my guide to america
the first blog was written on the 11th day that I'm in america, the saturday of orientation week. I've been through a ton of culture shock, sobbing for home almost every day, excited yet scared about classes, making friends and all that stuff. freshman year is cute, but no I wouldn't do it for the second time. I'm glad that it is over. it's crazy to believe that just 300 days ago I knew NONE of this shit. so there we go lad, hop on and enjoy the ride, the rises and pitfalls.
updated 30 nov 2024 to add state checklist
✅ PA, DC, VA, NY, NJ, AZ, CA, FL, TX, MA
chapter 0. american airports cute and horror stories + airport speed records
you should go to the us by boat as colombus did. it's safer that way.
— my roommate
tl;dr they suck. be prepared.
H = horror and C = cute
1 H lost luggage #1 (SGN → NRT → EWR → PHL)
on 22nd august 2023, we got to the airport at around 4am to make our 7am flight to the us. we stopped narita airport, japan, then got on the connecting flight to go to newark liberty international airport in new jersey (I keep thinking it was in new york until a few months ago). we got there around 5am 29th august (vietnam is 12 hours before the us, so the whole thing took us 34 hours, with ~20 hours on the plane.
my impressions of newark airport was (1) its IATA code was EWR, which reminds me of edward in twilight, (2) their customs line was super long (10 or something), a person did collapse half way through and airport staff had to escort them, and (3) it was a very confusing airport to navigate overall, but not as bad as jfk as my mom and friends vented.
because of the short overlay time and the confusing design, we did try to search for our luggage but couldn't find it to reroute it to philly. we only learned that we lost track of our luggage when we got to philadelphia. we filed a luggage claim and they found it a few days later. I've never been more grateful of god. airplane food got very progressively worse, and during my first few days in philly we stayed at a pagoda, eating mostly vegan food. my body collapsed and my first few days were not very fun.
2 H, C missed connecting flight due to medical emergency but south korean airport handled very well (PHL → DFW → INC → SGN)
when I came home for winter break, I had overlays in dallas, texas and south korea. the trip was smooth sailing and the dallas airport was remarkably easier to navigate compared to edward my love. half way through the flight to korea, flight attendants started asking if anyone was a trained health professional (like nurses or doctors) as they had an "emergency." half an hour later, I saw one elderly person with a tube coming out of their hand connecting to a small plastic bag with some yellow fluid in it. I think it was coming out of the body, not the other way around. a few moments later we were announced that the crew had made an emergency decision to land in seattle, washington so that the person and their family could get them to the closest hospital. it was a really human thing to do, but not really fun if you're having a connecting flight like me.
after 3 hours of being static in the airport so that they can get fuel in, the crew told us that we're not going to move to another plane or change crew members or anything, and the whole cabin was like YEAH HOORAY. as soon as I gott wifi, I checked the latest flight to hcmc that day and it was around 8pm or something. we got there when the plane already left. as soon as I got to the korean airport, korean staff looked for me and gave me an envelope with my flight ticket for the next day, guided me through security, helped me find my luggage, and took me back to the hotel. it was a nice stay, I got to shower and rearrange my luggage. I asked my friend that was studying abroad there if she could come visit but she was busy arranging here luggage rip. I did meet a couple of vietnamese people there that'd studied in the us. we had breakfast together and it was nice. I got home one day late but came back pretty recharged.
3 H lost luggage #2 + homesick + seasonal depression (SGN → INC → DFW → PHL)
this is me coming back to the us from winter break. it's the same route as when I came home but in reverse direction. from my home airport, they printed me 2 out of 3 tickets and reminded me to retrieve my luggage at dallas and print the 3rd ticket. this time around, I was still very bad at navigating airports. I found my luggage but forgot to print the ticket and tag it, so I ended up just lining it together with other luggage without the final tag to philly. I didn't realize something was wrong until I was half way through the line in security and saw that everyone had a plane ticket. I came down to print the ticket and realized that I should have tagged my luggage. I begged the staff to retrieve my luggage so that I can tag them but they said no (which makes sense as dallas is the 2nd biggest airport in the us both by size and traffic) and told me that I could get to philly and file the baggage claim from there, which I did.
after getting to philly and had a chilly ride back to my dorm (a snowstorm happened that day), I waited hopelessly for my luggage. after the 5-day mark it's usually quite hopeless that your luggage is lost forever and the best you can do is to state all the belongings' worth and the airline would pay you back. I tried calling them in vain as there was no specific telephone number for american there. I checked my baggage claim status online 69 times a day. however, on the 5th day, they did call me and I septaed all the way there and back. I reunited with it at last. it was the same big black suitcase that went missing last time round. friends that's how you got to eat the mango.
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| american airline trying to pick a time and gate to get to philly |
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| the view you get when you take a septa to the airport |
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| united at last |
4 C the start of domestic us speed record (PHL → PHX → TUS)
time taken since the moment I get from the airport gate to the flying gate: 25 minutes.
and there were NO DELAYS at all during the trip. now, this may sound like boring news, but you will understand why it is such great blessings after you've read the horror stories down there.
no jokes I swear I was on a traveler's streak at the time. I have never moved through an airport that fast, especially for a big airport like philly. this happened for many reasons: (1) I was travelling domestically, so I only needed to get there 2 instead of 3 hours before the flight, (2) I did not bring a checked bag or (3) a human being with me. there's an african saying that goes "if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together". I guess I get it now. the plane to tucson is a tiny one, but I was flying at sunset and everything looks super pretty. I never realized the earth was so sexy until that time when I fly to arizona and got the window seat.
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| I really like looking at the ground staff walk. the plane walks together with them. it's like they're helping the plane breathe before it enters a difficult labor (which it actually is). it is a beautiful moment. sometimes they even wave back ;) most ground staff are men but here we've got women. a remark left by a fellow passenger "yes women, you've gotta make your own money!" it may be a small step to take off, but also a step towards gender equality. |
5 H, C the start of us domestic speed record continues + tsa souvenir + harry potter and the cursed la airport ground transportation (TUS → LAX)
time taken since the moment I get from the airport gate to the flying gate: 18 minutes.
same down here, I was travelling domestically, I did not bring a checked bag, I was traveling solo. and this time another plus is tucson is a small airport. probably the most wholesome airport that I've been to in the us. the tsa here were very chill and there was no rush at all. people stood neatly in their lines. a passenger was late and asked me if she could stand in front of me. everyone made way for her and she moved through security even before me (that means tsa is very fast).
this would make it the smoothest travelling experience until I go through security. instead of a clear I saw a diagram of me with the red mark marked right on that area. they asked me if I was travelling alone, how old I was, and if I wanted a private place to check that area. I was fine with doing it there, so they moved their hands through my thighs and then that area. there was nothing. I was just wearing tight pants, that's all.
someone in military was sitting in front of me. he was very kind to help me get the luggage down. if you're out there sammons, thank you very much.
when I got to los, I waited for 5 hours (6.30pm to 11.30pm) for my mom and sibling to get here from taipei and move through customs (same story 10 lines and also took 2 hours or so). we thought we were done, but our nightmare only begins here. unlike philly airport, you can't use ride app just anywhere. I could not uber or lyft. I tried walking to the exact location on map but they did not let me. turns out you have to use the lax-it shuttle to get to a zone dedicated to ride apps. we finally got to our hotel at 1am. then hotel told us they could not find our reservation so we only got to our room around 2am.
6 H overnight at the airport experience + lost luggage #3 (IAH → DFW → PHL)
we got to the airport around 2pm, then
flight 1 (IAH → DFW) 4.29 → 5.30 → 6.10 → 6.30 → 7 → 8.30 → did not take off until 9.51 (delayed for 5 hours, and if you could drive to dallas it would've been even faster, 3 hours 30 minutes at most)
flight 2 (DFW → PHL) 7.14 → 7.39 → 8.02 → 9.32 → 10.26 → 11 → 11.20 → </3 cancelled </3 → aa rebooked 5pm flight
the reason for the delay is unclear, but could've been due to the weather of the arriving destination. it's not just us that were suffering, 1000+ flights were delayed and cancelled on that day too. this means that all the hotels around the airport, including the one to the south were fully booked. we took time to reroute our checked bags with super long lines and only 1 assistant working. before that, aa only handed us a card that says go to the website or call us. when I call them, it was automated message telling me to go to the website.
we were past midnight, and this means that you can only book the hotel for the next night. that moment I understood why people were booking hotels as soon as we landed. after the 12am mark you're helpless. when I called the hotels, it's either automated responses "we booked out 30 mintues ago". we even ubered there physically but they're all booked out. hotels have limits on how early you can get your room and charges if you enter your room early. it really sucked because we already had hotels booked in philly, but we were not physically there. fights happened and we slept overnight at the airport.
when we got to philly, the luggage arrived before us and we had to search for it in another terminal. we did find it btw.
chapter 1. pennsylvania
you should learn to love / know philly like that.
— uncle law
that = dalat, a place that I've been there 3 times with friends and 2 with family
pennsylvania is 14,357 km away from ho chi minh city (saigon), and it usually takes 3 flights to get here. if you fly through east asia, you will have overlays in japan, south korea, or taiwan and an us airport. if you fly through middle east, your overlays will be in doha, world top 1 airport and an us airport. I don't exactly remember how I ended up with pennsylvania, but at the time I just knew one thing that I did not like california (fellow californians, let me explain), so I tried my very best staying away from the west coast. many reasons why I didn't want to go to california were (1) I didn't want to mess with mom and dad's friends or relatives, (2) skyhigh cost of living, (3) most uc public schools when I find its scholarship website directed me straight to work-study program, (4) why do you go to the us but find somewhere with the same climate as saigon? I wanted to see snow (I regret it now). despite all this, I did have a stanford phase though.
I ended up with bryn mawr first, then everything else followed suit. I liked pennsylvania as an idea. I like historical cities (pennsylvania is the 2nd oldest state after delaware). I like forests, and pennsylvania is basically one big forest, penn's wood. philadelphia? city of brotherly love. bryn mawr? big hill in welsh and also one giant sorority packed with sisterly love. so many of my blogs were somehow dedicated to pennsylvania and what it has to offer. to name a few, my school tour blog, philly guide 1 and 2, parts of spring break diaries, and some art projects. I might never be able to tell you everything about pennsylvania so please consult the blogs above. I might even do a neighborhood exploration blog as I did for my city in kinderszenen.
lots of people asked me why bryn mawr and pennsylvania, short answer is I like bmc alums, long answer is that it coincided with the music albums I was listening to at the time (taylor's folklore and evermore, yann tiersen's eusa) that created some visions that resonated with this place. I ed1ed them, they accepted and gave me scholarships, and the rest is history.
I've been out and about around philly almost all weekends in the spring semester thanks to septa, but I think I learned the most about pennsylvania when learning how to drive. we drove around bala cynwyd, to the japanese garden of shofuso, bethlehem with a great backdrop of philly, and also around gladwyne where I entered the highway for the first time. one time when I was hanging out with my prof, we passed gladwyne and she told me that a colleague told her gladwyne is "pennsylvania's beverly hills." when learning how to drive with fáith, we did not have an itinerary in mind, and we ended up going around the mansions and manors area quite a lot. I found one that I really like, but couldn't remember the name.
it did take some work for me to like pennsylvania from as an idea to as a reality, to make it a place I can call home. it's like a state with d.c. history and nyc culture without the price tag. after visiting all places, I think I still like it here. pennsylvania is also home to andy warhol, taylor swift, will smith (ouch), punxsutawney phil from punxsutawney (shoutout to austin kleon for showing me this legend), and many many people that I love that were born here or lived significant parts of their lives here.
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| I know that driving sucks but look! flowers! — fáith |
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| philly overlooking from bethlehem |
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| wonderment, it's a beautiful thing |
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| I admit I owe bryn mawr a fall photo collection |
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| "and the old widow goes to the stone every day but I don't, I just sit here and wait grieving for the living" |
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| if you think about it, fall is not an action you can control that's why one fall in love |
chapter 2. washington d.c.
geo fact: washinton d.c. is not a state, it is a district. try to think about it as the little gift card that comes with the 50 states package.
my dad's friend and a person she knew drove us here from pennsylvania (we drove past maryland). we saw the washington monument and capitol hill from afar. we've mostly been outside in d.c. although the place has a bunch of smithsonian musems too, as uncle that told me. I don't know how many photos I took with my camera, what I have here are the photos that I've extracted before my sd card was corrupted during winter break.
a signature from d.c. is that everything is in serif. I've never seen a city with more serif. it drives me nuts as a designer. I miss my sans serif babies.
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| I didn't take this photo but the effect is kinda cool |
chapter 3. virginia
ok we already have all our airport horror stories up there, now let's get the amtrak version. it's actually not too bad and a lot of cute things came out of it. for thanksgiving break, I was asked if I wanted to come to my aunt's place for thanksgiving and I said yes. she bought me the tickets to the union station in washington d.c. I knew exactly what to do and how to make a good impression: be ready to catch that septa to the amtrak station and go to d.c., try my best not to fuck up, and take good care of myself.
that morning, she sent me an extra ticket that takes me from d.c. to virginia, which was closer to her home. did I see it? yes. did it register to my brain? no. what my brain thought was this: this surprisingly cheap ticket is going to take me DIRECTLY from philly to virginia. was that the case? definitely not.
what happened? I remembered the time of the new ticket and tried my best to finish my esem essay in time. I was adding finishing touches to that essay when my aunt texted me to ask me if I was ok because my train was delayed for an hour. what train? I replied. are you on the train yet? no, I had some terrible misunderstanding. I was very anxious, but my aunt guided me through the steps and let me solve the problems like an adult. I had to buy another set of tickets and ubered there.
I also missed the train for the tickets that I later bought, but the station gave me a new set of tickets. when I was in the line, I saw a familiar person queuing in front of me. it turned out that she was from the same chem lab as me, and I asked if I could sit next to her on the trip. we ended up talking about many things on that amtrak, what we were reading, our childhood, culture shocks in the us. upon further talking, she sowed within me an idea of asking someone for a school tradition, and I ended up with the best experience ever later on. when I told people this story, we both agreed that I was never meant to get onto that train.
when I got to the station, I bade my friend farewell and saw that my aunt was standing there ready to fetch me. she asked if I've eaten. I thought this was just an asian rhetorical question and that she would make me eat anyway. but no it was an actual question that I said no to cause I already caused so much trouble. that experience gave me a lesson about her german directness. during my stay at her home, I partly overcame my fear for dogs, met new people, enjoyed good food and chilled out. this family gathering experience was new to me, as this is the first time that I was treated as an adult. I'm so thankful for that. I miss the nights where we would talk and rant about people before going to bed lol. that talk did help me unravel some misunderstanding that I had about people due to the different versions of the story that my mom told me. I befriended more people after that.
we went shopping with her mom and her older brother, and that's when it hits me that every family's got shit, as she told me. if we were in vietnam they would try to cover up, but here they don't even try to so I lowkey love that. little fights happen, but in a healthy way.
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| unhinged thanksgiving packing. mom told me to buy her some gifts but honesly I did not know what to get. I ended up getting turkey hats for people and some m&m. |
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| at the time, I was still kinda shocked to see the flag of republic of vietnam in the wild |
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| it's hard look at the sky and not fall in love with nature |
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| lil jumpscare to see if you're still paying attention. I look like a nun in this photo. |
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| not her car tho but still kinda cool |
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| the ornaments that she had for christmas. she set up the christmas tree as thanksgiving comes to an end. |
chapter 4. new york
also during thanksgiving, my uncle drove his parents up to steuben, new york (near corning) to visit a person that used to live close to them in the past. as we were starting from virginia, we ended up driving past maryland and pennsylvania. the further you go into new york wilderness and the more night falls, the more pristine it becomes. there was some sorts of holiness revolving around this area thanks to nature and the noble silence. this is also when I'm starting to understand the beauty of american road trips.
it turns out that his friend was a physicist, and we had a great time talking about his book and his retirement plans. I admit that I'm kinda jealous of people getting so close to the finishing line. the prospect of "move to florida, grow a garden, raise some fish" got me. then, I start thinking about what grand time it is to be an adult with rising rent costs and other things. but to be fair, I think every generation has their own challenges. these are the people that lived through political chaos, the dot com boom, the 2007-2008 financial crisis, and covid under trump's rule. we'll just have to maneuver through it one way or another.
it's only until spring break that I finally had the real nyc experience. I failed my driving test right before going on the trip, so I wasn't off to a great start. still, I gradually lightened up making paper stars. a lady joined me, I taught her how to fold paper stars, and we talked about many things. she told me that it was a brave thing to move overseas at this age and start over. she was a sweet soul and I enjoyed talking about history with her.
as soon as I'm in new york, I had the subway experience and visited moma and the met. after 2 nights staying with my friend, I went to another friend's home and went back to philly through megabus. I remember staying up until 2am and catching up on life, dreams, and recollecting memories. I think the beauty of nyc comes from being young, dumb, and broke, but you have a dream, and that's what matters.
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| nyc is where I finished reading plato's republic and working on the paper lol. I miss nyc with a strong sense of oligarchy timocracy aristocracy whatever was going on book VIII. |
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| her dad makes excellent phở that took away my burning homesickness |
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| andy warhol, king of pop art |
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| dance by matisse, this photo inspired me to write the rite of spring |
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| I've had so many sketches of this. end of 2021 and start of 2022, I watched loving vincent and read vincent and theo, a collection of their correspondence with annotations in prose form. |
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| picasso's sleeping beauty |
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| I first saw this in my vietnamese art textbook in 7th grade. my past self would never have thought I'd be able to see these paintings in real life. |
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| my favorite thing about this part of the met is the invisible streams that permeate the place. the living and the dead. the mortal and the immortal. the moving and the static. the now and the then. it's an intersection of everything. |
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| I have a theory: nothing bad can happen in an art museum. I don't think anyone can be a bad person, at least in that moment, when surrounded by love and beauty. |
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| I also saw this in a textbook, or in a wikipedia page when I was researching about african tribes. never thought I would see it in real life, but here we are. |
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| how they brought entire rooms from europe to here remains a mystery to me, especially the walls |
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| palme d'or |
chapter 5. new jersey
I've been to new jersey 3 times, and all those times I either (1) had no idea I was going to new jersey or (2) thought new jersey was a subdivision of a larger state. I landed in newark when I first came to the us, which I always thought was in new york until much later on. the second time, I went indoors skiing with my friends (I admit that I suck at this). the third time, my prof told me we would visit a farm for their tulip festival. she sent me a link with info but I didn't look at it. it's only until we're on a bridge and she said we were going to new jersey. I thought she was joking. when I opened google maps, it was actually new jersey.
new jersey is often made fun as the farm state, but as a garden person I can't love this place less. the only thing that I hate about new jersey is probably newark airport. not cute. however, world cup 2026 is going to be held here, and many people will enjoy the fun experience of navigating it. I wish them best of luck.
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| I thank the ski club for sponsoring this |
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| taken by my prof's son |
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| this house reminds me of the house in atonement. at the end of the movie, there were flashing moments of happiness, an alternative reality where cecilia and robbie walked into a house by the seashore together. the cliff was known as the seven sisters cliff. this is a strange coincidence as seven sisters is also a phrase refering to the 7 women's colleges (like ivy league), in which my school is a part of. |
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| "I think we are experiencing what your class was about" (quoted from memory, not verbatim) the class I took was on happiness |
chapter 6. arizona
a substitute teacher I once had in high school was from arizona. it was still college application season, so we talked about my plans for universities and the many challenges I have when my parents wanted me to apply to schools in california. she gave me assurance and told me that: "people keep telling me that life in college is worse [than high school], but in fact it's so much better!" and in fact, she was right. memory is not a coherent and neatly organized place, and sometimes it's the most random, ordinary, mundane even, memories that we remember, like that conversation I had on a perfectly normal and forgettable day.
somehow, she personified arizona for me. every arizonan that I've met carried the same vibe as her, that friendly and warm feeling, like their state. I was fortunate to have relatives here, also the very same people that I met during thanksgiving. when I got to tucson from phoenix and philadelphia, my uncle picked me up at night, gave me a tour to the national park the next day before leaving back for work in the same day. I stayed indoors most of the time in arizona, but that's also how I got so much writing done. arizona is where I added finishing touches to my philosophy paper, finished writing the rite of spring and les bouteilles blog, and started the girl in red blog which I finished in los angeles airport.
during the day, when nobody is at home, I spent most of my time indoors, in my room and in the garden. I took time to eat food and look at things. going to my aunt and uncles' childhood home helps me understand how they grew into adulthood. I understood their childhood by looking around the house and talking to their mom. with her hands, everything looks so marvelous, the garden in front and in the back, even the bathroom and my room.
in the afternoon, around 4pm or so, they came back, and we would make dinner together. I used to find it hard to visualize life in the us, but I think across cultures, waiting for someone to come home is still very much staple of a family.
a thing that keeps popping up in arizonan airports and souvenir shops is cactus candy. even vladimir nabokov mentioned it in lolita.
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| welcome to the desert, the dream of every wes anderson enthusiast. we would blast the soundtrack of asteroid city as we drive. |
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| route du néant. mène au néant. |
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| - you could be an outdoorsy lesbian - in the making? - in the making |
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| sometimes I feel like ditching chemistry forever to pursue a geo major |
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| "you're struggling against a very non-existent trouble" "you're climbing a non-existent mountain" or something like that. can't quote verbatim. |
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| nothing says summer like cactus stings |
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| we thank lems for this scalding hot photo |
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| gum for aesthetic purposes only. I tried chewing it and spit it out almost asap (expired). |
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| - I've never seen snapdragons this big! - the owner of this home loves gardening - yeah, must be! they're usually half this height |
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| and bougainvillea, bougainvillea, bougainvillea |
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| lil easter egg: the background of this playlist is a scene from the scent of green papaya by trần anh hùng |
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| the last supper before leaving arizona |
chapter 7. california
after one difficult night in los angeles, we ventured around the area. we visited griffifth observatory and universal studio (just the outside part, day passes are expensive). the road to griffith obesrvatory reminds me of the trails in central vietnam that I went to last summer. on top of the hill, you can see hollywood. I don't know if there's a better vantage point, but it's a good enough spot to get a photo without getting too crowded.
after a day in los angeles, we went to orange county so that my mom could see her friend. we visited her home and spent the night in orange county. the morning later, we went to the beach and visited a state park. after that, we went back to her home to chillax a bit before catching another flight to florida.
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| bismuth-209's half-life is 1.9 × 10^19 years, longer than the age of the universe (1.4 × 10^9 years). still, it's not the element with the longest half-life: tellurium-128 tops the list with 2.2 x 10^24 years, 160 trillion the age of the universe. |
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| I've been to a bunch of vietnamese restaurants in the us but this place nails the phở and cà phê test. most place serves you something that's a vague resemblance to the phở we have in vietnam. a restaurant owner once explained to us that the dilute version sells better to the taste buds of others, so they had to trade off some of its authenticity. |
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| 1 photo, 2 besties, 30 years of friendship. they knew each other from high school. my mom is always the older one as she stayed at home for a few years when she was sick in childhood. |
chapter 8. florida
often joked about as the retirement state. I find it lowkey strange that florida is the sunshine state, as the name reminds me more of california rather than florida. similar to the first time we went to pennsylvania, we stayed near a pagoda. but this time, it's not inside the pagoda, but at an airbnb opposite to the pagoda. the nun here was my dad's friend from childhood, also the one that accompanied us to d.c.
she has a pretty pagoda with lil cute spots for sitting and drinking tea. I never get tired of taking photos of them. she took us around the area to parks, where we would feed the birds and hang out with people that were doing the same thing. after that, the places that we went to were mostly watery - swamps, beaches, springs. it felt like western vietnam to me: the heat, the water, and the biodiversity with nature engulfing the places around us.
we spent a few hours doing nothing but laying in the open sea. it reminds me of my childhood, which I often associated with the golden color of the setting sun on the horizon of the sea, or from a faraway lighthouse. I look at people's behaviours on the kid. children run, adults walk, and the elderly sit. I wonder what each of them see. do they see the present for what it is? do they see their past selves, their ups and downs of life. it's the game of guessing that kept me reeling.
and I thought about my parents. how many happy days did they have? after me and before me? and how many happy days did I give them? it was a bittersweet experience posing these questions.
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| left calligraphy: I have arrived right calligraphy: rest in peace |
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| the covid plant |
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| voyez ces oiseaux blancs et ces maisons rouillées |
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| they lived and laughed and loved and left (j.j.) |
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| what do we see when we sit in front of the sea at this age? it's a question that left me reeling |
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| as the tide washed in, the dutch tulip man faced the ocean: “conjoiner rejoinder poisoner concealer revelator. look at it, rising up and rising down, taking everything with it.” “what’s that?” I asked. “water,” the dutchman said. “well, and time.” — peter van houten, an imperial affliction |
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| in search of lost time, marcel proust |
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| bitch stop taking photos of me and fucking SAIL |
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| behind every photographer sister is an exhausted piece of sibling |
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| a case on the impermanence of life: my sister lost her bag and glasses soon after that luckily we didn't put her passport in there cause otherwise we would have had heart attacks |
chapter 9. texas
often joked about as mars (guess elon musk can die here) by austin kleon, who also lives in austin, texas. I admit that I don't really like texas at first due to the trauma that dallas airport gave me and how carcentric it is because it's a desert. however, I think I grow to love this place after watching wes anderson movies. the similarity between wes and trần anh hùng is that no matter what movies they make, they have a very strong signature in their movies, a disinctive handwriting that you can tell apart from the generic arial of the movie industry. and a part of that signature is their love for their hometown. vietnam for trần anh hùng, texas for wes anderson. what you love becomes a part of you and permeates into everything you do.
similar to the last few times, we also stayed in a pagoda. I think we really took couchsurfing to the very next level. we came here with the nun who's my dad childhood friend. the pagoda leader here is gone for a few days and needed someone to take care of it, so we jumped right in. we visited museum of natural sciences, the japanese garden nearby, and the holocaust museum (free to students, also free on thursdays from 2pm to 5pm). too bad we didn't get to see the space center and the cockrell butterfly center in the museum of natural sciences.
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| we all know whose cinematography I'm dissecting up next |
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| fabergé, king of little intricate things |
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| anastasia romanov died together with the family during the murder of the romanov family by the bolshevik revolutionaries. yet at the time people believed that she survived due to the unknown site of her burial. anastasia also means "resurrection", or that she will rise again. adapted into a movie in 1997, anastasia and tiana remains my favorite princesses till this date. |
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| i love erlenmeyer flasks. so transparent, gentle and shakable. can you find a partner like that these days? |
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| another foucault pendulum. I first met these babies in high school while thinking of ideas for my math internal assessment (like research paper). then I stumbled upon these. if you have the daily precession of a foucault pendulumn, you can find out your latitude as 𝜔 =360sin(𝜙)/𝑑𝑎𝑦. sad thing is they have 0 foucault pendulumn in vietnam. I thought of (1) setting one up myself but ditched the idea because it needs to be very tall to be accurate or (2) asking a friend who travelled to parthenon but it was too labor-intensive (you need to sit with the pendulum for a solid day). I did the IA on modelling the eiffel tower eventually, but foucault pendulums still hold a special place in my heart. it's a beautiful waltz between maths and physics. I've seen them in the franklin institute in philly, the griffith observatory in los angeles, and this one in houston museum of natural sciences. |
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| the lab you got vs the lab you want: |
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| give me this and I will never skip a day of gen chem or orgo or pchem however hard it gets |
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| bro my eyes |
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| cleopatra, jagadish chandra bose, antoine van leeuwenhoek, paracelsus |
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| no one hears you if you scream in space. there's no air for sound waves to travel through. it is a vacumn. a void of existence. |
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| I love me a liminal space station |
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| would get paid to sit on that chair |
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| I want to take you home |
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| mon très cher monsieur grenouille |
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| mold deluxe edition |
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| there was also a small exhibit focused on the overlooked history of african americans going on when we visited. it offered me interesting perspectives to look at the past. |
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| the hall of remembrance |
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| the soil from these six concentration and extermination camps contains the ashes of those who perished in the holocaust |
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| it's a prime time to reread anne frank's diaries. I'm still pissed that she was buried instead of being cremated as she wished. |
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| "nazi germany and its allies established over 44000 concentration camps and incarceration sites during the holocaust" |
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| there's a map of concentration camps in europe. from memory, they're mostly concentrated in poland. these concentration camps ca |
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| I didn't take a photo of the description, but from my memory it's a handbook for primary children with lots of antisemitic sentiments in it |
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| "history does not repeat itself but it rhymes" |
chapter 10. massachusetts
we didn't really plan to visit boston. we just had a 12 hour overlay in boston until our flight back home so we went out to kill time. our search was one mysterious can of milk called entrust, which is just sugar-free ensure milk to fetch back for some realtives. I was tired but mom insisted that we go. so we ended up going to lots of asian markets to search for it. we had lunch in little saigon in boston and observed some spicy fighting scene right in front of the restaurant (the restaurant was not involved in this, some random strangers just happened to be fighting right there). once we found the milk we just go to harvard and look at it from the outside as it's been sealed off since students' strikes.
it might be the fights that happened during my visit or something else, but for now, I don't really like boston. it feels very white and pretentious to me. at least its airport is nice though, the tsa machines here looks like giant bowling pins.
as I've already packed my camera, the remnants of boston were taken with my phone.
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| probably the most heated bowl of phở I've ever eaten. phở restaurant with an action movie scene. |
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| the serifs really make it feel like dc 2.0. but it's red instead of white buildings |
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| verit(r)as(h) |
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| as I later found out in ntpmm live music festival, low g did buy some harvard merch on his trip to the us for his on-stage giveaway in saigon. |
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| bye norway! |
epilogue + travel tips
I don't know if I'd be able to visit the remaining 41 states during my time in college, but I'd love to. apparently, the best way to travel in the us is still by road, even nabokov endorsed this idea in lolita. being carcentric means that you can't really go anywhere without a car, but it also means you can go literally everywhere with a car. I got my driving license last semester, and while I'm not confident about my driving skill right now, a road trip is still a fun thing that I look forward to do some time in college. I'd do more hiking and camping and less recreational places. I can then proudly name that blog the great american road trip as I intended for this blog, but didn't have the guts to.
until then, here are some travel tips that I've learned during my first year in the us. things that I'd say to my younger self.
- pack light. try not to use the second big suitcase unless you really have to. you'll move through airports at the speed of light. it'd help you save money and conserve your emotional battery also.
- don't pack too much food from home. instead, look for local stores that sell similar things. you thought you need lots of it at the time, but (1) you won't have time to cook and (2) most food you want are available here also.
- don't bring hobbies supplies, you'll ditch it anyways
- airports are unpredictable. if you smell a delay that can lead to an overnight stay, book a hotel asap. if the cancellation didn't happen, you can still ask them for a refund.
- things you can do on an airplane: sleep, watch movies, read on a screen.
- you may need sleeping pills. I haven't tried but others said it helped.
- make a list of movie you want to watch in advance and check its availability on the airlines you're flying with.
- reading physical books are impossible for long flights as lights are turned off against your will and you don't want to disturb fellow passengers. instead download the pdf version on your phone so that you can read it. you can download articles that you've long wanted to read but haven't found the time.
- but most of all, just don't try to do everything. best thing you can do is rest before dealing with 10 lines immigration. put on face masks, brush your teeth, go on lil walks to brush off the fatigue. get an aisle seat; you can lower your armholder and turn 90 degrees so that the person can go out.
- free things exist! several places are free on a certain day or time of the week. visit their websites as you plan your trip.
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