Blogs we like

I love to reflect upon my time in a place, so it’s fitting that after a year I’ve sat down and actually thought about what I’ve learned about Vietnam, Asia, and myself.  I realize that a year in Vietnam has taught me a many valuable lessons; things I will take with me for the rest of my life:

• Patience
• Stop lights are merely suggestions
• How to embrace chaos and find meaning (see the motorbike diaries)
• How to swing dance
• How to eat healthier, smaller portions and be happy about it
• Your type is impossible to change. My type A personality is here to stay no matter if I’m a corporate executive or an ESL teacher
• I know what present perfect simple tense, adverbs of frequency, and superlatives are; and I know when to use them
• Virtual relationships can be just as strong as face to face relationships
• Traveling somewhere and living somewhere are not the same
• I never want to be alone at Christmas again
• I don’t melt in the rain
• How to eat noodles with chopsticks
• How to embrace luke-warm showers
• How to cope with being invisible to the opposite sex
• Sweetened condensed milk is amazing in coffee
• How to drink and enjoy beer with ice
• Anything is possible
• Dessert doesn’t have to be thousands of calories
• The end of a meal is not dessert, it’s when the toothpicks are brought to the table
• All saran wrap in Asia sucks
• If people around you don’t react to things such as getting cut off in traffic, then you grow up thinking that there’s nothing wrong with cutting people off
• How to not be in a hurry
• How to sleep through crowing roosters at 5:30AM
• Don’t worry what’s behind you
• Geckos are my friends
• It’s acceptable to SMS someone at 6:30AM…on a Sunday
• It’s worth it to talk to strangers in restaurants and coffee shops - they may become your dearest friends

Related Posts

• Coming Full Circle
• The Dust Bowl
• Cyclo Sunday - A Tourist In My Home
• The Motorbike Diaries - Vol. 9
• Turning on the Faucet: Vietnam’s Rainy Season