(this is how the Vietnamese say my name because Vietnamese words are usually only one syllable)
I woke up to hear this outside my door this morning and I had over 5 missed calls on my phone when I got out of the shower!! It is new year's eve today in Vietnam according to the lunar calendar and so begin the Tet Holiday celebrations. When I finally got dressed and went outside, I saw that someone had left me flowers, a bottle of wine, Tet candies and a Banh Chung.
My colleagues were the ones calling me at 8am!!! Haha....It was quite a surprise and since I was still in the shower I didn't make it to the door in time to greet them!! I wasn't expecting guests until tomorrow!! haha
Most foreigners don't stay in Vietnam for Tet because it is really a family holiday and everything is closed. I decided to stay because my plan was to visit Laos but since I accidently did that in November I decided to stay in Vietnam to see what the holiday is all about. Everyone told me the Vietnamese will be with their families so you will be very bored....so far this has proved to be wrong.....glad I bought some extra food cause I have a feeling there will be more drop in guests over the next few days!! So far my colleagues have come with gifts, the owners of my apartment have brought me potted daisies, and a friend brought me water melon seeds and yet other Banh Chung!!
All week everyone has been preparing for Tet; buying yellow potted daisies, 
mandarin trees,
preparing Banh Chung (a dense sticky rice cake filled with pork and green beans wrapped in a large banana leaf - quite tastless and VERY chewy and heavy.), 
Here are some of my neighbours washing banana leaves outside my apartment for wrapping Banh Chung.
buying roasted watermelon seeds (they eat them like sunflower seeds except they are extremely hard to open....I think I went through about 100 seeds before I could open one with out crushing the seed!)
painting & cleaning the house, and preparing some special food ( Here they are drying vegetables just outside my house to later pickle in vinegar and chilli)
For the next 3 days Vietnam will be celebrating the new year...They are ringing in the year of the buffalo. Tonight there will be 3 firework shows and followed by 3 days of visiting friends and family!!
Stayed tune...Tet has just begun!! Chuc Mung Nam Moi!! (Happy New Year!)
