Our group spent the evening at Sandy's family's home last night. Sandy is Vietnamese-American and part of her family lives in Ho Chi Minh City. There were about twenty members of her family at the house. It seemed like they were terrified of us. Besides her mom, dad, grandparents and a few of the kids, they didn't interact with us at all. Honestly, they were often huddled in a corner or a back hallway just staring at us. Sandy said afterward that they thought we were all so funny and beautiful. I guess they all asked Sandy if we wanted Vietnamese husbands or wives.
I came to realize as soon as I got to Viet Nam that the people here love karaoke. Sandy's family had just gotten a new karaoke machine- and they were very proud that it had English songs so that they could invite us over. So, we spent half of the time butchering American pop songs and half of the time listening to beautiful, serious traditional vietnamese songs. It was a wonderful time. Even though we didn't really mix so much with her family, we were still having fun together. During one of the songs, Sandy's family told Sandy to tell us to dance. They were entertained by anything we did.
The food was fabulous. One of her aunts grabbed my plate and heaped food on to it. Most of us went up three different times to grab more food, and still her family was saying we didn't eat enough.
It was so wonderful seeing her family interact with eachother. Grandpa was definitely the patriarch of the family. He sort of shuffled around the house in his pajamas the entire time. It was obvious everyone very much loved and respected him. They were trying to take pictures of the Americans with the grandparents, but Grandma and Grandpa were facing the wrong way the whole time- I found it endearing.
On another note, today I got a text message which was as follows: Hi Jessica! My name is Thi Thi. You will be living at my house. I'll pick you up at 6:00 tonight. I'm happy to be your friend.
Isn't that sweet? We had dinner the other night with the students we will be living with. I didn't meet Thi, but Emily did and said she's really nice. We're getting together tonight with them and she's going to pick me up on her motorbike. My new favorite thing is riding around Saigon on a motorbike.
When I get back from the Mekong Delta in a week, I'll be living with Thi. I'm really excited to see where she lives and meet her family.
2 comments:
j, i hope you are feeling better. wish you were coming to mpls with z. can't wait to see you again.
<3
I'm sorry you were in the hospital. I know what that is like. Wow. But that is an experience that you will never forget and a tale that you can tell forever. I collect foreign hospital visits you know. Hope you are feeling better now, and that you didn't miss too much school.
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