Friday, January 09, 2026

Sledding at Ada Vista

(Travelogues--West Michigan)



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3 comments:

  1. Futami-chanJanuary 10, 2026 at 2:59 AM

    Nice videos. Maybe facilities for children anywhere are all the same, but the West does really have a lot of vast open space. Even as somebody who lives in a rural place most of my life, every single area must be dense somehow. If there's no house then there must be trees or farming plants that leave barely much space. News outlets love to doom-predict about decline of birthrates that would impact Asian economies - I for one cheer for it, given that it would solve a great deal of issues, and the harms of it aren't so much different from the typical things the cultures over here love to tell people to suck it up. Fecundity is a curse in this culture.

    Parents going with children somewhere together to play would be a weird notion over here. Or maybe this is more family-specific than culture-specific. (Still, funny how my dad acted offended and called me nasty stuff when I wanted to be left alone with some of my hobbies, even though he was surely somebody who excluded me from stuff - still remember they fooled me some stuff when I was 5 or younger, knew at that very moment they were bluffing). Urgh... shouldn't vocalize these... but this is a trip down memory lane. It also reminds me of how when I was young I was brought to grandparents house and had to stay there doing virtually nothing for the entire day to several. Goodbye to all that, for good.

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  2. Joel SwagmanJanuary 10, 2026 at 5:52 PM

    A large part of the reason we chose to move back to the US was precisely because we felt there was more space in America for the kids to play. In Saigon, it was really hard to find nice open play areas for the kids.
    That being said, there are trade-offs, definitely. As with probably everything in life. The high cost of living in America has made me worry a lot more about everything. Also, winter in Michigan has a lot of cold grey days that make me miss the heat and warmth of Vietnam.

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  3. Futami-chanJanuary 10, 2026 at 9:54 PM

    I'm born and live in Central Highlands, it's cool most of the time over here (and pretty cold at this moment). Hence it feels like a stark contrast to maybe most of Vietnam, if not just HCMC. The heat when I get out of my province is something I can get used to, and also has some perks - although having to keep an electric fan running 24/24 in a shared room with tendencies for dramas to ensue is something I do not miss once returned home.

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