Saigon Chronicle – Week 1: Traffic. Noise. Heat.
July 10, 2019
After a year of globetrotting, we gathered our belongings, added a couple more bags, and headed for Saigon. By now, moving across the world has become rather habitual. My first big global move was from Taiwan to St. Louis at age 12. That was seriously major. Moving to Cameroon with the Peace Corps was a rather big deal as well,…
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Float Spa: Weightless Body and Restless Mind
May 27, 2019
A friend recently gifted us certificates to a float spa here in St. Louis, at Float STL. I adore the gift of an experience, and float spa has been on my list of things to try. In accordance with my 2019 theme to step out of comfort zone, I went for it despite not knowing what to expect. Float STL…
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Journey to a Changing Cultural Identity
May 20, 2019
Recently, someone on Twitter asked how quickly an immigrant loses ties to his/her heritage. The answer varies, but for me, it was within two short years. At age 12, my identity became hyphenated: Asian-American. Yet with an concerted effort to fit in, I quickly dropped the Asian part of the word. Over the last decade, I’ve been reexamining both parts…
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From Nomad Living to Ho Chi Minh City
May 16, 2019
We can read all about an experience, but until we’ve lived it ourselves, it’s just a story. Nomad Envy I have wanted to travel full-time for years. I read blogs and watched vlogs of people who trot around with their life’s possessions in a backpack (or a suitcase), and call the world home. When I was trapped in the corporate…
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Redefine What It Means to Work
May 10, 2019
My parents grew up in Taiwan in the 1950s, the country was poor, and stories of their childhood without shoes or other basic necessities juxtaposed with my fortunate upbringing. In our household, education was the key to success, and success was defined solely by work that brings in money. This traditional belief had governed my path, but it’s time to…
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Internet in China: Life Inside the Great Firewall
May 3, 2019
Less than a year ago, I bid farewell to my established life in Shanghai. Since, I feel like I live in two parallel Internet universe. My China life on WeChat, and the rest of the world on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. There is very little intersection between the two worlds, and it has me reflect deeply on life inside the Great Firewall. The…
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Road Trip from Montréal to the Maine Coast
April 30, 2019
On the Road Again After a week of city wandering and filling our stomachs with delightful treats in Montreal, we picked up our rental car and head to Maine. From Skyscanner, I was able to find a reasonably priced car rental (National) that allows for cross-border drop-off. The border control officers in Maine requested to see paperwork from the rental…
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One Week in Charming Montreal
April 24, 2019
At the end of last summer, I was in Vermont for a wedding. Since Montreal is so close and I’ve heard so much about this charming town, it was necessary to make a stop. I booked the Greyhound bus that journeyed from Burlington Airport to Montreal Bus Station on Busbud. The journey took a bit less than 3 hours, including…
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Career Tip: Trust the Dots Will Connect
April 18, 2019
Recently, I’ve received requests for informational calls to discuss my “career path”. I’ve happily obliged to pay it forward, since I myself had requested many of these calls while in grad school. A pattern soon emerged. Gleaming from my resumé, people apparently think I had some master plan to weave together my experiences in finance, international development, and tech. But…
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My Version of Financial Freedom
April 12, 2019
When I decided to get serious with this blog, I got back on Twitter, and tapped into the personal finance community. Boy, what a world. The conversations are equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking. The most popular topic is the quest for financial independence and financial freedom. Some people look at these two terms as one and the same, but to…
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