June 2024 | Facing the Hardest Choices: Life, Pain, and Letting Go I had this thought, and I probably jotted it down somewhere: Should we put our pets to sleep based on our consent? How do we know if they want to live through their lives, letting nature and pain take their course? I…
August 2024 | The Nomad’s Dilemma: Balancing the Love for Physical Books with Digital Convenience I get it—all the nerds would choose physical books. Feeling the sensations, the touch, the smell, and so on—I agree with you all 100%. But! There’s a big BUT First of all, living in Laos, it’s not easy to…
May 2024 | Breathing Through Grief: Embracing Emotions and Uncertainty I consider myself a happy person, I do get sad and feel low sometimes. And when I do, it feels extra—even more intense than one might imagine. Emotions over logic—I love it, and I hate it. It’s overwhelming to feel such deep, shaking emotions.…
September 2024 | The Timeless Allure of Solo Travel in India I’m not sure if it’s a global concern or just something within my circles, but it seems that everyone around me has this perception about the safety of solo travel in India. FYI, this isn’t my first time traveling solo to India, and…
September 2024 | If I Have to Pick ONE! When I was younger, less exposed, and my palate was still naive, I would often respond vaguely, “Japanese.” I can see why Japanese cuisine is among the world’s favorites—I still like it, too. But if I have to give an answer now, it would be,…
May 2024 | 43°c is not a good day. I was around 14 or 15 when I started taking a Japanese class. We learned basic words and adjectives to describe the weather, using flashcards as tools to help visualize the terms. One of the flashcards showed a rainy day with clouds, explaining a bad…
May 2024 | Lessons from Living in Different Climates Westerners envy those of us who live in a tropical climate, while we get excited at the thought of seeing snow. I was in both camps. When I was younger, I dreamed of touching and playing in the snow. Then I lived in Buffalo, NY,…
November 2022 | Dinner Etiquette This story I recalled from my first visit in the US back in 2013. Table manners, or Étiquette. So, I grew up in a very Lao community where the way we set the table for dinner depended on our food. Usually, if there was no noodle soup, we used…
December 2022 | Trivia Game I am at the restaurant in Roma, enjoying my favorite activity—people watching. Of course! Across from my table, while waiting for my food to be served, I saw a cute family engaging in some activities while awaiting their food as well. It caught my attention because none of them…
March 2023 | “It is not veggie, it’s salad” After traveling in Europe for a month, I arrived in England and spent time with a family friend. One day, I mentioned that I had been craving vegetables. Literally, I was yearning for green-colored food. No offense, I love “white-people” – European food. In fact,…