More pictures part 2

Yeah i have too many pictures to show.

Yes those are not chinese characters. Actually I don't know. Like the Japanese have chinese characters but with slightly different meanings, we have those too. We have Nom characters, because we didn't want to be like the chinese and did not want to use the chinese characters. Ugh hate them. Anyway, I think those are Nom characters.


Highland cafe looking out to Hoan Kiem lake. Aw miss you guys soo much.

I'm going home this summer. Can't wait. I'm extremely home sick, i'm missing Hanoi so much. And Ducky, she ditched me, urgh! First she wanted to go to Europe, i was all excited. Then she changed her mind, let's go to Bangkok. Fine. And now she's staying here for the summer. What the heck. Make up your mind. She can't make up her mind.

More pictures part 1

More pictures more pictures. Today is actually March, I was too lazy to post anything. But... well.. just sitting here being lazy cuz spring break is boring



The moment of truth... or.. just a moment of craziness. That's vietnamese vodka, the strongest thing ever. I can't even taste it. And if you're a vietnamese guy who goes to school in the US, and try to compete in drinking with a vietnamese guy who stays in the country, he will win for sure. They dont do beer, they drink vietnamese vodka, and that thing is killer.


My farewell party at Hang's. Yeah they were celebrating because I would be gone the next day, back to the states. We had fun. We had good food (again, FOOODD). We had beer and wine and vodka.


At Van Mieu. The first university of the country. It looks like a temple to me and it is a temple right now. That was my first time going there even thou I've lived in hanoi my whole life. Ehe. We went there to pray for good luck in schools (im not religious, just a thing to do).


The giant drum at Van Mieu. Ducky was trying to make some sound but she couldn't. Ehe she's too small.


At one of the gate. There are multiple gates in Van Mieu. In the past, students often study outdoor, they lined up and have class in the court yard, that's all I know. Im not very good at history. But the color, the red color of columns is so beautiful.

Dec 24: FOOOODDDD!!!

One word: Food.
All I did was eat and eat and eat. We went to eat breakfast, then went to Highland, then to lunch, then to Nem chua ran, then dinner, then... who knows. Usually I would just stay at home after dinner, rub my stomach and fall asleep because I ate too much.
But that's the whole point of coming home: To eat
Heavenly home. The heaven of food. As long as I get to eat I would be happy. Haha.

Here are some pictures. I didn't bring my camera around with me much, so... but promise to bring it from now on so I can update every single moment of happiness haha


At "Quan An Ngon", aka Delicious restaurant, at Phan Boi Chau street. 3 people and a pig's meal. When we finished orderding, and when the waiter repeat our order, we were like "Opps! We are pigs". Yeah, 1 chicken noodles, 1 chicken noodles with bamboo shoot (it's not like american chicken noodles, absolutely different), 1 green bean sweet rice, 1 beef salad, 1 Hue cake, 1 pudding.... bleh can't say the english name for all of those food but... We ate them all, super girls.



Christmas night. We gathered at Lakeside cafe. No one was drunk (maybe except for Giang), no one was crying haha. It's a good idea to stay inside because it's extremely crowded everywhere. Toilet pub is packed you can't even open the door.


Just wandering around (actually we were going to lunch/breakfast/snack, whatever)


The motobike, or moto scooter, whatever. Love them.

Today is Monday

Today is Monday and I'm supposed to go to the Citibank to pay $100 and get an appointment for visa interview.
Why do I need a visa to enter the US? Because I don't have one. And my mom freaks out because a lot of people had been rejected, and it's always very difficult to get a visa to the US for Vietnamese people. I don't know why, it's just not as easy as other countries, it might be the most difficult visa to get. But in my opinion, and in their explaination too, they wouldn't reject as long as everything is crystal clear. And as long as you don't intend to stay and apply for a green card. Well, I have nothing to fear, I don't plan to get a green card at all, then why should I be worry?
And it often takes a while to schedule for an interview, after I paid the money this morning, they gave me an appointment for the 27th. No way, that's too late. My friend told me they gave him an interview for the next morning, and I was hoping the next morning too. I'm leaving on the 31 so what if they reject i will have to reschedule and it would be very late to do everything all over again. Fortunately, mom got some Emergency interview request form and this afternoon they approved the request and I have the interview in the morning. Need a lot of luck for that.

Day 4: Just a relaxing Sunday

Well, actually i'm not very relax right now. I'm very full from eating too much, my stomach hurts.
Let's see. I didn't sleep that well last night even thou i was very sleepy. I decided to get up at 5am and read Memoir of a geisha and went online and took an unpleasant shower. Mom really needs to buy a new shower head or fix the water pressure.
Around 9 my best friend came and we went out to eat breakfast at the nearly market. It was super good but expensive. Dad laughed at me later when I told him i spent 28000 dong (Vietnamese money) for breakfast, he said "That's not even $2 why are you complaining". Well, yeah I was paying for 3 people so... But back in the days (haha i sound so old), one bowl of noodles was like 2000 dong, and later on it was 5000. Now, after 2 years, the price double. Basically the price for every single thing doubled up, except for the cab. (FYI the currency exchange rate is approximately 15000 dong = $1)
And then I ate lunch at 12. It was a very big lunch, with 2 boiled chickens (small thou) and my mom's squid cake and more Pho. After that I took a nap and it was the best nap ever, well yeah because it was night time in the US. Mom woke me up at 5 cuz Ducky came, and I had a hard time getting up, just like when I had to get up early to go to class. Went downstairs, my grandparents were back from the trip to my grandpa's birth place, and bought a lot of corn.
They sell corn along the highway, new cut corn, for a very cheap price. They usually cut it right there cuz the corn fields run along the highway. So everytime we go somewhere outside of Hanoi and see people selling corn, we always stop to buy some, i mean a lot.
So I went downstairs and people were eating corn. Mom gave me a custard apple (see picture) to eat, and i was still full from lunch, but I ate it anyway. Then I ate a corn and 3 hours later I was at my other grandparents' house to have dinner. So... 2 days and 3 Pho meal, awesome. In 2 weeks, I will gain like 10 pounds with being fed like this. People just keep feeding me and feeding me and I can't say no. ( you are too skinny, she looks like a stick, have you been eating at all, you never eat anything, gosh that's not enough you need to eat more, eat more, eat more, eat this, and this too, eat more...) Man i'm going nuts of being acused that I don't eat. My body can not get fat no matter how much i eat, ok? No one wants to understand that :(

Day 3: Finally home!!!

Day 3 morning, my friend woke me up by calling my room. I picked up the phone and could not understand anything. I had no idea who that was on the phone and what he was saying. For some reason I thought Pj was calling until when I get into the shower and made up my mind.
"er, who, what?"
"hmm.... " he was confused too "is that Ming?"
"yeah."
"Then get the fuck up."
"Ok.(*&#$(*@#"
I can't remember now what I said, something with the F word.
Still drunk. I took the shower and blew dry my hair and went down for breakfast, still drunk. I was walking funny and tried my best not to tip over or bump into anyone or spill the food. After breakfast I was awake and felt much better, but the hang over kept me from enjoying the food thou.
So... now I'm home, feeling so good. It's always good to be home. Mom forced me to go to sleep, but no, i'm not that tired, just still hung over. The weather is so nice, so cool, not cold at all. Dad gave my whole bunch of money, guess mom won't give me any cuz Dad gave to me in front of my mom. Gosh. I will spend all that money in less than a week for sure.
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Vietnam is still the same. The grumpy faces at the immigration box, the crowded street with people turning right in front of your car without any signal. I see a lot of cars :p yeah, people start buying cars a lot for personal purposes, especially that tiny tiny car that I don't know what it's called. Dad bought a big Ford and I freaked out when I saw my little brother (5 years old) in the front seat without seat belt.
Hanoi hasn't changed much, or maybe because I haven't been around at all. For 2 days I just stayed at home and went visit my other grandparents. For 2 days I've been eating like 4 meals a day, ate a lot and sleep after lunch and could not sleep at night. Oh well, jetlag.
The weather is so nice, not too cold but everyone would make me wear a lot of clothes and keep warning me about the cold every five minutes or so. Hello, i'm taking the cab every where, so stop saying that the wind is very strong.
Anyway, cab is very cheap. Cheaper than my breakfast this morning. So i guess i will be taking the cab to go everywhere.

Day 2: Delay and complications

My flight from Chicago to Japan was supposed to leave at 11am. Unfortunately, it was first delayed to 12 and then later on 3:00pm, which leads to series of crazy phone calls. Luckily I was checking in from Chicago, not connecting, so I did not have to wait in a big line in the gate. The lady was so nice and she was trying to get me on one of the flights to Hanoi from Japan. I was standing at the check-in counter for an hour listening to her on the phone calling everywhere.
"I tried to call Vietnam airlines but the line is busy."
Chip and me laughed, it was 11pm Hanoi time, maybe they felt asleep or went out for a midnight snack, you know Vietnam.
"Ok they have plenty of seats, I will put you on the 11am flight to Hanoi. Wait, what, it was canceled?"
Well, well, whatever. Giang suggested the plane should delay for 2 days so I can wait for Viet. Hah.
"Ok I got you to HongKong, but I can not get you on any flight from HongKong to Hanoi."
Ok, i get to visit Hongkong then.
"Wait! There is a flight tomorrow from Japan to Hanoi operated by China airlines."
Excuse me! China? I don't do China airlines, i hate China. For some reason she did not book me for that one, well i was a little lucky then?
We were so bored at the counter that we started to weight how much force Chip put on the luggage, and how much my backpack weight. (13 pounds wow). And called people, and people called, I must have spent all the minutes for the month right there.
Finally, around 12, she worked everything out, I had to stay in Japan for a night, and take that 11am flight. And American Airlines would pay for the hotel, and meals, hah no problem.

We arrived Japan around 8pm Tokyo time, and the airport was empty. They couldn't find my name on whatever they had on the table, so I had to wait and ding ding ding, I realized that I already had the ticket and that was why they did not have my name on. Anyway, it was just for the hotel, which was in the middle of nowhere and 2 hours away from Tokyo. I thought I would get to go in Tokyo and went crazy in there, but we ended up in a hotel with a bar that closed at midnight.
So.. with nothing to do and an original plan of drinking, we (me and a friend) went to the bar for a drink, and bought a bottle of wine. Then we got an extra bottle of wine as a gift of the one we bought.
"It's cheap. It's only $10 in the US for this bottle."
"Well then we won't drink it. Just bring it back and give it to someone else."
So we were watching Friends and drinking the sparkling champagne. I can not remember now the reason why we went downstairs to use the internet and how we bought coffee because I remember we didn't have that much change. I can't even understand what I typed on Ducky's wall. Maybe we went down to ask for something, but they didn't have it. By the end of the night, the 2nd bottle was gone with Southpark and Family guy. I passed out completely.

Day 1: Chicago

A finally arrived to Ohard International Airport, 30 mins later than the scheduled time. That was actually fast. My plane got stuck in Knoxville for over an hour on the run way because Ohare was too busy that they would not let us land. So instead of departing at 6:45, the plane took off at 8. And instead of flying for 2 hours and land at 7:45 Chicago time, I got here around 8:00 which means it was only an hour on the sky. Wow, the plane took off at 8 and landed at 8, that was awesome. And Chicago from the air looks so beautiful, and wow they did an impressive job on urban planning. The city was lined up as if someone used a straight edge and draw checkerboards. Absolutely straight.
Anyway, took me an hour to finally got on the train (the damn machine rejected my credit card, must be half an hour there trying to buy a train ticket). Now i'm staying at ITT and have to get up early in the morning to go to the airport again.
Can't believe this is my first time in Chicago, haha. Yeah, definitely coming back here soon.