Monday, November 28, 2011

My First Snow!!!

                                                   (I was so happy with my first SNOW)

I feel bad because just now I am writing about my first snow experience, even though the snow happened almost a month ago. Seeing snow is definitely on my list of things I was really excited about when I move to America. I had never seen snow in my life before, because it never snows in Hanoi. The coldest winter I had ever experienced was 11 degree Celsius which is about 52 degree Fahrenheit. Despite everyone scaring me about the coldness in Winter in America, I was still very excited to see snow. And my wish came true about one month ago, which was the end of October, the first SNOW of the year came! My father-in-law always tells me whenever it is cold outside: Winter is coming. So he is my weather man who told me we will have snow on that day. I was so excited that I constantly looked out of our window to see if there was any snow. But in the morning, it was just raining. When it started snowing a little bit, I told Ben I wanted to go out. I had my winter coat, which my mother-in-law bought for me a month before so I was warm. We went outside of our house and took pictures in the snow. Actually it was really heavy, wet snow. Since the next day was our Wedding Brunch that Ben's parents prepared for us, so we went to buy a new shirt for Ben to wear for the next day. Right after we got out of the Mall, I was sooooo surprised to see all the cars coming had so much snow on the top of their roofs. Then as soon as we drove out of the parking lot, OH MY GOD, everything was  covered by SNOW. I scream so loud in the car: It is snowing! Oh my god it is so white! We are in the North Pole! Ben thought I was crazy. But that was really cool for me seeing snow the first time. It is so different from seeing snow in the movies.

I really enjoyed the snow all the way as we drove home. The town totally became white, I did not recognize it at all. I wanted to touch the snow so badly. When we got home, I took a full hand of snow and brought it in our house. Then Ben told me to give to his dad, so I smashed the whole snowball into my father-in-law's chest. In return, he smashed the snow back into my face. It was really cold and everyone laughed at me so badly.
                                                               (My snowball!!!)
I was so happy seeing snow for that whole afternoon and took a lot of pictures. Suddenly, we heard something fell down in our backyard; it was a branch from a tree. Then one branch after another kept falling down because the snow was too heavy. We all noticed that since it was still in October so all the trees had a lot of leaves, so all the snow stayed on the trees and made them very heavy. We had some relatives come over to say hi before the brunch the next day and they said there were so many trees on every street in Livingston. We started feeling worried when we heard from our relatives and neighbors that they lost their power. We were still lucky to have electricity until late that night, even though a big branch fell on the wire in front of our house that afternoon.
                                                  (Trees fell down in our neighborhood)

So my first snow experience was a big snow storm on October. It was worse that the place we planned to have our wedding brunch had no power and generator, so we had to cancelled our party. Ben and I both felt very sorry for Ben's mom because she prepared so much for our party. It was really unlucky that the next day was a beautiful and sunny day. We walked around our neighborhood, but it looked like a disaster: trees and wires were all over the road, everything was covered by snow. We even saw a tree which was separated in half and a huge tree on the ground. My excitement changed to be worried now. We really did not have power for the next 5 days. It was freezing in our house. I guess I was not used to coldness like that in my life.
                                            (This is our street, which was covered by trees)

I really hope next time I see snow, it will not be scary like that time. 

10 comments:

  1. Hi Huyền,

    I guess I'm older than u so I'm gonna call u "em" hihi.

    I followed Ahoy Hanoi blog when I was in Hanoi, and so I knew about your blog, and I've been reading it ever since.

    It's been interesting to read about you guys love story and especially about your life in the US.

    Right now I'm also in the US and I'm studying in University of Nebraska.We moved here in August, around the same time that u guys did. I also keep a blog about my journey in the US, but my crazy schedule doesn't allow me to post often.

    It's great to get to know you Huyen.
    I hope we can keep in touch.

    Phuong

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  2. Hi Huyen, a favor to ask if you wouldn't mind...

    I followed Ben's blog for about a year and a half before it ended. He regularly posted photos. I'm in Vietnam now and can't attach photos to my blog posts.

    Would you or Ben be kind enough to tell me how I can post photos while I'm here?

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you're in Vietnam right now it might be hard to post photos. Usually around Tet the internet can get very restrictive. If you're tech savvy, you can log in through a US server and post pictures that way. Sometimes in Vietnam it depends what city you're in too. Hanoi used to block me from posting pictures around Tet however I never had that problem in HCMC.

    Thanks for reading our blogs. Safe travels and happy new year!

    Ben

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  4. Thanks for your feedback Ben. My image posting problem has mysteriously disappeared. Probably just for the reasons you describe.

    I'm expecting to get up to Hanoi to go out see Halong Bay. No tickets yet. Now I'll know what to anticipate when posting from there.

    Alan

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  5. No problem, Alan! Hanoi can also be a mixed bag when it comes to internet. There are definitely some hotels and cafes that have better internet then others.

    Enjoy Hanoi and Halong Bay!

    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  6. Huyen oi,

    Nơi mà bạn sẽ chi tiêu Tết? Có một ngôi đền Phật giáo ở Queens, hoặc có thể ở New Jersey:

    http://webspace.webring.com/people/on/newjerseybuddhists/GROUPS.html

    American Society of Buddhist Studies on Centre Street in Chinatown

    i như để theo dõi cuộc hành trình của bạn từ Hà Nội đến New Jersey

    (xin lỗi về ngữ pháp nghèo nàn của tôi)

    Emily (việt kiều o Cali)
    emilyryan AT yahoo DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Huyen, Can I ask you a question about college in Vietnam?

    Is there an age limit to enter university in Vietnam? Can an older person decide to make a career change and go back to university? Or can someone who didn't go to college decide to do so (in the US there is no limit and you can go at any time)

    Is it weird for people to be in university/graduate school/professional school in their mid 20's?

    Also, is there a system similar to the community college system in the US where students can transfer to a 4 year university from the community college?
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sorry to bother you so much but I had a second question (this one's to settle a dispute with my cousin). In Vietnam, do you need to get a master's degree before you can pursue a PHD, or can you go straight from a bachelor's to the PHD?
    Thanks again :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi J,

    Sorry to get back to you late. Here are the answer for your questions:

    There is no age limit to get into University in Vietnam. An old person/anybody can change career and go back to university, if that person graduate high school and can pass the test to university.

    It is not weird for people to be in university in their mid 20's. Common age people graduate from universities is 22-25 years old. However, there are pretty many cases that people start university when they are older than 25 - they start internship first/go to serve in military/work first/fail to the test to university many times....

    I don't think we have something like community college in Vietnam. Usually, in Vietnam you can enter university after 3-year high school.

    In Vietnam, you need to get a master's degree before you want to get a PHD, no straight step from bachelor's to PHD.


    I hope this helps.

    Huyen

    ReplyDelete
  10. hi huyen
    how are you enjoying life in Livingston?

    i thought about you when i was in NJ this year for the first time..we spent the day visiting family in Tom's River(we're from australia)

    i miss reading both you and Ben's blog- and i wish you'd post again so we know how you have adapted to life in the USA..

    by the way, i would love to live in New York- i really fell in love with it.

    ReplyDelete