Tuesday, December 9, 2014

5 Vietnamese Things I will still do when I get back to the US

We're coming home to the US this summer, from June 19 to July 15 (or thereabouts). I've heard that when you go home again, you may experience culture shock. It doesn't take long for the culture you live in, even briefly, to normalize. So while your old culture is still familiar, you need a period of reintroduction before you settle back in.

So here are five things I anticipate doing the Vietnamese way, initially at least, when I go back.

1) Step into traffic, while saying, "What traffic? This isn't traffic!"

2) Use two hands to pass things to people. Even small things. Especially money.

3) Faint at the price of everything. (Except chocolate.)

4) Save all the 'disposable' bottles and cups I get that are of any halfway decent quality. I used to do this anyway, sometimes; now I do it even more regularly.

5) Get the urge to go grocery shopping every two days, and then only buy as much as I can carry a km.

There will probably be additional little things, like mentally converting prices from USD to VND, or craving unsweetened iced tea and referring to it as "trà đá." I'll know when I get there.

I hope you all have patience with me. Especially with the traffic thing.