Trang Transplanted

I am still ... alive!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA0y1T7ddLw

Trang grew well in the new soil, but just getting so lazy. *Wake up Trang. Winter is over. Get yourself out of the ground. No need to hide anymore*. The last post was almost 3 months ago. Well, what can I say?!

 

So many things have happened lately.  Have been busy enjoying funs, as well as solving some troubles. First summer abroad is not bad so far. Thus, I hate the sun in South Texas. The heat carries fire in it. I miss the humidity back home. First week back to work, my face was exposed in the sun, resulting facial skin pain and annoying looking! Doug brought me the *mask* so that I could be a Vietnamese traveler again, in Texas! *This is Trang that I used to know*. I wore the mask in the car, out of the car to HEB, to church, everywhere I noticed the sun. Instead of the sun was catching me, I was waiting for it to avoid it, LOL…

Backwards, I was back from Houston on May 25^th. It was really a nice trip except for the annoying flight that I was in on the way home. My cousin, who was the tour guide for me in Houston, was whole-hearted to me despite his busy business work. Running 3 business services at the same time, taking me on trips around the city and further was really a great effort. 

Yes, I’ve been to The Rice University, a gorgeous campus. A big reputation! A pride of the students who study in it. University of Houston was the second destination. This campus was not less wonderful! Plus, it owns an adorable charm with trees and a lot of flowers and a big bookstore (where I got my GRE guidebook. The one put me to sleep whenever it’s opened!).

My cousin also drove me to College Station to visit Texas A & M, one of the most academically prestigious in Texas and national-wide. But Texas A & M was also a paradise in my eyes for its beautiful landscape. Huge buildings will tall trees. Students were either in hurried pace on shadowed sidewalks or laid down on green grass or sat beside artificial lake reading books. It seemed to me that students here were very studious and looked smart. There were a lot of huge oak trees and parks and statues in this pretty campus. An hour and a half was not enough for me. But again, the heat was annoying, and I could not let my cousin keep following me in the sun.

A week in Houston was for Hue dishes, at Dong Ba!!! And jack fruit, and *# 1 craw fish* (worded by a Californian Vietnamese), grilled fish, fertilized eggs, *walking chicken* (free range), grilled shrimps, steamed clams and everything else of Viet Nam!!! I did not drink, but constantly presented myself on each and every drinking table where my cousin was at! I told my cousin not to drink much, but he said sometimes it’s a must. He’s a business man.

It’s also a good chance to visit with his Vietnamese friends who came to America almost 20 years. They are prosperous, well mannered and very American; thus their Vietnamese characteristics remained, deeply, and subconsciously.

A week flew. With Vietnamese people and language. Little English spoken. I left with nostalgia, though Houston is not my home at all! But, one of the very few reasons that I am glad I was *not* living in Houston, that I would not have to put myself into English practice, and that’s against my objectives being in America.

A week back home with Doug and Cindy was sweet, as always. McAllen is really *my home* in America so far. Doug laughed so hard when I said *Houston is so crowed and noisy for me*. *Trang, you’re getting so American. You become to enjoy the quietness, eh?*. *Yes, I do*. (And today my boss told me that American has a saying *when it’s too loud for you, it means you are getting old*). Hichic… Am I? I always think I am *Young*…hehe…

And now, I am in my new apartment, the Palms, getting all over such ridiculous problems in a new place. However,Palms has so far given me joys: views, trees, swimming pool, spaciousness, privacy, savings, and a get-along roommate.

A day with Cowboys

Since the old day of my junior when I pedaled to my Teacher's apartment for the very first American culture lessons, cowboy topics have made the content. And I have fallen in love with this part of American culture. And so our exchanges in language and culture increased, so as the intimacy between us.

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Something has been forming into shape,my dreams and the illusions about a faraway land with burning sunshine, golden grass and houses... I never knew, but visualized, and conversed on my imagination about it.

Once when I was about to graduate, I talked to a student of mine: "You know what, one of my dream one day is to be in an American prairie, just to be lost with the golden grass field shining in the sun, and watch a cowboy riding a horse and dealing with his cows. That would be a marvelous scene." I cheered myself with the belief though there were no convinced clues.

And, I am brought here in the cowboy land. It's like a fate.

Cowboy means much more to me than an aspect of American culture. I spent time with Doug and Cindy on it, in Hue. I came to an old friend of mine who I used to call "uncle" for it. And we talked about cowboy spirits, and values, and more personal about his life in America, in Vietnam...

 

 

And now, when something somehow has been healed, I felt good as we were walking in cowboy's land, tasting cowboy food, wearing cowboy sunglasses, and talking to real cowboys... Doug pointed at the image of a cowboy group on horses with ropes in their hands, which used to be on the title page of my cowboy research paper. A picture was taken for it, and an American flag was added on its corner this time.

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It's a nice afternoon that added a lot in me. It's specially meaningful to see the reality of what has been read in books. It's fantastic to be able to see what was wished to be. And it's important, to touch something cherished.

Thanks Cindy.

Before School

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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