The best of both worlds

Ok so I am a Vietnamese-American girl, and I am very much proud to be one. I was born in Vietnam but came here when I was 2, so basically I've been here my whole life. I've been exposed to the American culture throughout my life, but also managed to keep the Vietnamese tradition culture at home as well. My parents don't know much English so they expect me and my 5 other siblings to keep our heritage and language for our own benefits as well as theirs. I'm grateful that my parents taught us to keep our heritage, because nowadays, those like me who came here when they were young, can't understand a single word in Vietnamese nor know anything about their culture. I remember back when I was young, my dad would always force me and my siblings to learn Vietnamese. Whether it was writing, reading, or talking it, we had to do all of them. What we would do was for every summer for every day, we had to spend about 3 hours each to learning Vietnamese Of course we had to learn the alphabet first. The Vietnamese alphabet is much more complicated than American alphabet. The Vietnamese alphabet contains 3 or 4 different ways to write a letter. For instance, there would be 4 different ways of the letter "a" because of the symbols that are attached to it, depending on how it's pronounced. That took forever to learn! After knowing the alphabet, we'd learned how to read. Then after knowing how to read, we'd learn how to write. Writing was the worst part for me, because how we did it was a person would read an entire poem or story, and you'd have to write every word for word that's from the poem or story. If you spelled a word wrong, you'd get either a slap in the face or you'd have to write the word 10 times each. It was very hard, but now that I realize it, I really do appreciate the effort that my parents put in to help teach me and my siblings the Vietnamese language. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be able to speak to my relatives and grandma back home, nor understand them when I visited back in 2005. Knowing more than 1 language really does have its benefits. It opens up a whole new world for you, and you could learn so much more from a different culture than just the All-American culture :)

Volunteering at CHKD

I'm getting ready to volunteer at the Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters here in Norfolk soon, and I'm really excited to go. It's my second week there, and I really enjoy being in the kind of environment that's provided there. I've always wanted to volunteer there since high school, but I just never had the chance to do so. But now that I live right across from there, it's so much more convenient. I love children and I love being around them. They honestly do brighten up my day, and the fact that they each have their own personalities makes it so much more fun to be around them. So here I am, getting a chance to bring a normal life to children who has been bedsided since they were babies, just makes me feel better as a person. These children suffer through pain basically everyday, and the fact that they can't even get out on a beautiful day to ride their bikes or play in the playground makes me really sad. So what my job is as a volunteer is to bring that back into their lives by bringin them to the game rooms, read books, color pictures, or just having one to one time with them. It's amazing to see how much courage these children have, and how strong they are. I can't imagine what they go through each day. I, myself, can't even handle a cut, imagine these little bodies handling needles pricking them every hour. I admire their strength, and the only way for me to show that to them is to bring fun into their time that's spent there at the hospital. So for those that have a lot of free time on your hands, you should definitely sign up to volunteer at this hospital. It's great on your resume, and it'll definitely help you look at life in a different view. They really do need much more volunteers, so any help is much appreciated. Everybody there is amazingly friendly, so there's nothing that should hold you back from considering this opportunity. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll definitely give you more information on signing up! :)

The Gym

So I just got back from a 3 hour workout session at the gym. I go to the YMCA here down on Brambleton Ave, and I must say that this place is huge! It's 6 stories high, and it seriously has everything. From massage rooms, to a little praying area, to a room with DDR and other video games. It's quite awesome! I usually go to the YMCA back in Virginia Beach where I'm from, but now that I live here, I go to this YMCA. I never really liked going to the gym, until recently when I realized that I needed to regain my endurance and getting back in shape. I used to play soccer back in the days, and the first 2 years of high school. But then I stopped for awhile and haven't really focused on getting in shape. So now I go to the gym everyday for 3 hours, and I honestly have to say that it really feels good! I know a lot of people say that exercising really do release a lot of the stress and anxiety that builds up, and it really is true. Not only does it benefit mentally, but also physically. You gain much more strength and possibly lose weight. So for those who don't like going to the gym often, you should definitely check it out once in awhile. You'll definitly love the feeling :)

Who can be reliable?

When it comes to choosing a partner for your study group or lab, it's difficult to do so when you don't know anyone just yet in the beginning of the semester. So I decided to send out an email to the entire class asking if anyone needed a partner as well. I received a lot of replies back and ended up choosing only 3 out of those replies. We planned to meet up yesterday to start on our project, and one of them chooses not to show up. We planned on meeting up again today, and she still doesn't show up. It really frustrates me when you think you can depend on someone and they let you down. We sit there and waited for her for an hour and she doesn't even contact us. And so as always, we leave, and she calls to let us know she's on her way. Does that not frustrate you?? In any circumstances or excuses, you should always let your group know what's going on or when you're coming. Anyways, that completes my blog for today. Ask yourself the next time you choose a group or partner for your class projects: "Who can be reliable?" :)

Chinese New Year

So today, my country celebrates the Chinese New Year. Although I'm not Chinese, my country, Vietnam, still celebrates it. Historically, China invaded Vietnam and took over. Therefore, the Chinese culture is still part of Vietnam today. It's the year of the ox, and so hopefully for those of you who were born on the years of the ox will be lucky this year, as they say. What my culture usually do on Chinese New Year is first thing first, before we do anything else, we must wish our elders a lot of prosperity, strength, happiness, and blessings. After we do that, the elders reward us with what we call in Vietnam "li xi". Li xi is a little red envelope which contains money. It's something every child looks forward to every year, of course. After that, we'd celebrate with a lot of food and treats. Back in Virginia Beach, the entire Vietnamese community came together to the PCC center and had a huge celebration with music, dancing, food, most importantly, the lion dance! It was a lot of fun, and hopefully just reading, you all can get a gist of what my culture is all about ;)