Doing things slowly and with more awareness enhances the experience. If you walk slowly, it is possible to be safer by being more aware of your environment. You can see the cracks in the sidewalk so you don’t trip on them. Sipping coffee slowly, your enjoyment of the experience is enhanced. It becomes possible to taste the subtler qualities and feel the effect of the caffeine more attentively. Moving slowly may help us be more aware of our surroundings and…
Topic: having my own place Thesis: looking for a place to call home A place to call home is something everybody needs. If you don’t have it, then you’re trying to find it. Here in Hanoi, you will find even the smallest spaces are filled. A gap between two buildings has a noodle auntie. A stair step has a chicken on it. Every size and shape of space is occupied. I have come here to find my own space to…
Topic: pace of life Thesis: The pace of life is fast and slow in Hanoi. Like a river is moving onward, life is moving onward. In some places life moves fast, and in other places it is slow. The pace of life is fast and slow in Hanoi. Riding on the back of the motorbike taxi is a fast feeling. There is excitement. There is action. There is the smell of exhaust from a hundred other motorbikes moving around you…
Topic: making life brighter Thesis: celebrating Tet and keeping a positive mindset can make our lives brighter. A Celebrating Tet and cultivating a positive mindset can make our lives brighter. Celebrating Tet makes our lives brighter. Tet has many traditional practices which emphasize goodwill. For example, giving lucky money to children, sharing special foods, visiting family, offering altar tributes, and wishing each other well. Gestures of goodwill like these make life brighter for ourselves and others. Tet also emphasizes practices…
I don’t want to think about __.What are you doing to prepare for your future? Tarzan is in the jungle. He can’t check his phone.Tarzan only knows the jungle. He doesn’t have a phone.Where the buildings end and the jungle begins, I got a call from Tarzan.I’m going to find Tarzan and ask him that.
How far ahead are your plans?Do you want friends, money, or time? You don’t have to always know where you’re going.There’s time to stop for tea and think. I did that for a long time.Once I see where to go, I keep going. Maybe I stop for tea again.Make way for the person who doesn’t know where to go.
I ______ together with others. I’m so lucky that ______ . Some wild animal was eating my sweet potato.Where crowded stools and coffee drinkers face the passing traffic.Something else that was sweet in a crowded place where strangers meet.Surprised and delighted at where I find my feet.
I am good at ___ . I don’t care about ___ . I should be living alone on a mountain.I should be doing work, but I’m watching cartoons on youtube.The sun will give you wrinkles. You should put on a hat.I should be watching cartoons alone on a mountain.
On my street I hear the sounds of __________. Home is where the ______ is. On my street I hear the sounds of the school grounds. This fan is blowing on my shirt, cooling my skin, keeping away the mosquitoes. This condensed milk gives my coffee the sweetness that I like, adding more to what I like. I don’t stray very far from home. I’m staying close to my likes.
The 2 friends are drifting apart because _______. I talked about _____ with my friend. These boats are drifting down the river.I abandoned my plans, and now I’m drifting.Talking to my friends — coffee, tea, pens; that’s all I’m doing.I don’t know where I’m going.