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.

First post

This blog is created to keep a journal about my 2 weeks in Vietnam this coming Christmas. I haven't been home for 2 years, therefore i'm super excited about the trip. There must be a lot of changes in Hanoi, and new places to visit (i'm talking about coffee shops), and hopefully my fav places are still there with the unchanged atmosphere and beauty, because they are full of memories and little secrets, full of laughs and tears, of friendly faces and love.
To me, Hanoi is the most beautiful city in the world. Always changing but then here and there, the old Hanoi still exists, lively and pretty, as if time has stopped to preserve what had been there for hundreds of years. Hanoi is very unique that everyone can name tons of things they love about it. If it's not the old quarter, then it might be West lake, the red river, the scent of flower, the winter, food, places....

I suck at writting. So I will quote the description of Hanoians group on facebook which my friend wrote, the short paragraph that includes all the love to Hanoi.

"This group is for anybody who loves Hanoi, the beloved capital of our country. For anybody who enjoys riding their bikes in the shaded boulevards of Hoang Dieu, Nguyen Du, Phan Dinh Phung, ... For anybody who loves pho, banh cuon, quay nong, bun thang, ... For anybody who likes strolling around the narrow streets of the Old Quarter. For anybody who misses the Hanoi winter, with its endless drizzles and unique chilliness. For anybody who fell in love with a Hanoi girl or guy. For anybody who spends countless hours of their life in a roadside cafe or by a lake, either alone or with their friends, just to enjoy the low-paced and pleasant lifestyle of Hanoi.

This group is for anybody whose hearts will forever stay in Hanoi."