On Saturday, we finally got a chance to sleep in and do a little bit of exploring ourselves, something I appreciated a lot. Unfortunately, a typhoon wanted us to do otherwise. We were stuck in our hotel for the morning because of the intense flooding. In late afternoon, we went to a restaurant called DMZ Bar, which was based off the war, and had a group discussion on identity and gender. I thought the conversation would be very one sided and difficult to be a part of. I find it difficult because my views, political and ethically, are very different than most kids my age. It has been one of the biggest challenges in my young adult life: being able to still be who I am and stay true to my beliefs, but in the most subtle way possible. I am a very conservative young adult, something that is not common in a New England college student, so when I voice my opinions, I tend to get some backlash. With that being said, the discussion on identity and gender that we had on the rainy Saturday was anything but tense. It reinforced my belief that you really can have appropriate conversations with people of different opinions without screaming or immaturity.
I didn't really contribute to this conversation as much because I was just so intrigued and felt as though my identity was not as deeply rooted as many peoples’. To be honest, I feel like I don't necessarily have an identity, and that’s a really hard thing to grapple with. No, I’m not going to delve into anything philosophical about how I’m “lost”, but frankly, I’m definitely not found. I didn’t have a “come to Jesus” where I decided I was going to set off and explore who I was, but it just kind of made me realize that things like that are important to think about, and that they are something that are far greater than your own being. As an extremely lucky college student, being in Vietnam has humbled me, pushed me, and changed the way I see myself.
After that discussion, we got news that the Typhoon had cancelled our flight to Hanoi. Co Thanh was really upset and stressed, but we as a group did our best to tell her that we completely understood and wanted to do what was safest. So we stayed for another night, hoping to get on the early flight the next day.
The typhoon woke me up the next morning, and immediately I knew we wouldn't be leaving Hue that morning. Nevertheless, we headed to the airport, but had to sit there for hours on end because our flight got cancelled and Co Thanh had to figure out what to do. There was talk of a 13 hour train, another plane, and I was so tired and stressed, I considered walking to Hanoi. We had to drive back to the hotel which typically takes 30 minutes, but the extreme flooding caused it to take over an hour, and it was absolutely flooring to see cars stuck because of the water, and so many places closed because of the flooding.
The typhoon did a ton of damage in central Vietnam. But what shocked me the most was that instead of staying inside and boarding up houses and restaurants, most people just worked around the water and continued on their day as if nothing was wrong. Instead of walking the streets, they just took boats! Life seemed to go on as normal, despite this intense typhoon. It really spoke to the culture of the country and the resilience of the people, but also the unfortunate fact that this is a reality they face more than a handful of times a year. We thought it was fun and exciting to walk through knee high water to get to lunch, but for them, this is their life. There is still incredible flooding in Central Vietnam, and many people actually died because of it. Seeing this in Hue made it a harsh reality that I only got a spoonful of.