While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and...

I had the most beautiful ice cream cone the other day. The rain was just stopping, and the Kyoto street colors were accentuated by the wet. Red lanterns, dark wood, carefully arranged potted plants, flocks of bright umbrellas. As I savored both the green tea color AND flavor, I remembered...

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Forever! President Ho Chi Minh’s greatness lives on in our career! These are the phrases printed on giant banners that flank Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi, translated to English with Google Translate. Similar phrases — about the people, the...

We’ve just returned from two-plus Glorious days in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. The area’s name in English is “Descending Dragons,” referring to the near-infinite limestone islands that fill the bay. Various myths explain how the panorama views of those giant humps look...

This will come as no surprise to serious students of the Vietnamese language … but there is a vast subtlety to various words that convey entirely different meanings. Take ba, ba, and ba. Depending on how you pronounce the words, they could mean: three, father, or...

A week from Tuesday, Vietnam marks the anniversary of the day North Vietnamese troops took over Saigon in 1975, a moment that “re-unified” the country. In America’s history classes, the conflict that ended in 1975 is called the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, we’ve learned...

It is Grace to be clear-headed during a rainstorm. I woke up this morning thinking about a mistake I’d made weeks ago – something trivial, regarding an email … and to whom it was and was not sent. Why do I wake up that way? I lingered on that question. I shared it with S during...

April 17, 3:07pm A minty, antiseptic smell has just overtaken the sour cigarette odor in our Vietnamese train car (we splurged for the Soft Seat Air-Con tickets).  The mounted TV serenades us with Vietnamese soft-rock favorites sung by 20-something darlings in sparkly evening gowns in front...

S has a rule in our family: no making fun of moms. So I will not draw your attention to the hand sanitizer strapped to the front of my mom’s fanny pack during a tour of Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Instead, I will mention that I was astonished to learn over dinner recently that my Mom...