Flying solo

I never want to travel by myself ever again. Okay, that may be a rash thing to say at the moment. And of course I still dream that my future will be full of excursions to various cities and countries. But I would like it not all to be for work and enjoy those moments of travel too. I suppose this is just the start. It’s definitely a rough one. I’m having a hard time adjusting and I’m still only at Narita airport waiting for my connecting flight.

Well, at least my trip so far has been as comfortable as can be expected. Window seat. Lots of leg room. And individual TVs for movie-watching, game-playing, music-listening. It’s a shame I spent a good number of days prior to the trip watching a bunch of movies, which left for only a very small handful of options to choose from during the long flight.

I rewatched My Best Friend’s Wedding; it was the second of the three I watched on my Chicago-Narita trip, and I watched it mainly because I forgot that I had already seen it. Good thing was that I could not remember much of the movie anyway so it seemed more worthwhile to have watched it again.

The first movie I watched, and which I found quite enjoyable, was The Young Victoria. I don’t like history much but some historical movies are quite intriguing. While watching this, I truly felt that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had really found true love and that their relationship was simply beautiful. I found myself questioning if their love had really been that powerful and amazing or if Hollywood had made it much more dramatic. I’d like to believe that they had indeed been lucky and found what most would label as mystical or fantastical. And I’d like to believe that we normal people can also find it: a friendship where you can find strength, courage, and comfort; where the love really is based on a deep, mutual trust (although of course it didn’t start out that way in the movie and realistically so); where the understanding is deep and not forced and just simply beautiful.

Okay. I’ve ranted enough about The Young Victoria and love and blah blah blah. But hey, you wanted updates, and frequent ones at that, so I will be detailed and boring and write and write and write for your reading pleasure. 

The last movie I watched which I was unable to fully finish but I could imagine the ending was You’ve Got Mail. I’ve got no real comment for it. It passed the time. It wasn’t bad. But it doesn’t put any other movies to shame. So that’s that.

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Good morning, Vietnam!!

I’ve arrived. Safe and sound. And Elliot was true to his word. He found me among the crowd, at least an hour after the time I was supposed to arrive, and I felt so much weight lifted off my shoulder just seeing a familiar face. It was like a lost child hearing the forever remembered voices of her parents. I prolly heaved such a big sigh of relief when I hear him call my name and found his face in the large swarm of individuals waiting for their own arriving friends/families. 

 Of course I still have so much to worry about: finding a place to stay for the next 2 months, going to work and actually trying to understand law stuff, feeling comfortable in this whole new world. So much to do and so little time to adjust. Well, I do have at least two months here, which now to me seems like an extremely long time, but I’ve only got about four days to get over my jet lag and get nicely settled in.

The only thing I’ve done my first day in Ho Chi Minh City (June 2nd here) is walk with Elliot to work. Since I’m not yet working, I am sitting at the nearby Coffee Bean where I had my first meal in Vietnam!! It was only scrambled eggs and a huge croissant (a Western meal, I know) but it was quite delicious. Maybe I should have ordered some orange juice to go with it. Maybe tomorrow. Is that too much Western food? Bah – by the end of the day today, I’m sure I’ll have eaten a fair amount of Vietnamese food. I’m not worried at all about getting my fix for authentic Vietnamese cooking. I am sure, by the end of my time here, I’ll be welcoming a delicious Big Mac as soon as possible; right off the airplane at O’Hare…or maybe even Narita.

I will try to make the best of my being here…since there is no escape. As Elliot said – I shall embrace it all.