My mother to my students to why they should learn Vietnamese. Some of her speeches could give those epic, inspirational, end-of-every-war-movie speeches a run for their money. I, for one, was remind of this one in particular. siiigh, oh mother.

Also, how healthy is it to cool down a fever with mint chocolate chip ice cream? It’s 4:21 AM and I can’t sleep because…so hotness in my body. So I’m here, thinking about the epicness that is my mother and catching up on correspondence (all of two messages, but still). If you think you’re being good by going to sleep at ten, think again because you WILL wake up at three sharp, cursing your sleep cycle.

(via shhlittletoiletpaperroll)

Even though I can sort of get by with Vietnamese, I know that I’m mostly going to end up relying on my parents to be the Vietnamese grandparents for my hypothetical future kids. 

But I don’t see it the way a lot of Vietnamese-Americans (at least the older generation) do. Vietnam is not lost at all. It is an increasingly open country, more than happy to welcome Viet Kieu back. 

It’s not to say that its government isn’t messy and everything, but it’s a new world. The war is over, and we should enjoy the peace dividend. And there are 80 million people who also call themselves Vietnamese, living in the old country, and they’re all just as human and just as Vietnamese as we are. 

Vietnam the nation, the culture, the identity, is much more than a political state.