the united states of loneliness

The United States of Loneliness

Worldwide | Sunday, October 3, 2010 | 5 photos

In 2008 I ran away from Vietnam, from my personally trouble at the times to the States and stayed for 2 months. At first it was tantalizing the way it was supposed to be: full of life, full of colors, of cultural diversities and activities. Yet when the first wave died down I started to notice the lonesomeness in the crowd. Here and there on the streets I always managed to find people looking lonely or forgotten. It was those personal stories behind those sad eyes, those lonesome figures that I wanted to dig deep into beyond all the expected zealous beauty of the land of plenty like the States.
Although guidebooks have their place once coming to a new place I believe sinking our teeth into personal stories of the locals and learning to absorb their culture by being with them, having a second look at them, doing things with them, and experiencing first-hand their problems are better way to really understand, absorb and live a new place, a new culture.

Which is what I love.