My First Snow!!!

                                                   (I was so happy with my first SNOW)

I feel bad because just now I am writing about my first snow experience, even though the snow happened almost a month ago. Seeing snow is definitely on my list of things I was really excited about when I move to America. I had never seen snow in my life before, because it never snows in Hanoi. The coldest winter I had ever experienced was 11 degree Celsius which is about 52 degree Fahrenheit. Despite everyone scaring me about the coldness in Winter in America, I was still very excited to see snow. And my wish came true about one month ago, which was the end of October, the first SNOW of the year came! My father-in-law always tells me whenever it is cold outside: Winter is coming. So he is my weather man who told me we will have snow on that day. I was so excited that I constantly looked out of our window to see if there was any snow. But in the morning, it was just raining. When it started snowing a little bit, I told Ben I wanted to go out. I had my winter coat, which my mother-in-law bought for me a month before so I was warm. We went outside of our house and took pictures in the snow. Actually it was really heavy, wet snow. Since the next day was our Wedding Brunch that Ben's parents prepared for us, so we went to buy a new shirt for Ben to wear for the next day. Right after we got out of the Mall, I was sooooo surprised to see all the cars coming had so much snow on the top of their roofs. Then as soon as we drove out of the parking lot, OH MY GOD, everything was  covered by SNOW. I scream so loud in the car: It is snowing! Oh my god it is so white! We are in the North Pole! Ben thought I was crazy. But that was really cool for me seeing snow the first time. It is so different from seeing snow in the movies.

I really enjoyed the snow all the way as we drove home. The town totally became white, I did not recognize it at all. I wanted to touch the snow so badly. When we got home, I took a full hand of snow and brought it in our house. Then Ben told me to give to his dad, so I smashed the whole snowball into my father-in-law's chest. In return, he smashed the snow back into my face. It was really cold and everyone laughed at me so badly.

                                                               (My snowball!!!)
I was so happy seeing snow for that whole afternoon and took a lot of pictures. Suddenly, we heard something fell down in our backyard; it was a branch from a tree. Then one branch after another kept falling down because the snow was too heavy. We all noticed that since it was still in October so all the trees had a lot of leaves, so all the snow stayed on the trees and made them very heavy. We had some relatives come over to say hi before the brunch the next day and they said there were so many trees on every street in Livingston. We started feeling worried when we heard from our relatives and neighbors that they lost their power. We were still lucky to have electricity until late that night, even though a big branch fell on the wire in front of our house that afternoon.

                                                  (Trees fell down in our neighborhood)

So my first snow experience was a big snow storm on October. It was worse that the place we planned to have our wedding brunch had no power and generator, so we had to cancelled our party. Ben and I both felt very sorry for Ben's mom because she prepared so much for our party. It was really unlucky that the next day was a beautiful and sunny day. We walked around our neighborhood, but it looked like a disaster: trees and wires were all over the road, everything was covered by snow. We even saw a tree which was separated in half and a huge tree on the ground. My excitement changed to be worried now. We really did not have power for the next 5 days. It was freezing in our house. I guess I was not used to coldness like that in my life.

                                            (This is our street, which was covered by trees)

I really hope next time I see snow, it will not be scary like that time. 

Black Friday

                                       (I am in Livingston Mall with our first shopping bag)

One of the other things that made me very curious about Thanksgiving was Black Friday. I heard about Black Friday when I was in Vietnam. As I remember, I had read an article about how crazy it was last year in Buffalo;  people ran and stood on each other trying to get into the shop first. That made me scared of going shopping on Black Friday. But I told Ben that I wanted to experience the shops on Black Friday even though I didn't want to buy anything. So we went to Livingston Mall on Black Friday. I was very surprised that the mall was not that busy. It was just so attractive that every shop had big promotional signs in front. We ended up buying some clothes with very good deals.

I never saw such a big discount for every store that we went to. I think it made me a little bit crazy because one of the price tags confused me when we went to the Macy's shoes department. Ben said he wanted to go and see the men's section. So I was walking around and found 2 pairs of boots that I liked with very good deals. Sadly they just had one pair my size. I tried them on and they fit me pretty well. When Ben came back, I showed them to him and he said they were nice. I was very excited and said: they are very cheap too! Ben asked: how much are they? I went to take the sample pair they put on the shelf with the price and said: they are only: $39.99! Immediately Ben turned to me and said: no, I think they are $139.99. I said no way, it had the sticker $39.99 over the old price which was $159, but the number 1 was only half covered. There were two more women approaching the boots and said the same thing as me: wow they are only $39.99! I felt I had a company now. So we all asked the store assistant how much they were? AND Ben was right, they were $139.99. I put them down and said: I am not that in love with those boots so we can go. That was my story and I don't know if any of you fall for stores strategies with their promotional tricks. Anyway, it was so much fun going shopping on Black Friday, which we totally do not have in Vietnam.

THANKSGIVING!!!

                                               (Our family on Thanksgiving Dinner)
Experiencing my first Thanksgiving makes me more understanding of why Ben was very sad the past three years in Vietnam when he missed Thanksgiving. Actually last year, my brother Su and I made a special meal on Thanksgiving for Ben. At that time, I really wanted to make turkey for Ben for Thanksgiving, but it is very hard to buy and cook turkey in Vietnam. So I just made pumpkin and mashed potatoes. Since Ben had been talking about how much fun Thanksgiving is in America, I was so excited for Thanksgiving. And yesterday was my first THANKSGIVING! Actually I felt the Thanksgiving atmosphere from the beginning of this week because it was crazy busy everywhere in New York City.

                                                   (This was the reason why I slept a lot)

The first thing I noticed on Thanksgiving was that we had SO much food! As I've learned, every year my parents-in-law have their family and friends come over for dinner. And this year, we had about 25 people come over. It sounds pretty crazy, but my mother-in-law was amazing at organizing and preparing all the food. She cooked most of the food and some other people brought their own dishes. It was really a lot of fun that we spent time together cooking and setting up tables. Ben and I were in charge of cooking pumpkin with garlic, but sadly 3 out of 4 pumpkins we had were too hard, so we just cooked 1 small pumpkin for 25 people. Actually it was a good strategy because our dish was finished first.

                                                (Our turkey is COOKED!!!)

Even though I had turkey before I was very excited for our turkey because I saw turkey is cooked when the flag popped out. It was a huge turkey! It was interesting to see how our uncle Barry carved the turkey. He did a really beautiful job. I ate so much food that I slept almost 11 hours last night. I think turkey really made me sleepy. 

I really enjoyed my first Thanksgiving. It reminded me about Tet in Vietnam, when all family members get together and we always have a lot of food. Thanksgiving really makes me thankful for having such a great in-laws family. I love Thanksgiving!

Autumn

(These trees are changing color in our back yard)

When I first came to America, many people asked me how are the seasons in Vietnam, and then they scared me by saying that in New York the summer is very hot and the winter is very cold. From my personal experience, even though summer in Hanoi is hotter than in New York (last summer it was around 115 Fahrenheit degree for quite a long time and very humid), but I still prefer summer in Hanoi. The reason is that when it is hot in Hanoi, almost the temperature is the same inside and outside (AC is not that common in Vietnam), but here in America, everywhere (in the house, on the bus, on the train, Metro, shops,.....) has air conditioner and it is always cold for me inside. So I always had to carry a sweater with me this summer.

That was my summer and I was very excited for fall here. And now fall happening! I really enjoy seeing all the trees changing colors and all the leaves are falling. Sometimes, I cannot feel fall in Hanoi because it happens too fast. I always love fall in Vietnam, the weather is the nicest time of the year. You can see leaves falling and feel the special cool breeze in autum in Hanoi, but you don't see color changing from the trees. This is such a new and great experience in my life, the first time seeing trees with different colors. Some trees are still green, some are yellow, some are very red and some even have no more leaves.

(More trees in our back yard)

To see how great fall looks in New York City, our friends Abby and David took us to the Cloisters Museum where everyone says it is beautiful during this time of the year. It was very nice to see another part of NY City which is totally different from the busy and crazy areas in NY City.

(David, me and Abby at the West side of the Cloisters Museum)

Not only because of the color changing on all the trees, I love fall also because there are so many fun things we do in fall.

Second Annual Cook-Off

                                          (That's me holding the menu for the cook-off)

I want to write this blog to say how amazing our friends Heidi and Seth are at cooking.  Before meeting Seth, Ben told me that he was the best cook among his college friends. When I first met Seth, he cooked dinner for us and it was a fantastic dinner. I had the best steak I've ever had;  I felt like I would need to have a lot of tips and skills to make it as good. Then when I met Heidi, Ben also said she is a very very good cook.

I was very happy and excited to be invited to be one of the judges at Seth and Heidi's Second Annual Greenmarket Cook-Off. At the beginning I thought it would not be that serious, but when we came to Heidi's place, the table was set very fancy. Especially when we just sat down, Heidi handed us menus and instructed us about their "five fork" grading system. It felt very serious.  Our role, being the judges, was to score the taste, the decoration, the originality and how true to the greenmarket each dish was.  Seth and Heidi had to go to the farmer's market in Union Square in the morning to buy all the ingredients for their dishes and they were not supposed to use ingredients from other places (well except salt, pepper and cooking oil).

Here were the appetizers:

          (Heidi's first course: Pear and autumn vegetable soup with pear "chips" and purple micro radish)
Side note: Heidi First course also included Stecca Loaves, which were the BEST fresh bread ever.

                                    
                                            (Autumnal stecca loaf with roasted garlic)
Here was Seth's appetizer:
                                    
 ( Poached pear with baby lettuce, goat cheese, toasted pumpkin seeds and pear-reisling vinaigrette)

My judgement: It was a very good combination of poached pear and goat cheese and the toasted pumpkin seeds really made it perfect. I loved the pumpkin seeds and I asked Seth how to cook them. In fact, I cooked them at home the week after, but it was burnt and could not compare to Seth's. Obviously, Seth is a much better cook than me!

Here were the main courses:

      ( Seth's Main course: Maple seared scallops, autumn squash two ways and bacon crumble)
You can see how beautiful the dish was decorated, and it tasted fantastic!

 (Heidi's main course: Ricotta squash gnocchi with duck bacon roasted brussels sprouts and apples in honey-apple vinaigrette)
Can you believe that Heidi made gnocchi by herself? It was amazing!

You might think that our judges had a hard job of eating everything in two courses, but everything was sooooooooooooooo GOOD that all of us finished everything, except the dessert because they served a lot:

(We were having dessert. Seth's dessert:  pretzel-crusted sweet potato pie with butter pecan ice cream. Heidi's dessert: Roasted autumn fruit gingerbread truffle with apple-spiced custard and caramel sauce)
(NOTE: I could not finish my desserts, but they were so good, so I wrapped my leftover and took it home.)

After we finished eating, I felt that it was such a tough decision because I needed to judge whose dishes were better while all of the dishes were very very good. Finally, we had a result for the winner of the Second Annual Greenmarket Cook-off:

             (I think you can guess who was the winner from our blurry picture!)                                       

SETH WAS THE WINNER!!! Congratulations again Seth! I think both Heidi and Seth were amazing at their dinners. As everyone told me that Heidi won the First Annual Greenmarket Cook-off, so I thought it was fare for Seth being the winner this time! I will never forget that it was one of my best eating nights!

Thank you again Heidi and Seth for giving us such an honor to be ones of the judges!

Apple and Pumpkin Picking

(We were next the an old tractor ready for apple picking)

As soon as Fall started to come, my parents-in-laws began talking about apple picking. So two weeks ago, on a nice Saturday afternoon, we went apple picking. It was so much fun because I got to see actual apple trees for the first time and I got to go on a tractor for the first time. We were all very excited and we ended up picking too many apples which we had to eat for the whole next week.

(This is our second basket of apples)

I was very excited and wanted to go to the pumpkin field. I was shocked to see pumpkins there which were giant! They were much much bigger than Vietnamese pumpkins. I think almost everything from farming products in America is bigger than in Vietnam.

(I could not lift this pumpkin.)


After going apple and pumpkin picking, I thought we should have something like that for tourists in Vietnam. I think it would be so much fun to see how we plant and harvest rice. I still remember how much fun it was when my family went harvesting for sweet potatoes.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

                                            (Ben in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art)        
                               

When I was in Vietnam, I was not interested in going to museums because I thought museums were very boring and I didn't know much about art. But since being in America, a lot of people have told me that museums are very nice and interesting here which has made me more interested in going to museums. Two weekends ago we were in Philadelphia for Ben's friend's wedding. One of Ben's friends said that Philadelphia is very famous for its Museum of Art. So Ben and I both said we will definitely go to visit it. It was very nice to visit the museum because it was free for the 1st Sunday in October.

Before we went inside, Ben told me that I needed to take a picture with the Rocky statue. I turned to him and asked: "Who is Rocky? Was he an American hero?"  Again, I have a very poor knowledge about history and art. However, Ben told me that Rocky was a very famous, fictitious boxer played by Sylvester Stallone. The sculpture is now a real-life monument to a celluloid hero.

                                             (I am in front of The Rocky Statue)

My first impression about the museum was that the museum was HUGE! The building itself has such beautiful architecture with tall white poles and organized exhibition sections. The museum design makes it very easy for people to visit. To be honest, I have no idea what are the differences between different kinds of art. I just might be able to tell only Asian Art from other parts of the world. Sometimes I just felt some art was very weird looking and made no sense. On the contrast, Ben has much more knowledge about art. He pointed out to me a lot of famous paintings and explained to me about some of the famous painters such as Picasso, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollack. To me, the most interesting part of the museum was the Asian Art. I total felt like I was in Asia when we visited this area. The museum even has whole Japanese houses.

                                                      (Ben in front of Japanese house)

Ben's favorite area was the Arms and Armor. It looks pretty crazy to see the outfits used by European princes, kings and knights. I felt like a kid experiencing a movie about ancient time in European.

                                                      (This is Arm and Armor Area)

The weirdest part for me was the Modern Art section, which Ben was really interested in seeing. Every time I saw a modern artwork, I turned to Ben and said: "What this is ART? I think I can do that too." I saw a painting with just stripes with different colors and it did not look special or artistic at all to me. Modern art is weird because I think it exhibits super normal and non artistic subjects. I saw a bottle of Coca-cola in the museum with somebody's handwriting on it (whom I even don't know). Ben laughed at me a lot whenever I reacted to a modern art work. On the other hand, he loves modern art. So I think that is why they have those kinds of works here.

                                       (Please tell me what are the artistic ideas from above artworks)

Besides the Modern Art part, I really loved Philadelphia Museum of Art. After visiting the museum, I think that things we study at schools in Vietnam are so different from here in America. I did not learn at all about any specific artists at school, and this is my excuse when I say I don't know who the artists are. But I think it is really good thing to learn and understand about art. So I highly recommend if you are in Philadelphia, go to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

American Wedding

                           (We were at our friend Sam's wedding in Catalina Island)
                    
After Ben and  I were dating for about a year, he started asking me what kind of engagement and wedding rings Vietnamese usually buy? I did not have that much experience, but from my two sisters weddings, I told him that they both are very simple. Then he asked me: what do you mean simple? I meant they are not expensive, maybe 1 unit of gold (at that time it was about 2 million VND/unit of gold which was about $100 at the time). Ben was very surprised and asked if wanted the same as my sisters. I immediately said that I thought that was too much since I don't care about things like that. To me, I think it is more important that the couple just truly love each other. Then I was curious and asked him how much are the rings that American people use for engagements and weddings? He told me that engagement rings are usually much much much more expensive than my standard. I was really shocked when he said they ranged from probably $5,000 to $10,000 or even more (he told me it was supposed to be "two month's salary"). I said: REALLY? That is too much. I did not want such a fancy engagement ring, because I thought it was such a big waste on one thing which is not that related to the love of a couple.  We told that story to a lot of Ben's friends and they said to me, "Wait until when you go to America, you will change your mind and ask Ben for a diamond ring!"

When I came to America, I saw that most of the girls that I met have big diamond engagement rings. Honestly, I do not know at all how much the rings are worth from looking at them. But from Ben, I know that they are very expensive. I told Ben that he is very lucky because I am very cheap and I do not ever want a diamond ring!

Not just the rings, having a wedding in America is so much different from Vietnamese weddings. I think Vietnamese weddings are much simpler than American weddings. We do have more steps before the wedding, but preparing for Vietnamese weddings is much easier. We both feel lucky to have our wedding in Vietnam. Let see how all the preparations different from Vietnamese weddings and American weddings:

+  Wedding invitation: Would be sent out 1 week before the wedding in Vietnam. As I know in America, almost about 1 year before the wedding people know the date and then send out invitations about two months before. So when I told my family and friends that we will have our wedding in 6 months, they all said that why did you tell me now, just tell me 1 or 2 weeks before the wedding!
+ Wedding dress: Some of my friends have had their dresses made, which I know costs just about $200. But most people rent their wedding dresses -- like me.  I wore a dress from our Wedding Photo Shop. It was part of our package which included the wedding photos, videos, make-up, hair, bridesmaids' dresses and my dress for just $500. And that was an expensive shop! I am sure it is much more money to have a wedding dress in America.
+ Wedding place: In Vietnam, we celebrate in both the bride and groom's hometown, but the main celebration is at the groom's hometown. In America, a wedding place can be at one place and it is at either groom or bride's hometown, but as I know, many people have their wedding in different places. I went to Ben's friend Sam's wedding in Catalina Island, which wasn't either the bride or groom's hometown but rather just a place that they loved. It was such a beautiful place and I bet it was really expensive to have a wedding there.
+ Wedding date: In Vietnam, it can be any day of the week depending upon what the psychic tells the couple. In America, weddings are mostly at the weekend. Sometimes there is a Friday night wedding.
+ Wedding celebration: I would say maximum time of a Vietnamese wedding celebration is about 3 hours (if a wedding is at a restaurant and hotel it is just from 1-2 hours) and all we do is eat and talk. I have been to two weddings in America and they were both 6 hours long. I think weddings in America are so much more fun since you have dancing, speeches,  and eating all night long. For me, a night before Vietnamese wedding when friends and family come to celebrate is much more fun than the actual wedding day.
+ Wedding guests and cost: We had a medium amount of people at our wedding in Vietnam: 400 people. I now know that would be a huge number in America. But it is so much cheaper in Vietnam to have 400 people than having 100 people at an American wedding. I was so surprised when Ben told me that the average amount of money for a 100 person wedding in America is at least $30,000, which is the cost of probably four 400-person weddings in Vietnam. Ben also mentioned that weddings in the northeast (where we live) are probably the most expensive in the country.

Attending an American wedding is definitely one of the nicest experiences so far for me. We were very lucky to have so many friends and family came for our wedding in Vietnam. We were also amazed by Ben's friends Taylor and Andrew who hosted our "LA wedding" in California about 2 months ago. They threw us a great party with about 60 people in their backyard.  AND we are very excited for our upcoming Wedding Brunch which is being prepared by Ben's parents at the end of the month. I really feel that all of our celebrations are mixed between American and Vietnamese Weddings.

Pets world in America!!!

                                                   (This is a new kind of Hospital for me)
One of the biggest culture shocks for me in America is the PETS world here. If you go to Vietnam and you see many signs of places with dogs or cats pictures, those are called Dog or Cat Restaurants. And you might see a lot of people inside. When we were riding bicycles in California, I saw a sign with a Dog and Cat picture, but I was surprised when the sign actually said: Dog and Cat Hospital! I stopped right away and told Ben: "Oh my god, I think my parents will be very very surprised when I show them this sign." So I asked Ben to take picture of me in front of the hospital.

(First time I saw a Pet Gym!!!!)

When I first moved here, I felt a little bit strange seeing how pets, especially dogs, are treated here. They have their own beds which I did not even have when I was a kid. One time I saw a big bone next to a dog bed and I thought, "Well at least they feed dogs like we do in Vietnam."  But then I realized that it was a FAKE bone and it was really just a dog toy!

So what does everyone feed their dogs here? This really blows my mind because there are so many kinds of dog food: dry dog food, canned dog food, raw dog food and frozen dog food. They even have organic dog food. Whenever I've seen a new kind of dog food, I think about how Vietnamese dogs would react if they saw those kinds of food. Not only that, people treat their dogs like their children here. I felt a little weird the first time I saw one of Ben's friend's dogs actually lick Ben's face. Ben really loves dogs, so he pet the dog right back and they both looked very happy.

The first dogs I met were Ben's brother Zev's 2 dogs. They are a Boxer and a mutt. I was nervous and scared whenever the Boxer came to me and started jumping on me. Ben told me that I needed to pet him. So I started putting my hand on his head and rubbing his head, but my face was turned to the side because I was afraid he would bite me. Getting bitten made me nervous being close to a dog for the first time. Once I knew that most of the dogs here are safe, I felt more comfortable to pet and play with dogs. I am getting much better with dogs. Actually I have seen many beautiful dogs and now I kind of want a dog. For me having a dog like having a friend. But I don't know I could deal with that because it seems like a lot a work having a pet in America. Not only space, special food, but also we will need to walk with them everyday and send them somewhere if we want to go anywhere. Dog walking and training is a new business that I just learned about when I came to America. I got really surprised when I saw a Pet Gym in New York. I know that everyone who has a pet really treats their pet like a human. I think having a pet really makes people be more responsible and happy but it is still one of the biggest differences between our two cultures.

My first American football game!!!

                                        (This is the first part of JETS game!!!)

I am always confused when I hear the word "football" in America. I think that is one of the things that is gonna take me a long time to get used to. I have no idea why in America they use different system of measurements such as: miles, pounds, Fahrenheit. Same thing with Football, when I told my family that I am going to a football game, but it is not the normal football that the whole world would think about, it is a American football. This is one of my favorite sports in America because it makes me laugh so much watching it. Especially when I did not understand the rules, I just thought the players don't do anything like playing on the field, except fighting each other and laying on the other team's players. Football players' outfits also looks very funny and stupid to me. I also don't understand why they call it "football" while the players don't use their feet most of the time and they have to catch the ball with their hands. American football has a lots of rules, which are still confusing for me sometimes.

Being interested in watching American football made me very excited in going to see a game at a stadium. Last weekend, Ben's father and brother could not go to a Jets's game because they had something else to do, so we went to the game by ourselves. I was told that we had to leave our place around 8AM or 9AM on Sunday. I asked what time does the game start and Ben told me that it would start at 1PM. I was so surprised and was told that because of the bad traffic and also we will have a party before the game. I was a bit tired and afraid I will not have enough energy to stay all day at the stadium. But Ben told me that they would have a lot of food at the tailgat which is organized by two guys named Sal and Vinny, so I got excited to go to the game.

As we planned, we left for the game at 8:50 AM on Sunday. We were both very surprised that it was so fast to get to the stadium. There were a few people who went their early like us at the parking lot. We quickly found our party spot and said hello to everyone. Everyone was preparing food. Sal was shucking oysters, which is my favorite food. As soon as he finished, he told me to try them and I had some which were very very delicious. I felt like I could finish the whole tray of oysters, but there was more and more food which they brought out including the best bread I've ever had. It had pork inside it and it was sooooo good. I tried not to eat too much because Ben told me that they will have a whole 45 pound roasted pig, great sausages, Chinese pork and steak. Seriously, everything was so good and I had so much food. That was probably the most meat I've ever eaten. I made everyone shocked when they saw me eating two feet of the pig. We love this stuff in Vietnam. I ate too much that I did not think the time before the game was long at all. Not only main dishes in meat, they also had a lot of dessert with donuts, jelly, and strawberries covered in chocolate. I was really full, but I still tried all kinds of dessert. We did not stop eating there. Before going into the stadium, we wrapped two pork sandwiches and a donut to eat later. It was a really good part of the game - the party.

                                             (I am inside the Stadium with my JETS outfit)
It was not that crazy when we got into our seats. I guessed other people did not go early like us and had to deal with the bad traffic outside of the stadium. We had such great seats, which is close to the field and right next to the end zone. I was a Jets fan because my whole family are Jets fan. I had my Jets shirt, Jets sweater and a Jets hat. I looked like a crazy fan. The game really had such atmosphere because it was the home game for Jets. We stood up many times in the crowd cheering up for Jets every time they were close to the end zone or when their defense did something good. Sometimes I even did not understand the game, but I still stood up and got loud with everyone. The fun part of the fan was that there was a fireman leading everyone to shout out loud: J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!! I loved that!!! It was so much fun especially because the Jets were leading the whole game. The stadium was filled up with people. That was probably the biggest stadium that I had every been to. I think I am now a big fan of American football, especially going to a football game!

New York City

                                         (Ben next to the Empire State Building in New York)


When I just got to the US, a lot of people asked me how is America different from what I imagined before. At that time, I was just in New Jersey in the suburbs, so I said it is totally different from Hanoi where I lived. There is so much more space in the suburbs compared to the intense, overcrowded space in Hanoi. In my imagination before, America had tall buildings everywhere. I noticed that when we first went to New York. I got in the city the first time at night for dinner with Ben's friends. We went to Time Square right away because our dinner was near there. As soon as we arrived in Time Square, I felt overwhelmed by how shiny and busy the area was. There was so much going on. Digital moving advertising boards are everywhere on all tall buildings. I did not know what to look at. Besides, there is so much going on on the streets. People selling souvenirs, people dressing strangely and scary all over. I also was shocked how tall all of the buildings were. I did not feel safe at all there. Besides that, New York City is the first place that I have known that never sleeps. We hang out with our friends at one bar in Times Square and it was 2:30 AM in the morning, but the streets were still so busy. So my first impression with New York City was that I don’t think I can live here. But then when I have been to others sites of the city, I found out that New York City has much more characteristics that I love.

I love the part of city near the water, which looks amazing at night. I love the upper east side, where there are quieter streets and trees. I love Central Park, which is so green and such big park. I love the architect of the city, where it is mixed between supper modern and ancient building. Sometimes, I just wonder how they can build such complicated and high buildings likes Flat Iron, the Empire State Building, etc. One thing that I might love the most is the food in New York. I think New York City has so many kinds of food from all over the world. I am very excited to try Vietnamese food soon in the city.

Well I am sure I will have more experience and feelings about New York City when I spend more time in the City.

My Hollywood Tour Experience

                                                   (This is our  open Tour van)

Going to Hollywood was one of the things I said to Ben that I definitely wanted to do when we had a chance to be in California. As soon as we went to California, I reminded Ben again about getting a Hollywood tour. Actually Ben had not been on the tour before, even though he lived in Hollywood for 5 years. We also asked our friends Mikka and Jamie to join us. I was so surprised that both Mikka and Jamie had never been on the tour either. So I was very excited about it. When I was in Vietnam, I thought Hollywood was a fancy and wonderful place that I just can see in movies. It was always a mysterious place to me. When we got in the center of Hollywood, where the Mann's Chinese theater is, I got so excited when I saw a lot of people wearing costumes of some characters in movies. One guy pretending to be Spiderman scared me by walking so close to me. They looked very cool to me. I was curious if I could take a picture of them. I would love to show that to my nephew Viet Hoang because he loves Spiderman. But then I became not that interested in taking picture of them because we had to pay money if we wanted to. Once we were in front of Chinese theater, Ben told 3 of us to stand together to take a picture. Suddenly a guy wearing a scary outfit, which I even did not know who the character was, came up to Ben and asked: Hey, do you want to take picture of me? Ben said: No,thanks. Then he turned to us and asked the same question. Actually I kind of wanted to do that, but since he took out his mask and his face looked like not a good person. So we all said no. But he did not stop from there, he pointed at Ben and said: Next time, if you want to take picture of me, better to ask first! We were so surprised and Ben said: Sorry, we did not take picture of you, you can see the picture in my camera. Then the guy touched Ben's shoulder and said: Yes, because I am very smart to move out of the way! He looked very mad and really wanted to fight with us. We did not want that at all, so we all just stopped arguing with him and left the area.

                                                     (Jamie, Mikka and I in front of Chinese Theater)

The guy really made our day go down hill. However we still wanted to do the tour. We stopped at one of the tourism stands and asked for Hollywood Star tour. One of our friends had done it before and told us that we can negotiate the price. So we ended up getting a pretty good price for $25/person. It was a really hot day and the touring bus was an open van, so it made us feel like we were fried. We got on the bus and here was the first sign we saw:

Our tour guides  make their living by the tips.

$10 if you think the tour is good

$15 if you think the tour is great

$20 if you want to go back. 

There was also handwriting on the side saying: Per person. It is pretty strange for me how they set their tip ranges like that, because we don’t have to tip in Vietnam. We did not talk about that until we had our last stop in the trip and all of us said that is ridiculous how they asked for a tip for such an easy tour. Basically, our tour guide did not do anything except drive us around huge mansions of Hollywood Stars. We even did not stop for taking pictures at most of the sights. Even worse, at one point a famous celebrity (Vin Diesel) was in a car right next to us at a red light, talking loudly on his cell phone. Everyone could see him because he was in a convertible and his voice is very recognizable. However, the tour guide didn't have a clue he was there.

After the tour, all of us think that we would never want to do it again. But we still gave our driver (tour guide) some tips. If any of my friends asks about going to Hollywood, I would say that Hollywood is not that interesting and shouldn't be on the top of their list to visit.

How was your first day going to work?

After the moment that I was so happy about my job, I started being nervous because I did’t know how I was gonna go to the city. We went to the garment district, where my office is few times already, but I never paid attention on the way. Moreover, I am the worst at direction, so Ben decided to take me to work for the first two days. It is pretty convenient to go to my company by bus from Livingston. The bus stop is just 5 minutes walk from Ben’s parents house. We got in the bus, it is much nicer and cleaner inside the bus comparing to Vietnamese buses. Ben told me that my stop is the last stop, which is good for me because I don’t have to care about others stops. I just need to make sure I get on the right bus to New York. The bus ride is pretty easy for me. But getting off the bus and going out to the street is so confusing! I already felt lost when we just got off the bus because there are so many people in the station and there are so many directions in the station. To be honest, if Ben did not go with me, I would cry in the station because of being scared. The crowd in the bus station is not the worst thing. As soon as we step out of the station, I saw a huge crowd of people on the sidewalk. I was surprised and asked Ben: Are all of them going to work? Ben said he thought so. It was really overwhemlming how many people walking on the sides of streets in New York. Everyone was also in hurry to work. They walked so fast. I felt like I would be pushed if I just stopped for a second. One thing came out of my head that understand now how foreigners in Vietnam are so scared and nervous about the rush hour in Hanoi. For me, big crowds of motorbikes on the streets in Hanoi is such a normal thing and it becomes one part of our life there.

After the crazy crowd of people rushing to work, I finally got in my office. As soon as I said goodbye to Ben, I realized that I forgot my phone at home! I was so stupid. How could I call Ben to go for lunch or after work? I got supper worried. I did not want to get lost the first day at work! I told Ben that I would try to contact him by email before I finished work. So I went in to the office. A girl in my department met me and took me to say hi to everyone in the office. Everyone seems nice and friendly. I felt a bit dizzy because there were so many people in the office. Again, for me all of white people look the same, except my manager is Indian and other two girls in my department are Chinese. I barely can memorize some people’s names there. That was the only thing I worry about. For the rest of the day, it was pretty good because everyone in my department was so nice to show me new things for me.

                                              Typical Street crowd in New York City

Oh well, I felt my first day at work was so adventurous, just like my first day my mom brought me to kindergarten. I hope that in this second week I will be more “grown up” because I am gonna go to work by myself!   

My first job in America!

First off, I want to say thank you to all Photastic readers. At the beginning I was planning to post every day from Monday to Friday, but I am so bad that already missed one yesterday. However, I do have a good reason which didn’t allow me to have time to write yesterday’s post. I was so happy and I really wanted to tell to the whole world that: I GOT A JOB!!! Yes, I just got a job offer in New York City 3 days ago and yesterday was my second day at work. I still feel like it is surreal! Here is the story about how I got the job.

I have been in the US for over two months, but the first one and a half month I felt pretty busy with meeting everyone in the family and friends. So I was just really having time to search for a job during the last 3 weeks. I tried to go to all the job websites that our friends told me to look at.  I don’t remember how many companies that I have applied to. I was very worried that after 2 weeks passed, no company responded to my applications. I told myself that it might be because I am a new person in the country so nobody wants to hire me, especially because right now there are a lot of Americans looking for jobs. I almost thought that there will be no chance for me to find a job here in the US. But somehow magic happened. Ben had been trying to contact with all of his friends who work in the fashion industry – the field I worked in in Vietnam -- and asked everyone for advice for finding a job for me.  Everyone of Ben’s friends and family tried to find connections to help me. I really appreciated all of our friends and family members who have been helping me a lot especially Abby, Dave and Aunt Jane (they all helped me fix my resume and contacted places for me). Everyone’s effort really made me try to apply and find for more job advertisements, because I didn’t want to make every one disappointed. 

Ben found out that his friend Jackie from high school is working at a recruiting company. She tried to find if there is any open position for me, but sadly there was no job that would be good for me. Jackie even sent my resume to a company that dose not have an open position to see if there is any chance. Coincidently the company that Jackie sent my resume to is a textile company which is trying to start business with a Vietnamese company. That is why they really wanted to have a meeting with me, even though they didn’t have a position. So I went to see them and I knew from them at the meeting that they were just in my old company in Vietnam four months ago. Then I was really interested in this company when they talked about how they are willing to do business with my old company. After the meeting, I did ask him just to make sure if they have any open position and I had a big hope when he said: We will create a job if we want to. After the meeting, we met our friend Jackie for coffee to talk about my meeting. Before we could even buy the coffee, Jackie got a call from her office saying that the textile company wants me to work for them. I hugged Ben and Jackie so hard to tell them how happy I was. I wanted to yell out load: I GOT A JOB! I know being in a new country, having no job would be very hard for me. I feel very confident that I can do great at this job and I’m so happy because now I have a chance to show my ability. I even felt happier than the first time I got a job after university. It was amazing! Thank you every one for being so supportive and helpful.

                             (Jackie and I was at coffee shop when we heard about the job offer)

I would like to say thank you to all of our friends and my in-laws. I would like to say how amazing Ben was to encourage, help and advise me. I felt I am the luckiest person in the world to have such a great husband.

What's wrong with my name?

                                (This is my last name in Vietnamese)

I am used to be very proud of my name in Vietnam: Huyen Nguyen, because it very common and easy to remember name (both my first and last name). My first name Huyen was too popular that I had 6 classmates in secondary school named Huyen. Almost everywhere I have been in Vietnam, I met somebody has the same name with me. I guest it is easy to remember in Vietnam because Huyen is also name of one tone in Vietnamese. No one has problem at calling my name in Vietnam, but being in America makes me don’t like my name that much. I am curious was there any body that I met feels confident calling my name. At first, I thought every one would easy to remember my name because my name is just one syllable, not complicated at all comparing to some American names like: Elizabeth, Sebastian. Also, there are a lot of last names in America comparing to few Vietnamese last names. Also, it was very hard for me at first to remember and say right every one’s name here, as I told Ben in Vietnam that all white people look the same for me.

The fact I have realized that my name is the most complicated one in America. Especially how my husband explained to every one how to call my name in a very complicated way: Hue – yawn. So it sounds like 2 syllables, but actually it is just one syllable. In fact, I don’t expected at all that every one will say my name perfectly in Vietnamese because I know the tone is hard for English speakers. So please don’t feel bad if you don’t think you call my name right, because I might say your name wrong too.

Vietnamese food in America

                                      (Ben is in front of the Pho shop in California.)

Besides my family and friends that I miss the most, I would say I really miss Vietnamese food. Talking about Vietnamese food, I bet most of you think about Pho (the Vietnamese traditional noodle soup). Pho is very common breakfast in Vietnam and one of my favorite dishes. If you stay at any location in Hanoi, you can find a Pho shop within 10 minutes on a motorbike.  Other than Pho, I don’t think many people know about how the food is various in Vietnam. Vietnamese food is different from each part of the country. Northern food is a bit more like Chinese food (a lot of stir-fried and steamed) and going down to the Center and the South of Vietnam, the food getting spicier and sweeter. In Vietnam, since I am from the North, I am used to and prefer Northern style.

Before moving to the States, I did not worry at all about the food here because I have pretty strong stomach. Unfortunately, on the first two days being in America, my stomach bothered me a lot. Then Ben’s mom bought me a bag of rice. Again, I want to say I am very lucky to have such a great mother-in-law.  It was definitely the BEST rice I have ever had. Then we tried to cook some other dishes of Vietnamese food at home.

When we were in California, our friend Mai from Vietnam asked us to go to one of her favorite Pho shop downtown LA. Ben and I were very excited to try the first Pho in the US, especially it is recommended by our friend who is from the North of Vietnam! So we went very early in the morning to the place where the Pho shop is. I was so happy to see the first restaurant with Vietnamese sign. I kept pointing at all other signs of restaurants nearby in Vietnamese. The Pho we had actually was just ok for me. It was pretty much the same as Pho style in Sai Gon (Southern style), except I don’t think they use the fresh noodle in California. So it was not as good as we have in Hanoi. After breakfast, I was still very excited about trying other kinds of Vietnamese food around. And we ended up by having lunch at another Vietnamese Restaurant. After all, I think Vietnamese food in America is probably from the South of Vietnam, because most of Vietnamese people staying in America are from the South. Now I hope I can find more ingredients from which I can cook my real Vietnamese food at home.

What is American food?

 (Can Vietnamese eat this every day?)

On one of our very first dates, I asked Ben: “What is  American food? Do you eat rice there?”

And he said: “We have many kinds of food in America and we don’t often eat rice”. Then I was surprised and said: “How come you can live without rice? I don’t think I can survive in America because I eat rice every day in Vietnam”. Now when I am in America, I would say American typical food are hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches which I can not eat every day. So my first feeling of American food is: I don’t like the food here! Also, most of the food here is processed food. Everything is already prepared in bags or cans. I think the food industry here must be very developed. I don’t know about the ingredients that they use for prepared food, but for Vietnamese, most of the can food is made from not so good sources. This thinking makes me not so interested in preserved food. I definitely miss Vietnamese food a lot. I miss the food that we make fresh for every meal with a lot of vegetable dishes.

On the contrast, I like eating food in America that is not American food. I think Italian food, especially pizza that I had in New Jersey is so delicious. Now I love Japanese and Mexican food in LA. You might wonder have I tried Vietnamese food in America. It will be the next blog that I want to talk about.

First impressions in America

Ben and I have been talking about whether or not I should start a blog. We got to America a couple of months ago. At first, I did not really know how to start a blog because I did not have that much experience in America. Then, after meeting new people, going to new places, I just have more feelings about being in America, so I decided to start my own blog named: Photastic USA! Through my blog, I would like to share my thoughts and feelings about America as a new immigrant.

Let me start with my first impressions upon landing in America. Coming form Vietnam where the traffic is scary for most foreigners, I was really amazed by how clean and organized all the roads are in America. In Vietnam, I am a master at driving a motorbike on the road where all kinds of vehicles can go on every part of the road, even on the side walk. When we drove to New Jersey to Ben's parents' house, I was really surprised by the greenness of Livingston. There are a lot of tall trees and green grass everywhere, which we mostly can see in National Parks in Vietnam. I could not believe that this is a town! I even told Ben that this is like being in a “resort”. In my head, America is really a beautiful country. Actually, the word America is translated into Vietnamese in two ways: Mỹ (Beautiful) or Hoa Kỳ(Country of flags and flower). When we went to Wildwood Crest one month ago, I saw that everywhere in the suburbs is green. The cleanliness of the beach is also one of the new experience for me. I am always sad about how dirty most of the beaches in Vietnam are. I think we Vietnamese need to learn many things to keep our beaches clean such as having garbage cans and bathroom stands along the beach. Moreover, the beauty of America is very different from each place I’ve been to. I love Santa Monica, California which is a gorgeous beach city for me. I loved riding bicycles along the beach, enjoying the ocean breeze and sun. I also loved hiking in California where I saw the colorful "horizon"...but which everyone said is really the smog of the city.

(We were welcome by Ben's parents at the Airport)

I want to talk about my second impression about people here. This is the first country that I feel not being as a “foreigner”. My family in Vietnam had been asking me how do people look at me in America: Do they look at me like an alien? Do they look down at me when I said I am from a poor and developing country? Do they think that I am dumb when I have to ask them for the second time if I don’t understand them at the first time? And my answer for those questions is no, because every one is different from each other here. All the people that I met are very friendly and nice people. Especially my in-laws family, they are so warmly welcome me to their home. They do everything to make me feel like I am being home. If you go to my parents-in-law’s house, you will feel like you are seeing a Vietnamese house with a lot of Vietnamese stuff: water puppets, Vietnamese hat and paintings. Then all of Ben’s friends and family members are so nice to me. They all want me to try a lot of American food and traditions. I have had my first hamburgers and hot dogs on the first day I stayed in America, I have had my first food truck experience  in LA, I have had my first French toast for breakfast. I just feel so lucky to have such great friends and family when I move to a new country.