On a late October afternoon in 2026, Lake walked out of a fabric store on Hang Dao Street. Amidst a dense flow of motorbikes, she looked both ways, raised her arm for balance, and calmly crossed the street.
This was a far cry from when she first arrived in Vietnam three years ago.
Lake was born in the coastal city of Halifax, Canada, and graduated with a degree in psychology. In 2022, she was working part-time at a busy bar in the city center. The venue sponsored Halifax Wanderers FC of the Canadian Premier League, and so players would frequently come to celebrate after their wins.
That was where she met Pierre Lamothe, a Canadian-Vietnamese professional football player. The woman who regularly appeared in the stands to watch his team play caught Lamothe’s eye. After a period of texting on social media, they began dating.
They spent two years in a chaotic long-distance relationship, as Lamothe transferred to Pacific FC in British Columbia while Lake worked as a flight attendant for Sunwing Airlines. But maintaining a long-distance relationship had left her feeling exhausted.
In 2023, her boyfriend transferred to Ho Chi Minh City FC in Vietnam. Later that year, she decided to give up her long-term rental apartment, quit her job, and sell her car. Pooling together CA$10,000 (US$7,100) in savings, she moved to Vietnam with her boyfriend.
Two years later, Lamothe accepted an offer to play for Hanoi FC.
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Tori Lake, 28, during a trip to the former Ha Giang Province in November 2025. Photo courtesy of Lake |
Her first day in Hanoi turned out to be quite different from what she had imagined. Unlike Halifax, where vehicles always stopped for pedestrians, Hanoi’s streets—filled with motorbikes squeezing past people—overwhelmed her.
For the first few weeks, scared of the streets, she mostly stayed indoors.
Before she could fully adapt to life in Hanoi, Lamothe transferred to SHB Da Nang FC.
Once they settled down in Danang, she started using language learning app Duolingo to learn Vietnamese and Google Translate to practice speaking with people around her.
The personal trainer at the gym in her apartment building became the first Vietnamese person she befriended.
Across from her building was a juice stand where the couple would frequently buy drinks. During the first encounter, she and the seller only nodded at each other before she paid.
On her next visit, the vendor recognized her and gave her some free fruit. By the third visit, they had warmed up to each other, and the relationship turned into a friendship. They started to chat every day using a few simple Vietnamese words and Google Translate.
Through these conversations, Lake realized that family affection is the core of Vietnamese life. She recalled the first time Lamothe took her home to meet his family in Montreal, Canada.
Inside a house packed with some 30 of his relatives, she felt overwhelmed because she had never been in such a large gathering.
But the awkwardness quickly faded as everyone asked her how she was doing, placed food on her plate, and showed her how to dip food into fish sauce.
After moving to Vietnam, she noticed that many families, despite their busy schedules, still waited for one another to share meals, took their children back to their hometowns for Tet, and burned joss paper to honor their ancestors.
These observations led her and Lamothe to discuss the kind of family they want in future. “We want to maintain these traditions when we have children,” she says.
Lake also changed her eating and workout habits. The abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits in Vietnam helped her cut back on fast foods and include more fresh, minimally processed foods in her diet.
In Halifax, she often found excuses to avoid going to the gym and struggled to maintain a routine. After moving to Vietnam, she hired a personal trainer and worked out more regularly.
The warm, sunny weather in Vietnam also helped her with the seasonal depression she used to experience during winters back home.
Lamothe noticed that his girlfriend became increasingly active. Initially, she was hesitant about filming videos in public for fear of being judged, but after realizing how open the locals were and how little they pried into other people’s business, she felt comfortable documenting her trips and daily life.
“Tori hasn’t had a single boring day in Vietnam. We truly cherish our life here,” Lamothe says.
In June 2026, he proposed to her. After three years of living in Vietnam, the two have begun planning for a long-term future here.