vân vân:

After six days of work in a row and a shopping list of things to do for work, a day of shopping,...

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:58:25 +0700

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.

jennmykylam: untitled by DUC_SLA on Flickr. speechless, such a...

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:04:11 +0700

jennmykylam:

untitled by DUC_SLA on Flickr.

speechless, such a beautiful photo

For the last few weeks I’ve been struggling with productivity and motivation. A lot of it has...

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:58:00 +0700

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 couch, I am less inclined to go out, explore, and meet people in comparison to before. Although in one respect it’s a good thing, as I’m getting more comfortable with being alone, it’s also bad. For two weeks of every month I am going to have to be alone. It’s nice to think that Hanoi is just prep for how overwhelming I last found Quang Binh, but being in Hanoi is also when I have two weeks to see people. The other problem with staying in is that I’m incredibly unproductive when I’m not tirelessly busy.

Getting a routine is incredibly important to my productivity. In university, I worked 20 - 30 hours a week while participating in 40ish hours of extra curriculars, going to classes and keeping grades. I know I don’t want to replicate that sleepless model again, but that’s also how I get things done.

So this week I hope to create a routine that does just that. Vietnamese classes twice a week at lunch, yoga class twice a week after work with friends, taking advantage of free concerts and movies in the city, and creating beloved ‘to-do’ lists are just what “the doctor” ordered! Hopefully by keeping myself busy in Hanoi, I will get myself into a routine that I can try to replicate in Quang Binh by doing online courses and informal English lessons at night and travelling by myself or with friends on weekends.

Hopefully this new model of keeping busy will ramp up my productivity and get me back to the way that I normally am. In two weeks, I’ll also be reunited with my camera, which should help with the part of me that loves to explore!

loominpapa: Fresh Fish The morning’s catch is spread out on...

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:58:56 +0700

loominpapa:

Fresh Fish

The morning’s catch is spread out on tarpaulin and sold by weight to those who come to crouch and sift through the shimmering carpet of tiny fish.

"Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what’s right..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:19:05 +0700

“Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what’s right in front of you. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in.”

- Andrew Zimmern (via the-wanderlustproject)

calvingodfrey: Saigon has been struck by a trà chanh...

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:17:01 +0700

calvingodfrey:

Saigon has been struck by a trà chanh epidemic.

Anyone with a bare plot of sidewalk has set out a few wooden stools, a chalkboard and a black light advertising cups of green tea infused with lime juice and plenty of sugar.

These spots also tend to sell fried cheese stocks and pork pie nuggets. I’d avoid any such snacks.

The tea is indescribably refreshing—the perfect antidote to the heat.

rookiemag: lickypickystickyme: If grandmothers around the...

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:46:19 +0700

rookiemag:

lickypickystickyme:

If grandmothers around the world had a rallying cry, it would probably sound something like “You need to eat!”

Photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s grandmother said something similar to him before one of his many globetrotting work trips. To ensure he had at least one good meal, she prepared for him a dish of ravioli before he departed on one of his adventures.

“In that occasion I said to my grandma ‘You know, Grandma, there are many other grandmas around the world and most of them are really good cooks,” Galimberti wrote via email. “I’m going to meet them and ask them to cook for me so I can show you that you don’t have to be worried for me and the food that I will eat!’ This is the way my project was born!”

The project, “Delicatessen With Love”, took Galimberti to 58 countries where he photographed grandmothers with both the ingredients and finished signature dishes.

He acted as photographer and stylist during each shoot with the grandmothers, taking a portrait of both the women and the food they made for him.

From top to bottom:

Inara Runtule, 68, Kekava, Latvia. Silke (herring with potatoes and cottage cheese).

Grace Estibero, 82, Mumbai, India. Chicken vindaloo.

Susann Soresen, 81, Homer, Alaska. Moose steak.

Serette Charles, 63, Saint-Jean du Sud, Haiti. Lambi in creole sauce.

The photographer’s grandmother Marisa Batini, 80, Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. Swiss chard and ricotta Ravioli with meat sauce.

Normita Sambu Arap, 65, Oltepessi (Masaai Mara), Kenya. Mboga and orgali (white corn polenta with vegetables and goat).

Julia Enaigua, 71, La Paz, Bolivia. Queso Humacha (vegetables and fresh cheese soup).

Fifi Makhmer, 62, Cairo, Egypt. Kuoshry (pasta, rice and legumes pie).

Isolina Perez De Vargas, 83, Mendoza, Argentina. Asado criollo (mixed meats barbecue).

Bisrat Melake, 60, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Enjera with curry and vegetables.

this is a beautiful series- kendra

"I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 17:27:47 +0700

“I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown, eat interesting food, dig some interesting people, have an adventure, be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about, I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking twelve miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people — Americans and Europeans — come back and go, “Ohhhh.” And the lightbulb goes on.”

- Henry Rollins

(via awelltraveledwoman)

"The only one you need in your life is that person who shows you he needs you in his."

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:36:52 +0700

“The only one you need in your life is that person who shows you he needs you in his.”

- Oscar Wilde (via rainydaysandblankets)

Photo

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:36:40 +0700

Came home the other night to a prostitute soliciting me for sex and drunk Scotsmen outside my...

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:03:55 +0700

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 out that they were looking for where to buy marijuana.

Even at 3:30 in the morning, this city still knows how to make me smile.

Personally and professionally, last week was one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever had...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:15:00 +0700

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 about the projects and programs and hiking in the beautiful mountains, were great, even the first night I was uncomfortable.

For our first night, the local officials came to the compound. In true Vietnamese style though, dinner turned into everyone but me getting absolutely trashed. Though dinner was good, I sat at a table with men who introduced themselves, told me that men from the province are “nice, but naughty,” took a shot and then invited me into their homes. It was uncomfortable at best, and I could not wait to get back to the hotel. However, I was in for another surprise once we returned to the hotel - my laptop charger stopped working and my laptop battery is completely dead.

By Wednesday, only my translator and I were left from the group that came from Hanoi. I moved in to my room in the compound, a freestanding house in the large compound. The compound has five people who permanently live there and many visitors on a regular basis. We all share a bathroom. There are no flush toilets, we use a bucket to shower and although the internet is mostly reliable, we lose electricity at the first drop of rain. My house in particular has very poor wiring, which has resulted in me being ‘left in the dark’ for a few hours on end just from plugging in my cell phone to charge.

Though the living conditions I can get used to - I am not particularly sure I can get used to how I feel when I’m there. Though everyone in the compound is incredibly nice and welcoming, they’re all from Nghe An, Ha Tinh, or Quang Binh - provinces known for having a particularly difficult dialect of Vietnamese to understand. The linguistic barrier is definitely a challenge. Although it’s common to find Vietnamese who speak English in Hanoi, our compound is 3km outside of a town, two hours outside of a city, and four hours away from both Vinh and Da Nang - the closest cities where there are good English centres.

Feeling so isolated is a struggle but it’s even more difficult when there’s no privacy. Living with only Vietnamese means that everyone has a comment - I don’t eat enough, sleep enough, look sick, etc. It’s a strange dichotomy, feeling so alone but having no time to breath because you’re constantly surrounded by people.

On top of trying to adjust to all of this and not having a computer for four days, I also had to say goodbye to Branden. A year ago, I don’t think I could have told you that I would commit myself to two years of long distance. Even though we’ve done almost 7 months up until now, goodbyes are harder now that we know everything that long distance entails. Trying to balance this, new living conditions and the most extreme culture shock/linguistic barrier that I have been faced with, it was undeniably hard to focus on the work outlined.

I’m sure that in the next few months it will get better but last week the highs just couldn’t make up for how low the lows were. In the meantime, I came back to Hanoi instead of spending another week there. Luckily, we have two days of holidays this week that I am using to pull myself together. So far, it’s involved me eating copious amounts of junk food and sitting in my apartment watching tv. Though some might argue that being alone isn’t going to help loneliness, for now it seemed like a better solution than being in a place where, personally, I could not pull myself together.

I still plan on posting pictures of my apartment and my house in Quang Binh, but I won’t have access to my camera for the next few weeks (it’s still in Quang Binh) so I will post them once I’m back there at the end of the month. Fingers crossed my experience is better next time around.

"The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his..."

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:48:46 +0700

“The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness. The absolute failure to achieve this aim means insanity, because the panic of complete isolation can be overcome only by such a radical withdrawal from the world outside that the feeling of separation disappears - because the world outside, from which one is separated, has disappeared.”

- Erich Fromm (via quotecatalog)

Day 2: Quang Binh

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:48:00 +0700

Day 2: Quang Binh

Quang Binh, why are you so beautiful?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:49:00 +0700

Quang Binh, why are you so beautiful?

Last night together for another five months.

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:05:14 +0700

Last night together for another five months.

West Lake

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:19:00 +0700

West Lake

In the last two weeks, Branden and I have created a new tradition. Once a weekend, we walk over to...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:41:56 +0700

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 this week, I wasn’t surprised when the owner wrote out “96” with his hands, after I misinterpreted him saying “chin sau” (96) last week for “khong sao” (don’t worry) and subsequently asked him why we didn’t have to pay.

Branden always gets a kick out of these moments. Although he doesn’t speak Vietnamese, he’s always sure to laugh at me when I make a noticeably large error that someone is sure to point out. Fortunately, this error is solely pride-based and made the shop owner far less confused than when I told a friend that I lived with my daughter, because I forgot the word for boyfriend.

pakizah: Krishna Puri holding the photograph of her daughter...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:41:44 +0700

pakizah:

Krishna Puri holding the photograph of her daughter Renu who was kidnapped and killed by her husband’s family because the dowry was not high enough.

India, 1987

Raghu Rai

The best kind of date with @shiggs91

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 11:19:14 +0700

The best kind of date with @shiggs91