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.