Little overdue

 I've said before and I'll doubtless say again, one of the issues with keeping a travel blog in my current execution of this lifestyle is that I don't really do much on my own.  And because I'm on my own most of the time, I really don't do much in general.

I'm trying to change that here in Hanoi, and moving forward, though I'm not always sure exactly how.  Today, however, one such effort came to fruition.  I'd posted in a "Make friends in Hanoi" Facebook group looking for people who would be willing to teach me how to cook something Vietnamese.  It was a goal some time ago to learn a dish at each place I went, and while that's only worked for South Africa so far, it's a start.  Now I have a few things from Vietnam through an early, brief dating relationship.

One person in particular who responded is an English teacher and saw this as a good opportunity to give her students some practice in conversation, teach some cooking/food vocab, and teach me something all at once.  So I joined her and her students to make fried spring rolls, as well as hot pot (which I didn't really learn how to make, but that's fine, one thing was enough for one day).  I was surprised when a couple of them remarked how good my technique is for slicing things and how quickly I picked up rolling the...well, rolls.  A few asked me if I was a chef or enjoyed cooking, because clearly I do it often.  This was so odd to me because most of the time, I feel like I'm pretty clueless.  I've heard people use the phrase "I would burn water," and I know I'm not that bad, but I tend to think my overall skill is average at best, certainly not worth remark, let alone praise.  Felt kinda good.

Not a lot more to say about that.  My walk there and back went along a river or canal or something, which was nice.

I'd commented before about Vietnamese 'everyday' architecture and the way it all feels kind of impromptu, thrown together.  I finally got a decent picture to demonstrate that.  It's also been interesting being in a fairly big city again - Plovdiv, Batumi, and Port Elizabeth were all mid-sized at most, and with the exception of Batumi, I really wasn't in the center in any way, so I got used to most things being closed in the evening.  I took this at about 2, 2:30 am, showing a little food shop that's still open.  It's not even the only one in eyesight from my front gate.  I've ordered delivery of entire Indian food meals at 3:30am (yeah my sleep patterns are a dumpster fire and have been for most of the month).  It's a different style for sure.

 Short update beats no update.  Expect another one in the next couple days, as I have something coming up tomorrow that will actually be picture-worthy.