The Flute

I was at the Hmong New Year at my home town and there was a little girl, maybe 9 years old playing a flute like instrument. It was made out of a gourd, but it plays just like a flute or a recorder. I was so in love and touched! I've been trying to find one so I can learn and play it too. It touches my heart so much that I want to cry out of happiness. If you have ever heard songs like this you would know what I'm talking about. Here is a Chinese song with the gourd/flute playing instrument, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07cupMSucys I love it so much!!! I am on a hunt to find one and learn how to play so I can always be inspired and happy! Life is just too short to be sad.

Hmong Egg Rolls

I have never realized this before, but every other egg roll that I have tasted is never as good as Hmong egg rolls. Maybe it's because I'm so used to eating Hmong egg rolls and not Chinese or Japanese egg rolls, but seriously I like Hmong ones better. We have an equal amount of veggies and meat in it which makes it taste so yummy! Every other egg roll that I have tasted only has veggies, and for some strange reason it smells to me, I just can't finish it because it tastes strange or it smells.

What does everyone else think? Do you like Hmong egg rolls more, or a different kind of egg roll? I would like to see everyone's opinion!

Hmong New Year

The Hmong New Year is this weekend in my hometown! I'm so excited, I've only missed it once in my life, when I was in a car accident and was in the hospital instead. I can't wait to go home, dress in Hmong clothes and eat and indulge in my culture! I will surely post pictures (if I even take any, I tend not to). This is the biggest celebration for Hmong people, if you are able to attend one, I would most definitely do that because it is a great way to learn about the culture and the people. It's a great way to experience a new culture, see new things, and open your eyes to different perspectives (kind of repetitive there). I just can't wait!!! I will be seeing my family and friends, it will be fun and it will help me get away from all the stress that school is giving me!

Hmong People

A lot of the elders care a lot about what others think, especially their own people. My parents care, my grandparents care, and I care (I grew up caring what others think because that's what we were taught). My parents always told us to be careful of what we do and say because it will fall upon their shoulders and it will cause embarrassment to the family. That is something that I'm just so used to and I bring it to my every thoughts, people thinking about me even if their not my kind of people or people thinking of me that I don't even know or will ever meet again. I am just so afraid of what people think and the BF says why? The only thing I could say is because that is what I grew up knowing. He grew up with no father, his father passed away a long time ago, so he didn't have much of anyone telling him what to do and not do (from a man). His mother told him, but he just didn't care what others thought of him, he has confidence. That's where he didn't understand me.

Hmong people are very observant, they see you and want to know everything that you're doing, why you're doing it, and then they want to talk. Not only Hmong do this, but everyone. It's just that in our society, the elders care so very much about what others will say and think. Now that we've been in the US for several years, it has changed a bit, they don't care as much, but they still do care. Some things will never change and some things will change little by little over time. I hope that I can have enough confidence to not have to worry about what everyone thinks of me like the BF says I should!

Babies and Chicken

My sister-in-law just had her baby yesterday morning!!! Too bad I haven't seen him at all yet, I will for sure tonight when I get home. He weighs 7 lbs. and 18 ounces, he's 19 inches long!! That's pretty long for an asian baby, lol!!! So now that she has her baby, that means she has to eat boiled chicken for a whole month!!!!! I know that'll get tiring. Why does she have to eat that stuff? Because Hmong do it as a tradition, it helps you transition from giving birth to normal life again. Eating fresh killed chicken and fresh boiled chicken every meal will help your body transition and adapt to the atmosphere. It also helps you when you get older, you wont have a lot of stomach pains and such. There are several reasons why Hmong women eat chicken for a whole month, those are only some reasons, I could go on and on about this matter. Not only will she have to eat warm food, she will have to drink warm water and make sure her body is warm. She cannot go to other people's homes for a month as well (it's also another tradition) but I think it doesn't apply if you are a Christian, it only applies if you are Shamans. There's too much to explain here, so I will stop now before I go all out, lol!

What You Eat Everyday is Not What We Eat Everyday

I had just come back from lunch and the ladies that I work with at the front desk asked me what I had for lunch. I told them I had rice with chicken and pepper. They wanted to know if I always ate rice because N (that's what I'll call her) didn't like eating rice at all (only in one dish that her mom made). Of course, I eat it all day long and everyday!!! It is plain and doesn't have a lot of taste, but we're used to it. I think that we eat a lot of rice because we don't have a lot of other stuff in our fridge. So to stuff ourselves with rice and only eat a little meat would make us full already (at least that's how I eat, because I want others to be able to have some meat on their plates too) I'm so used to doing this that I do it all the time. I know that a lot of rice in your diet isn't too good, but that's how we eat and I love it!! So, I'm not going to change it because I'm happy with the way it is.

Anyways, back to the ladies, so S and N wanted to know what we usually eat on a day to day basis, I told them we eat more veggies with everything, like stir fry, boiled veggies with meat. So it was funny because the ladies said stir fry is something that they go out to eat and get, and I said that's funny because we go out to eat American food, which is what they usually eat at home. I never really thought about that.

Then we started talking about what my parents like to eat because they are more traditional than us (children), they like to eat Hmong food more than American food. They like to eat/drink at every meal something that is boiled in water with a vegetable so they can just drink the water and eat the veggie with their meal (it substitutes for a glass of water or something to drink while eating). Every once in a while we'll make spaghetti or Alfredo or steak for my parents as a meal, but even then we eat rice.

When our family has a celebration, depending on what it is for we cook accordingly, sometimes there will be Hmong food and American food, sometimes only American food with rice on the side.

Talking about food the the ladies up front was really interesting because I can't picture what Caucasians eat everyday as a meal, and I'm sure they can't picture what I eat everyday as a meal either. Even with them telling me, I'm still unsure of what they eat, there are only certain things that I can think of to have as a meal, but what do I know since I'm not Caucasian so of course I wouldn't know. It's very interesting, I don't know if I would like eating American food all the time, and I'm sure Caucasians wouldn't like eating Hmong food all the time either, lol!!!

Flag Football Tournament

This weekend will be loads of fun. I'm going out of town, about four hour drive and gonna to stay with the BF and a friends (who's going with me) in a Motel for three nights and four days!! So I wont be back until Monday, that's a good weekend!! I can't wait to watch the BF play, I'm gonna be shouting and screaming, I just hope I don't lose my voice!! Tonight I'm leaving after work, and then we'll be going swimming!! Tomorrow it will be all day and Sunday all day at the tournament!

The tournament consists of 14 teams (I think) and they're playing for about 5 Grand!!! Pretty amazing, so it's mostly Hmong teams, I've never seen a Caucasian team before, not that they can't, just haven't seen one yet. I'm kinda new too, so I don't know if there is one, or if there is, I haven't seen them yet. Anyone can play, you just need a team, so the BF's team is called H2O. Now now, it's not water, it stands for His 2 Own! Kinda cute, not that he came up with it, but he is number 67!! So, if you're reading this and you go, cheer for the hottie 67, who's jersey is too big, lol!!!

The tournament is so fun, there's a bunch of Hmong people, of course anyone is welcome!! There's also one this weekend that HUGE in Minnesota. It's a soccer tournament, but they also have flag football, volleyball, and other sports. That's one of the biggest, if not the biggest. I've been there before, so I don't want to go there, I want to go somewhere different, so that's why we're going to another one. But they sell a lot of stuff there, it's like a flee market. People sell shoes, clothes, toys, movies, food, fruits, veggies, and much much more!! It's crazy!! But awesome!! Maybe I'll take some pictures and post it up when I get back, I'll have my laptop too so I can post some pictures if I'm not too tired..

This is an amazing opportunity for guys (Hmong) and anyone else to go out and find themselves a girl. I know my brothers do that, lol! But girls do too! So it's all good and fun! But Hmong people go and have fun, this isn't like the Hmong New Year where you wear Hmong clothes, this you just go and see a bunch of Hmong people and watch people compete sports. I think it's also an excuse for all the Hmong people to come together and hang out and flirt with one another.. EVERYONE is there, the people who don't go are the people who, either want to go but can't or don't want to go but can.. LOL!!

Lady From My Car Insurance

So, yesterday I called into my insurance for my car to report a claim, and the lady wasn't nice at all. She talked to me like I was so dumb and everything. So I told her what happened to my car and she asked a million questions, like all people on the phone do, which was fine. Then she asked for my parents info. because they were also on the insurance plan (I was under them). So I told her that she could call them but they wouldn't know what she's saying because they are illiterate. She goes, well how about work, so I gave them my morning job and said my afternoon job wont let me receive personal calls (because you have to clock out for that, which I don't want to do) so she's all like, "You're making this hard for me" and I was like WHAT? How can this be hard? DUHHH just call me, why do you need to call everyone else.. It gets worse, don't worry, I know you're wondering how this relates to being Hmong/Asian, lol just hold on, I have to finish. So she's like ok well I'll leave a message on your parents phone, and I said they are illiterate, they only understand very little English. So she then asks, what language do they speak, and I said Hmong, so she's like what is that? Japanese, Chinese? I said no, and she was all like, is it Mandarin, Korean? I kept saying No and I said it's Hmong. (like seriously, I know what language we speak, why did she keep asking me this, I was so offended and annoyed) So she told me to spell it and I did, she then told me that someone will call my parents and find a translator (which I know wont happen because they don't have a Hmong translator because I had to call in for my mom's car because my sister hit a deer and they didn't even have anyone to translate for her, I had to do everything for my mom) but I was like ok.

So that's my story, not everyday am I faced with things like this, things that relate to my race and who I am. But I'm not surprised that she doesn't know about Hmong people or the language. I was upset because she kept questioning me, like I DIDN'T KNOW MY OWN LANGUAGE. OMG, made me so mad, I wanted to pop out on the other end and smack some sense into her.

The last person that helped report the claim was a man, and he was really nice. I just hope that the person that deals with the whole thing is nice, like the last lady, she was really interested in our language and culture, which is always nice.

Hmong

Being Hmong is a difficult life to live, with no country everyone is unsure of where all Hmong people come from. Where were you born, where are you from? I am from the United States, born and raised here. I sometimes get confused of where my parents were born, either Laos or Thailand. Their real birthdays may not even be the same one on record, most likely it's not. Not really having a place to call home, is very depressing. My parents always have a problem dealing with that. Now they own land, so it's a little better, that's our home, that's our home.

This is just a taste of some things I will be talking about.:D