Things I’ve Learned in Vietnam

Long time no see! 👋😅 This last month just flew by!!! (I know I say that a lot in my posts, but this time the whole month felt like it passed in only a few days!) And while I won’t share too many details here for safety reasons, it was definitely a special time. Here are some of the things I learned from the last month in Vietnam!

Relationships can be formed and go deep faster than you think
Culture shock is REAL. But just like it hits harder than you may realize at first (🙋‍♀️), you can also recover and adapt faster than you realize if you keep immersing yourself and choose to lean in as much as you can to the discomfort and newness.
Teaching English (at least in a volunteering sense) can be as complex as lesson planning for structured classes, or as simple as having conversations and demonstrating correct pronunciation of challenging words! And all in all, it can be so FUN!
Life actually has so many similarities across country borders, languages, cultures, and generations
Gen Z is a social media/smartphone generation, globally 😆
I’m pretty sure there isn’t any bad Vietnamese food. Everything is so good! (Just try anything and everything you can if you ever get the chance!)
When you have open space in your schedule, it’s up to you whether you use it and steward it wisely… or not
Going to the beach at sunrise (aka 5am) is a very common and popular practice when you’re near the ocean in Vietnam
Coconut coffee is unmatched (and this is coming from a non-coffee drinker)
Google Translate really is your best friend when you don’t know the local language! …Until you try to translate a package or a menu, then all bets are off 😂
If you’ve ever wanted to get cavities faster during a visit to Vietnam, you can in fact drink straight sugarcane juice, and it tastes amazing. You can even get it freshly juiced on the side of the road, right in front of you, for less than 50 cents. (I will say, I don’t recommend doing this very often if you want to be any kind of healthy 😉)
Friendships don’t have to exist for a certain (long) amount of time for them to be real and goodbyes to be hard
Leadership is tough. A lot of times it looks a lot different than you expect. It stretches and grows and frustrates you and it expands your capacities.
While schedule and responsibilities have an impact, in the end you determine your priorities. What you spend time on is what your priorities are revealed to be.
Vietnamese is really, really hard
It takes effort to live in the moment
Words matter, tone matters, gestures matter. We can’t take things too lightly nor too seriously in our approach. Life requires balance!

Thank you for your patience with my lack of posting lately! I’m excited to get to share this overview of the past month and to fill you in soon on our next country!