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.