From Hoi An, we rushed straight to Hanoi because Leo had an exam to give there.

The international section middle school that Leo is trying to join next year in Paris, requires some English comprehension tests. Since we’re not there in Paris, this required a bit more planning on our side.

Once we knew the approximate date for the exam, we contacted the French embassy to ask how and where Leo could pass the written exam. They kindly put us in contact with the French Institute in Hanoï and after some synchronisation of the various parties, and paying some fee to the institute, it was all set and Leo had an exam room waiting for him.

The same evening, he also had a visio conference with teachers from the school.

Although Leo speaks fluent English since a young age, he never had any formal training on poetry and literature. Nor is he used to being interviewed of course. We felt that he did Ok at the interview, but not at all perfect. We don’t know what the school expects from the candidates, so we can’t be sure Leo will be admitted there. We’ll know only in June. Until then, we need to work on backup plans!

The weather, since we reached Hanoi, has been gloomy and rainy. But it felt rather refreshing after the crushing heat in the south, and since we had the exam to deal with, we didn’t mind too much.

Once the exams were over, we could move about a little more freely. We went to see a traditional play of water puppets. The water puppets is a tradition born in the rivers bordering the rice fields. Wooden puppets are animated in and on the water, while musicians and singers tell the tales of farmers.

There’s one noticeable thing about Vietnamese food: it’s almost always served as a kit that you have to assemble yourself. Most people go to the restaurant to avoid cooking but the Vietnamese seem to enjoy playing with their food. So you’re typically given rice noodles, rice paper, a bunch of leaves of salad and mint and coriander, a bowl of soup or fish sauce and some meat or fish or pancakes. Then you take a bit of everything and roll it inside a sheet of rice paper, dip it in fish sauce and eat it. Hanoï is famous for its Bun Cha, which is a meat version of the process described above.

The Vietnamese drink a lot of coffee and Hanoï has a density of cafés seemingly higher than that of Paris! Amongst the specialties are the egg coffee: a strong coffee topped with egg whites beaten into a thick cream, and coconut coffee: milk coffee with coconut shavings, and feozen coconut cream 😋

Badminton seems very popular across the country, but in Hanoï we found a lot of people playing Da Cau, a kind of badminton played with the feet. A sort of mix between football, volleyball and badminton! So we bought one to try for ourselves 🙂