Hanoi, the first few days

We're back to Hanoi, and this hotel has a much better connection, so I'm glad to be able to do a quick update. This very briefly shows a few things from the first few days. When I get back, I'll update things better.

My classmates are incredible. Our professor is originally from India, and he is one of my mentors. The class, however, is ten women. We come from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Canada, U.S., Austria, Taiwan, and Turkey. They are incredible and dynamic, and I'm learning as much from them as I am from being here.

We visited a place yesterday called Mai Chau, which is in the mountains and home to a number of ethnic minority communities. We're just back today, and I'm trying to catch up on sleep and homework. I haven't been sleeping well at all, which is affecting about everything as you can imagine. I'm expecting that to change tonight!

These first few images are from the first couple of days. Next time I post I'll get a few up from Mai Chau--it's a beautiful place. Enjoy!



This bridge leads to the temple in the middle of the lake in the city. I walked here my first day. It's quite pretty, and I can't remember its story at all at the moment....



These two images are from the Temple of Literature, just down the street from our hotel. This is an absolutely beautiful spot in the city. The crane and turtle statue stands in the temple area of the fourth courtyard, and symbolize longevity and friendship. The gate is one of the markers between courtyards.






These three images are from the Forbidden Palace at Ba Dinh Archaeological Site and Thang Long Imperial Citadel. The top two are from the Citadel, and the bottom shows some of the excavation work in progress.