The city holds my heart

Here comes summer - the sun blinding your eyes when you're still snoring in your beds, the taste of fresh watermelons, and the never-ending irks of mosquitoes bites. As a student, I feel immensely relieved when the stressful days of pop quizzes and running after the school bus are over. Personally, I have only spent a few summers in Canada, most of which lasted only for a few months. So, memories of summer largely pertain to the time in Saigon, Vietnam. 

In fact, there isn't such a summer season here: there are only a wet season (from May to November) and a dry season (from November to April). However, I can still sense another shift in my mood when summer is at the corner - a nostalgic ambivalence. Being uprooted at a tender age has shaped my memories, which can be evoked from the slightest wisp, such as a particular shade of clouds reminding me of a ride back home from school years ago. Therefore, as I traverse through the bustling corners of Saigon, I feel like exploring a dusty album from years ago, with the smallest bit evoking a special memory.

Just yesterday, to get away from the dull PC monitor full of biology notes, I hopped on my family's Honda moped and went all the way along the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal. The canal winded along several districts of the city, crossing paths with sardine-packed tole shacks and shiny skyscrapers. Although with a mask on my face, I could still perceive the petrichor after a brief summer rain. The intense humidity adding to the lack of riparian breezes made me feel like under steam. Here and there, there were shimmering lights on grill stalls along streets, with the echoing sound of wayward "street-singers" selling kẹo kéo (stretching taffies). 
                                                                                                    
On my way, I crossed a railroad surrounded by banana trees (the very existence of these in the center of the city still puzzles my mind). It did not take me long to recognize that, across those very tracks, was the fried banana (coincidence, huh?) stall I used to stop by every Wednesday after school. Right before my school bus rolled its wheels away from the school, I and fifteen other hungry middle schoolers would scribble our orders - fried bananas or sweet potatoes or purple yam -  on a piece of paper. Then, we would pass our orders to the school bus driver, who would phone the stall owners to prepare "these special guests". As you can imagine, the sizzling batches would be voraciously washed down as soon as the bus stopped by the stall to drop off a student home. The rich scent of bubbling fried vegetables is still engraved in my mind even after years of smelling airplane foods and 1 A.M Mcdonald's donuts.


Fried purple yams - the main excuse for me to skip dinner when I got home after school


The closer I got to the city center, District 1, the more I got reminiscent of my childhood and school days back in Vietnam. The lofty resin trees had been standing solemnly for decades, observing the hectic influx of vehicles running back and forth from all corners of the city. Amid the city's humid and dusty atmosphere, the trees are more valuable than ever as they cool the air and filter the dust through their leaves. At this point, I had to admit that I see most of the city's magnificence through my sleepy eyes. Many of the days in middle school had I almost fell asleep behind Dad's motorcycle on my way to weekend classes, feeling the trees' soothing breezes caressing my face. Mac Dinh Chi Street, where the Ben Thanh Theater stood, was most often seen through my sleepy eyes after returning from the musicals at midnight.

It was such an enthralling experience to see the melting pot of antiquity novelty reflected in the city's architecture. Think of the pattern of the chessboard and you'll get a glimpse of Sai Gon's city center. Sleeping soundly under soaring, cutting-edge skyscrapers were elegant French colonial villas and buildings. Don't let the appearance bewitch you - many of the more antique buildings are still keystone offices and centers, such as the City Hall. This unique mix-and-match has been bringing countless perks to the communities in the city center. I couldn't help but smile upon passing Ly Tu Trong street, where my dear old high school lies right opposite the Vincom Center, one of the city's most modern shopping malls. Imagine a gigantic shopping mall and food terrace complex just steps away from your school! 


                                            These impressive blocks aren't the only things about Saigon

When I say that my high school is old, I mean it literally. Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted (TDN) was first constructed in 1873 by missionaries from the De Salle Brothers. The school was first an orphan shelter for local children and didn't become a high school until 2000. Nearly two centuries after the school was first founded, the elegant French architecture still stands. Arched walls with ornate louvers were arranged neatly not far from stained glass windows depicting scenes from the Bible. The idyllic and vintage atmosphere diffused through every corner of the school, a stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers just a few steps away. To this day, I still can't fathom the fact that the wooden floor in the siesta room, which I slept on so often in grade 8, was more than a century old. I have to tell you that sleeping on that floor with a sedge mat was like sleeping on a thick mattress - you'll never, ever have a sore back waking up. 




                                                          A photo I took from my grade 8 classroom

After two years of living abroad, I still find my way back to those very places, where I grew up, studied, explored, and remembered. Granted, this so-called Beta-city in Southeast Asia isn't clean like Vancouver, idyllic like Charlottetown, or equipped with hi-tech toilets like Seoul. But it's where the hearts of nine million people and I belong to. I knew this best when I returned home from my night trip under the symphony of thousands of cicadas on the resin trees, welcoming summer.

----------
Image credits: 
Purple yam: https://daylambanh.edu.vn/banh-khoai-mo-chien-gion
Saigon skyline: https://tapchitaichinh.vn/thi-truong-tai-chinh/can-ho-hang-sang-trung-tam-quan-1-dat-do-nhung-khan-hiem-313718.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The other side of the hill

Image
 Viewing the Northern lights from the southernmost tip of Richmond The last time I clicked the "Published" button on this blog, I was sitting in a scorching hot room, with the sky still crispy blue outside. Now here I am, typing these words on a dark rainy night in December, where the closest I could see outside of my bedroom window was the white Christmas lights dangling in my neighbour's garage. The past four months have been an absolute whirlwind, sweeping away nothing but every bit of my breathe. In retrospect, thinking that I would have time to ramble here in the past four months was just an item on a list of naive thoughts I had at the start of second year - and there seems to be no sign that the list will end anytime soon... September started with a whirlwind - from Imagine Day (my school's grand orientation and clubs day) to new classes, I could never survive a weekday without sipping iced coffee on the 49 every morning. I spent one of the few last days before...
Read more

One iced milk coffee, please!

Image
Dawn in Hong Kong, photographed by two sleep-derived travellers  "Delete 879 items from all of your devices?" A black line of text appeared on the screen. The second I hit the button on the Pad image gallery to delete the enormous bulk of screenshots from my lectures and assignments from second year, it still hadn't dawned on me that I was two months into summer. My backpack sat near the staircase, with the haphazardly arranged folder still placed inside, waiting for me to pick up and sprint to the bus every weekday morning. Now that I wouldn't be taking summer courses this year, the passage of time was felt in every bit of my presence. Winter mornings rushing to catch the bus at the crack of dawn have been replaced with waking up to the warm sunshine creeping outside the window, the laughter of playful kids from my neighbourhood elementary school lighting up the day. A cup of lukewarm milk coffee on the rocking bus to get me through the first half of 9:30 AM lectures...
Read more

Black rimmed glasses

Image
  What a beautiful world we live in (until that one Chem final worth 60% of your total grade) "The sun is out!" The student sitting at the table next to me exclaimed as the first rays of sunlight flooded the upper floor of the Science Student Centre, where dozens of students were toiling for their endless rounds of midterms and assignments. I looked outside the large window facing the Nest, mesmerized by the ashen clouds parting to reveal the deep blue sky. My laptop monitor was glaring, so I quickly adjusted the light setting down to continue my frenzied pace on reviewing Anki flashcards. The sun could wait later, but suddenly one sight caught my eye: a BeaverTails food truck. It must have just arrived, with the staff setting up the area and preparing the cash box. Sure enough, within two minutes, I finished wrapping up my study and belongings and dashed out to the truck before the massive crowds of students trickled out of lecture halls around noon. The tantalizing buttery ...
Read more