You don’t look like a dancer…

Something I learned while in Vietnam? They are very open and honest people…brutally honest.  They just say what they are thinking – whether it seems polite or not (politeness being determined by western standards only).  On some level, I can be down with that.

The 2 most common questions I fielded while in Vietnam?

1.  Where are you from? And “The US” was not the answer they were looking for.

2.  What sports do you play? Because it seems unnatural for an Asian woman to have my broad shoulders 🙂

Let’s address question 1 first.  I’ve found that people in Asian countries are fascinated by other Asians.  They want to know what kind of Asian you are.  A few were completely confused when I said I was American.  Some took side bets, guessing whether I was Chinese or Korean – people rarely guess Japanese. But it didn’t feel rude, just curious.

Ok, question 2. Nick and I went on a food tour in Vietnam – it deserves it’s own post.  So for now, I’ll just provide a brief description.  We hopped on motorbikes with our female drivers and ate at random places around Vietnam.  Our driver’s were petite – WAY petite-er than me.  I consider myself a short-normal-sized person.  These girls were small all around – have you met my mom?  They were her size.

I was asked by my driver what sports I played.  Not IF I played sports, but what sports I played.  I said I danced.  She chuckled and said I didn’t look like a dancer.  Yeah…..these short stubby legs don’t get me very far but they are occasionally good for jumping.  When I said I also run, she seemed to think it was a fair answer.  But she was still confused.  She probably expected an answer like rugby or football or something that requires more upper body strength.  At least she didn’t come right out and say I was a chubster!  The questions cracked me up.  They weren’t mean in nature, just curious.

We later learned from our friends that it could have been worse.  Our friends get a lot of custom tailoring done and have helped friends get custom tailoring done as well.  Some things that have been said while getting fitted:

“you’re too big – no discount”

“you have big boobs” – to a guy

So yeah.  Could have been worse.

Curiosity went one step further while Nick and I were walking around a market in the Mekong Delta.  Someone casually tugged on Nick’s arm hair.  Which is hilarious.  Because Nick has kind of a lot of it.  And most men in Vietnam don’t have much arm hair.  It came up once before when someone asked him if he shampooed his arms.  A completely valid question.  If you shampoo the hair on your head, why not the hair on your arms?

This was a random post, but hopefully you found it a little bit interesting and a little bit entertaining.