NOT KEEPING SCORE

Drinking a cup of tea and thinking of warm days in Vietnam, I find something I wrote while there:
“I start to think of home. I imagine how things are going to be different once I return, what exciting new changes I’ll make in my life, how thrilling it will be to tell others of my […]

[Read more →]

A Bangkok Story
I walked into the glowing white supermarket, a halo of sanitation.
Thinking myself rather native and shopping for the new breakfast I’ve fallen in love with — a discovered fruit equivalent to a steroidal grapefruit sliced and cellophaned like the sterile environment from which it came — I pick up a package […]

[Read more →]

Okay, okay, okay. I know that I’ve been back from my trek to Asia for over a month now, but a promise is a promise, and I did promise there were more stories to come– I said patience was a virtue, right? Right.
Speaking of patience, after taking a little fall and spending some time on […]

[Read more →]

Some fundamental truths, both here and abroad:
1. Life is short. (Welcome to the second week in the fifth month in the year of 2006, one less year of your life)
2. Money does not grow on trees
3. Love hurts
4. April showers bring May flowers (or, rather, in San Francisco: sunshine, and a few sprouting dandelions strong […]

[Read more →]

Flew in yesterday, and how odd the feeling of my apartment, work, city… not to mention streetlights and air pollution regulations. Amazing how long 2 weeks can feel when every day is new, stimulating, and chock full (good lesson on how to live a life?)
This morning I walked through Chinatown; I think I miss Asia.

[…]

[Read more →]

Forget God, community, Mother Theresa or volunteerism; if one wants to feel a part of something greater than oneself, all one will have to do in the future is move to Bangkok. It was made very apparent that Asia is the new America, and culture is flowing at an amazing rate from this major world […]

[Read more →]

Jet set is right.
I’m a bit lagged, to be certain. But it’s not the few drinks I had last night-  nor the rapidly rising temperature in Hanoi today- nor the diesel fumes, rock quarry dust, days of notetaking, frantic attempt to grasp onto a few Vietnamese words or harrowing 7 hour car ride back that, […]

[Read more →]

“I travel half-way around the world, and all I get is this stinkin’ opportunity”
So, it seems like I can’t even get away from work, even when on vacation. Pfft! [rolls eyes disingenuously] Actually, I am very excited: I was speaking with my host-friend Jenny, who works in public health here in Vietnam, and she was […]

[Read more →]

Look Both Ways
At first I thought taxi rides were my favorite thing.
Weaving in and out of motorbikes, other taxis, and bicycles laden with every kind of cargo one can imagine: flowers, fruit, construction material, children, you name it. There is a chaos to it, but a kind of order, too.
Then I went for a walk […]

[Read more →]

A Review of Together:
Chinese violin soloist Tang Yun with the Vietnamese National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Tan.
This is NOT a review. I have very little working knowledge of classical music and am in no position of authority or expertise to critique it. So, when I say “review” I mean “re-view” as in the viewing […]

[Read more →]