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All Day, All Night

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Salut, Little did I know that the term for a runaway train would be an apt description for how Fulbright seemingly has been going. I feel as if I have experienced a month within a week. What is the old saying? Lifetimes can pass in weeks? I arrived in Hanoi on August 7, and despite not being out much or exploring as a tourist would, I am already drained and tired. I have little else but to say that it is all overwhelming, or as Jessica would say, "overstimulating". I much appreciated the pace and vibes of Peace Corps, where we had the time and energy and space to acclimate to things. Part of it matches Vietnam itself; Vietnam is an early riser, people wake up in the early hours of the morning, and the city streets feel alive and bustling by 6:30 am. The bright sun accompanies it, as do the UV rays. Vietnam is a lot of things, but some recurring topics I anticipate already that have been rehashed by any tourist known to man, but I shall do again are the heat and humidity. I ...
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Reintroduction

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 Salut, It has been a moment, hasn’t it? But also no time at all. I am restarting this blog right before orientation in Hanoi. My last blog, for all the new people, followed my two-and-a-half-year-long escapades across Central Asia. It features a host of wild and crazy stories. Linguistic messups. Adorable host kids. Some amazing (and not so amazing) food. Incredible friends and people. That chapter is over, and here I am now, one year later, to start another. My journey to get here started in the fall of last year. Shortly after Peace Corps wrapped up, I arrived back in the United States. I spent some time at home before moving to DC for just a year. There, I worked for Kid Power, an educational nonprofit, in conjunction with AmeriCorps. You’ll notice I have a certain affinity for collecting US government sponsored service programs. I collect them like Pokémon. I loved loved my time in DC, but here I am back again, now on my way overseas again. My sister’s mother-in-law once told...
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One Last Goodbye

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Salut, I think I ended up delaying this post further than I should have, but to be honest, coming back was harder than I thought it would be. Goodbyes are hard. I have never been good at saying it, and despite the Peace Corps even doing a session on how best to say goodbye to our communities and villages, it still didn’t hit me fully. I kept delaying it and putting it off, intending to release it at the end of July, but then time seemed to slip away. Everyone in my cohort, K-29, who is not extending and staying another year, has finished their service and left their village. Emotions and the finality of everything can feel like a tidal wave. So much has changed since June 2023, when I first departed. Yet, in some ways, nothing has changed at all. Peace Corps staff in Kyrgyzstan have undergone numerous changes and reassignments, particularly among the American staff. In some ways, it made it feel chaotic. As I left and as I have reflected, there are so many things that can affect your ...
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On the Well-worn Paths

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Salut, I didn’t expect the last few weeks to at once feel so busy but also so empty. I often have lamented at how much extra free time I have, as opposed to being out and about. I certainly didn’t have that problem this time around. I remember June of last year and feeling that sense of emptiness. A sort of nothingness creeping up due to the end of the school year. At the beginning of June last year, I was visited by Bhaavya and we went on a grand tour around Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. I haven’t embarked on something quite like that, but the house is always busy.  Immediately after school and graduation ended, the teachers and I were invited to a large wedding. Aldoberdi’s (the chemistry teacher) son was getting married. All the weddings I have been to have been because I know the groom’s family, which I find a bit of a coincidence. Baktygul was unable to come, as her husband hadn’t given her permission, which is point blank what I told the other teachers when they asked her wherea...
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