Day 3: Korean Wannabes, Buttloads of Relatives, the Upper Class, and Rhinestones

Day 3 consisted of satisfying familial obligations, meaning we had to visit some of our relatives. The night before, we had a party for some of them, so I had met my mom's cousin's family. Chu Truong has two kids, nicknamed Lucky and Pepsi. It seems that that particular branch of my family is really into nicknames. Anyways, we first set out of the house in a taxi around 11 am, heading to my cousin's house first. The really weird thing about my cousin is that she's middle aged, but she's still my cousin since her dad and my dad are cousins. I was so confused that I had to call her "chi" rather than "co".

Then we went to Chu Truong's house. HOLY FREAKIN CHRIST. IT'S FLIPPING HUGE. The night before, his daughter, Pepsi, told us about how she wanted to come to the US for high school. Then I saw her house. Why would she ever want to leave? It's like a million stories high, because tall houses fit the hot environment of Vietnam, and there are more bathrooms than I could count. In fact, it's so tall, that if you wanted to commit suicide, you could do it in the comfort of your own home. They had three random empty guest rooms, and two stories of balconies. There were URINALS in the bathrooms. I want a urinal in my bathroom, just to say that I have one. The shower was like a freaking time machine, it was so high tech.

The living room, where Pepsi and Lucky are really American and watch Disney Channel.

Pepsi's bedroom. Everyone has their own bathroom. Walking into that house was walking into an episode of Cribs.

It's surprising that so many of Vietnamese teenagers want to be Korean. I saw some pictures of Pepsi's friends, and they all have the hair and clothes of a Korean wannabe. If she goes to high school with me and starts hanging out with the Korean crowd, I'm going to pretend I don't know her, or make her hang out with the druggies instead, because that would be a lot less annoying.

Another interesting thing about Vietnamese kids is that the little boys are all the same. Even the semi-grown up boys of about ten years old are fondled by their mommies as if they were babies. Every single ten year old boy I met was really shy and literally hung onto his mommy like a six year old kid.

Remember when I said I felt like a slut in my shorts? Well, I wore shorts at night and I felt like a nun. On a Saturday night, I saw multiple bejeweled shorts, skintight dresses, lots of stilletos, and spaghetti straps. During the daytime, people here are afraid of getting tan, so they cover up like crazy. The style here is one of the reasons why I haven't gone shopping or felt any desire to. Vietnamese fashion consists of:

-skinny jeans with contrast stitching and rhinestone pockets

-colorful hoodies with rhinestones

-weird high heeled flip flops or wedges with more rhinestones

-hair scrunchies

-floral pajamas

-either really Korean haircuts or really ghetto haircuts

Anyways, we're headed off to Nha Trang in a couple hours. I woke up early to repack and blog...we posted a new video on the YouTube channel of the family house in Saigon. Check it out if you care.

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Hey! It's Phuong.  I'm glad that some of you have been reading.  As you've read above, we woke up at 6 am this morning to get ready for our flight to Nha Trang.  Our cousin, Hong, brought me along to buy some suon for our morning meal.  The place is so popular, however, that they sell out of everything by 6:55am!  So, instead, we went to a place that serves Hu Tieu, Wonton, and Mi.  Made by good old Chinese people.  In comparison to the stuff in America, this is WAY better.  The noodles are made fresh and cooked before it even has time to dry, the meat is fresh, probably from the place that just sold out. 

See the raw vegetables?  My cousin Victor warned me against them...(he said that they look delicious, but they are very dangerous lol) but the people there were looking at me funny, so I buried the vegetables into the broth, hoping that it would cook them.  I'm still waiting to see if I have to take Immodium...just kidding...sort of.

I just want to note that although riding on mopeds seems sort of scary, it's PRETTY AWESOME!! Where we are right now, we're a bit outside the city, so Linh and I get to see less shops and more market-esque places.  I noted that when we stopped by the center of the city with Co Hien and her daughter, you see much more stores and more white people.  Center-city is more of a touristy area, but I'm glad that we get to experience the more "real" Vietnamese life-style. 

By the way, I stopped by my grandfather's old house, and it turns out, it isn't a house anymore, which is interesting considering when Chu Tuan and Co Yen took a picture of the house in '02, it was still inhabited by people.  Here's what 170 Le Lai looks like now:

That's right, it's now part of a coffee shop-like place.

Anyway, stay tuned for our next posting, hopefully later on today...