A Review

By Johnny Nghiem

February 8^th, 2017

Change is good thing right? Isn't that we grew up to believe? At least for me anyway, my parents always told me so.

It's a bit hard to describe my upbringing. Okay, let's just say that we didn't have much and our family nucleus was more like a soup dumpling - delicate, but waiting be annihilated. That probably didn't make much sense and that's how my family was, an indescribable series of memories filled with love, my family's version of it.

That's kind of how I feel my experiences are so far in Dubai.

When I first came to Dubai, it felt like the rebirth of a human being, the evolution of a man, and then ultimately in the end, a lost soul at an all-inclusive beach resort.

The city changed me and I'm still trying to figure out if it was something positive or negative, both of which I'm not convinced will ever give me that answer or maybe it's just best to leave it as it is.

I'll never forget the first day in Dubai and being taken to the Tamani Marina Hotel and the smell of air purifiers scattered throughout. That memory one day will be like missing the smell of mom's home cooking, I will honestly miss it.

In two years I've never had one visitor but in those two years, I met some lifelong friends.

I remember Grandma Nghiem telling me a story of when she used to call 911 to get a free ride home until after the 14th time they finally caught on. She was always known as the ballseir of the two grandmas and her spirit kind of reflects in me. I may be bias because she calls me the prettiest out of all my cousins, but I really do feel her carefree attitude sometimes and deep down inside I know she's proud of me for just dropping everything and having this gung-ho attitude with life.