Lonely Girl Travels

• End of the Road 11 years ago Reasons why I’m ending this blog: 1. I’m tired. I’m bored. Have you noticed how infrequently I’ve been posting? It’s like torture trying to get myself to write a post—I’ll start one, write a few hundred words, check my FB, check my Twitter feed, get a glass of water, leave the tab...
• Not Making It, In Manhattan and Hanoi 12 years ago AC, bedspread, feet stretched out in front of me, laptop on my lap just the way it’s supposed to be. Picture in the box in the screen; I smile and he smiles — “It’s good to see you!” we both say and laugh. The background is the same: the narrow walls of the apartment, canvases […]
• Til Your Money Runs Out: In Tai O, In Old Clothes 12 years ago I could live here, I thought. I could stay here til my money runs out. I don’t need to go back; I don’t even know where “back” is. I thought this as I walked through Tai O last night, down the narrow cement alley of a fishing village on the far end of one of […]
• A Small Kind of Gift: Dancers Behind the Glass 12 years ago Skyline, sunset, nine stories up. Sitting in a glass room that doesn’t feel entirely dissimilar to a cage. An antiseptic cage, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, white crisp lines, a little terrace landscaped with rocks and moss in a manner vaguely Zen. I’m early for tutoring, or rather the...
• "You Don't Have To Like It But...": A West Oakland Story About Vietnamese Culture 12 years ago When I moved to Hanoi, there was this refrain I kept hearing the long-term expats say: “You don’t have to like Vietnamese culture, but you have to respect it.” Which makes sense, you know; you don’t have to be a historian to know that these are the folks who beat the Chinese, beat the...

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