Tour de Pagoda

I had a wonderful evening with Tiina last night, a Vietnamese friend I met at a party. She is taking an MBA program in Finland, and will be returning there in September to conclude some of her research. I find her to be very brave to live in a cold, dark country like Finland, but Lahti University gave her a full scholarship, so she couldn’t say no. A Vietnamese girl in Finland of all places! I love free education.

In the rainy night, we visited two Pagodas: Vinh Nghiem and Xai Loi. The first pagoda was closed, and the second one was nothing but open! I got to watch part of a Buddhist prayer, which I have never seen before. I do not follow any religion but I have read a lot about Buddhism as a tool to reducing life’s general anxieties, so I felt pretty good about being there. We lit some incense to pray for her grandfather who suffered from a recent stroke. I felt very honored to do this with her. It almost brought a tear to my eye.

Afterwards, we went for noodles and bean desserts and talked about life. Tiina is very fortunate to live in Europe and travel around Asia. I found that we were very similar. Not only do we have the same purse/wallet from Sa Pa, and we fly out of Vietnam on the same day (September 4), but we want to live everywhere. We share the same values. We are both independent women. It was really nice to talk to somebody who understood. Of course, there are many hardships that come with wanting to live a freakishly international lifestyle, and we talked about those, too. Tiina appears as a 24 years old, but she is older. Many Vietnamese women are deceptively young when it comes to looks. She has a five-year-old child that she would like to raise in Europe one day, and I found this to be very inspiring and becoming. She has a very youthful and fun spirit which I see in many of my 30-something friends here (who, honestly, will remain 22 years old to me).

To top off our night out, I was walking down my street when I saw the neighbourhood kitty eating a pile of rice from a plate. For some reason I felt very sad, so I started petting it. It rubbed against my legs and started purring. At first, it was very distant and afraid. I reached my arm towards it but it backed away and I think this may go to show that animals aren’t treated very well by humans for the most part. It made me miss my cat at home sooo much! (What up Murphy?) Petting the kitty was a HUGE deal to me because I avoid animals like the plague in Vietnam – irrational yet reasonable fear of rabies, particularly in dogs. Speaking of which, I was chased by six small dogs (doberman-chihuahua-types) on the way to work the next day in front of a large group of people, which was hilarious.

That night, I came home and I felt really happy with myself. I don’t know why. I listened to my favourite album ever, “Dear You” by Jawbreaker while scraping candle wax off my wall. I learned to never leave candles out when there is an open window. Candle in the wind = not a good look for my room, sorry Mr. Elton John.

Tiina told me that I look very French, and I thought that was super-cute of her. I don’t think I look French at all, but she told me it’s in my eyes. I had a very Ameliesque haircut in high school, but that’s all I can say about that. Okay, maybe I could pass for a Mediterranean girl from southern France. And I’m definitely quasi-Portuguese/Spanish. Either way, what a compliment to tell me I look French! That totally made my day. French people are so stylish. Je ne sais quoi?

P.S. In lieu of all things French, I bought a large baguette for $0.30. So much respect.