Tet 2013

As an Asian American, one of the many things I look forward to is Chinese/Lunar New Years. Along with lucky money, dressing up in the traditional Vietnamese dress, an ao dai, and playing around with firecrackers, comes the tet festival at Bolsa Grande.

On Saturday, February 9, I arrived at the tet festival around 8:30 to volunteer with a club. As a tradition in my family, I only go to the tet festival on Saturdays, whether it be with family or with friends. After meeting up with other volunteers, we set off asking for donations for those with bone marrow cancer, since "leukemia" didn't have seem to have as much as an effect on people as the word "cancer" did. I remember a businessman who was working for the New York Company that I asked for donations from. He looked at me and told me that the word "cancer" was very effective and told me he had a "dollar bill" for me. Well, that "dollar bill" turned out to be $20 and he gave me a bag to carry my stuff as well. Made my day. After three hours of walking around and doing my job (little breaks included spinning wheels at some booths for fun), my friends and I finally took a lunch break and that ended my shift. 

Some of my highlights that afternoon included watching the lion dance. I've always loved the lion dances. Maybe one day I'll be able to participate in one. Just got to sign up for a class, work hard and there I go. Another highlight of my day included reuniting with a younger friend, Victoria. It had been four long years since I had last seen her, and now she's all grown up and a freshman! Seeing Victoria almost brought tears to my eyes, especially after I noticed that her eyes were filled with tears. Talk about a memorable tet festival! During the time in between, I had fun taking pictures with the Wells Fargo photobooth, Toyota, and AT&T, although the AT&T booth had a huge problem with connecting their printers to the server. Oh well, most of the people came to the AT&T booth for those texting gloves anyways.

When evening hit, I said goodbye to my school friends and met up with my church friends. It was so nice to be able to spend the day with the people I love. Actually, by the time I was with my church friends, my legs were barely keeping me up. I was so sore and in such pain from all the walking around earlier that day. However, the pain drifted away temporarily whenever I got distracted or concentrated on watching my friends play games. Talking about games, I spend about $30 on games, and lost. Man, if only I made that one shot into the bucket, I would have won a giant pillow pet that I would surprise my brother with. (My parents and my brother were at the tet fest for about four hours that day, however I never managed to run into them.) But usually carnival games are rigged so one of my goals before the next festival or fair I attend is to figure out how each game is rigged. When I got home later that night, my brother surprised me with a cute kangaroo that he had won from one of the booths. What a sweetheart! <3

Sunday morning, I woke up around 6:30, surprisingly full of energy. The only downside to Sunday morning was realizing that I had no pants for my ao dai, so I decided to wear a simple dress instead. After showering and changing into classy and clean clothes, my family and I gathered around and wished each other our Chinese New Years wishes and then the lucky money went around. I love getting my li xi! When I arrived I church, I joined up with my fellow friends on the welcoming team and we served our usual morning Starbucks coffee and the Donuttery donuts. After service and games, I went home and crashed since the lack of sleep finally caught on with me. But overall I had a wonderful day, watching the firecrackers boom and burst and hearing the sounds of the younger kids laughing in delight.

Tet will always be one of my favorite holidays. It's when the Vietnamese culture really pops out to the world.  Tet 2013 will forever hold a place in my heart. <3