It's not just strangers who talk about the weather

Only strangers talk about the weather but here I really do think it's very necessary. In summer it is absolutely boiling, humid constantly so you drip with sweat and it's actually hard to breathe properly. Then the rainy season where it tips it down at every opportunity especially when you've just left the house with no umbrella and suddenly there us a huge drop in temperature as winter approaches and you need a huge coat that you didn't pack because no one told you Asia could ever be cold.

Just the other day we were bracing ourselves for a huge hurricane which only blew a few branches lopsided.

The weather is perfect for approximately one day, and boy is that day  good.

The busiest week of my life

This week I'm doing my two posts combined. I think it has been possibly the busiest week of my life and it was all because of this one event. At UNIS UN day is where everyone where's their national costumes and brings in food from their home country. There are huge tables stacked with spring rolls, sushi, and sweet treats. This year there were these adorable children from Sapa who danced and sang in their traditional clothing.

Here's some pictures from the day:

We were both in pretty bad moods when this was taken so I'm not really smiling but these dresses were really cool!

Here are the cute Sapa children performing their dance,

Singing on stage was one of the scariest moments of my life!

There were hundreds of people there, and check out all the flags - over 66 different nationalities are represented.

Soon I'm going to have to do a post about being really busy and coping with all the stress! I find strawberry tea usually helps - with a huge number of oreos :)

Culture shock

Obesity?

Grandmothers chase around the young children, not as some sort of game but to try to feed them so they grow strong. This comes from the days when food was scarce and parents had to force feed their children whenever they could to help them to survive. These days though food is plentiful  and slowly but steadily more fast food chains are beginning to pop up throughout Hanoi, yet the grandmothers are still chasing the children around: this is the beginning of a newfound problem; obesity.

Sometimes in the streets you will see a portly Vietnamese businessman or spoilt rich child with a protruding belly and dumpy arms and it makes you wonder "eventually will Vietnam become another fast food nation?"

A random rant about balls tea

Technically called bubble tea this beverage is found all over Hanoi and it is AMAZING! Things that I love about it are:

1. The bubbles remind me of black frogspawn or black pearls or something else mysterious and I love the feel of them.

2. There are literally around 50 different flavours (I'm not exaggerating) including mint, chocolate and durian (bleugh!)

3. There is a cool lid machine which seals the plastic to the cup and there's always an adorable character on the lid.

4. They give you giant coloured straws  and who doesn't love those!

5. The place I go to is in the centre of town: perfect for quenching the thirst on a long excursion and I would never have gone and tried it myself (someone dragged me along and forced me to try).

I recommend everyone trying this Vietnamese drink as it's perfect any time of the year!

Fabrics

It was quite overwhelming with so many different fabrics stacked up but I got to practice my "too expensive" shouting in Vietnamese. I got some quirky rabbit material and some cotton for a dress but I have hundreds of potential items I want to have made!

You need about 1m for a top of 2m for a short dress so next week I'm popping to the tailors with some pictures from magazines and one of my dresses to try and get them to make it right.

The Lake ( one of many)

Around the lake it's the busiest part of town. Bustling with people all the time it's great to just sit on a bench (obviously a large ice cream improves this scenario greatly) and just watch people passing by. In my university application I'm considering putting people watching and daydreaming as two of my greatest passions in life. Let me describe the scene:

There are women marching round jabbering wearing floral pyjamas. This is quite a fashion statement actually especially with the patterned hats which I read in Vogue are all the range this year. Not the hats the contrasting patterns.

Then there's the countless people playing badminton and sports, there are people who are crouching on the side of the road chatting or more like jabbering to each other… in Vietnamese (duh yeah I know but it still annoys me I can't eavesdrop).

And finally a large part of the population is just doing things. I'm  actually not sure what they do all day but in February I am going to ask them about their lives, so I will be able to tell you.