked into tofu-like cubes. It's dark blood-red, and has the recognizable taste of pork despite its soft texture. I also had chopped snake and snake wine the first week. To be honest, I find myself trying to outdo the omnivores (though I'm one too now) by eating everything without flipping out!

• The lack of pedestrians in Ho Chi Minh City. Even in a dense city like Ho Chi Minh City (pop. around 7m) you won’t actually see many people traveling on foot. There’s no rapid transit (subways, rail, bus rapid transit; there are local buses, however), which makes getting around the city without a vehicle much more inconvenient. That's not to say that the sidewalks are empty though. The fact that literally 90+% of the city gets around by motorbike means that the sidewalks are always piled up with parked bikes along with street food vendors. On a related note, HCMC is getting me to change my perspective on freeways after seeing a couple of rush hours in a city without them!

So is anything weird?

Yeah, I think so. While gender roles appear to be softer in a large city like Saigon, I have a hard time adjusting to a place where women are expected to handle domestic affairs and the deck is stacked for men when it comes to courtship. Hopefully I'll get a firmer grounding on the situation in Vietnam once my sociology class starts in another week and when I start my homestay.