Happy new year
Tet time has rolled around once again. I have to admit that I was really grouchy for the week prior to the Vietnamese new year, generally being a hater and complaining about everything to my close friends and my poor boyfriend, haha. But Come Friday night, I felt very 'lucky' indeed, surrounded by my boyfriend's family, food, and games. It's nice to feel welcome amongst a house full of people you barely know. Albeit awkwardly making a scene by declining red pockets and having the occasional drunk uncle offering me t-shirts, I got the warm and fuzzies.
Yesterday was spent cleaning up the house. I don't know, I've never really been a domestic goddess. I'm more like the do-the-minimal-regular-clean-up-and-binge-clean-if-guests-are-coming type also known as the lazy type. But yesterday, I was a machine! Boyfriend and I bought an electronic piano last week and it came in this maaassive box with boxes and boxes and reinforcements and styrofoam galore inside. Yesterday I was tearing it all apart, and seriously it was a work-out. Ha, shows how much exercise I get if I find cardboard strenuous. No, but really it was super thick cardboard, the kind that has those crazy industrial staples through it and breaks your little school craft scissors. And the styrofoam, what the heck, man? It didn't even break when I knelt all my weight on it on one side and pulled up on the other side to snap it. I had to stab psychotically down the middle to weaken it and then jump on the styrofoam pieces to snap them, LOL. What kind of superfoam?!
Then there was lots of mopping and scrubbing and bleaching and sweeping and wiping. And then in the evening more feasting at my grandma's house. Mum has a small family, and Dad an even smaller one, so Tet for me has never been a massive occasion. One uncle, a couple of aunties, a few cousins, Grammy, Gramps, Mum, Dad, my brother, his girlfriend, my boyfriend I was as big as it has ever been, I think. It's not the numbers that matter though, we still joke and pig out and talk and have a good time together with minimal bickering. There's always a little bit of that.
I was bad and came really late to dinner when half the people had finished eating already. I'd also left boyfriend alone with my family for who knows how long, oops. He didn't look traumatised when I arrived so I guess that's a good sign that he's feeling welcome too. After he'd left, Grammy and my aunt were talking about how handsome he'd become. I laughed because I didn't know how else to react. Then I felt mean for laughing.
After that was another family gathering at boyfriend's house. I stopped by for a couple of hours, bearing gifts of icecream and complete Monopoly incompetence. I'm glad everyone was so helpful, handing me my money and telling me when I was owed rent or being scammed, haha. I would have totally been rorted otherwise. A few mumbled "chuc mung nam moi"s and obligatory hugs later, I was driving home and singing to the Carpenters.
Dad and I made each other formal new year wishes this morning for things like motivation, productivity, health and good relationships with people around us. And to kick it off with gusto, we shook hands and agreed that we'd build a cupboard together next weekend because the bits of shelving and whatnot have been sitting in the living room for like a year. Let's see if it actually happens.
Yesterday was spent cleaning up the house. I don't know, I've never really been a domestic goddess. I'm more like the do-the-minimal-regular-clean-up-and-binge-clean-if-guests-are-coming type also known as the lazy type. But yesterday, I was a machine! Boyfriend and I bought an electronic piano last week and it came in this maaassive box with boxes and boxes and reinforcements and styrofoam galore inside. Yesterday I was tearing it all apart, and seriously it was a work-out. Ha, shows how much exercise I get if I find cardboard strenuous. No, but really it was super thick cardboard, the kind that has those crazy industrial staples through it and breaks your little school craft scissors. And the styrofoam, what the heck, man? It didn't even break when I knelt all my weight on it on one side and pulled up on the other side to snap it. I had to stab psychotically down the middle to weaken it and then jump on the styrofoam pieces to snap them, LOL. What kind of superfoam?!
Then there was lots of mopping and scrubbing and bleaching and sweeping and wiping. And then in the evening more feasting at my grandma's house. Mum has a small family, and Dad an even smaller one, so Tet for me has never been a massive occasion. One uncle, a couple of aunties, a few cousins, Grammy, Gramps, Mum, Dad, my brother, his girlfriend, my boyfriend I was as big as it has ever been, I think. It's not the numbers that matter though, we still joke and pig out and talk and have a good time together with minimal bickering. There's always a little bit of that.
I was bad and came really late to dinner when half the people had finished eating already. I'd also left boyfriend alone with my family for who knows how long, oops. He didn't look traumatised when I arrived so I guess that's a good sign that he's feeling welcome too. After he'd left, Grammy and my aunt were talking about how handsome he'd become. I laughed because I didn't know how else to react. Then I felt mean for laughing.
After that was another family gathering at boyfriend's house. I stopped by for a couple of hours, bearing gifts of icecream and complete Monopoly incompetence. I'm glad everyone was so helpful, handing me my money and telling me when I was owed rent or being scammed, haha. I would have totally been rorted otherwise. A few mumbled "chuc mung nam moi"s and obligatory hugs later, I was driving home and singing to the Carpenters.
Dad and I made each other formal new year wishes this morning for things like motivation, productivity, health and good relationships with people around us. And to kick it off with gusto, we shook hands and agreed that we'd build a cupboard together next weekend because the bits of shelving and whatnot have been sitting in the living room for like a year. Let's see if it actually happens.
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