I was excited when my father told me we were going to travel to the other side of the globe, especially during the school year, but it was not under great circumstances. My great-grandmother (mom’s grandma) was spending the last few months of her life in a bed and we felt an obligation to go with my mom and support her. I felt a great sadness for mom. I have never lost someone who was close to me so I can only imagine how my mother felt during the process. At the same time, I must admit, a great curiosity came over about what will it be like to be surrounded by people who spoke my second language for two weeks.

The airplane trip really tested my patience. Some of the worst 18 hours of my life up to that point happened on the plane. First it was my butt getting sore from all the sitting, then it was me not being able to sleep, then I lost the Pokemon game for my Nintendo DS………. Quite miserable. Although it was not all bad, they did have a TV on so without it I would have never discovered “Two and a Half Men”.

Getting out of the airport in Saigon, the first thing I noticed was that I was already sweating after a minute of just standing outside. The heat and humidity was something I just was not used to.  Getting on the air-conditioned front seat of the taxi car was such a relieving moment after being melted in the outdoor oven. As I always do when I have nothing to do in the car, I look out the window and usually back in the U.S. I see a lot of cars on the highway, a few trees here and there, and tall buildings. That in of itself is relaxing for my mind as I see the world zoom by at 70 mph. We went by the Vietnamese streets 40 miles per hour at a time. For every car, there were a dozen motorcycles and for every small tree, another was towering right over it. What really caught my eye was something to my left. I saw the orange sun curling over the horizon. It’s bright light shone through an endless grassland. Perhaps it does not seem like much to other people but to me, I almost felt like I was in true Buddhistic Nirvana…….. almost.  The scene brought a smile to my 10 year old face as the “Circle of Life” triggered in the back of my head. I was very young at the time so it was my first experience of such a beautiful and natural scene. I've never experienced such a surreal state of peace. I tried my best to soak it in as much as possible. It almost saddened me that we were passing it.

Even as the trees became more visible than the grassland, I continued trying to look back at the scene and my parents were confused at what I was doing. “What are you looking at, Brian?” they asked in their native language. “Nothing” I quietly responded. Being in such awe, I had no other words to say at the time. The driver to my left was grinning and nodding ever so slightly as the exchange occurred. I guess he knew what I was looking at.