US Ambassador’s wife tells about her life in Hanoi
| 12:28' 10/07/2007 (GMT+7) | ||
She said that when see came to Vietnam, she faced some difficulties. One of which is that she couldn’t pronounce Vietnamese words correctly, even the name of the street where she lives, Ton Dan Street.
“One time I called a taxi but the driver couldn’t understand the place where I wanted to go. So I had to walk home. Now the situation is better but when I say ‘bao nhieu tien’ (How much money), many people still can’t understand,” she said.
Mrs. Marine said that after three years in Vietnam, she has learnt the habit of Vietnamese people like waking up early and take a siesta.
“I get up at 4am. Mike, my husband, is very busy the whole day so he can never get up early like that. Around 5 or 5.30 am, I walk to the Sword Lake. There I meet many people, most of them are elderly like me. We walk two laps around the lake together”.
“They don’t know who am I. Because we don’t understand the languages of each others so we don’t talk. But there is an old man who always shakes my hands whenever he sees me. I always say “Chao ban” whenever I see him”.
“Like many Vietnamese people, I have early lunch at around 11.30am. After that I take a siesta. The hot weather like this always makes me tired. But with a siesta I can stay awake till 10 or 11pm”.
“Three years ago, when I had just come here, I saw a turtle rising in the Sword Lake at the early morning. It is grey and its head looks like the head of a sea lion. The day after that I went to the lake and I saw it once again. And I ask others and know about the story that the King returns the sword to the turtle. It is strange that there is a turtle living in the lake and I saw it twice. So certainly enough that I will live till I’m 200 years old”.
“My hobby is reading. I read many books about Vietnam. It is interesting to read about Vietnam when I’m here. In addition, once a week I play bridge with several friends from different countries. There is a Vietnamese woman who is very intelligent. She always wins”.
“Sometimes I help children at a pediatrics hospital in Hanoi to study English. Just several simple dialogues. I also assist doctors and nurses there about medical terms, which are based on Greece and Latin languages”.
“There are several things that I don’t like about the life in Hanoi. I’m scared to pass the road here. It was better in the past three years but there are so many motorbikes now. I think we should do something. You say that the weather is so hot so wearing hamlet is very inconvenient. But in Thailand the weather is also hot but they still wear helmets”.
“There are racers who like driving around the lake in the evening. I don’t dare to walk at night because I couldn’t pass the road. Parents let’s their children stand on motorbikes. Once I saw an accident and a woman who held her child standing on the road to argue about that accident. I think we should have more TV programmes and newspaper articles to educate people about traffic safety”.
“One more thing is taxis. I think taxis must be for everybody. When your children are ill, you can call a taxi to bring them to hospital but here taxi service is very expensive. Once a taxi driver asked me to pay double the official charges. He didn’t know that I know clearly about taxi charges and I debated with him in English. Finally, I only paid him the amount of money that I had to pay”.
“Each time I was far from Hanoi, the atmosphere became quiet. At that time I remembered the noisiness of Hanoi because I’m so familiar with it”.
“Just several weeks more I and my husband will leave Vietnam. Here I have had a happy period of time. I have met with kind-hearted people, who always look ahead and hope. I will tell American people “Let’s go to Vietnam to help and to visit this country”.
(Source: Viet Nam Net) |
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