{"id":286,"date":"2011-03-01T03:34:53","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T03:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=286"},"modified":"2013-09-25T03:38:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T03:38:54","slug":"age-is-just-a-state-of-mind-by-ari-age-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"Age is Just a State of Mind – by Ari, age 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Age is Just a State of Mind – by Ari, age 17<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>

All of us, including Grandma, at the Plain of Jars \u2013 it was COLD!<\/p><\/div>\n

At a family meeting before our most recent trip, my dad had expressed a bit of concern at grandma joining us.\u00a0 She lives in Seattle, so we don\u2019t get to spend a lot of time with her, and he thought perhaps she may be a touch more frail, being 79, than we were used to.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s be sure to not push her beyond her comfort zone,\u2019 he had said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSomeone should always walk in front of and behind her along bustling streets.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s make sure we eat foods that agree with her.\u201d\u00a0 Although we kept these ideas in mind while traveling, we found that the meeting may have been a little overkill.\u00a0 Grandma was amazing!\u00a0 She ate everything, never complained about hard beds, saw the world through eyes that were understanding of cultural differences, and always made the best every situation.<\/p>\n

\"Grandma<\/a>

Grandma toasting a village elder in Xam Tai, Laos with Lao-Lao<\/p><\/div>\n

We saw Grandma\u2019s positive attitude and energy starting on our very first day, when everything was most new and foreign.\u00a0 Our first stop in Hanoi was a tiny coffee shop that serves the thickest, richest Vietnamese coffees.\u00a0 We sat on tiny plastic stools right on the road\u2019s edge and grandma feasted on the scene of street vendors, overloaded motorcycles, and a woman in a bamboo hat washing dishes in the ditch.\u00a0 Revved up on coffee, we went to our favorite bun cha restaurant.\u00a0 Bun cha is a rice noodle soup with chunks of an unidentifiable grilled meat and sausage and slices of kohlrabi in a slightly sweet-sour broth.\u00a0\u00a0 The restaurant is a hole in the wall – a mildewy cement box on the side of the road that doubles as the entrance to a house.\u00a0 Nonetheless, Grandma squatted down at the low table and relished the new flavors.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t hesitate to dig in to the unknown meal or to enter the restaurant that, in the United States, would have long been shutdown.<\/p>\n

\"Grandma\u2019s<\/a>

Grandma\u2019s first motorcycle ride!<\/p><\/div>\n

A couple days later, in Luang Prabang, it rained – really hard.\u00a0 When the downpour began, we were wandering through the night market seeking a dinner.\u00a0 We wove our way through the vendors\u2019 tents and jumped when the rain-soaked light bulbs sparked and died; buckets of water held in the tent folds gushed onto the street shorting out electric lines and we felt crunched between the anxious people desperately packing their wares and tourists scrambling out of the now-chaotic market.\u00a0 Despite the discomfort, Grandma, drips rolling over her glasses, was laughing at the hustle and bustle of the soaked market.<\/p>\n

Our third homestay, at Babe Lake, verified our belief that grandma was born to travel.\u00a0 After a fantastic, homemade dinner, we crowded into our host\u2019s kitchen to share traditional toasts of rice whiskey.\u00a0 Grandma joined us as the host passed around the seemingly magically refilled shot glass.\u00a0 The men in the room were transfixed by the television, which was showing \u201cVietnam\u2019s Next Top Model.\u201d\u00a0 They decided that yet another toast was necessary – to \u201clong legs,\u201d much like those parading across the screen.\u00a0 Sho, our guide and family friend, quickly interjected, \u201cAnd to men\u2019s broad shoulders.\u201d\u00a0 Grandma couldn\u2019t just let this stand alone, so she added, \u201cAnd big muscles!\u201d\u00a0 After a round of applause and a decent amount of head nodding, we drank to beautiful bodies, something that all cultures can appreciate.<\/p>\n

The very next day, I watched grandma hop on the back of a motorcycle \u2013 her first motorcycle ride ever.\u00a0 She hooted \u201ctally-ho\u201d and waved as she shot off down the road. Now, whenever anyone asks me about my dad\u2019s mom, these and other travel scenes are going to pop into my head \u2013 some of the best grandma moments ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Age is Just a State of Mind – by Ari, age 17 At a family meeting before our most recent trip, my dad had expressed a bit of concern at grandma joining us.\u00a0 She lives in Seattle, so we don\u2019t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}