From: doky@uda.dgcd.doc.ca (Hien Doky)
Subject: [Thank-you note and trip report] California Bound...
Originator: anh@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:57:15 GMT

Dear netters,

Last week i was in California for a business trip and i had a few chances
to meet and talk with the local netters. The hospitality of these netters
is definitely second to none. Here are some of the SCV familiar faces that
i got the a chance to finally meet:

I got to Thousand Oaks (North of LA) on the 5 of Dec. On the 6 (Sunday) i visited
the local LAVAS office in Orange County. I met Christina, anh Nguye^~n Quo^'c
La^n and anh Le^ Vie^'t Tu'. They showed me around the office and then treated 
me to lunch at Vie^~n DDo^ng (?). The food was great and the company was 
fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the gia~ ca^`y and o^'c ha^'p gu+`ng dishes. 
We (4 people) all got along really well. I made a mistake of telling these 
LAVAS people a Vietnamese tradition that i read before. It is that when we 
pour tea, we Vietnamese pour for ourselves first to make sure that the tea 
is right for drinking. Well, i told this story as anh La^n was pouring his
own tea first...And, you know what, after that these people would never let me
rest with the tea pouring business :)

After lunch we visited the Union of South CA VSA (To^~ng ho^.i SV VN nam CA),
at which i met many more netters. Among which i met anh Ho^` Phu+o+'c Hu`ng...
We helped the people there fold the new edition of the Non So^ng magazine and
talked to a lot of peopel :))  These people are so hard working and so much
fun to talk to. Looking at them work, i realize that the future of our country
is in safe hands, and i felt good all over. After that, we (the LAVAS crew and
i and a new friend Hu+ng) went to dinner at the local Pagolac for thi.t
bo` 7 mo'n. Yum yum... :) Well, this time, i knew better not to tell any more
story about eating etiquette :)

That night we met up with P. Fabre from Irvine who is doing her PhD thesis
on Vietnamese refugee. This friend of mine wanted to talk to the LAVAS people
but never had the chance. First we talked about the refugees and then about 
almost anything. We talked about books, films and life in general...Then we
had some che` Me^'n (che` Hie^?n Kha'nh was closed)...Yum yum again :) During
this talk, anh La^n revealed that during the San Francisco earthquake, he
was walking down a street and did not know what to do when the ground shook.
Out of panic, he grab a lamp post to stay straight up :)) Someone speculated
that anh La^n was looking for a "fixed point of reference". But overall,
we all agreed that anh La^n had managed to single-handedly change the 
definition of the phrase "o^m co^.t dde`n" for good...:)

After that fun filling Sunday, i got to work at a local company which my company
is dealing with. Work was ok, but i prefered meeting more netters :)

On the following Friday, i met with P. Nguyen from San Diego and we went
to see the Huntington Library (for plants, not books). It was beautiful and i
got to finally meet this friend that i have been talking to all year long :)
The plants were gorgeous...Oh, btw, on the way there we saw part of LA that 
was still bear the marks of the recent LA riots. It was quite a destructive
sight. One thing i found about California was that there was ca^y Bo^ng Gia^'y
everywhere. Yet, Californians seemed to take this plant for granted. To someone
who lives in the Great White North like myself, Bo^ng Gia^'y reminds me
of Vie^.t Nam that i have been separated from for the last 12 years. Much of
my childhood had something to do with gia`n Bo^ng Gia^'y...P and i saw lots
of plants and had a great chat. It felt as if i was almost home, back in 
Vie^.t Nam...

That Friday night i went to San Jose to see my relatives (grandma, uncles, aunts,
cousins...). The next day i met up with a whole bunch of netters in the Bay area,
which included anh Nguye^~n Q DDi.nh, anh Bu`i M Cu+o+ng, and To^ Hie^.p, anh Le^
N Quang, anh Hoa`nh T Thua^.n, anh Nguye^~n Vu+o+.ng, anh Nguye^~n Hoa`ng and chi.
Tra^`n Die^.u Thanh. We had such a great time talking and, indeed, eating...:) 
It was great to meet all these netters after such along time talking them.
Lie^n (nsc) and Cindy (Stanford) could not make it to lunch, unfortunately, at 
Nha Trang Restaurant. I wished that i had more time to meet more netters
in the Bay area but i couldn't. I had to get back to the "ice-box", to Canada,
the next day. After lunch, i met up with a few folks from the Northern CA VPS 
Chapter. We traded some MIDI talks and had some CA bubbly cider...The beverage
was great but the company was better...I met anh Long, anh Tua^'n Anh, anh
Kha'nh, anh Quo^'c Anh, anh Thi.nh and chi. DT of the local chapter.

The next day, chi. DT and anh Thi.nh saw me off to the San Francisco Airport
after treating me a cha^`u pho+? Ho`a. All the food in CA tasted so good...

Thank you all the netters who have made me feel so welcome and made me feel
that i still belong to a large and caring Vietnamese family. With such 
dedicated and talented friends, i know the future for our country can only
be better. To those i did not have the time to meet, please accept my apology.
However, please allow me to make it up to you the next time i am out there :)
But, there still an SCV that we can always talk right ? One improtant thing
that i learned from this trip is that, despites all what we Vietnamese have
been through, we still have faith in one another, still work together well.
Our country had been through a lot in the last 200 years, but the time is 
changing. Vie^.t Nam will be free and will be strong. How can she not be 
strong with so many of her talented sons and daughters around the world ?
The question, here, is how do we free our motherland from the greedy and
inhumane grip of the communist regime ? I do not know the exact answer for 
this...The only think i know is we will not achieve that by fighting among
ourselves (or worse yet, by allowing someone to make us fight among 
ourselves).

Regards,

Hie^?n

Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese