In a world where ‘Western’ culture is exported with something akin to religious fervour, and often received with equal enthusiasm, it’s not surprising for North Americans to see traces of the familiar anywhere they go. I was certainly not expecting, nor even really hoping, to avoid all exposure to Western entertainment, language, food, etc. while in Vietnam.

That said, there have been times where I’ve been caught off guard by what has traveled halfway around the world to meet me here.

I have previously mentioned the passenger bus that we, the MCC Vietnam staff, rode on our trip in September. In addition to having a variety of horn sounds, the same bus also played a monophonic, electronic rendition of Happy Birthday when reversing. We found this entertaining, especially when the bus tried to hit the climactic note of the third line, coming up short by about a quarter of a tone. We found this entertaining, that is, the first couple of times. By perhaps the tenth time, we began wincing visibly when the sour note would sound. By the twentieth time, we were plugging our ears with our fingers. By the thirtieth time the tune started up, we were looking around desperately for sharp objects to plunge into our eardrums.

I should try to segue into talking about hearing Christmas tunes in October, and listening to ABBA on repeat, but I’m not sure a segue is needed. It seems to follow well from the preceding paragraph.

On a different note, a neighbour stopped by my host family’s house the other week, and accidentally left behind a computer science assignment he had been given. Being interested in geeky things, I read over the assignment, which was in English. His homework, it turns out, was to write a program that calculates the amount in taxes a Canadian citizen, living in Ontario, would pay on their income. Very useful indeed.

Finally, a note about a Disney channel phenomenon. I have never understood how a made-for-cable-TV movie could become as popular as High School Musical. It turns out that I underestimated the full extent of its success. My fellow SALTer Rachel has a 13-year-old host sister who was counting down the days to High School Musical 2. Shortly after it aired, I was watching the sequel on DVD with my own host family. They already know the English songs from the original from memory.