It has been 10 days I am living in McAllen, Texas. I am away from Hue but not very homesick ‘cause I am living “at home”. Doug and Cindy are the two wonderful people obviously to me, but they are too to friends and who knows about them. Doug came to Vietnam to take me home. Cindy was a friend of mine at the first minute. And she is now. Besides giving me best taking care in each and everything, we have been sharing good time with our mutual interest: shopping ( which Cindy usually doubled it : “shopping shopping” and Doug “ oh, girl things… who cares…”). “Oh Doug, we just had a lot of fun then.”
My first trip
My first tour to H-E-B with Cindy was not for any purchases but taking pictures. You could not imagine how excited I was to be in an American shopping center for the first time. I was looking at everything, and taking pictures at everything new to me. And, in turn, I was glanced by customers coming over. I must have been a topic for their dining talk at home by then. “She’s not American. She’s from Viet Nam. It’s her first time to H-E-B”, explained Cindy with a pleasant smile. They gave me an agreeable look at last with smiles and I continued my job.
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Besides taking pictures, I didn’t forget to see the price of any item I looked at. That’s my interest to make a price comparison of the goods in Viet Nam and America and learn about how a living standard reflected by goods price. And in fact, it will be a good reference for my living management in dorm as well. I was pleased of the price of many items and the wide range of food choices for me in the future.
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H-E-B is a big and well-known shopping chain in America. Well, this type of shopping center is not new to me as I am so used to the like in Sai Gon. (By the way, I am a shopping girl as well. Shopping always gave me much fun and relaxation at weekend ). But I enjoyed the way things are arranged in H-E-B: it gives much space and so brings customers cool feeling travelling in. (I guess others share the same thought as mine, as a lot of people come to H-E-B everyday ). I also love orange juice and milk here because they are pure and inexpensive. I deeply enjoyed a wide range of fruits which are either grown in the US or imported from elsewhere. I told Cindy I like watermelon, but when I got to see it, I got rid of the idea of trying it because we would spend weeks finishing it up. Wow, I bet a medium one must weigh ten kilos or so. I called it “giant watermelon”!!!
By the way I learned an interesting new word: squash ( trai bi ). In Viet Nam we have pumpkin ( bi ngo ) and gourd ( trai bau ). I have no idea where squash comes from. However it looks like a cucumber so much that it makes me confused it’s a cucumber. When we were at squash section, “ oh no, this is not a cucumber as it looks like. I have to change my dish”. I was to move on another recipe when I happened to see cucumber. “ Oh, Cindy, here it is. I find out what I need”. “ Oh, Trang, this is a cucumber. Look”. I brought 2 of them into a close look. They are different in detail designs but they look really much the same to me. Anyway, I was happy that I didn’t have to replace my favorite dish with another.
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