May 2013
11 posts
After six days of work in a row and a shopping list of things to do for work, a day of shopping, pant suits, great friends, new faces, and massages were in order.
Love those Swedish girls.
For the last few weeks I’ve been struggling with productivity and motivation. A lot of it has to do with a constantly changing routine but I’ve also noticed that I’ve changed over the last little while.
Being back here, I’ve noticed that I act different. Though part of it has to do with not having a support system and another part is due to having a stupidly comfortable...
“Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look...”
– Andrew Zimmern (via the-wanderlustproject)
“I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a...”
– Henry Rollins
(via awelltraveledwoman)
“The only one you need in your life is that person who shows you he needs you in...”
– Oscar Wilde (via rainydaysandblankets)
April 2013
10 posts
Came home the other night to a prostitute soliciting me for sex and drunk Scotsmen outside my door.
After explaining to the prostitute that I don’t need a hotel room because I am going into my apartment, I was asked by one of the Scots if I knew where his wallet was. After I answered, his friend came up and explained to him that I don’t speak English.
As the door opened, I figured...
Personally and professionally, last week was one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever had abroad.
My first week in Quang Binh met me with various challenges and by the evening of the first night, I was already uncomfortable. For the first two days of my trip, I was accompanied by two of my bosses, a coworker, and translator from Hanoi. Though the days, visiting remote villages, learning more...
“The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to...”
– Erich Fromm (via quotecatalog)
4 tags
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In the last two weeks, Branden and I have created a new tradition. Once a weekend, we walk over to the whole-in-the-wall banh xeo restaurant, get Central-style banh xeo and them I go get kem xoi (ice cream with sticky rice) - my favourite dessert. Being the only Westerners who frequent these joints has its perks, but it also means that we stick out like sore thumbs. So when I asked for the bill...
5 tags
You can’t really describe Vietnam. Crowded, polluted, busy, amazing, nom - they’re all very singular words in comparison to what Vietnam is. Instead, Vietnam is best described in interactions.
The interaction that best describes my day yesterday happened at lunch and was very different than the day before when a xe om (motortaxi) driver screamed “tay boom boom” - my...
March 2013
19 posts
Distance Dosen't Matter, I Still Think About You... →
“Meanwhile, I struggle with another frustration – the importance of language for...”
– MSF psychosocial support officer Terry writes about her frustrations in her latest blog post from Tajikistan where she is working with families affected by multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (via doctorswithoutborders)
After a week of five flights and of job training in french, it’s a bubble bath and wine kind of night…
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it...”
– Anthony Bourdain (via sorakeem)
3 tags
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“You think relationships are difficult? Try friendships. Try courting someone in...”
– Laura Jayne Martin (via sweetleviathan)
I love this. Most people I know really only care about the romantic relationship they are in. I’ve pretty much decided that if you don’t consider my friendship to be an important part of your life worthy of time and consideration you can fuck right off.
(via...
Hanoi, Seoul, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Waterloo, and then back to Hanoi… it’s going to be a crazy month.
It all begins tomorrow.
“Will you come with me to the mountains? It will hurt at first, until your feet...”
– C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (via rainydaysandblankets)
February 2013
16 posts
6 tags
3 tags
We're on TripAdvisor!
This trip to Hoi An was a much needed break after a week and a half of travel and group chaos. Coming to a place that is so beautiful and has such amazing culture, art, and food was a great getaway after six months of long distance and with eleven more months in the cards.
Our trip has been anticlimactic in the best way possible - though that’s partially due to the rains that nearly flooded...
Coconut sticky rice, bananas and passion fruit juice for breakfast.
So good to be back.
7:20 am
After over 24 hours of travel, you’d think that Kevin and I would be so far as Tokyo, maybe even Bangkok if we had some really tight connections and were just super-pro. Similar to everyone trying to fly out of the Eastern seaboard though, joke was on us yesterday. Over and over and over again. Good news, we made it as far as Chicago. The hour and a half flight that took 15 hours....
