A day to remember

It's 3 AM at home. I'm finally back from the 2-day trip to Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC), including 16 hours of traveling back and forth the distance of 400km. Maithreyi thought that it was crazy to travel such a long distance and tried to cancel the trip for many times so that it would be better for me, but I knew from the very beginning that it would be worth it to meet up this time. And after all the planning, we finally met in HCMC. Here we are:

It's us, meeting up after a year!

We didn't seem to change that much compared to when we first met at UWC Adriatic, except for the fact that I looked a bit older because I forgot to shave for a week :P. Anyways, it was exciting when we finally met again, one year after the memorable event Water Cycle and Climate Change Summer School in Duino, Italy. I remember the last night at Duino, we decided to stay awake together just lying on the grass and gazing stars, waiting to watch sunrise at the Adriatic sea. That time when the sun eventually rised, signaling that our farewell was coming soon, we never thought that we would meet again. Yet, a year later, we met, which couldn't have happened if her dad hadn't changed his work place to Vietnam. I am now convinced that things do happen, when we never expect them to.

We didn't change, and neither did our friendship.

We spent the day going around Ho Chi Minh city, actually we only walked in the downtown and visited some tourist sights (Duc Ba Church), since we didn't really have time and we spent most of the time talking to each other. I guess there are way too many things to talk about, those that were saved up throughout the whole year not seeing each other, from college application stories to how life is after UWC, from something really random such as how to cross a street in Vietnam and India to something really emotional.

Us, in front of Duc Ba Church.

The best thing of this meeting was that I could tell her all my thoughts about UWC, express to her all my love to UWC and how much I miss UWC. It was nice to meet a UWCer again after leaving UWC, since it's only that UWCer that may be able to understand my UWC nostalgia. At home, people may care about me being sad and I may have told them that it was because I missed UWC so much, but it's the first time after coming back home that someone sympathizes with my UWC nostalgia. She said that we only said goodbye to be able to see each other again. I do believe her, because meeting her in Vietnam is the biggest proof that I will see my friends again someday, in a really unexpected scenario.

Us, and the dragonfly souvenirs in Vietnam

We spent two hours in a very nice and quiet coffee store near the Turtle Lake. We chose it because from there, you could get the whole view of the busy streets in Ho Chi Minh city. What was nice about sitting in a coffee store in the afternoon is that the store appeared to be a capsule in this life where time is slowed down inside. It was nice to experience how people just sat down and took it so slowly while outside everybody was rushing to their destinations in their busy lives.

This is not the coffee store that I'm talking about, but anyways, we keep going from one store to another.

After having 6 hours of hanging out together since 12.30 AM, we returned to her department, where she demanded to write a secret message on my laptop and I can only open it after I get on the bus to home. What a meanie, telling people to read message in the most emotional moment of farewell! Anyways, the message was really nice, and I couldn't stop smiling when I read what she wrote. Somehow I felt like she could understand me so much just after 3 hours of conversation, and that's much better than the fact that some friends never got to understand me even though we may spend hours together.

Trying out the traditional Vietnamese hat

Okay, I have to talk about the message that she wrote for me. I opened the message at 2AM when I was on the bus home. The last sentence she wrote in the message was that "Stay the awesome Vuvu you are". Somehow, the message she wrote to me openned my eyes and made me realize that, for some reasons, I have quite forgotten myself. "You are living for yourself. Your dreams, your goals, your aspirations". Yes, after reading that, I wondered "since when did I forget to pursue my dreams, and goals, and aspirations?". Yes, she made me realize I'm fading myself away, and it's time to take "the awesome me" back.

Maithreyi posing in front of the church

Thank you Maithreyi for a great day. Thank you for being a great friend. Thank you for so many good advice.  It's so nice and crucial that we met. Thank you for steering my life now into a different direction.

We are friends, forever.