Some people maintain a constant disposition and reputation wherever they go. We all know these people. “Oh, he’s always been that way,” we say. Or, “She’ll never change.” They will try the same jokes in every crowd. They will take the same approach to every problem. They will be unfailingly and relentlessly upbeat, lazy, immature, pedantic, emotional, or rational. “You can take the boy out of Canada,” the oft-adapted saying goes, “but you can’t take Canada out of the boy.”

I am not that person. As a constant embrace of change is perhaps my most consistent quality, I see relocation as an occasion to form new habits, adopt new ideas, try new personalities. Here I will try to pin down some of what might constitute the “new me” (though I would take exception to that term) since arriving in Vietnam.

In Vietnam…

  • I am not a picky eater. This flies in the face of 20 years of received wisdom about Brent Durksen. In fact, here I have earned a reputation as being easy to feed, in addition to being the guy who’ll eat any and all food left on the table.
  • I consider 8:45 p.m. a reasonable time to go to bed. An earlier me would have scoffed at this juvenile/geriatric regime.
  • I am a keyboard player. In most places I am known as the guitar player. In a few, I’m known as a drummer. Without my guitar or djembe on hand, and with a superfluity of electronic keyboards in Vietnam, I am best known here for tickling the plastic ivories.
  • I love playing volleyball. In all of my past incarnations, volleyball was my weakest and least favourite team sport. Here I get out two or three times a week to play with a group of salty (rather than SALTy) foreigners. Notice, though, that I’m not saying I play it well.
  • I’m an idiot. This, of course, implies that idiocy has not always been a characteristic of mine, and sets myself up for any number of witty retorts. Perhaps I should disable comments on this post. But I am not convinced that my reputation for sheer imbecility extends widely beyond my Hanoian home, where my 9-year-old host sister frequently looks upon me with scorn as I desecrate the Vietnamese language.
  • I’m tall. (Again, I really should disable comments.)

I’m sure there are other changes I could mention. And, of course, there is much about me that has remained the same. Perhaps those things will provide fodder for a later post, though probably not. I’ve always been lazy.