The one where Dana and I see a movie...

This post isn't remotely related to travelling abroad, but we did watch a movie where there's a city called San Fransokyo in the future. It's geographically San Francisco, but is very heavily influenced by Japan and is in fact now my new dream city. Sayonara London! You should all know by now that I'm all about East meets West. Check out Gizmodo's review of Big Hero 6's fantastic imaginary city. 

Another reason for posting about my day with Dana is that she's fashion blogger so after sushi (natch) we stopped into one of our favorite places for a quick photo shoot. She was the model and I was the photographer and I have to say that it's amazing what you can do with cell phone cameras these days. Here are the pictures! Please feel free to peruse her amazing blog afterward and no she's not paying me to say this. Or even bribing me with phở which we all know works wonders.

Happy New Year!

Dear all,

Happy New Year and its only 15 days late this time! I’m getting much better at doing things. I was reading this blog the other day because the author is gal after my own heart. I say this because my "About me" section on Instagram says "I love food. And travelling. And eating food while travelling" and Jodi Ettenberg's blog is all about her “vaguely chronological account of living and eating [her] way around the world” I think we’d be good friends. (I promise I don’t know her in real life and am not getting anything to promote her blog.) My unsolicited review of her blog is that it’s pretty awesome! For example, her post on Hue is very compelling and her style of writing draws you in by creating a mental picture of what she experienced. Maybe I can feel it more than most because I’ve actually been there and have done that, but I think it can stand the test for anyone who reads it.  

The best part of reading her blog is this photo I came across. I love it for many reasons. First, see how perfectly the golden lights of the highway are captured. Second, you can see my old apartment! They are the really tall set of buildings on the left. That view of the river and highway (in reverse) was one the best things about living there.  Third, FIREWORKS! Fireworks are one of my favorite things. I absolutely adore everything about them, including the noise, so you know I’m really serious. Learning to photograph them is one of the things I really want to learn to do. Sidenote: I attempted to photograph in snow the other day and it came out moderately well. The snow wasn’t falling hard enough to really capture. Sorry, who wants to hear about snow when you can think of the warmth of Saigon at a time like this? Fourth! How quintessentially Saigon this picture is. If you look closely you can see that the highway is filled to the brim with folks sitting on the xe om's watching the light show. I miss the feel of community in Vietnam. People just aren't as nice here. Even when they laughed at me in Vietnam I knew it wasn't always malicious. It was one of wonder "OH WOW, a tall black girl." I'm sure I've discussed the way my skin tone was perceived in Vietnam. They'd never seen someone as dark as me and I'm the lightest person in my family. It was always so weird/funny to me. 

Well. enjoy the photo and let's hope that better weather is around the corner, especially if you're in the D.C. area. 

http://www.legalnomads.com/2013/03/tet-new-year-vietnam.html