It’s been almost six years since I posted my last blog! I started this website back in 2013 when I first relocated to Seoul, South Korea. I thought it would be a wonderful way to record my memories and share my experiences with my friends and family. And it was! But for anyone who has tried writing or maintaining a diary, it was a lot of work. A typical entry would take me two to three hours to write, edit, correct, and publish. And even after multiple reads, I would still find typos and grammatical errors. I understand why writers need editors!
In 2018, Huy and I left Vietnam to return to the USA. My last post was about our one year return to Hoi An. Since then, I let my website membership lapse, mostly out of laziness and the need to save on the cost since Squarespace isn’t the cheapest site to use.
How do I catch up on six years of my life? Not easily, so I’m not even going to try. I’m just going to mention a few highlights and then fast forward to 2025!
After our return trip to Vietnam in 2019, we returned to Maine. During that time, our house in Hoi A was fully rented and managed by a good friend of ours. We purchased an apartment in Portland, Maine, and Huy began to work as a server in a local restaurant. For one year everything was great until February of 2020. That’s when Covid began to impact the world. Since Asia was the epicenter of the pandemic, Vietnam was affected first, and our Airbnb business, which was fully operational and successful, began to fail. All the bookings I had for February and March of 2020 cancelled. And by April, I had none.
At this point, Covid reached the USA, and everything shut down, included Huy’s restaurant. We secluded in our apartment and only ventured out for groceries and daily walks. Year 2020 blurred into 2021 as the world adjusted to this new normal. Our house in Hoi An sat vacant and unattended. We realized it was time to sell it, but of course with nothing happening at that time, we had to wait almost to the end of 2021 before it was sold. At that point, the house had suffered the effects of being unoccupied for over a year. The walls were mildewed, the paint was peeling, the gardens overgrown. It took months to find a buyer, but eventually we did and finally sold it for slightly more than we purchased it.
Covid finally began to ease in 2021 and life slowly returned to the new normal. Huy returned to work full time at a Japanese restaurant, and I found odd jobs here and there. We took our first trip to Europe to visit family in Graz, Austria. During that trip, we made a few excursions to Berlin and Zurich, both trips to see friends. It felt wonderful to travel again, though in 2021 you still needed to wear masks the entire time in the plane.
In February 2022, we escaped the dreary winter of Maine and flew to Hawaii. I surprised my husband by upgrading one leg of our trip to first class. It was the first, and so far only time I’ve flown first class! Hawaii was as beautiful as ever and I long to live there one day.
The big event in 2022 was we got a new puppy! He was an Australian Labradoodle whom we named Rocky. Rocky was a wonderful pup, easy to train, and super sweet. Huy had never owned a dog, but since he was working, much of Rocky’s care fell to me. Owning a dog is special, but it adds a layer of complication to your life, especially when it comes to travel, so for the rest of 2022 we mostly took local trips where we could drive with Rocky. But thanks to the generosity of a close friend, she agreed to dog sit Rocky for five weeks while returned to Vietnam in January 2023.
Huy hadn’t seen his family since 2019 thanks to Covid, so it was a wonderful opportunity to return to Vietnam to celebrate TET (Lunar New Year), and reconnect with family and friends. During that trip we also visited Bangkok and Hanoi. As always it was hard to leave Vietnam, but it was good to come home and reunite with Rocky.
In March 2023, Huy finally became a US citizen. The previous December he was called to USCIS to take his citizenship test and to have his final interview. After a nerve-wracking two hours, he was told he had passed the test, so in March of 2023 he went before a judge, took his oath, and officially became a citizen! Six weeks later he had his US passport.
Another exciting event in March of 2023 was a quick trip to Nice, France for a reunion of good friends. Huy unfortunately couldn’t go given the amount of time he took off work for our trip to Vietnam, but I was fortunate enough to fly over. It was my second trip to Nice and I had forgotten how much I loved it.
After that trip life returned to normal until an unexpected offer to return to work came my way. In June, an old friend and colleague offered me a position to work at a school in Saigon. I jumped at the chance because it gave us an opportunity to return to Vietnam and it allowed me to work again after several years of not working. Within three weeks, we quickly rented our apartment, shipped over a bunch of items, and boarded a plane to Vietnam. The most difficult part of this relocation was the decision to give up Rocky. Vietnam isn’t the best country to raise a dog, and we knew life in the city, with the noise and heat, would be terrible for Rocky. Also, I couldn’t bear the thought of flying him for thirty hours inside the cargo hold of a plane. So we made the hard choice to give him up for adoption. It turned out to be the right decision because Rocky is living his best life at the moment.
We were fortunate enough to already have a place to live in Saigon. The previous year, we decided to purchase an apartment in District 6 of Saigon. It was a new building that had been under construction for several years. It is located within walking distance to Huy’s family house. When we purchased the apartment in August of 2022, it was still being built. They did not complete construction until May of 2023. It took two months to add our own finishing touches to the interior, but by the time we arrived to Vietnam in July it was complete.
The rest of 2023 was spent working at a school that was going through chaos and change. By the time December came around, I was informed that the school was planning on going in a different direction, and they no longer wanted me as principal, despite my year contract. So in January 2024, my time at the school ended, but at least I was given three months severance. Huy and I decided to take advantage of this time off and traveled to Phuket, Bangkok, Australia, Chiang Mai, Phu Quoc, and Japan. Sadly, while in Japan, my father passed away. We had known he was sick and declining, but we did not expect things to happen so rapidly.
So in March 2024 we closed up the apartment and returned to Maine, but rather than return to our apartment, which was still being rented, we moved in with my mother to help with her care. We remain here until this day, helping mom to maintain the house, and to offer companionship and security. Huy returned to being a server.
In June, I turned sixty years old and decided to celebrate my 60th in Paris, France. Huy had never been to Paris and since Paris is one of my favorite cities in Europe, I wanted to show it to him. Unfortunately, the Paris Olympics were scheduled in July and many of the more famous sites in Paris were blocked off to pedestrians, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves. Since we were in Europe we quickly popped up to Amsterdam to visit a dear friend, and then we made a trip to Austria to visit Huy’s family.
For the rest of 2024 we settled into our routine. Summer passed; fall arrived; Thanksgiving came and went, and it ended with a quiet and small Christmas celebration.
And so we’ve arrived to 2025! At the end of January, Huy’s restaurant closed to prepare for relocation, and this closure enabled us to travel back to Vietnam after being away ten months. I will write about that trip in my next blog.
In the past, this blog focused on specific events, namely travel, but in its new incarnation, the blog will focus more on life in general. I hope to discuss love, relationships, family, culture and even every day events that we all experience. I hope my loyal readers will continue to follow me along this journey as I enter the last third of my life. I don’t know where this journey will take me, but I look forward to it!