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Journey Letter #2 – From Studying Abroad to Living Abroad
Studying abroad is not just about going to a different academic environment; it is also about being exposed to different cultures and gaining life experiences that will, most likely, shape us into newer versions of ourselves. When I was considering taking the opportunity to pursue my master’s degree in the US, I had many concerns and doubts. The overthinking-me imagined…
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Journey Letter #1 – From Landscape Architecture to Conservation
Dear beloved friends and supporters, as we have followed each other over the past few years, you may have noticed a change in my career focus. You no longer see me on the construction sites checking the thickness of concrete walls; our talks about design details, materials, or architectural standards have been reduced significantly. Instead, your feeds have been flooded…
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“No one ever steps in the same river twice”
Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος), a philosopher of ancient Greece, once said: "No one ever steps in the same river twice". The first person who translated it into Vietnamese rendered it as "No one bathes twice in the same river," and the phrase remains unchanged in my language. The first time I heard this quote, I was fifteen or sixteen. My youthful…
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All over the place
A rainy evening of April; I have to admit that I am in a difficult situation with my writings. I have plenty of ideas to talk about and a ton of work to work through, but, I am doing nothing. Some days it just feels like dragging a block of granite up a hill, slowly, heavily. I started my website…
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The Transformation of the Fall
The rain is falling steadily out there by the window. The weather has grown much colder. I had just dozed off for a bit when the sound of rain and thunder woke me from my deep slumber. I dreamed of sunny days at Ho Chi Minh City campus and freezing-rainy days in Bao Loc, these two scenes altered in my…
