Walking in Flowers

I bought my first pair of Tevas today. You would think that living in the great Pacific Northwest I would have at least one pair of Tevas/Chackos/Brooks etc. Nope. None. While I believe that Tevas are an abomination to fashion footware, I don’t think my feet have ever been happier.

Vietnam eats shoes. It literally swallows them up whole. My little white flats that have lasted me years in perfect condition? Trashed. My TOMS no longer have backs to them. My gladiators are still hanging in there, but it’s a struggle, they don’t have much left in them. I do have cute tennis shoes, but surprisingly no one wears tennis shoes here, as you have to take off your shoes upon entering a lot of places, and socks are just not a thing. So I bought a pair of Tevas. But me being me, I can find a sale no matter what country I am in. I don’t support buying fake or stolen goods, so I found a legitimate sports store and then found my new Tevas….70% off. My feet are happy, my wallet is happy, and as long as I don’t look down and think of how dorky I feel, I am quite happy as well.

Tonight “Flower Street” for Tet opened up in downtown Saigon. Think of the largest farmers market you can, and then combine it with the crowds of 4^th of July, add 90 degree heat, and over a million people, and you have a good picture of my evening.

One huge street was closed off and everywhere they were selling flowers. I’m not sure if there is any significance to the flowers, but there was a huge variety of them. The most common ones that I saw were tiger lilies (my favorite) and orchids. 

There were also mini orange trees, carved yet still growing grapefruits (don’t ask me about the biology of this, I don’t understand how it’s possible), dragonfruit trees (they look like cacti) and poinsettias. This street was the only point in my three weeks of being here where the city actually smelled nice.

The street was also decked out in beautiful flower lights, signs, and decorations. We wandered around with the crowd, listened to the music, nibbled on some street food, and generally enjoyed being part of the celebration. As different as everything is here, I really enjoyed this festival because it reminded me of being home in the summer. Besides the complete and total obvious differences, the sentiment was the same. It was just a whole bunch of people getting together to celebrate and view something lovely. There were kids running around, food vendors, and general happiness in the air. It’s amazing how some things are so completely different, and yet feel almost exactly the same.

Downtown an Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop opened up. And since soft pretzels are one of the best (and seemingly most traditionally American, though I think they originated in Germany) snacks, I decided to education my Vietnamese friends about the deliciousness of American snacks. They were very confused by the large soft pretzel, but overall they agreed it was actually pretty decent. One friend even admitted that he would love to eat one with a beer. You can’t get much higher praise from a college kid than that.

Things I learned (among other things):

While I’m learning so much, I realized I have knowledge to share too

It’s perfectly acceptable here to whack a little kid when they are misbehaving

While Western influence is seeping in to Vietnam, they still preserve their culture: like having shrimp flavored soft pretzels