So in the West, when we want to say “no” without words, we shake our head side to side. In Vietnam, you see that a little bit, but much more common is one hand raised and waved back and forth like this.
Apparently I can’t make myself do the hand motion without the slightly irritated look on my face (I tried multiple times). I think psychologists call it Classical Conditioning – a response (the hand wave and facial expression) that is always brought on by a certain stimulus (in my case usually street vendors to which my irritable response is to say with my face “do I look like I want my shoes shined?”). Hence the face. But the hand wave itself is not always irritable.
And there’s also a hand motion for “I don’t know.” Or maybe more accurately “I have absolutely no idea what the hell you are a saying,” which is more commonly the case with English-speakers like me. It’s a similar motion but with both hands, generally in the vicinity of your temples. In a dramatic divergence from the one-handed “no,” I have found the latter motion to almost always (in recent months) be accompanied by laughter and general merriment. “I don’t know what you’re saying and I never will but you sure are funny and I hope you find what your looking for . . . hahahaha.” At which point both parties go about their business, writing off the aforementioned bit of communication to the Forever Unknown. I have been on both the giving and receiving ends of this nonverbal communication almost on a daily basis, and I count it among my all-time favorite interactions with strangers in this city.
I remember the first time I heard that the single hand-waving meant “no.” It seemed so counterintuitive. Or at least not noticeably intuitive. There’s nothing about somebody waving their hand that inherently feels like they are saying “no,” right? But the same goes for shaking heads and nodding heads and spirit fingers, I suppose.
But now, when I’m confused about something, nothing in the world can communicate it more accurately than two hands waved around at my temples. Nothing says “baffled” quite so clearly.
I appear to be in an accidental month-long blogging sabbatical. When this happens you can usually bet that things are going either very well or very badly, and this little break has been a bit of both.
Since the move my life here has started to feel much less like novel traveling and much more like real life, which is a good thing and was, indeed, entirely the point. But of course I wasn’t even a full month into that sense of home before I started wondering if the grass is greener somewhere else. Part of the reason for that is that I need to make a decision very (very!) soon as to whether or not I’m going to sign another contract to work with this same company in Ho Chi Minh City when this one ends in August. It’s a great school and a good job and a fabulous community. It’s a smoggy city with no nature and a job with no two-day weekends. These are the things I’ve had rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks. The good news is I’m taking some days off next week to go to the beach by myself and try to sort through some of this.
When I get back I plan on have a new leaf turned – a 2009 pulled into focus and renewed commitment to sharing it with you here. For now though, I’ll just share a few bits of news, some more significant than others.
I’m planning to be back in the States for the month of August before returning here (or elsewhere in Vietnam) for the rest of the year. Would like to see as many people as possible in that month so HOLLA.
I just finalized a decision to join a group that will spend the month of November cycling from Ho Chi Minh City (the very south of Vietnam) to Hanoi (the very north). It’ll be a 900-something mile, 20-30 day ride with about 10-15 other people. Could not be more excited for this.
My friend Chelsea is coming to visit in June and we’re going to do Southeast Asia crazy-style – either venturing to Laos or the north of Vietnam, or both . . . who knows!
My roommie and I were eating squid on the street the other night and a rat fell out of the clear blue sky and landed with a BOOM on top of the table right next to us. Ah, Vietnam.
That’s all for now. Signing off for another week. Will have things more interesting when I get back. Hope all is well!
