{"id":272,"date":"2010-02-15T17:08:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T01:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/?p=272"},"modified":"2013-04-01T08:46:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T15:46:51","slug":"tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2010\/02\/15\/tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my\/","title":{"rendered":"Tet: The Year of the Tiger, OH MY!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve had to remember that Ho Chi Minh city isn\u2019t always filled with lights and flowers and flags, because this week is special\u2026 its Tet, the best holiday in the world if you haven\u2019t been informed. Our last nights in Ho Chi Minh before we left for Da Lat on Saturday were filled with the banging of drums accompanying dancing dragons across the street from our hotel. I\u2019ve learned that Tet is a time to forgive and start fresh\u2014so, hello brand new bright world!<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-272 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2010\/02\/15\/tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my\/cutest-sisters-ever\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2010\/02\/cutest-sisters-ever-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-273\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-273'>\n\t\t\t\t<p>host sisters cousins<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2010\/02\/15\/tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my\/library-4153\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2010\/02\/Library-4153-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-274\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-274'>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Ho Chi Minh city lights<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2010\/02\/15\/tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my\/new-year-dragon\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2010\/02\/new-year-dragon-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2010\/02\/15\/tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my\/the-host-family-of-da-lat\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2010\/02\/the-host-family-of-da-lat-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been lucky enough to spend Tet with the Nguyen family in Da Lat who have taken Lynnanne and I as their homestay daughters. The two daughters, Tram and Trang, are just about our same age, 18 and 22, and both live in Saigon either working or studying, but are back home with their family for the new year. The father, Thanh, is a photographer and their mother, Trinh, is a journalist for the music section of the T.V. She was saying last night how she knows how to play a traditional lyre, and I\u2019m really hoping for a private concert\u2026 updates on that soon\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Tet starts of with lucky money found in red envelopes, the best way to start off the day\u2026 and then off to the pagoda to wish for a lucky new year! It\u2019s the year of the Tiger, which means be prepared from some strong will and unpredictable behavior. After the pagoda, we met some of the father\u2019s brothers and sisters and their families at their old strawberry farm. Then it was off to the mother\u2019s brother\u2019s house. I have never eaten so much in my entire life\u2026 good thing I brought stretchy pants. The rest family has found us extremely entertaining. My height is the topic of endless conversation since a 5\u20199\u201d woman is somewhat of an anomaly here.<\/p>\n<p>Lynnanne speaks a little Vietnamese and the sisters also speak some English, which has been extremely helpful in crossing that language barrier of mine. But their hospitality, generosity, and kindness need no interpretation. These are some of the warmest people I\u2019ve met. Thank you Vietnam! And Chuc mung num moi!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve had to remember that Ho Chi Minh city isn\u2019t always filled with lights and flowers and flags, because this week is special\u2026 its Tet, the best holiday in the world if you haven\u2019t been informed. Our last nights in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2010\/02\/15\/tet-the-year-of-the-tiger-oh-my\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-micaela-cooley-11-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5340,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/5340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}