Note to self… Always, always, always take a camera with you when you walk out the door. It is a certainly that you will wish you had it at some point in the journey outside my apartment!! Why do I have to learn this lesson over and over again? Today was the final straw…I had […]
Superhero or Mere Mortal?
I was recently flipping through the channels of Vietnamese cable hoping to find something mildly interesting that I could understand. I’m not sure why I keep going back in vain to the remote in hope that I somehow missed a diamond in the ruff; BBC or CNN or a travel channel. As my demeanor was […]
Experiencing Culture Shock in Vietnam
There are many reason to have culture shock when you arrive in Vietnam from the western world. It’s likely the first thing that will hit you is the shock of the Motorbike culture. Followed by the number of people, how everyone seems to live and eat outside, horns, agressive markets, and more. Yet it was […]
I Will Survive
Let’s take inventory. I’ve been in Saigon for two months now. It’s honestly been good and bad. Maybe bad is the wrong word…it’s more like “challenging”. Considering I’m a challenge junkie, one would think that I could have rolled with all of this massive change in my life a bit better, but alas…I am human. […]
Over the Top
It has been a month and a half since I’ve gotten a pedicure. This is normally not how I operate; but when traveling you don’t really get to treat yourself to the pleasantries of foot care. I had a free weekend so I decided to venture out and find a place to do some massive […]
Being Abroad During an Election
This was a really exciting day. I have been marveling at just how far-reaching the US Election is/was. There is a weird excitement in the air – even in the polluted Vietnamese air! One of the fascinating things for me is to understand just how global our US election really is; it’s overwhelming. Being Abroad […]
McCain, Obama, and I; Cast your Vote
I look at the presidential candidates from a far and the meltdown of the US financial markets (as well as my own net worth) and wonder to myself who in their right minds would want to be President? What are Obama and McCain thinking about in the deep, dark recesses of their brains. If you […]
Net-ti-quette
I made a big purchase today…my first motorbike helmet. I kind of feel like it is my first right of passage. Or maybe I should wait and label my first right of passage actually driving my own motorbike! No, that may need another title…like ‘Dumb Things I Do”. So for now – my helmet is […]
Bringing Home the Bacon
There’s a reason it’s called Work. Work is still work. After two years of being out of work, my mini retirement has ended for a while. There’s a part of me that is happy that I have a place to settle for a bit, however there’s a larger part of me that would rather […]
De-Worming
I was talking to my friend Jill the other day, she’s lived here as an expat for over a year, so she’s familiar with the challenges of joys of living in HCMC. She mentioned to me that her family had to take their worm pills as if she were talking about Flinstone’s vitamins. […]
