Visiting the Real Vietnam

I have always loved traveling and experiencing the sights, tastes, sounds and smells that make a particular corner of the world a unique and different place from all the other places out there.

From a young age, I would look forward to family vacations and now, many, many years later, I remember with fondness the fun-filled trips we shared together: Colorado, Arizona, California, England.... And, as a teenager and now, as an adult, I have been fortunate to take part in many international adventures -- studying abroad in Oxford, participating in mission trips to Honduras and Jamaica, taking business class trips to Argentina and Italy. From all of these adventures, I got to see life from a different vantage point for a brief moment of time.

While my time in Vietnam is another opportunity for me to experience life from a different vantage point, this experience is quite different in that I am getting the unique chance to immerse myself in the culture rather than getting a tiny, little taste -- kind of like diving into the pool versus dipping your toe in the water.

I was thinking about this as I watched a pack of tourists with a Vietnamese guide this weekend. Their experiences here will most definitely be different from my own. While we both probably visited the citadel and took a dragon boat down the Perfume River, there are many things these tourists will probably not have the opportunity to partake in:

- Learning how to make a Vietnamese handicraft from a teenager with disabilities -- one of the sweetest, funniest and most talented teenagers I know
- Eating a variety of Vietnamese street food with my local friends
- Experiencing the wind whip through my hair as I drive to work every morning aboard my electric bike
- Singing my heart out with my friends at kareoke and trying desperately to sing a song in Vietnamese
- Visiting church every week and interacting with the church members who are so welcoming and encouraging....and also trying desperately to sing along with the church songs in Vietnamese :)
- Riding aboard my friend's motorbike to a beautiful place in Hue well off the beaten path
- Playing tien len, a very popular Vietnamese card game, with my friends and experiencing the sheer joy of beating them after they were confident I would lose big
- Practicing English each week with a college English club and seeing firsthand their dedication and enthusiasm for learning a new language

These are just some of the things I have come to love here. While there are certainly days that are frustrating and hard, I am truly loving experiencing the real Vietnam.