Vietnam Learnings
October 19, 2009 | admin | Comments 11
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
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Filed Under: Expat Adventures • Ho Chi Minh City
Sherry, you are my travel, writing and photography inspiration! I LOVE your writings! Only now am I starting to truly understand some of them because I am now teaching and living abroad.
Swing dance!! I’m going to search around here to read more about it…
Be careful with the stoplights are merely suggestions though. I tend to carry that lesson with me everywhere which I’ve found a bad adaptation in many places!
I’m an expat living in Hanoi, i’ve been here just over 3 months now and whoa…some of your lessons strike a chord ie embrace chaos, stop lights, condense milk in coffee, not hurry, cuf off in traffic, invisible in the opposite sex … love your work and best wishes in your upcoming adventures!!
Stop lights are only suggestions is what they also say about Beirut and a few other places around the world no doubt!
All saran wrap in the US sucks too. Love this list!
I’m scared of that woman on the photo who’s all in colour, yet the rest of Vietnam is in black and white. Maybe she’s radioactive or something.
The Christmas one is interesting. I lived in the UK for three years and Xmas was the dullest time for me as everyone else went off to families and loved ones. It makes you realise how precious family and close friends are.
@Chris – hope you are doing well in Korea! I”m in Nepal now (actually typing this at 9000 ft in a small mountain town on the Annapurna circuit – so will get back to you when I come down to earth again!
Everyone else – thanks for the comments!
that was a GREAT collection of lessons to have learned – and you’re right – there is something to be said about spending a good chunk of time somewhere. it allows you to become a part of a culture rather than simply looking at it. you are a great writer! here is a cool photo journey through SE Asia that i put together from one of our guest bloggers submissions – they traveled through the same part of Vietnam! http://www.beachhouse.com/blog/?p=2066
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