New Year's Day Tradition

They have a great tradition here in Vietnam. They spend three days or more visiting friends and family and celebrating the New Year. We were invited to travel with our friends around the city to visit the families that they worship with weekly. Since so many people had left Ho Chi Minh City the roads were a lot less crowded so Mark asked if he could try out our friends motor bike. I did not want to make him nervous, ha, so I opted to let one of our friends drive with him, besides he is younger and if the bike goes down he can jump off faster and heal quicker than myself !! He started off a little shaky, almost ran up the curve and scared the security guard of our building but after two times around the building he decided he was ready to try the big streets.
The first family we visited was only about 5 minutes from us and he did pretty well, a few challenges, turning left into a slew of motor bikes and then the great circles where many often get hit. Everyone congratulated him on making it there safely. I could not believe that our friend was actually talking on the phone as Mark drove, only the young can take such stress !!
It was a great visit, we gave them a scripture for the year for their family and then said a prayer of blessing. Oh did I mention the Asian hospitality? They always serve you something to drink, water, juice, for the holidays soda and sometimes fruit, nuts candy. I did not need dinner last night.
The second family was across town and this time Mark had a taxi make a U turn in front of him, he handled it like a pro. After driving back across town he decided to let our friend take the wheel or handle bars again. We have decided that a car is preferable but unrealistic because of the cost so I guess we will have to continue with the taxi's. All in all it was a fun day of seeing how these folks live and being able to spend some individaul time with them.

New Year's Day visits

YEAR OF THE BUFFALO ( Ox)

For those of you who don't know, on Monday we start the Chinese Lunar New Year. This year is the year of the buffalo. This is a really BIG event in Vietnam. They have been decorating for weeks and everything is closed for at least three days. Many are leaving the city to go back to their provinces to visit family. I was told to stock up on food as even the markets will be closed. I went yesterday and boy it was worse than after an earthquake in Calif. Most people here have little or no refrigeration so they go to the market daily. I am not sure what they will do next week but they are buying like there is no tomorrow. I have also been told that prices will go up after the New Year so on Sunday everything goes on sale, kind of like Black Friday in the states. Mark and I decided to go to District 1, the tourist district to see how they had decorated. They go all out. They had blocked off many streets and decorated down the middle of the street with flowers, waterfalls, music and many scenes from China. It reminded me of the New Years parade in Pasadena. It was great fun. We ended our evening at I Love Burgers, Mark found it and had to check it out. We had been to a friend's for a really big Vietnamese New Years lunch so I was not really hungry, but the fries were good. For lunch we were treated to wonderful spring rolls, a huge fish with his head still on and large shrimp, still in there shells and those sad eyes saying do you really want to eat me ? I still have a hard time eating them, even though I do love them. We ended the meal with watermelon. These people eat such healthy foods.

Well Happy New Year, again and Blessings to you all.

HAPPY CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR

English/ Vietnamese Lesson

Last week we had a friend visit and bring three students that he tutors in English. They wanted to visit and practice their English. We spent several hours asking them questions and them asking us questions and practicing both languages. At the end of our time we played restaurant and they would ask us what we wanted in Vietnamese and we answered them in our limited Vietnamese. They said that they could understand us so it made us feel like now we could tackle that restaurant around the corner from us. We can ask for pork, chicken, rice and tea and mineral water. They were amazed that only the two of us lived in this big place. It was a fun learning experience.

More New Friends

A road trip to a Province

Yesterday Mark and I were invited  on another road trip.  This time we left at 5:15 Am, to beat the traffic.  We did get out of town quickly and then stopped for another Vietnamese breakfast.  We had already eaten so Mark had tea and I tried their coffee.  They serve it with condensed milk, I had it over ice and it was pretty good.  We then proceeded to a province about 1 1/2 hours from the city.  I love getting out of the city, it is so... quiet.  Not much traffic and you get a chance to see more of what they grow here.  We saw cashew trees and trees that they use the leaves to brew tea.  We again sat on the tile floor and listened as people shared from their hearts about all that was happening in their lives.  So many miracles !  The picture is of one of the boys that came with his mom.  I had a candy cane left over from my Christmas stocking so I offered it to him.  He was so polite and would not bite it but sucked the thing until it was gone.  We stopped for dinner at an all you can eat place.  They offered 70 different types of food.  We sampled many new things, one being seal.  It was served on a sea shell and marinated in something.  It was different.  I also tried some green drink which turned out to be a watercress veggie drink.  I think I will stick to the lemon juice.  I was told it is suppose to help pimples. Not my problem any more, maybe I will bottle it and sell it to the youth of America !!