A Day In the Life

A "re-print" of my second update email...


Dear all,

I am still safe and happy here in Ha Noi, Vietnam and the masses have been
clamoring for an update, so I am happy to oblige. I think my life recently,
being more of a life of routine, is best described to others in a 'Day in
the Life' format. So come along with me on...

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ME

Weekday
8-8:30am: Wake up, dress business casual, eat cereal

8:30-9:00am: Drive to work

9:00am-12:00pm: Work as a paralegal at Law Firm*

*My job at the law firm is hard to put a title on. I am the only native English
speaker in an office that does its business IN english and WITH native
English speakers. So absolutely everything that goes out of the office
comes across my desk (or Outlook email inbox, since this is the 21st
century) for my edits and approval, and a lot of the things coming into the
office get my review and interpretation for my coworkers. I also work
directly under the Managing Partner (a tiny 4ft tall Vietnamese man) so I am
constantly creating memos, proposals, summaries and supporting documents for
him. I'm pretty sure that most of what I do for him would never be allowed
in the US and a lot of the time I just make up conclusions and proposals
based on my knowledge of the law (which is based purely on Law & Order
re-runs) and let him change them, although often he doesn't. I also sit in
on a lot of meetings because my boss thinks having a white person makes the
firm look more reputable, and have often been assumed to be "Special
Counsel" or something to that effect. Vietnam is also in the beginning
stages of a mass Intellectual Property registration - all the global
companies who either are doing business or want to do business in Vietnam
are now scurrying to register their trademarks and taking action against
infringers and counterfeit products. Our office does the majority of this
work for Vietnam and so I've also done a fair share of investigations in
shops of potential counterfeit products with my trusty camera playing the
part of a snap-happy tourist.

12 - 1:00pm: Lunch, usually a sandwich or Vietnamese street food (pho, rice
& pork, veggies)

1-2:00pm: Vietnamese lesson, walking around downtown or gym to watch tv*

*The Vietnamese people in my office and throughout the city use this time to
take a nap. They go into their offices and either lay on the floor on mats,
on tables or in their chairs.

2- 6pm or 6:45pm-ish (sometimes later, I have to stay until everyone meets
their deadlines since I am usually the last person who needs to sign off on
documents for clients): Work, as described above

6 - 11pm: Varies depending on the day. Can include gym, dinner with friends
downtown, movie either at big cinema or small independent film theater/cafe,
errands.

11-12am: Bedtime

Weekend
So far I've been to Ha Long City for an investigation (no redeeming value,
city near Ha Long Bay, just a tourist trap), Sapa* (see below), participated
in the Terry Fox Run with my coworkers, celebrated Halloween dressed as
Hilary Clinton (was hard pressed for a costume), found a church (Hanoi
International Church), went to a craft fair, celebrated 2 birthdays and
entertained 3 guests (1 of mine, 2 of friends) in the past 1.5 months.
Things have been busy!

*Sapa is a town in the very Northern part of Vietnam near the border with
China. It's in the hills and used to be a French look-out post. It's now
the tourist gateway to see the ethnic minorities who live in the area.
Approximately 8million of Vietnam's population is not ethnically Vietnamese.
There are about 30 different minorities with populations ranging from 1,000
to 80,000 all who have very distinctive dress and handicraft products.
For our trip we took an overnight train from Hanoi to Lai Cao, then a bus up
the mountain to Sapa where we walked through the market, had lunch and then
did a 4 hour hike through the hills to Cat Cat village and a waterfall. The
following day we hiked to Lao Cai village (6 hours), which included a
downhill trek to the bottom of the valley and then along a river through the
rice paddies. The scenery was beautiful - huge mountains (FanSiPan - the
tallest mountain in the Mekong Peninsula was right outside our hotel),
graded hillsides with rice paddies, all sloping down to the valley floor
where there was a river. To be honest I found the villages depressing; they
make their money by selling handicrafts to tourists and the villages didn't
look very prosperous. But our guide was a 20 year old girl from Lao Cai who
was amazingly fluent in English who seemed completely happy with the state
of things, as did most of the people there. Photos will be available on
Snapfish soon.

The Future

I've committed to work for the law firm until February 11th, after which
I have many options and ideas of what to do. I'll keep you updated, my
current plan is to stay here at least until summer 2008. And I'll be home
for Christmas Dec 15-28th!

FYI I've also managed to break my laptop, which accounts for my minimal use
of Skype to keep in touch. Should have that fixed come January.

Love, me