Image from Vietnam Culture Encyclopaedia
On my bike, I usually croon a Vietnamese song written for my city Hanoi, that says: “Regardless of how much traveling we may have, we are always towards Hanoi…”
Due to special designs by the hand of nature, when it comes into the stormy season in the Central of Vietnam – around annual October – Hanoi turns into fall. There is a special dedication for this season in the year, in this spectacular place: we use the word “fall” for only Hanoi. It will be a little weird to say this word for another cities or provinces, even ones in the same North. I am such a dreamy seasonal girl that I automatically put into words to friends all over the globe whenever I compose new emails for them: hello how are you, Hanoi is like a shy adolescent girl who is in love, or hello from freshly rainy Hanoi fall! It makes writing emails, even working ones, so much more interesting to change the face of Hanoi these days.
The tropical monsoon climate offers a couple of weeks in a year of transformation, from spring to summer, from summer to fall, from fall to winter, from winter to spring. The weather brings the sense of a circle of life. That is why something happens deep inside the Hanoian, or those outsiders who are able to feel the beauty of Hanoi, something… unnameable. It is painted in the warm sunlight, yellow-burning leaves and dazed-with-the-timeless faces of people along the streets. It is okay for people to stay close or open, keep silent or talkative, because all things are reasonable in this sense. We can see more kids cycling under the shade of big trees, more couples are hand-in-hand walking, and more crowded street coffee shops.
Under the increasing pressures of climate change and urbanization, it seems be hard to predict what are happening next. I chose for myself a lifestyle of intense living, to enrich my mind and my soul with people and environments. Besides all of great efforts to do make improvements in education, climate change, youth development, communication, creating collaborative and learning society, I enjoy joining other Hanoians taking a walk in the early morning, to turn fresh air into positive energy, to find myself a secret corner of writing and reading, to cycle around the city and smile, to talk to strangers and inspire them and get inspired with who we truly are, to buy me a rose when flowers in the fall are at greatest status, to stay home and cook something, to enjoy time with family.
Just in case if you want to know my after-supper thought, the great lifestyle is about living within the limitation of resources – that is what I am doing here: to promote the concept of sustainability literacy.
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