As the semester begins to draw to a close, I am engulfed in a continuous maze of mixed feelings toward what is to come. I know I missed a week of writing, but as it is in Chicago when the end of the semester draws near, work tends to pile on more heavily than usual, and I just haven’t had as much free time as before.

There are so many things that I will miss about Vietnam, and about studying abroad in general, and there are also so many things that I look forward to when I think about my return to the States. Honestly, when I left Chicago, I was SO ready to get out of that city. Something about being in a big city makes me feel constantly suffocated, especially in a place where it is so cold for most of the time that I am there, but there are a lot of things about being away, that made me realize how much I actually love Chicago, and the United States of America. Like the fact that in Chicago, I can walk down the sidewalk without having to constantly look at the ground, dodging trash and other distasteful things, without the constant worry of tripping into some puddle of God knows what. Also the fact that in America, sidewalks are actually meant to be only for pedestrians, and so I am able to walk on them without worrying about someone on a motorbike honking at me to get out of their way ON THE SIDEWALK. I also, am really looking forward to only being stared at by creepy men, instead of by EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE COUNTRY OF VIETNAM. I never actually thought that I would miss people being unfriendly on the street. I also look forward to being reintegrated into a society where common courtesy and personal space is a way of life. Also, I really look forward to it not being a huge, confusing  ordeal whenever I simply want to substitute, say, coconut milk for condensed milk in a coffee. I also miss the normal things, like my friends, and bloody mary’s made out of bloody mary mix and not just tomato juice, and the ability to cook my own food, and again, my friends.

But also, don’t get me wrong, I know that within a month of my being back in the States, I will probably fall into some deep post travel depression, where everything goes back to being boring, but I also really think that I won’t be taking a lot of the amazing things that America has to offer for granted anymore. I however will miss the low cost of everything, the ability to travel almost every weekend, seeing the amazing friends I have made here as often as I do, the high abundance of Asian food, and honestly, I will miss all of the things that I say I look forward to not having anymore, like the craziness of Saigon, and the motorbikes, and the weird quirks that you would absolutely never see in the States such as, the bus drivers who stop to pick their kids up from school on their route. Though I say that can’t wait to be in a place where common courtesy is normal, I will miss the Vietnamese version of courtesy, where the bus drivers will generally wait for you if you are running for the bus, rather than just pull away.

I was lucky this semester, to not get any bad bouts of actual homesickness that a lot of the people on my program got. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that when I am in Chicago, I am actually farther away from home than I am when I am in Vietnam. Also, I have very much grown out of the FOMO stage of my life, and recognize fully that I will not be where I am now at any other time of my life, and so I should just enjoy it. I also was lucky enough to be able to visit my mom when she was traveling to Japan, and to see my Japanese family for the first time in 11 years. That was a really nice break from the hustle and bustle of Saigon, and also from the hustle and bustle of the program. Japan is basically the opposite of Saigon in the sense that, when I walk around Japan, I almost feel as if I am at Disneyland. Japan is so orderly and perfect, whereas, Saigon is a mumbo-jumbo of everything disorderly that you can think of. Japan also has the best food ever.

This past weekend, my environmental science class visited Nam Cat Tien National Park, about three hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City. The park is home to multiple conservation sites, especially those that provide rehabilitation for primates who are at risk of extinction from poaching and other human activities. This week especially, environmental issues laid heavy on my heart after the election results were announced, and it was uplifting to be around people who actually cared about the environment, especially since the developing nature of Vietnam leaves little room for environmental progress. We were able to witness the actual rehabilitation of gibbons, in the organizations attempt to reintroduce them to the wild, and also to learn about other primates, moon bears, and sun bears who are being given the same treatment. Other than the crazy amount of mosquitos everywhere, Nam Cat Tien was any environmentalist’s dream. I also got to see a ginormous tree.

Anyway, although we have less than three weeks of the program left, I will still be traveling for over a month, and so the adventure is still not over. I hope it will never be over.