Life After Viet Nam

I got a bit bored today so I decided to read over some of my blog and was thus struck with inspiration! I should at least write one post on, "life after Viet Nam". For me, life is not so bad! I have a great internship lined up for the next six months with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Philadelphia. I will be doing something with small business development and Latin American trade. Viet Nam now seems like a dream...Sometimes I find myself looking at pictures just to remind myself that it was real and that, no it was not a dream. However, I have found that it is a great conversation starter! haha!

I still keep in contact with my Vietnamese host mom in Can Tho and her family. My 16 year old host sister is taking the high school entrance exam soon so she is studying non stop. Then there is my Vietnamese host sister is Saigon (HCMC). I don't have her email so I will have to get a calling card to call her. She is coming to America soon. She will be here for a month doing some sort of leadership conference with other students from all over South East Asia. I feel sad when I think of her. On the last week of my stay in Viet Nam I found out she has Lupus. She is such a bright girl and so hard working too! I promised her that if she got sick while in the States that I would do all that I could to help her. I just hope it doesn't come to that. I want her to be happy and to enjoy her stay in the States.
Next Spring I will be graduating... It seems like life is just full of one phase after another... It's interesting and amazing, yet at the same time quite scary.
Henry told me the other day (Father's day) that he is tired of telling people that I am his girlfriend and would like it to be his fiancee from now on. I guess he is thinking about THAT. I guess it can't be helped, we have been together for 4 years. However, I am not as impatient as I used to be. Something like that can wait. It won't change how we feel and it shouldn't change how things are (unless it is another positive change).

I think my next target country will be somewhere in Latin America though I really want to go to Korea, Thailand and Japan (to practice my Japanese).
I definitely want to go back to Viet Nam. Hopefully in 2010 if I get a fellowship through Princeton in Asia.
Surprisingly, I have yet to do a road trip of the USA. Maybe this too should be on my list.

To those who are reading this:
Don't be afraid to take a chance, because otherwise how will you know if it was the experience that your life needed? Don't live in regret.