Where is my Welcome?

Since landing in Vietnam, I have been on the look out for that quintessential "Vietnamese Experience," one of those heart warming, soul tugging, old-woman-taking-me-by-the-hand-and-navigating-me-across-Hanoi-motorbike-traffic-welcome-to-Vietnam experience, or, getting-splashed-by-an-SUV-while-on-a-motorbike-caught-in-a-tropical-heavy-downpour-o-m-g-why-did-I-leave-the-US experience.

Neither have happened, or perhaps, they have happened, but to a lesser degree, and my mind just does not process these experiences as quintessential-welcome-to-Vietnam anymore.  The excitement of a new discovery, the childlike curiosity that accompanies new environments, and the fresh "outsider" perspective that I once had for Vietnam seem in the distant past.

Perhaps this time in Vietnam, for these next 10 months, it will be the subtleties of Vietnamese culture and lifestyle that I will learn about, and from that, my place in this country.

PHOTO CAPTION: Old Hanoi Alley, behind my apartment in the morning after the rain.