Things I Learned in Vietnam

Sometimes, when faced with a frustrating situation, the answer is not to go on the offensive and push and shove and use force to solve your problem. It can be much more effective to smile and be patient and take the time to think about why the problem exists and how it affects other people, not only you.

Never trust the Vietnamese transportation system to get you anywhere on time. Taxis, buses, trains, planes – it doesn't matter. Always work getting late into your timing.

When you are lost or you've made a mistake, it's always better to smile and ask for help and laugh at your mistakes than to suffer for them. People will be more than willing to help if you're friendly.

Always try the local food, unless it's the seafood, in which case avoid it like the plague, because it might actually have the plague.

It is never a bad idea to bring toilet paper with you. Always bring more than you think you'll ever need.

Likewise – when on an overnight train or bus or any situation where being sick would be unpleasant, bring way more medication than you would ever use, just in case. It's always worth it, even if you don't use it. Just think of the alternative.

Sweatiness is a state of being. Just accept the sweat. It will never, ever go away.

Hygiene standards are subjective. It's very difficult to care about bugs and lizards in the bathroom now. Flies covering your feet is also a state of being.

Absolutely terrible tan lines are still better than skin cancer.

It's okay to not want to eat dog, but just prepare yourself for the possibility that you've eaten it accidentally when you thought that the soup had pork in it.

I am incredibly, incredibly lucky to have been born in a place where I absorbed English at the same time that I was absorbing basic ideas about how the world worked, way at the beginning, when I had nothing better to do than to learn to speak, and walk, and eat. It's such a ridiculously useful language and so many people have to struggle to learn it.

Children are the same everywhere in the world, and you don't need to speak their language to know it.

Vegetarianism is by no means a universal concept.

There's a certain beauty to being a traveler – you make friends with people so quickly, and then when you leave them soon after, you'll most likely never see them again. There's also a certain sadness to that, because I love to hold on to the people I've met. It takes effort, but it's worth the effort, I think.

If you are unhappy with your situation, it's useless to sit around and complain about it. You have to make the most of it in whatever way you can. Sure, you can blame other people for disappointing you and leaving you in a bad situation, but it's no good to blame anyone if they're not going to fix it. In the end, you make your own decisions and you make your own happiness.

It's so easy to reach out to someone and give them a little kindness, but it means so, so much. We need more unconditional kindness in the world. If there's any one thing I'm taking away from this trip, it's that. I didn't know people could be so kind, so welcoming, so giving, even when they had so little. People aren't like that at home. I know many people at home who are lovely, lovely people, don't get me wrong, but we just don't approach hospitality the same way. There's no separation of private and public space in Vietnam, which can be infuriating when people crowd you and bump into you and ask you questions that are too personal, but it also means that all your troubles are their troubles, and they are willing to give you anything they have. I hope I can try to live more like that. Pay it forward, as Rob would say.

Something my mother taught me years ago, but it applies – like with kindness, it takes so little effort to show your appreciation for something, and it means so much when you do. Always say thank you.

I love everyone so much. (This I realized when I got home.)