Goodbye Vietnam, Good Morning New Year

I'm back from Vietnam. I actually landed precisely 24 hours ago but did not have enough energy to write in here after traveling for 36 hours and having my body be 12 hours ahead of EST. Oh, and I had my first day of class.

When I arrived back in DC, everything appeared to culminate into what should have been a somber tone. I returned to an empty apartment after being on an amazing 2 week vacation with my family and boyfriend. I had left a tropical paradise to come back to literally dark, cold, and rainy weather. I had 4 hours before my first class, for which I did not even have the casebook. And I was exhausted beyond belief but could not sleep on the plane or take a nap before class because my body was so confused.

I don't like ever justifying being in a bad mood, but if there were ever a time, this would be it. However, I was surprisingly happy and even awake during class. Maybe I was just excited to see all my school friends again. Maybe I was actually refreshed after a jam-packed 2 week vacation. And maybe I learned something from Vietnam.

I'll try to write on this more later but I think one of the best things I got out of my trip is to make the most out of everyday. This revived appreciation for my life does not come from the pity I have for a country that is, on the whole, very poor. It's admiration for people who appeared to have a zest for life. Though this is merely a generalization, the people in Vietnam just looked happier than many European countries that I've been to, and even Americans.

I was blown away with was how far the country has come since the war. Although the country is very poor, you wouldn't really know that just a few short decades ago, the country was embroiled in a massive war. And you especially wouldn't know that before the war that all Americans know, that the country had basically had fighting and occupation by foreign country for as long as everyone can remember.

Our tour guide said that perhaps it is the strong Buddhist presence in Vietnam that allows Vietanmese people from North and South to forgive each other, and Americans, for what happened. And someone else I was talking to in our group pointed out that the Vietnamese had always been very practical people, overcoming many hardships by quickly adapting to circumstances.

In short, the people that I met, from my dad's Buddhist monk great uncle to our tour guide who makes more giving tours than he does from being a University professor to the shopkeepers I talked to, all were very positive people who emanated an appreciation for their lives, despite or maybe because of all that they have been through.

So while I might be a United States born Catholic who never knew the hardship of the Vietnam War, perhaps I picked up some of the noble values of the Vietnamese people. Or maybe I always had a little of it in me the whole time. Either way, I just knew that I couldn't be anything but happy when I came back from my trip. Because jet-lag and class are hardly a price to pay for one of the most amazing and eye-opening trips I've ever taken.

More stories and many pictures to come...