First few days in Hue....

Today is my 5th day here in Hue. On Friday morning I moved out of the Hostel I was staying at into the homestay. The City of Hue is located on two sides of the Perfume River. The side I stayed in on Thursday night contains the 'touristy' backpacker areas, so a lot of restaurants that serve Western food, Western bars with cheesy Western music and as a result, prices are a bit steeper.
The other side of the river, where I am staying, contains the citadel, and within its walls lies the old city of Hue. This is my new home for the next three months!








The homestay itself is in the same building as Hue Help's office. The house belongs to Hue Help's Vietnam Representative's mother-in-law. There is a family of 5 living here: the 95 year old head of the family, our landlady and her husband, her daughter-in-law and the landlady's sister. I think I've probably gotten some of the relations mixed up, but here in Vietnam it's not so important to know who is whose sister/husband/father-in-law etc.

Vietnamese culture is incredibly family-oriented. The house I'm staying at often houses 4 generations, as the Hue Help Vietnam Representative often brings his kids and they spend the day with the family. It is important to respect those older than yourself and this is reflected in the langauge, too. So instead of saying, "hey, could you pass me the butter?" we need to decide whether we say "uncle", "grandma", "sister" or "younger sibling" based on their age related to us. So the 95 year old becomes 'ong' (eldest), the landlay's sister is 'ghi'(person the age of my parents), our landlady and her hustband are adressed as 'bac' (grandparent) and their daughter-in-law is 'em' to me(my age or younger'). This is why Vietnamese people will first ask you how old you are, so they now how to address you!

Aside from being unsure how to address the family (besides saying hello - xin chao I don't know much yet) there are many more curiosities to discover. The landlady speaks German, as she did her medical training in East Germany and her sister speaks French, so we try to communicate. Once my Vietnamese lessons get underway it should get better though!


On Friday I also met the other volunteers. There are 5 of us altogether. Kim is my age, so the two of us are the 'babies'. Stefano and Catarina are Italians who gave up their house and jobs in London and are planning on staying in South East Asia for 2 years. Greg is Australian and is intending on staying in Hue for as long as possible. I reckon age-wise Greg is in his early fifties, Catarina and Stefano in their late thirties. It's a really nice group and the fact that Greg, Stefano and Catarina have all been to various South East Asian countries will help me with my culture shock!

We spent Saturday and Sunday with Hy, the volunteer coordinator, who had prepared a vast amount of information on Vietnamese culture. Between all our induction sessions we managed to squeeze in loads of food (delicious!), some beers (Huda beer beats Festival beer, that's what I've learnt so far) and lots of coffee Saigon, which is similar to a cafe Latte but has a distinct chocolate-y taste.

Last night my homestay family cooked for us all, I'd expected to have the whole family there, but instead it was the 5 of us plus the Hue Help Vietnam Representative Khanh. The food was delicious, I tried my first Ban Bo Hue, which Hue is famous for and I also tried my first shellfish ever - clams out of the Perfume River.

This afternoon Stefano, who ran a bicycle shop in London, is going to help us fix the bikes that the previous volunteers left here and I might go for a little cycle to explore the area.

Tomorrow we're starting our visits of all the different NGOs and placements we'll be working with/on and we start our teaching next week.