Back to the Motherland: Goodbye Saigon, Hello Taiwan!
September 29, 2020
What a wild year 2020 has been! I rang in the new year in Taichung, Taiwan, helping my parents settle back into our home after 20 years of living in the United States as immigrants. The homecoming was bittersweet for them, and I was grateful to be there as emotional support. At the time, I had no idea that I…
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Saigon Visitor Guide: Restaurants, Cafés, and More
May 21, 2020
Ho Chi Minh City, more commonly referred to locally as Saigon, is a vibrant and energetic city. The rapid urban development leads to an ever-changing city, balancing between the new and old. My favorite thing to do in Saigon, as is in any city, is to wander aimlessly, looking into alleyways. Saigon has no shortage of hidden gems. I love…
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Saigon in the Time of Corona
March 30, 2020
By now, you are probably so tired of reading about Covid-19, the novel coronavirus that has led to a global pandemic. I’m impressed if you even clicked on the link to get here. If you got here by accident, feel free to close the tab. My feelings won’t be hurt. Like most of the writing on this blog, this post…
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Saigon Chronicle Month 5: Building a Community Abroad
November 29, 2019
Last month, before a trip back to Shanghai, I struggled to find my place in Saigon. Unlike previous moves abroad, the integration this time around feels slow. Partly, because I’ve adopted to living slower, but also I’m in a different stage of life – married and in my 30s. In month five, things seem to begin to click. Perhaps it’s…
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Saigon Chronicle Month 4: The Saigon vs. Shanghai Battle
November 1, 2019
I’ve just returned from 10 days of visiting Shanghai. This was my first trip back to the city since we bid farewell in June 2018. Since arriving in Saigon four months ago, despite my best effort to be objective, I couldn’t help but compare this new home to Shanghai, a city that I knew so intimately well. I suppose our…
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Saigon Chronicle – Week 7 & 8: Apartment Rental Search
August 29, 2019
After a month of living in our temporary apartment, we began the hunt for our longer-term home in Saigon. The process proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated, but I am happy to announce that after two weeks of painstaking search, we have been blessed by the apartment-hunting gods, and landed on a great two-bedroom apartment, with a…
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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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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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