Beijing is a city of concentric circles. Ring Roads, they’re called. I spent a semester at Renmin University that lies directly on the Third Ring. In September of 2018 I moved to a small village in the rural province of Yunnan for a year. The following September I followed a job all the way out to Hanoi. This is a blog about that. Many things have changed but the 辣椒 is still spicy.
I encourage anyone moseying along to leave me comments if you’d like to chat about some of these topics. I’d like nothing more than to hear from readers!
telling
A Honda Dream
You tried tele-therapy and houseplants, extra sun. You ran every day for a week, then none the next. The alcohol was distressingly inexpensive. You sent soggy voice messages to a best friend every time the loneliness came like a cramp, hoping for a dose of her Motrin (take one (1) FaceTime twice (2) daily with food)…READ MORE
Pedestrian Ambitions
From twelve to one thirty in the afternoon I get a lunch break. My commute to the lunch table is a hop and skip, just three minutes. Four, if the motorized Hanoian populace wakes up feeling particularly homicidal. After a fine meal of noodles and goose in the alley across the street, my desk-mates hang back to share a cigarette. It has scarcely been thirty minutes. Knowing I will decline to partake, they flash me a smile as I crinkle 30,000 VND (USD $1.29) into one of their hands and turn away. “I’ll see you in an hour,” I call.…READ MORE
Front Brake
grab me, pick me up and turn on the throaty engine, do you have change for a 50,000? I’ve been waking up to a new sun, one that burns brightly over the streets of Hanoi and washes my new bed, my new sheets, my new floor…READ MORE
i’d love to chat!
Feel free to send me a note anytime if you have anything you want me to know or would like to discuss!
playlist of my favorite songs not sung in english/by non-english artists