More Rain

There's a steady rain outside my window right now, flooding the streets and making it miserable to travel anywhere. Today was supposed to be the day that we go explore the old quarter of the city and check out the colonial architecture that abounds there. However, I am stuck inside the MCC office with nothing to do except write here and listen to the patter of water droplets outside the window... and the steady sounds of horns off in the distance.

On Tuesday I was issued my MCC bicycle (The official mode of transport for SALTers in Vietnam, at least until we learn how to ride a motorcycle) and have since rode it around, mostly to the office and back. Riding here is truly an experience unlike any other. It is firmly engrained in my mind that a bicycle is a sort of second class citizen on the road and is relegated to the right lane. Mentally, riding a bike involves watching out for cars and hoping that they aren't too busy grooving to music or talking on their bluetooth to notice you. Here in Hanoi, bikes are treated a little different. They are not very common (Though ostensibly they were incredibly populous a few years ago) but they are in many ways a true king of the road. With traffic that travels around 40 k/h a bicycle can keep up with much of the slow moving motorcycles and cars. Thus here one rides as if they were a motorcycle, swerving in and out of traffic. It's a little intimidating at first, but once you get a feel for the rhythm of the traffic it's actually quite fun. The best part is that while there are medians on all the major streets, one can simply just hop them and go the other direction rather than waiting until a traffic circle.

With all the rain that's happening there is quite a bit of standing water. Nathan and I went to go check out the school where we will be learning Vietnamese and were faced several times with situations where the water was a eight inches deep on the the street and no way to go around. Eventually one is forced to take off their shoes and just suck it up.