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Your Anchor

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Salut,  Orientation is over. As I predicted, it went fast and got away from me. Skylar said and repeated to us, over and over again, “This is all we have.” We are anchored to each other and bound to each other by that single promise. All our time is here and now, and we will never have it again. I think in the monotony of work, we can often forget that; all we have is this. Perhaps I feel it more pronounced as I see a widespread amount of famous and non-famous deaths in quick succession. Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, a war criminal, and the king of Norway, and those in Nepal and China. All we have is what is right in front of us. I often find us needing to remind Skylar who first told us that. Some girls and I knocked on her door at 10 PM while she was water coloring, and we urged her to come with us to go out into the city. We are leaving; September 3rd is the last day we’ll all be together for many months. Put down your paintbrush, we told her. This is all we have. It is peer pressure...
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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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