The tough progress of growing up

As the name of this blog- Chi-chi's Adventures, I like having adventures and being adventurous becomes a part of my characteristic. The best thing of any adventure (either small or big one) is that you feel like growing up through once in a life-time experience.

When I was in Taiwan, along with some friends, I stayed in the church and got familiar with staying up late doing my laundry and acting nice with people. At that time, I just realized that there was no where like home, where I can skip some of my personal tasks and someone would finish the rest without saying any word. For example, I had never hanged my wet clothes to dry because I was too lazy going up stair, opened the door and found a appropriate way to hang them on. My dad, my mom or the family's helper would hang them on for me afterwards, they may complain a little bit but most of the time, they don't. So, staying up late to wash clothes and waking up early to hang all wet stuff (not only mine but others) were strange to me everyday in Taiwan. I though, hummmm, I am willing to hang on clothes for strangers but never feel that enthusiastic when helping my parents.At that moment, I wish I could come back Vietnam to hang on all wet clothes in my washing machine at home that childlike ideas actually made me cry once in Taiwan.

Now at work, as the youngest person in my office, I take my responsibility of doing errands such as pealing the fruits, cleaning fruits, wash all lunch boxes, buying things ... Sometimes, I feel like people take me for grated or take advantages of me by asking me to do things or being lazy completing their personal tasks. They used to have a list of people taking turn to clean the office, wash dishes or cutting fruits but now they don't because I am the office's little helper. I mean, people at the office are quite nice and those errands are not too difficult for me but the fact that we always have to act nice and support all people except our family makes me  tired. It's very tough when we get into a new community, I understand that. Considering it as a "daily adventure", many parts of me have been grown up everyday.

The more tough my life is, the more I love my parents. Life is precious !!

Blogging for "Tết" - Vietnamese New Year

Today is the last day of the old year - the year of Cat. There are only a few days to the new year of Dragon.

Although I'm a 100% Vietnamese and from a very traditional family, I don't feel crazy for Tet like others, especially the religious side of it. For me, Tet is a precious opportunity that family's members gather to their hometown and together they do preparing and celebrating for Tet. Without Tet, people would probably be super busy on their own and tend to forget about their small family back to the faraway hometown. I even strongly believe that it's the core meaning of Tet, which was decided and created by our great-fathers thousand years ago. It means for Family, not for Religion, not for Big meals in 3 days, not even for our ancient ... it's for ourselves- now.

However, Tet in Vietnam and possibly in other Asian countries celebrating it has put too much pressure on the women. The more modern the world is, the more crazy people become to prepare for the Tet. They are willing to buy a small Peach tree with 50 millions, which ironically equals to total income of a working person in a year, just for decoration in 3-5 days of Tet. The women become the slaves themselves in their homes. My mom has been so crazy since the recent 2 weeks by talking too much on what she needs to buy for Tet, what she wants to do but she could not because she is very tired, by feeling so scary of religious things and by being mean to me sometimes when she gets stressful. I love my mom - there is no word can describe that. She is my angel guidance. So I hate Tet for making my mom stressful - I also hate the modern people for making Tet so complicated but missing the original meaning of it.

I can write a forever long essay about Tet and how much I hate it. Nevertheless, since it is the last day of the old year, when people forget and forgive everything and are looking forward to the bright future, I decide to temporarily forgive Tet ;) (It is temporary because I doubtlessly will hate it again next year at the same period of time- :D). Anyways, Tet is forever in my heart as a Vietnamese girl and I will miss it so much if I travel far from home. Maybe when I am at my mom's age, I will start acting crazy for Tet, so my children don't understand why and they begin their blog for Tet just like this one. :).

We don't know about our future but we never stop believing that is why Tet- a signal of the new year, is so important for Vietnamese. So, I believe in the brightness of the Dragon year and wish everyone the best!

Happy Lunar New Year! Cheers !