I’m thoroughly enjoying my time living in Vietnam. I love what I’m doing, the freedom I have, and the community around me. Still, I’m getting roasted on the daily.
You come across a countless array of personalities and characteristics while living in a hostel. I meet some people who’s words are as smooth as gravel. A few times, I would rather have eaten gravel than endure the pain of listening to them try to entertain an obviously unamused audience. Most of the time however, I’m meeting people that I enjoy getting to know, and am fascinated by their ways of life and stories. Not only is everyone uniquely different, but every culture and country from around the world has different forms of bonding, humor, insults, cursing, and so on. Often times, the joke someone said about you that you want to vent in your journal about later, is actually a sign of friendship, or a form of endearment.
A few people roast me harder than the abs of Cristiano Renaldo. Sometimes I live for it, and sometimes I live for the moment they stop talking. It doesn’t help that I’m rooming with a guy as ruthless as Loki, the trickster God. Though if you ask me, he’s more like a devil. (I’m mildly joking, Brady)
What I have found interesting is my responses. With some people, I fire back words faster than a pro frat boy shotgunning a beer. I’m witty, funny, and always ready to come back with more. With others, it’s as though my ability to form any structured sentence vanishes into an abyss. Maybe my responses from person to person varies because every relationship or group has a different dynamic. Or, perhaps it’s my level of comfortability, although I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been uncomfortable per se.
Regardless, it’s all fucking hilarious. If you can’t laugh at yourself, how the hell you gunna laugh about something else? That last sentence was suppose to be an imitation of Rupauls “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gunna love somebody else.” but if you didn’t know that, my reference may have gotten lost in translation.
Anyways, it’s all in good fun. I think it’s important to toughen up your skin while lifting up your spirit. That’s regardless of whether I’m able to come back with a vengeance, or stand there like the criminals in Scooby Doo once they’ve been caught. It could look like they’re out to get me, or I could see they’re taking a piss and it’s funny af. I choose the latter, and will continue to thoroughly enjoy my time in Vietnam.
Brooke Lyn Landon 