It seems to be the trend that once travelers with blogs go home or otherwise end their adventures that they abandon their blogs. I find myself having inadvertently fallen victim to this trend. It's as if the mere fact of being home has made my blog void--that it has rendered me incapable of continuing it because I no longer see it as necessary or feel like I have anything to say. I've been home since the end of August and it has taken me until now, more than three months later, to wrap up this blog. So, while I do have lots of stories left unsaid and unwritten, I'm not sure they'll be shared here.
The truth is that I can't see myself keeping up with this blog in the coming year that I plan to remain at home. While this next year will certainly be another chapter in my life, home doesn't feel like an adventure to me and I doubt I'll have any desire to document it here. I'm home to hopefully get into grad school and prepare myself for that next fall, but I imagine I'll blog again in the future. My restless feet and endless wanderlust will see me abroad again soon, I think. Who knows, I could end up in Ireland for grad school, which I'm desperately trying to figure out and would be amazing. But, for now, I thought I'd wrap up my year in Asia with one last post dedicated to the highlights.
My Asian adventure was filled with supreme highs and unbearable lows, some of which I've written about here and some I've kept close to my heart. It was, above all, a brilliant year. Even in my darkest moments I knew I was gaining perspective, learning more about myself and growing exponentially. When you spend an extended period of time abroad the one thing you can't escape from is self-reflection. There is more time and space, somehow, to be truly introspective. I discovered a lot about myself this past year. I wouldn't say I'm a different person or that I've figured everything out, but I've been slowly easing into my own skin, becoming more aware of myself, all the good, the bad and the ugly.
The bad and the ugly aren't what I want this post to be about. While they may be a part of me and this past year, what I really want to focus on is the good. So, here's a game I often play with one of my grandmas at the end of each year: the highlights of the year, in no particular order.
-The temples of Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Bayon in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Twice.
-Adding eight new countries to my list of places visited: Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Laos, Thailand and Taiwan.
-My students: Kevin, Sebastian, Christine, Tram Anh, Tyler, Dean, John, Nick, Colin, Tommy (Bill), Andy, Mike, Ryan, Holly, Sammy and Kitty. As well as the one hundred plus students in my classes at the English center.
-The week we learned new adjectives and all my students told me I was pretty.
-My grandma visiting.
-Emily moving to Vietnam and the whole month of July that we spent traveling.
-Getting to know and building a wonderful friendship with an acquaintance from college who was also teaching English but in South Korea and being able to visit her there for two weeks.
-Staying with family friends in Taiwan for a week.
-Dinner at the Banana Leaf Apollo in Little India in Singapore with a German woman I met in my hostel. Hands down the best meal of the entire year. It was so mouth-watering and delectable that the two of us didn't talk for the first 15 minutes after we got our food because we were too busy stuffing our faces.
-The vegan restaurant I ate lunch at nearly every day. I will miss the fish cakes and green beans forever.
-Let's just go ahead and say all the food I ate--I loved every bite. The best things, other than the two mentioned above, were the fruit salads, my favorite restaurant in Saigon, The Black Cat, the delicious coffee, artichoke tea, street food, and coconut candy.
-My Hip, Hip Hooray class always excited to see me on Sunday morning. They were so much fun and also funny.
-The day Sebastian read his first book and the fact that he could read all the books I made for him without any assistance at the end of the year.
-Rappelling down waterfalls in Da Lat, Vietnam.
-Island hopping with the Language Corps. group in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
-The beautiful peacoat I had tailor-made for myself.
-All the genuine friendliness and warmth I encountered in Vietnam.
-My first paycheck worth millions.
-Doing absolutely nothing in my own private villa on an island in Thailand.
-Kevin raising his hand just to tell me knock knock jokes.
-Colin raising his hand to say "Bless you" when I sneezed as if he knew an English secret that none of his classmates did. (There is no equivalent to the phrase in Vietnamese. They don't say anything when you sneeze.)
-Tyler's dance moves when we played my altered version of Simon Says.
-The boys from the upper classes at the elementary school dancing to "Low" by Flo Rida. They choreographed it themselves and it was hilarious.
-One of my favorite students at the English center, Ngoc, giving me a little package full of tiny origami stars and cranes for my birthday.
-The ego-boost that was my demo for the English center, where, for the first time, I realized that I could be a teacher and be good at it.
-My lovely and amazing housemate that I lived with throughout my stay in Vietnam. I am so lucky to know her.
-Realizing, somewhere around March, that I wanted to pursue film studies in graduate school.
-Surprising my family when I returned home. (I've honestly never been so happy to make others cry.)
-All the amazing adventures I had, the discoveries I made, and the traveling I did.
I could probably keep adding to this list but I'll stop here before it gets out of hand. Suffice it to say there was a lot of good and happy in my life for the year I spent in Asia. While some of the decisions I made are not ones I would willingly repeat in the future, I still wouldn't change the year I had.
The future of this blog remains to be seen. I've enjoyed writing it and I can definitely see myself continuing it at some point. As mentioned above, I am full of stories to tell and they might find an outlet here, (I have started two essays on tourism in Vietnam and names, respectively, that I sort of abandoned when I realized that people probably didn't want to read essays here, but they may yet find themselves here just because I feel like it), but for now, I think this is goodbye for a while.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone for reading and for all the support and love shown me. I hope everyone is having a nice, relaxing winter and very merry holiday season!
-Adding eight new countries to my list of places visited: Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Laos, Thailand and Taiwan.
-My students: Kevin, Sebastian, Christine, Tram Anh, Tyler, Dean, John, Nick, Colin, Tommy (Bill), Andy, Mike, Ryan, Holly, Sammy and Kitty. As well as the one hundred plus students in my classes at the English center.
-The week we learned new adjectives and all my students told me I was pretty.
-My grandma visiting.
-Emily moving to Vietnam and the whole month of July that we spent traveling.
-Getting to know and building a wonderful friendship with an acquaintance from college who was also teaching English but in South Korea and being able to visit her there for two weeks.
-Staying with family friends in Taiwan for a week.
-Dinner at the Banana Leaf Apollo in Little India in Singapore with a German woman I met in my hostel. Hands down the best meal of the entire year. It was so mouth-watering and delectable that the two of us didn't talk for the first 15 minutes after we got our food because we were too busy stuffing our faces.
-The vegan restaurant I ate lunch at nearly every day. I will miss the fish cakes and green beans forever.
-Let's just go ahead and say all the food I ate--I loved every bite. The best things, other than the two mentioned above, were the fruit salads, my favorite restaurant in Saigon, The Black Cat, the delicious coffee, artichoke tea, street food, and coconut candy.
-My Hip, Hip Hooray class always excited to see me on Sunday morning. They were so much fun and also funny.
-The day Sebastian read his first book and the fact that he could read all the books I made for him without any assistance at the end of the year.
-Rappelling down waterfalls in Da Lat, Vietnam.
-Island hopping with the Language Corps. group in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
-The beautiful peacoat I had tailor-made for myself.
-All the genuine friendliness and warmth I encountered in Vietnam.
-My first paycheck worth millions.
-Doing absolutely nothing in my own private villa on an island in Thailand.
-Kevin raising his hand just to tell me knock knock jokes.
-Colin raising his hand to say "Bless you" when I sneezed as if he knew an English secret that none of his classmates did. (There is no equivalent to the phrase in Vietnamese. They don't say anything when you sneeze.)
-Tyler's dance moves when we played my altered version of Simon Says.
-The boys from the upper classes at the elementary school dancing to "Low" by Flo Rida. They choreographed it themselves and it was hilarious.
-One of my favorite students at the English center, Ngoc, giving me a little package full of tiny origami stars and cranes for my birthday.
-The ego-boost that was my demo for the English center, where, for the first time, I realized that I could be a teacher and be good at it.
-My lovely and amazing housemate that I lived with throughout my stay in Vietnam. I am so lucky to know her.
-Realizing, somewhere around March, that I wanted to pursue film studies in graduate school.
-Surprising my family when I returned home. (I've honestly never been so happy to make others cry.)
-All the amazing adventures I had, the discoveries I made, and the traveling I did.
I could probably keep adding to this list but I'll stop here before it gets out of hand. Suffice it to say there was a lot of good and happy in my life for the year I spent in Asia. While some of the decisions I made are not ones I would willingly repeat in the future, I still wouldn't change the year I had.
The future of this blog remains to be seen. I've enjoyed writing it and I can definitely see myself continuing it at some point. As mentioned above, I am full of stories to tell and they might find an outlet here, (I have started two essays on tourism in Vietnam and names, respectively, that I sort of abandoned when I realized that people probably didn't want to read essays here, but they may yet find themselves here just because I feel like it), but for now, I think this is goodbye for a while.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone for reading and for all the support and love shown me. I hope everyone is having a nice, relaxing winter and very merry holiday season!
