This article argues that traveling and working as a writer in Vietnam yielded metaphors that changed the author's pedagogy as well. The article first describes how the experience of crossing the street taught her to move on the terms dictated by local conditions. The metaphor of "moving in traffic" that grew out of this experience denotes a series of related, timely practices the author developed for her work as a writer. The article then draws on examples from recent composition courses to shows how the author has taken on similar timely teaching practices to develop a pedagogy of moving in traffic that relies on related metaphors of the street. The article concludes by offering a final metaphor of playing in traffic, which shows that teaching and writing is necessarily both fearful and hopeful work.