Day 4 - The first day at grandparents house

Family is preparing the food

Vietnam - Grandparents Home

The 4th day started early at 5 am. The family organized a little party because we arrived. The typical family parties in Vietnam are very similar to the ones in Germany: You have to eat and drink the whole time and talk to all people. In Vietnam it's also tradition that the main guest, in this case my father, had to clink glasses with all people and I ,as his first son, had also to do this. In the end, I was surprisingly fit while my father had a big headache :P

Beef with rau muống (dt.: Wasserspinat)

So I got to know a lot of relatives and friends of my family. But I have to apologize: I forgot already most of the names. But I will never forget the kindness of everyone even I couldn't talk Vietnamese. But one name I remember: Dúỏng, a friend of the family who is a doctor and went for one year to Germany. He told many interesting stories and one lesson for me: From his point of view, the most important questions in everyone's life are: Who am I? Where am I?

He told me: "If you answer these questions by yourself, you will see what's important in life and you can strive for this." One goal of this journey was for me to rethink my future way, so this inspired me to think about it. My first thought was: I would add one more question: "What do I want to do?" But maybe this is part of who I am.

Family Party

Clinking glasses with good rice wine
e.g. with Dúỏng (center with blue shirt) and uncle Niam (older brother of my father, right besides Dúỏng)

The day was over really fast. After the party it was already late in the afternoon. But nevertheless, I played a bit with my younger cousins. Especially with Thai, who is now 6 years old. After he found out that I could help him blowing up the balloons we brought with, he came to me every second to blow up a new balloon ^^

Cousin Thai with the balloons :)

I had also a very intense conversation with my cousin Tu. The main topic was a discussion about the lifestyles from both of us. I told him a lot about my life in Germany. He also told me about his life. For example, I learned that television broadcasts of sport events in Vietnam are so popular like in Germany and many people watch them.
In difference to the education system in Germany, Vietnamese pupils and students have to pass multiple acceptance tests during their education. In Germany, you have just to write a bunch of tests during your education and none of them is so important like an acceptance test oO

Cousin Thai (left) and Cousin Tai (right)

At the evening we had a little dinner with some relatives and friends. Thank God with less alcohol :D At dinner we got "chôm chôm", a kind of litchi and the so called "Oi Fruit" which is a guava. This emphasizes again the healthy nutrition of the Vietnamese people :)
After that we went to sleep. What an amazing day ^^

Next time, I will tell you about our drive to Hanoi and about an ancient story. Have a good time :)