Chuc Mung Nam Moi!!

(Happy New Year!!)

I'm back home in Can Tho! Still reeling off of vacation (you always need a vacation from vacation) and I've been lounging around the house/ sleeping for the past few days, but it's really nice to be back. It is nice that it actually feels like home, after sleeping in different beds every night for five weeks. My first night back I went out with my (former) student and friend Thao, for dinner that I absolutely missed - the food here is just so good - and bubble tea, my most favorite thing ever. I would describe it to you, but I don't really get it. It's tea - but it usually has milk and you can add a flavor (mango!) and it has bubbles - alright you might have to google that one. Anyway, then we rode around the city and she let me drive her motorbike!! It was more terrifying then it should have been and I was afraid to make left hand turns, but I was out there on the road with every one else!!! Okay, I was wayy on the right side of the road going a lot slower then everyone else, but I was doing it! I would love to rent one, I'm going to find out the prices tomorrow! It was a great welcome back. I spent NYE with An and her friends and I had a lot of fun. I'm so glad to be back! I start teaching this week, but my schedule is pretty slow and then I have another two weeks off for Tet, which is their New Years holiday (lunar calendar).

Goodbye 2008. A great year in review: It started off with a bang at 486. New Years Day was even more memorable then NYE, which can only mean good things. Momentous events: I spent my spring break in Jamaica building a playground at a primary school and teaching and playing with the kids all week, as well as being in a beautiful country and getting to know really great kids from Northeastern. I graduated college. Even though I don't intend on using my degree anytime in the near future, as Marisa says, undergrad is more about learning about yourself, teaching you how to drink, and meeting your best friends. All of which, I accomplished. I fell in love., even though I knew I shouldn't have. I spent time home this summer, which I haven't done in a few years, and it was really great to be a part of Ocean Grove again. I even won an award for "Best Comeback" or something like that. What was that called? The awards were silly, but it was true. I had been gone for a while and it's great when you can come back and its like nothing ever changed. Or a lot of things changed, but for the most part, you can try to pick up where you left off, and I'm incredibly lucky to have such an amazing group of friends. I moved to Vietnam. I became a teacher. I visited Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, & Singapore. From having never been out of the country before to in one year being to six different countries, and living in one! It's all kind of surreal. That's a lot for one year, I can't imagine what is going to happen next. For that reason, I say Hello 2009, but I'm not putting any goals or restrictions up. If, on NYE last year, you asked me if ANY of the above would have happened, I would have said no. (Well I knew about Jamaica and graduation... but nothing else!) I have high hopes, at least! 

Marisa sent me a great e-mail with 101 questions about my life and what's going on here. I'm going to use that to update you all within the next week. I've gotten way to personal on this thing- what is it about blogs? Anyway, sorry about that for those of you who really don't care haha. I'll have updates about teaching and getting back into my Vietnam life soon! Until then enjoy my pictures, and there are still a few more to come!! 

Another great quote: (yes I have a library of them, and can give you a quote for however you feel on any given day.)

"Tourists are those who bring their homes with them wherever they go, and apply them to whatever they see... Travelers leave home at home, bringing only themselves, and a desire to see and hear and feel and take in and grow and learn."

And congrats to the Bostonian of the Year, and one of the many loves of my life, Paul Pierce. 

Ps. I bought my plane ticket home! May 25th (if anyone's keeping track..) And no, I'm not flying into Boston, and I've already gotten yelled at twice for that, so don't bother. My parents would have killed me! :-)