one thing i love is that my parents met later in life and ended up having the same birthday as each other, just three years apart. we went to this ‘kbbq’ place where you cooked the meat on a grill, but it had foil and you cooked the meat in butter/margarine, so i’m not fully able to call it ‘kbbq’. also drank down two bottles of peach soju with various friends of my parents.

shoutout to @maeuploadshq for posting the entire show in parts on tiktok. it’s quirky and definitely interesting right off the bat with the first episode.

📍 NGHỆ - The Local Studio 57 Le Thi Rieng Ben Thanh District 1 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam small place, but i honestly didn’t expect how cute these photos turned out to be. lowkey loving their beauty filter effect, just need a different outfit. i walked in to see girls wearing their ao dais and i can’t wait for mine to come in so i could wear it. there’s also a gif and video that comes with your photobooth shoot when you scan the qr code they give you.

so glad to announce that i did, indeed, land tickets to her concert and especially after she won BEST NEW ARTIST !! at the grammys 🤩🤩girlie had stevie wonder singing along word for word at the after party and you can’t deny the talent she has. this album was everything to me in november and every time i hear a song from this album, im taken back to a simpler time when i literally watched HTHAZE review her album on youtube over and over again. now that she’s a grammy-winning artist, im extra extra happy that ill get to experience her talent live 🥳

listened to niki do an acoustic version of this song on tiktok and it had me hooked. i lowkey (hehe) miss my niki and 88rising phase, but it hasn’t been the same and im not the same anymore. i feel lucky to have seen her perform at head in the clouds and at her houston show one year. weee 🥰

outfit fully thrifted 😝😝 met with some more doctors and they said surgery is gonna be the best option for me since my disc herniations have gotten too bad and that’s why i’m in as much pain as i’m in - sciatica down both legs and i’m unable to walk long distances and stand for even a minute. so happy to hear from yet another doctor that i have to lose weight, like i haven’t been trying for the past 20 years and, mind you, im 24. dr recommended that we cut the trip a little short and leave after tet 🥲. since it would be better to get the surgery done back home with my usual doctor, i’ll just be getting a shot for my pain that isn’t a steroid shot, but still for the pain. UPDATE: my brother in christ, that shit was some kind of pain that i wouldn’t wish on anyone. i swear they took that needle and played with the literal discs and i could feel that shit since i wasn’t under anesthesia. i was crying and lowkey screaming into the damn yellow blanket they had for me. i feel better, but they did say it’s a slow acting medicine so we shall see how things go.

my sleep has been so out of wack these days because i’ll get shit sleep one night and then knock out good the next night from exhaustion HEHE. had to wake up at 5:30 am yesterday for a long morning at the hospital for checkups and everything. what’s worse is i didn’t sleep at all that night and my apple watch literally calculated about 2 hours of me actually sleeping, but it wasn’t a full two hours either. i do be napping during the day since that’s the culture around here and the sun being out is such a deterrent until it starts to cool down around five pm. i’ve been homesick fr and it’s only been 3 weeks 🥲

chicken fried steak with white gravy mashed potatoes with white gravy MMMMM

📍 mustard the indian bistro 76/1 Hai Ba Trung Ben Nghe District 1 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam around the corner from parkson tourist plaza where muji is, i found an indian place within comfortable walking distance for me that also had a stacked menu of all kinds of indian dishes. they had pani puri and biryani, various types of naan and paratha, even dessert, but i ended up being too full. personally, i love coconut and coconut curry is my favorite kind of curry. however, when i ordered this one, i definitely wasn’t expecting shredded coconut to be in the curry, just coconut milk like how it is in thai restaurants and viet dishes. it was still delicious nonetheless, but id be lying if i said it didn’t throw me and my meal off. i made sure to eat all the chicken since i wasn’t planning on bringing it home, just the rice and naan since those ended up having a lot leftover at the end of my meal. my mango lassi was a bit light on the color and flavor, but i don’t blame them since it’s not mango season. i yearn to take better food pictures and videos, but until then, this is what you get.

📍305 Ly Tu Trong, 5th floor Ben Thanh District 1 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam i totally did not end up in power yoga, aka the hardest yoga class, for my FIRST EVER yoga session after signing up for therapy yoga online. did i enjoy it? well, yes. do i have another session booked already? well, yes. HOWEVER, this time will be for healthy spine yoga because DAMN that shit was lowkey intense. i was able to do a lot/almost most of it and you’re damn sure i had sweat on all parts of my body. the poor mats and towels are filled with my humid dna. i got the instructors instagram and i hope to join her again. the way everyone who worked in this place was surprised i spoke fluent viet with how i look and i honestly like proving how good i am.

with 12 damn tabs opened between the six of us, a chicago vpn being used, and waiting on the website for an hour beforehand, somehow none of us got tickets.

smaller city than ho chi minh and even phan thiet; you can’t even order food on grab here. however, compared to the city, it feels much nicer here since we’re literally right on the beach and i can walk from my hotel to the sand. i thought phan thiet was small until i got here and there’s not many buildings that go past even having a third floor. in saigon, houses are normally five floors since theres more length than width and there’s only so much room to work with. they can’t build out so the only way is to build up.

i’ve been in vietnam about a week and a half now at this point and it’s been a ride. i actually decided to go to muji on this day because one of my tiktok mutuals posted about her haul from her philippines travels and she went to muji. being from texas, we don’t have muji so this was my first time ever being in one. it was two stories and had so much r that i didn’t even look at because i got anxious and overwhelmed. i mostly shopped upstairs where the stationery was since that was my main goal. at the cafe, i ordered a mocha macchiato, which i totally didn’t spill. with my coffee, i sat down and journaled with the paper muji bag i got and paid for and with receipts i had that were waiting to be memorialized. a few selfies for good measure..

second friday in the ‘nam and the sun decided to bless me. went to poutine king and everything was fresh and tasty. paired it with a coke and soju that i got from a convenience store. unfortunately, i did end up going to the bathroom to puke halfway through my meal and that was not fun. nothing against the food or anything i had, but i think the combination and time frame was too short and that caused me to yak.

the way this captures being ghosted by a man in this day and age so well. like he was clingy, he was loving, he’d always initiate. when you’re talking to someone and everything is going well, but now, my slutty pajamas aren’t tempting him in the least. i remember the album cover being so damn controversial with everyone before the album even came out. lowkey, i was into it because the real ones know and can relate.

one thing about being in vietnam is that you’re gonna get breakfast and you’re probably gonna have multiple things. like i legit ate a whole banh mi before this and then my cousin bought me a bowl of mi quảng from across the street that i ate with a baguette. the leftovers went to the dogs hehe. the morning aint complete without some crack, i mean, vietnamese coffee <3

📍bún đậu mắm tôm chí phèo 103 Vinh Hoi Ward 4 District 4 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam