Oct 2023
10/3/2023
As I enter my fifth month in the "Land of the Ascending Dragon”, I find it's time to reflect on my journey thus far. In some ways if feels like time has flown by. In others, it drags on.
The heat and humidity has been oppressive and ongoing leaving me with the feeling that time has stopped.
On the other hand, there is so much that I still want to do and it feels Iike I'm chasing a dragon in through the clouds.
Like the setting sun in the picture to the right, I still have a while before I reach the end of my sojourn here in Vietnam; and I plan to make the most of the time that remains.
In one way, my journey is really just beginning. My host university has just recently begun their fall semester, and I am now preparing to make guest lectures in some classes and ramping up my research efforts. Tomorrow, I will be attending a “Welcome meeting and luncheon” with the university's Rector (President). Fortunately, the dress is “Smart Casual”, which means I just need to wear dress pants with a shirt and tie…no suit coat - yay!
Saw a shirt today that said “Better 20 than Popeye”. Not sure what it is supposed to mean?
Not sure why, but when I saw this lady in the picture below, I was reminded of the lyrics from a Poco Harem song*
"And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale"
*A Whiter Shade of Pale" Keith Reid, Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, 1967
OCTOBER p. 2