Viet Nam

More commentary in the works. Pictures now!

I got my visa! In case you didn't know, Vietnam is one of the few countries that requires US citizens to apply for a piece of paper so that we can enter the country. I gazed at the new sticker taking up a page in my passport, and then I gave into temptation and flipped through the other pages holding the stamps for the five foreign countries I've visited since acquiring my passport five years ago.

I hold a small portion of my total pride for having done the difficult things that I said that I would do. Going to medical school is one. However, I view it as one of those practical things smart people sometimes do; I haven't quite gotten to the point where it has become that fertile ground for writing that I'd hoped it would be.

Going abroad is another, and very different. Coming from a financially disadvantaged situation, it was a splurge from one point of view, the quenching of a multifaceted yearning from another. It is one of those curiosity-satisfying immersions into life at one remove from my own. 10Aug2005

Home . locales . Wedding Itinerary