Vietnam Alphabet A

After reading the lyrical descriptions and evocative photos of Monte Peterson (friend once removed) in her HK Alphabet posts on her blog "notes from an escalator," I thought it would be a nice way for our family to capture some of the cultural and day to day experiences we are having here in Vietnam. We've been brainstorming and making lists and hoping not to miss anything special.

A=Ants

We have been living with the ants for the past year and have learned an uneasy coexistence with these minute, industrious, team-workers who find any drip of popsicle juice, any crumb of cheese, any dead beetle that happens to be left lying around. We've learned to eat neatly and clean up after ourselves, because ant traps and sprays don't really work (although we keep trying). They're really, really tiny, and fast. You can hardly make them out in the photo. But they arrive in large numbers and they make their way to amazing locations.

A=Ao Dai

We love the traditional Vietnamese dress, the ao dai (pronounced ow y-eye). Women who work in hotels and banks wear them, like these ladies below and on the motorbike above. They are becoming more rare, but are graceful, sometimes gaudy, demure and simultaneously sexy with a little square of skin sometimes showing at the waistline where the panels split down front and back. They're traditionally silk with contrasting colored pants. In the past, schoolgirls wore white ao dai. I'll get one made for myself someday soon.